First published 2011
Howard Wasdin begins his journey through Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL training, the military's most demanding selection process. After graduating and serving in Desert Storm with SEAL Team Two, Wasdin faces the Green Course, an even more selective program to join the elite SEAL Team Six. The unit specializes in counterterrorism, hostage rescue, and counterinsurgency operations. Wasdin masters everything from lock picking to explosive breaching, then graduates from the Marine Scout Sniper School to become the finest marksman among SEAL Team Six's eighteen snipers. Six months later, he deploys to Somalia on a mission to capture warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid. Wasdin hunts his target from rooftops and helicopters, eliminating enemy fighters throughout Mogadishu. During what should be a routine operation, everything collapses. Wasdin and his team find themselves trapped, cut off from support, and fighting desperately to save fallen comrades. The battle leaves eighteen Americans dead and seventy-three wounded. Wasdin himself suffers devastating leg injuries that nearly end his life.
Genres: military-fiction, adventure, action, non-fiction, biography-memoir, military-history
Vibes: fast-paced, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: gritty, high-stakes
Setting: Somalia, Mogadishu
Period: Desert Storm, 1990s
331 pages · Hardcover · St. Martin's Press
Content warnings: graphic-violence, war