Books & more: THE book about the SEALs

There are plenty of books about the SEALs, this one is among the best and most up-to-date: Although the text could be a bit less (semi-)professionally secretive in order to be more exciting, the content is quite sufficient - even for the experienced reader. After all, co-author Chris Osman was a SEAL himself, making the chapter on Afghanistan, where Osman was somewhat of a "tunnel rat" (although the tunnels were very large here, not as small as in Vietnam), juicier to read than others where none of the two authors were present (main author Mir Bahmanyar, by the way, was a Ranger).

What makes the book unbeatable is the large amount of new photos it shows, which have never been seen before. As always with Osprey, the pictures could be larger this time as well, and the book could use about 50 more pages. The range of described missions extends from Panama, Somalia, Bosnia (very sparse information), Haiti, Liberia to Iraq and Afghanistan. The "first-hand accounts" in describing the missions from 1983 to 2006 make the book an authentic document, showing that it comes, so to speak, from the community.

"SEALs: The US Navy's Elite Fighting Force (General Military)", by Mir Bahmanyar and Chris Osman, 256 pages, Osprey Publishing, starting from Euro 18.95.