Down Range: Navy SEALs in the War on Terrorism | 
 enlarge | Author: Dick Couch
Publisher: Three Rivers Press
Category: Book
List Price: $14.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  28 reviews
Sales Rank: 26075
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 272
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 7.9 x 5.2 x 0.8
ISBN: 1400081017
Dewey Decimal Number: 327
EAN: 9781400081011
ASIN: 1400081017
Publication Date: May 23, 2006
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Condition: ACCEPTABLE with noted wear to cover and pages. Binding intact. May contain highlighting, inscriptions or notations. We offer a no-hassle guarantee on all our items. Orders generally ship by the next business day. Default Text
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Product Description
In America’s battle against al-Qaeda and their allies, the goal of the Navy SEALs is to be the best guns in the fight—stealthy, effective, professional, and lethal. Here for the first time is a SEAL insider’s battle history of these Special Operations warriors in the war on terrorism.
“Down range” is what SEALs in Afghanistan and Iraq call their area of operations. In this new mode of warfare, “down range” can refer to anything from tracking roving bands of al-Qaeda on a remote mountain trail in Afghanistan to taking down an armed compound in Tikrit and rousting holdouts from Saddam Hussein’s regime. It could mean interdicting insurgents smuggling car-bomb explosives over the Iraqi-Syrian border or silently boarding a freighter on the high seas at night to enforce an embargo. In other words, “down range” could be anywhere, anytime, under any conditions.
In Down Range, author Dick Couch, himself a former Navy SEAL and CIA case officer, uses his unprecedented access to bring the reader firsthand accounts from the warriors in combat during key missions in Afghanistan and Iraq. Couch creates a pulse-pounding, detailed narrative of the definitive engagements of this war, while painting an unusually intimate portrait of these warriors in the field. The performance of the SEALs in difficult, changing environments—in the heat of the Afghan desert, in the snow-packed Hindu Kush, on the high seas, and in the urban chaos of Baghdad—has been nothing short of extraordinary. The SEALs, coordinating with other American forces, the CIA, and foreign special operations units like the Polish GROM, have once more shown their genius for improvisation and capacity for courageous action in leading the fight against this new and vicious enemy.
The first battle history of its kind, Down Range is a riveting close-up of some of America’s finest warriors in action against a deadly foe.
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From the Hardcover edition.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 23 more reviews...
 Down Range Review November 24, 2007
Personally I would have enjoyed more reports of actual action involvements. Although there were numerous reporrts of Seal involvements the narrative,for me , became slowed down and complicated by the frequent acromyms and description(s) of command decision chains. Am looking forward to strarting "Chosen Soldier" next
 Humbling to Read About Such Dedicated Service November 3, 2007
Apart from being exciting and informative,it is impossible to put down this book without the utmost respect for the men serving our country (and indeed all of mankind) in the world's most dangerous places. This is real, these men are heroes, and we must all hope that they succeed in their missions. Clearly, we couldn't put our hopes in any better warriors.
Not up to snuff August 7, 2007
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I thoroughly enjoyed "The Warrior Elite" and everything I enjoyed about that book was gone from this one. Dick Couch did a good job of making the trainees of BUD/S Class 228 personable, but "Down Range" is a very dry read. It might be due to increased security concerns and classified operational details, but I did not enjoy this book as much.
 the filler thriller June 21, 2007
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
Well, I picked up this book because I thought, "Sweet. SEALs, middle east, covert ops, what's not to love??" Well the book was more like a documentary or briefing most of the time. It focuses far too much on the development of a SEAL and their organization. If I wanted to read about that, I would've picked up a book about the making of a Navy SEAL. I was disappointed. The story really only had a few exciting parts and those tended to come towards the end of the book. Let's put it this way, he spends around ten pages telling what should've been an exciting mission aboard a ship, only to tell us that the men on board were not dumb enough to carry weapons. Hmph. If you are looking for enemy contact, look elsewhere.
Decent primer for casual military reader May 19, 2007
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
Like some of the other reviewers here have commented, based on the background of the author and the notes on the book's cover, I was expecting a much more exciting read. The reality, however, is that Couch hides behind the excuse of "classified details" for most of this work. The early pages are all extremely redundant if you have ever read anything at all about the SEALs; there is nothing new there. And much of the mission details are very sparse and vague. I do "get" that the very nature of the work these men do requires secrecy, but I always feel a little taken when a book promises to divulge some of this information and then ultimately fails to do so. Couch hints more than once at a seething tension between the different service branches by taking every opportunity to make sure many pats on the back are handed out all around. It starts to feel very plastic and forced after a while. Overall I would not recommend this book to anyone who has done much reading in this genre. Frankly it's just boring, light on operational nitty-gritty, and way too easy to read. It took me about 4 hours to read cover to cover, and for $15 for the paperback I feel a little ripped-off. It's an okay way to get an overview for what these incredible men do for our country, but a waste of time for anyone who has a few books under their belt. I won't be reading any of Couch's other works based on this piece.
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