In No Easy Day, you see an account of the raid to capture or kill Osama Bin Laden from the eyes on someone who was there - one of four team leaders on the ground that night. The account is most definitely gripping, I could not put it down and I skipped sleeping to finish it - yes, there will be hell to pay at work tomorrow. But, nowhere close to as much hell as the operators in DevGru (aka Seal Team 6) undertook to get into DevGru and to stay there.
The first thing that struck me was just how elite a team the US sent on that raid. To be a member of DevGru you have to ALREADY be a Navy Seal. Most who apply don't make it, but they go back to being a "regular" SEAL which has nothing regular about it. For the Bin Laden raid, they essentially assembled an All Star team of the most seasoned DevGru operators from multiple teams and put them together on a team consisting of the best of the best of the best.
My next takeaway on the actual raid itself was how many things actually went wrong. Here you have the best of the best taking part in a historic mission, and all kinds of things start falling apart. Yet, amazingly (to me), despite all the problems, it still worked out. Thats because everything that could have gone wrong was previously anticipated, contingency plans made, and all back up plans were rehearsed multiple times. While I considered the mission to be successful, the impression I get is the members of DevGru thought they could have done it much better. (I'll leave out the details as to avoid spoiling the story).
This leads me to my next takeaway which is just how devoted to perfection and exceptional performance these operators seem to be. One thing that surprised me is how much they train when they aren't deployed. If they aren't jumping out of helicopters on a real mission, they are jumping out of real helicopters for practice. The missions are abroad and the training sessions are state side but often away from home too.
In short, these guys don't ever seem to be at home very much, it just takes that much work and training to be as good as these guys are. I for one am glad they are on OUR side and my appreciation for them has certainly gone way up after reading this book,
No Easy Day very much gives you a view into both the Bin Laden raid but also the years and in some cases decades of demanding work that led up to it... And the title IS accurate, there doesn't seem to be ANY easy days as a member of DevGru.
Overall a gripping story on the Bin Laden raid with excellent perspective on the life of the operators in DevGru (Seal Team 6).
The first thing that struck me was just how elite a team the US sent on that raid. To be a member of DevGru you have to ALREADY be a Navy Seal. Most who apply don't make it, but they go back to being a "regular" SEAL which has nothing regular about it. For the Bin Laden raid, they essentially assembled an All Star team of the most seasoned DevGru operators from multiple teams and put them together on a team consisting of the best of the best of the best.
My next takeaway on the actual raid itself was how many things actually went wrong. Here you have the best of the best taking part in a historic mission, and all kinds of things start falling apart. Yet, amazingly (to me), despite all the problems, it still worked out. Thats because everything that could have gone wrong was previously anticipated, contingency plans made, and all back up plans were rehearsed multiple times. While I considered the mission to be successful, the impression I get is the members of DevGru thought they could have done it much better. (I'll leave out the details as to avoid spoiling the story).
This leads me to my next takeaway which is just how devoted to perfection and exceptional performance these operators seem to be. One thing that surprised me is how much they train when they aren't deployed. If they aren't jumping out of helicopters on a real mission, they are jumping out of real helicopters for practice. The missions are abroad and the training sessions are state side but often away from home too.
In short, these guys don't ever seem to be at home very much, it just takes that much work and training to be as good as these guys are. I for one am glad they are on OUR side and my appreciation for them has certainly gone way up after reading this book,
No Easy Day very much gives you a view into both the Bin Laden raid but also the years and in some cases decades of demanding work that led up to it... And the title IS accurate, there doesn't seem to be ANY easy days as a member of DevGru.
Overall a gripping story on the Bin Laden raid with excellent perspective on the life of the operators in DevGru (Seal Team 6).
By Victor Cheng
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