Old reviews: Black Sheep One

This is my review from 2002 of Bruce Gamble's Black Sheep One. Now this is a great book and I really enjoyed reading it and I think and hope that I correctly identified the several apt techniques Gamble used to handle Gregory Boyington's story. It really is a superlative job by Gamble, having to break down the life of a flawed man considered a hero to many, thanks in large part to the television series Baa Baa Black Sheep.

I took the opportunity in this one to take one veteran's joke and carry it forward in an attempt at humor. In retrospect, perhaps I shouldn't have, there was no place for it. 

I stand by my final recommendation on the book, it is an excellent one.

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Black Sheep One

by Bernard Dy

Article Type: Book Review
Article Date: March 26, 2002


Author Bruce Gamble knows the story of US Marine fighter pilot Gregory Boyington well, having written about the squadron Boyington is most recognized with, the VMF-214 Black Sheep. It is unsurprising Gamble elected to follow The Black Sheep with Black Sheep One, a thorough dissertation on Boyington's life. Boyington's name, if not life, is legendary. A television series loosely based (very loosely based, according to many) on the Black Sheep made Boyington's name a household item. Gamble looks far beyond the show, starting with Boyington's adventuresome childhood and following the pilot to the bitter end. Gamble reveals some painful truths about a man some might perceive as a typical war hero.

I am somewhat remiss for missing the opportunity to examine several books on this topic: Boyington's own autobiography, Baa Baa Black Sheep, both of Gamble's books, and perhaps Black Sheep intelligence officer Frank Walton's Once They Were Eagles. Each volume could add textures to this article and make it a useful guide to Black Sheep fans. I'm presently without copies of some of those texts, however, but if enough readers like the topic, perhaps COMBATSIM.COM will revisit in the future.

The matter at hand is to determine if Gamble's Black Sheep One is right for you. It's easy to recommend the book on the basis of its research. Gamble conducted dozens of interviews, researched both American and Japanese war records, and studied several of the aforementioned books plus many others. Gamble also knows the subject of naval aviation well, himself a former naval flight officer.

Also competent is Gamble's writing, filled with the rewards of forethought. The style is perhaps a little flat for some tastes, but also largely maintains neutrality, avoiding the passing of judgement on the life of the subject although Gamble clearly respects Boyington's legacy. Gamble does something different with his transitions too, and while the chronological telling of the story lends a natural order to the chapters, Gamble will sometimes inject a clue about the future while involved in the story's present. Another interesting technique Gamble uses is to subtly refer to Boyington by his first name of Gregory in chapters about Boyington's childhood years. Boyington, until age 20, thought his last name was Hallenbeck, the surname of his stepfather. Calling him Gregory instead of Hallenbeck, Gamble avoids needless confusion for readers familiar only the television series. After Gregory changes his last name to Boyington, Gamble switches to it so smoothly most readers probably won't notice. This touch is an example of Gamble tackling difficult situations with professionalism, and when discussing Boyington, there are several difficult situations.

Whether viewers saw the television series as truth or fiction, one thing is certain. The Boyington of the series and real life was a charismatic talker. Differences between Boyington's garrulous claims and Gamble's research appear in several places. Gamble is good about identifying where his research disagrees with Boyington's and refutes many of the statements made in Boyington's autobiography. Some refutations, though, are often quotes from another book or interview and thus are themselves hearsay. When chasing down stories fifty-five years old, sometimes that's the only resource available. Such is the challenge of digging for truths of the deceased. And clearly, one of the most sensitive issues is that of victory claims in fighter combat.

Because aerial victories are sometimes amassed during swarming and confusing furballs (mass dogfights), claiming victories is a suspect practice. Dozens of factors can cloud reality: two pilots might take claim for the same victory; the targets might be misidentified; a claimed victory might not have died but perhaps limped home; some victories might be unclaimed; some victories may be completely made up. The uncertainty about who shot down Japanese Admiral Yamamoto's transport is but one example; its participants spent decades bickering about it and may still be. In Donald Caldwell's JG-26 War Diary, the subject of victory claim discrepancies between the German and English is prevalent.

Flying Tigers historian Daniel Ford is one of the few who publicly scrutinize victory claims of WWII pilots, and he takes much heat for it. Gamble questions several of Boyington's claims, particularly the last few of his days as a Flying Tiger, and also the last few from his stint in the Marines. Gamble ponders the possibility that some insecurity inspired Boyington to fabricate the claims so he could be the highest scoring Marine fighter. The same people that criticize Ford will probably dispute Gamble's questioning, but cooler heads will see that Gamble logically approaches the topic and his questions are the results of research.

Ford, incidentally, generally praises Black Sheep One, though he disagrees with Gamble's perception of Olga Greenlaw, the wife of Flying Tiger officer Harvey Greenlaw. Gamble describes her as a rather overbearingly libidinous part of the Flying Tiger experience, while Ford surmises she was no more untoward than any adventurous woman of the time. Gamble does share a joke from some Flying Tiger veterans that says,

"There's only two guys who didn't sleep with Olga, and I don't know who the other one is."

I don't know about COMBATSIM's readers, but there are a few girls like that I knew from high school, and I still don't know who the other guy is! Both Ford and Gamble accept that Boyington was likely one of Greenlaw's suitors, but for Boyington, this would hardly be the only count of marital infidelity and it was hardly the most debilitating of Boyington's missteps.

If there's a central theme in Black Sheep One, it's that Boyington's life was a hard one. As a child, Gregory Hallenbeck rarely had a stable home. His parents were heavy drinkers and were constantly moving the family. There were moments of success in school, as he became known as a hard working student and a capable wrestler. But Boyington seemed always involved in fights, and his progresses in domestic life were also stunted. Boyington went through four wives; that's a hard life, not including the combat or Boyington's time as a Japanese prisoner. Strangely, Boyington didn't imbibe alcohol until his twenties, but once he started, the juggernaut of alcohol addiction became his toughest wrestling opponent.

Gamble in several instances identifies that Boyington knew alcoholism was a problem. There appears to be much guilt in the passages Gamble quotes from Boyington's writings and Gamble correctly notes Boyington is paraphrasing the sentiments of Scott Fitzgerald when he wrote in Baa Baa Black Sheep,

"Just name a hero, and I'll prove he's a bum."

This self-effacing statement is the perfect summary of Boyington's life, and borrowed cliché though it may be, it is understandable that Gamble would harness it. Assuming Gamble's text is honest and accurate, and there is little indication to the contrary, then Boyington's life is tragic. This remarkable man performed great acts for his country in WWII, yet as Frank Walton told him,

"Greg, you're a worldwide hero. You can be anything you want to be. You could be a senator. You could be governor of this state if you want to be. Whatever you want to be. But you've got to lay off the booze."

None of Walton's prophecies came true, except for the caution about alcohol. The bottled demon stuck with Boyington his entire military career and beyond, though Gamble notes there were some heartening years when Boyington's fourth wife helped him find some peace.

Some may find Gamble's work difficult to read, because he's forthcoming about Boyington's problems. Others may see the work as an attack on an American icon, but that would be an incorrect assessment. Boyington isn't the only former fighter pilot that likes alcohol, but he is among the most famous. Far fewer people remember veterans of arguably greater character, such as Marion Carl or Robert Goebel. What Gamble does with Black Sheep One is execute the unpopular task of revealing the truth about a character that's larger than life. He does so with a reasonably even hand, though again, the reader may sense a slight leniency on behalf of Boyington, always a danger when the subject is close to the author's heart. Gamble rounds the book with a useful index, bibliographical notes, and an excellent selection of photos.

Although the book is pure Boyington and not just air combat, I believe COMBATSIM's readers will find it engaging. If you have an interest in the history of the Black Sheep, and in particular the checkered past of its beleaguered and most popular leader, this book needs to be on your shelf.

Relevance to Combat Simulations:
Gamble offers some light observations about the various aircraft Boyington flew, such as the P-40 Warhawk and of course the intrepid Vought F4U Corsair. Regarding flight and air combat tactics, there is less to read, but Gamble does identify the importance of altitude and combat simulation fans will recognize that the Black Sheep were most successful when taking advantage of "boom and zoom" methods.

Presidio Press published Black Sheep One in 2000, ISBN 0-89141-716-8. Black Sheep One Purchase Info. Amazon.com sells the hardcover edition.

Old reviews: Phantom Warriors, Vols. 1 and 2

Next up from my combatsim.com articles is a look at a set of books by Gary Linderer chronicling some of the experiences of the army's Long Range Recon Patrols (LRRPs) in Vietnam. These guys were bold, going behind enemy lines for sometimes weeks at a time with limited supplies to observe troop activity. On more than a fair number of occasions they of course met with contact and had to fight their way out or get support. Linderer and several of his teammates wrote several books about the recon life, but Linderer I think wrote the most, and at a time when Vietnam was still a somewhat taboo topic, Oliver Stone's Platoon having been released only a few years before Linderer's first book, Eyes of the Eagle (1991). 

Note there are some dissenters who question Linderer's accounts. There are a couple negative reviews on Amazon with the same text copied under different names to all of Linderer's books. The information claims to identify discrepancies between Linderer's claimed accolades and army records (two silver stars vs. one, for example). If true, it would not be the first time a veteran embellished the truth, but I do wonder why the critic had to use several different pseudonyms to post the criticism. I did not research this controversy in detail; in 2002 the resources on the Internet were less extensive, the critical reviews on Amazon were posted in 2005, and I  did put some trust in the publisher. I make no apologies for it, I went with what I had at the time and if it's proven there were some inaccuracies in Linderer's work, I'm willing to acknowledge it. 

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Phantom Warriors, Vols. 1 and 2

by Bernard Dy

Article Type: Book Review
Article Date: March 05, 2002

On a Mission

Gary Linderer is one of several US Army Rangers that chronicled their Vietnam experiences. Already part of an elite force as a Ranger, Linderer and his compatriots served in yet another elite subgroup known as the Long Range Surveillance detachment. These Rangers performed long-range patrols or long-range reconnaissance patrols, and both these missions and the Rangers assigned to them gained a nickname from the acronyms LRPs or LRRPs (pronounced "lurps"). Linderer told his personal story about life as a LRRP with the 101st Airborne in his books Eyes of the Eagle and Eyes Behind the Lines. Additional volumes followed in which he continued to recount LRRP experiences. Phantom Warriors is a two volume set that Linderer considers the completion of his mission to identify the existence of all Vietnam LRRP teams.

A LRRP Buffet

The books are not comprehensive unit histories, but collections of selected stories from each unit. They thus read like anthologies, each chapter a stand-alone story. Unlike Linderer's biographies, Phantom Warriors Book 1 and Phantom Warriors Book 2 don't stay with a confined set of characters, though some make multiple appearances. Since the Rangers followed a standard procedure in the field, many of the stories can seem repetitive or feel like they run together. Linderer, however, does accomplish his task, and between the breadth of units mentioned, the two introductions, and the two forewords by Kenn Miller and Kregg Jorgenson, the reader receives a clear picture of LRRP operations.

Each chapter typically starts with a brief unit introduction and overview of the LRRP team members. Linderer also explains each mission's objectives, an important disclosure because it illustrates how different the LRRPs are from standard troops. The chapters continue to describe how each mission unfolds, as researched by Linderer in interviews and Army records.

Despite the operational similarities, each mission has its share of excitement. Most involve some combat, something Kenn Miller identifies as a breakdown in a team's stealth integrity but often unavoidable given the dangerous operational conditions.

Linderer covers a variety of outcomes. There are the narrow escapes where a team is compromised immediately upon helicopter insertion to a landing zone, the desperate battles when a team is heavily outnumbered and suffering casualties, and the calculated engagements where LRRPs initiate contact by design. Supremely satisfying are the operations where the teams complete the mission and never reveal themselves to the enemy.

One such mission recorded a team finding a major enemy compound during a storm. The team worked its way into the middle of the site before realizing where they were and that the only thing preventing their easy deaths was the rain. It had driven the Vietnamese to cover. The LRRPs quietly vacated the compound without being detected. The US, using the information the LRRPs provided upon their return to base, launched B-52 air strikes and devastated the location without a single American casualty. Now that is an awesome recon mission!

A Few Missing Details

Editors fickle about the use of active voice versus passive voice might give him hassles, but Linderer writes competently enough to make his points. He occasionally tries to get creative with descriptions, and this can yield some hyperbolic passages, but largely adheres to a no-nonsense style. There is heavy use of military abbreviations and acronyms that aren't always explained in the otherwise helpful glossary. Linderer is usually good about spelling them fully at or near their first use but occasionally slips. I figured "PZ" meant "pick-up zone" after seeing it and using context clues, but it is missing in the glossary. Although I recognized "CW transmitter" must have been a communication device, I'm still not exact about its meaning.

Linderer usually finishes each story with a summary of how the participants fared and lists awards received. In one, however, he leaves the reader hanging. Volume I's story about Ranger Sergeant Chuck Donohoo's surviving injury and making it out of the combat zone is a good one. But teammates Specialist 4 Lee Comstock and Sergeant Erwin Thessin endangered themselves with exposure to enemy fire to get Donohoo to the extraction helicopter, and their fate is unknown.

The two volumes also appear to lack organization in their placement, and if there is one, Linderer doesn't disclose it. The first few chapters are in chronological order. The rest jump randomly across time and Army unit groupings. Ordering the entire collection chronologically or chronologically by Army unit might have aided readers in following them. Linderer missed the opportunity to use such a framework to identify changes in methods and leadership during the LRRPs tenure in Vietnam.

There are other minor omissions that are not missteps perhaps, but would add polish. The Phantom Warriors volumes lack graphical aids such as the maps and organizational charts common in many military books, useful in helping readers understand the author's points. Volume 1 also is void of photos, though Volume 2 contains many fine ones. The point of the book, which is to catalog some mention of all LRRP teams in Vietnam, is fortunately unaffected by this bypassed potential.

Incredible Bravery

Nor does the arbitrary story sequence take away from the sheer courage shared in most of them. Linderer put the story of Sergeant Richard Ehrler's patrol near the end of the first volume, but regardless of its position, readers are unlikely to forget it. Ehrler fought to command his injured team after an enemy's rocket propelled grenade round detonated near his face.

Ehrler might have been blind, but he realized that he had no time to worry about it. Somehow in the total darkness, he managed to locate his M-16 and the missing radio. Ehrler quickly got in touch with the radio-relay team and demanded to know where the Cobras [attack helicopters] were. Suddenly, Ehrler could tell by the sounds that the VC fire was beginning to slacken. This had to mean that the enemy, too, was running low on ammunition, or that they were withdrawing from the fight. Ehrler ordered Crabb and Durham to return fire on semiautomatic only to conserve their remaining ammo.

Ehrler had the presence of mind to distribute his spare ammunition to the remainder of his team. He kept a cool head until help arrived, directing his team to conserve ammunition and deploy a strobe light and authorizing a Cobra strike, all while blind and covered in his own blood. The story is but one display of remarkable courage; Phantom Warriors is full of them.

It's time to ask the question: Is Phantom Warriors the one set you should invest in for this topic, if you could only buy one? I have to honestly say "no." Linderer's own Eyes of the Eagle and Eyes Behind the Lines are a better pair to go with, if you want to get a picture of life as a LRRP, and his personal account's friendly tone and continuity give it a more universal appeal. There are also better selections if you're looking for a general overview or analysis of Special Forces and their influence in military history. Phantom Warriors certainly works as a research aid or additional reading for Army Ranger enthusiasts. Family and friends of Vietnam Rangers can also appreciate Linderer's work and find comfort in knowing some of their little-known stories are told in Phantom Warriors. There are, in fact, messages on the Military Universe  [my note: I've disabled the link as the site is now defunct] bulletin board from some of them, thanking Linderer for recording these histories.

Relevance to Combat Simulations

The Vietnam experience is gaining popularity in print, long after the wounds of the war started healing. If the volumes of American military history are finally growing with the Vietnam representatives, the same cannot be said of the computer gaming industry. Sid Meier produced an old wargame called Conflict in Vietnam, and HPS Simulations recently published John Tiller's Squad Battles: Vietnam, but the shelves are otherwise lightly populated. Although I have not played it, the Tiller game apparently features squad-level engagements, making it a good candidate for playing or recreating Special Forces battles. As with an earlier review of Robert Gormly's Combat Swimmer, I also believe that players of EA's classic Seal Team, or a well-constructed mod for one of the Unreal or Quake series of engines could benefit from some of the lessons in Phantom Warriors.

Both volumes of Phantom Warriors are available in paperback from Amazon, and in hardcover from the Military Book Club.

• Phantom Warriors, Vol. 1 (Amazon.com)
  
• Phantom Warriors, Vol. 2 (Amazon.com)

Old reviews: Black Hawk Down (movie)

Another entry in my combatsim.com articles. Ye gods, I was way too kind to the Bruckheimer camp.  It's a little embarrassing to read this now. But even now I do think Black Hawk Down was one of the better products from that group. And I'm including the article here, faults and all.

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Black Hawk Down

by Bernard Dy

Article Type: Movie Review
Article Date: February 06, 2002


A common adage says, "The book is always better than the movie." There are several reasons this is true. The book can deliver more detail than a movie given the hour time period. The reader also interprets the book with their imagination, a more powerful force than the senses of sight and sound alone. Pundits and self-indulgent writers like me can also argue that while making a movie requires more money, making a book requires more intelligence.

Mark Bowden's Black Hawk Down, a chronicle of the fateful 1993 US mission to capture Somali warlords, continues to garner unanimous critical and popular praise. It deserves it, and its thoroughness identifies the immense research Bowden completed to write the book. Black Hawk Down the movie, in contrast, is the creation of director Ridley Scott and producer Jerry Bruckheimer, both Hollywood moguls not known for films of realism. It's easy to imagine military enthusiasts cringing when they heard the names attached to the movie. Surely the parties responsible for revisionist interpretations of history like Gladiator, patriotic claptrap like Top Gun, and utter excrement like Armageddon would find a way to destroy Bowden's masterpiece. Even when their intentions are good, as they were in Remember the Titans, they manage to mire them in clichés and dialog so hollow they challenge the pretense of non-fiction and cheapen any salvageable lessons.

If Hollywood compromised Bowden's work, it wouldn't have been the first time people with too much money have wrecked a good military story. Products the caliber of Gallipoli, Platoon, and Full Metal Jacket are rare. Black Hawk Down, however, manages to do what curmudgeons thought impossible. Bruckheimer has always been a popular rather than critical favorite, but as Spielberg did with Schindler's List, he's gone critically respectable in one stroke.

A genuine strength of the picture is in the ability of the filmmakers to depart largely from their quirks and remain faithful to the book. It helped Bruckheimer and Scott to have a bulletproof manuscript in Bowen's writing. It also probably helped that most of the action stays within a few city blocks, starting with a helicopter delivery of troops to a site, the accident that occurs only moments after the mission begins, and the deterioration of the situation.

Most importantly, the creators of the film largely upheld the book's events and avoided the flimsy patriotic dialog you'd expect from their earlier films. The picture is a faithful adaptation of Bowden's work, and that's a respectable feat because too often book-inspired movies are a travesty of their sources (see the celluloid mangling of the landmark Stephen Coonts work, Flight of the Intruder). There are some moments not from the book, such as the interview with a captured weapons salesman and Sam Shepard's General William Garrison, exaggerations of some incidents, and a pair of speeches from a Delta Force soldier, that seem synthetic but it's otherwise close. Like the book, it's an intense experience, revealing the scary and lethal nature of combat, but also serving as one of the best recent recreations of modern combat.

Unlike any war movie before it, Black Hawk Down shows how the human soldier that's changed little in centuries of warfare, works with helicopter air support that's changed mildly since Vietnam, and takes advantage of several newer technologies like night vision and airborne surveillance. The fragility of high technology is sobering (though probably not a surprise to anyone that uses computers!). Use of satellite imaging in this movie isn't real-time and user friendly as it was in the film Tom Clancy's Patriot Games. The helicopter-borne commanders and the ground-based commanders suffer communication delays when directing a ground convoy to rescue the crews of downed Black Hawk helicopters. The results are disastrous and cause the convoy to lose its way, suffering casualties as it stays longer than necessary in the streets of Mogadishu. The book discusses the Rangers' use of armor-piercing bullets being inopportune, and the movie bypasses this, but I don't fault the decision as it could have been a cumbersome point to make in a movie.

The set work is outstanding. Mogadishu looks like it sounds in the book, a dilapidated and miserable city teeming with chaos and automatic weapons. The weaponry used in the film mirrors that in the book. The low technology level of the Somalis afford the film a natural advantage, in saving the creators from the embarrassing gimmick of painting American vehicles black to stand in as enemy equipment, a shortcut military enthusiasts are happy to miss.

Some critics have noted the contrast of the Somalis, all black, being used as an easy enemy to face against an all white US Army. This is wrong; there is a black soldier among the Rangers. It is also pointless because it needlessly confuses the issue. Black Hawk Down is not about race conflicts. It is also not about the politics of the situation, though it does tend to side with Bowden's observation that the US presence in Mogadishu was a mistake. It is more about the crucible of war and how ordinary men react in it. It is about how beyond any reason or lack thereof for being in any part of the world, men can do something heroic simply for the cause of being a professional soldier, or simply because the man next to him is a brother in arms. It's the common theme of many war stories, and it never gets old because it speaks to a greater cause than any politician can. Bowden himself calls this theme of brotherhood "timeless."

Yet there is certainly another side. Black Hawk Down recalls the lessons of Vietnam. The enemy here is not Communism, but like Vietnam, there are overtones of ideological difference. The Somalis fight the Americans who enter their neighborhood and try to capture their leaders. Yes, the head leader is Mohamed Farrah Aidid, a warlord that interfered with humanitarian efforts, but the general population is likely ignorant of the politics behind the American involvement (and there are other complications: see this Slate article). Even without the full story, it's easy to imagine peoples of any nation being hostile to foreign invaders. There's also the contrast of superior technology against numerical superiority, a classic theme in East versus West military comparisons. The downed Black Hawks, each worth millions, lose to the cheap rocket propelled grenades used by the Somalis. Technology is unable to save the Americans from completing their mission without heavy casualties.

Is the mission a failure or a victory? It depends on whom you ask. Perhaps it is both. Mogadishu could be perceived as this generation's version of the Alamo. The Rangers, low on food, ammunition, and supplies, must fight to hold on through a grueling night and against countless enemies.

I haven't made much of the casting, which is generally good. Ewan McGregor looks a little healthier than the John Grimes (a.k.a. John Stebbins, see below) character Bowden paints in the book, but likeness to the real soldiers would only be a bonus since Black Hawk Down is really an ensemble effort. If there is a single protagonist to identify with, it is Josh Hartnett's Sergeant Matt Eversmann. Hartnett does a good job delivering Eversmann's idealism about the American involvement, and also his uncertainties as he's thrust into a key leadership role for the first time. All the actors to a generally solid job playing their parts. Jason Isaacs is excellent as Captain Mike Steele, the football fanatic and Ranger leader that sometimes didn't get along with the Delta Force operators.

Nothing is perfect, of course, and the creators can't resist a few of their trademarks. Besides the aforementioned Delta speeches, there's a change to the ending that adds unnecessary heroics. There are also several glory shots, where the camera captures characters of the film in slow motion, the same shots seen in Armageddon, and Con Air, and Gone in Sixty Seconds, and Pearl Harbor, and so on!

Reality Check: An interesting side controversy attends the film. Ewan McGregor's character, John Grimes, is based on John Stebbins. Stebbins is a clerk known primarily for his coffee-making prowess in the book, and performs well in the battle, earning the respect of his peers. He's presently serving a prison sentence. The filmmakers changed the name of the character. It's a gutless move, but one readers of the book will easily see through, and like the point about the armor piercing bullets, is ultimately a minor issue.

Amazing as it may seem, Black Hawk Down is different from anything you've seen before from these film makers. It's perhaps their best work. Some critics have accused the film of lacking a real story and deeper characterizations, but that's like saying a Discovery Channel special has no plot. Black Hawk Down is like those specials and is closer to a documentary. Calling it a faithful adaptation of a great book is one of the best compliments it can receive. The book is still better, but is the movie a good one to watch if you could only watch one about modern combat? Yes.

Old reviews: Combat Swimmer

Continuing to capture my older articles, here's a review of Robert Gormly's Combat Swimmer. It's lowkey one of the better SEAL books as Gormly was not nearly the self-promoter that some other SEALs have been. But it's a great read.

Interesting to see how I tried to read between the lines and identify the divisions within the SEAL community; it was quite the supposition on my part and perhaps not my place, and yet it does intrigue and hint at unwritten contexts. 

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Combat Swimmer

by Bernard Dy

Article Type: Book Review
Article Date: December 11, 2001


Combat Swimmer: Memoirs of a Navy SEAL
by Captain Robert Gormly, USN (ret.)

The first ninety-five percent of Robert Gormly's Combat Swimmer is a solid memoir of a United States Navy SEAL. It's interesting, honest, amiable, and told professionally, but otherwise comparable to its peers. Then Gormly throws an epilogue at the reader that, given recent events, absolutely floors them and indicates Gormly possesses a deeper wisdom than the rest of the book indicates.

What is amazing is that Gormly wrote Combat Swimmer in 1998. At the time of this review, in November 2001, the world's eye is on terrorism driven by Islamic fundamentalists. The events of September 11, 2001 do not require repeating here, but Gormly's 1998 epilogue is strikingly prophetic.

Islamic fundamentalism, terrorism, and drugs - these are the enemies of democracy in the twenty-first century. We must deal harshly with them. Maybe deadly force sounds outlandish because these three evils haven't been viewed as a real problem by the average American; each has always been perpetrated on the other guy. But not anymore. Like the drug scourge, international terrorism sponsored by Islamic fundamentalists has invaded our country. It's time that our national leadership stop viewing drugs and international terrorism in America as simply law enforcement issues - the problems are more complex and far reaching.

Gormly was probably not alone in supposing such dreadful potential, but contrasted with the rest of Combat Swimmer, it adds impact and makes the book perhaps a more important read today than when first published. What a way to end!

This does not mean Combat Swimmer's first two hundred fifty pages lack merit. Gormly tells his story with the demeanor of a kind uncle. He's calm and controlled and doesn't seem excitable. Some will notice the book has no credited ghost writer and a few might wonder if using one would have lent the story a more luxurious style or urgent pace. Perhaps, and other veterans have certainly taken that path. Some that didn't probably should have; the grandest Tuskeegee Airman of them all, Benjamin Davis, is probably a wonderful man, but reading his autobiography can be an exercise in patience. And it requires little imagination to guess where the professional athlete biography market would be without ghosts.

The tactic, however, has dangers. Too heavy an embellishment by the ghost can obscure the voice of the storyteller, and exaggerations might be closer to fiction than non-fiction. Gormly's work is comfortably between the extremes. If Combat Swimmer reads more like a memoir intended for his descendants than a bestseller, then it also benefits from a gentle earnestness, a sense of moderation, and the rare virtue of restraint. Such traits are easily identified in the text but especially when compared to other SEAL memoirs.

Since I retired, many of my former SEAL shipmates have asked me when I was going to write a book. Other former SEALs have written accounts of their careers, but only one has offered a commanding officer's perspective.

SEAL officer Roy Boehm wrote his memoir, First SEAL, only just before Combat Swimmer arrived, so this quote from the preface probably refers to Richard Marcinko, the garrulous former SEAL known as the Rogue Warrior. Gormly is subtle enough to avoid stating it directly, but clearly sees his story as a counter weight to Marcinko's adventures. Some readers may have found the Rogue Warrior's outspoken nature unbecoming of a model Navy officer, even if also a force behind his success. Gormly is the opposite that makes both men seem more human by reminding that everyone has a place and all have strengths and weaknesses.

“If ‘Combat Swimmer’ reads more like a memoir intended for his descendants than a bestseller, then it also benefits from a gentle earnestness, a sense of moderation, and the rare virtue of restraint.”

Honesty survived the inevitable struggle Gormly likely endured when electing to mention Marcinko by name. Most of the book recounts Gormly's experience becoming a SEAL and serving as a team leader during the Vietnam Conflict, including the standard recollection of the legendary and grueling SEAL training regimen. Gormly describes his Vietnam experience well, selecting passages carefully that reveal tactical and strategic lessons. It is after Vietnam when Marcinko becomes more prominent in the story.

Throughout my command of [SEAL Team] Six he [Marcinko] was on the OPNAV staff, meaning he worked for the Chief of Naval Operations. There, he attempted to discredit me among senior Navy officers in the Pentagon.

Gormly handles the topic evenly when he could have gloated. He is quick to identify that he and Marcinko started as acquaintances, if not outright friends. Marcinko's involvement in political machinations to protect himself at the expense of Gormly is probably recorded in annals of a military court. Even with the backing of such legal material, Gormly eschews the opportunity to berate or insult.

Marcinko is strangely one of few famous SEALs mentioned in Combat Swimmer. James Watson is identified, as are several of the men Gormly served with and some officers for whom he worked. Here, questions about divided loyalties in the proud but sometimes fragmented SEAL lineage are natural. With Marcinko having written an introduction in Roy Boehm's book, and Boehm indicating in the book a typical disdain for bureaucratic types, it's easy to guess where some of the sides might be. Readers can identify differences between those in the Gormly and in the Marcinko/Boehm camps, but only those close to the involved know the official details. Who is right or wrong is a matter of opinion, but it's probably fair to say that any organization needs both the chaotic hard chargers and the careful thinkers to be successful. It's also likely that Gormly isn't quite the rear echelon careerist Marcinko might accuse him of being, but someone that better managed the transition from field soldier to high level officer, particularly in peace time. It just seems a touch odd that in Gormly's long career, some other noted SEALs are without mention.

Perhaps this is more of Gormly's subtle wisdom at work. He appears to appreciate the value of discretion, and to understand the necessity of politics. His post-Vietnam experiences include stints as a policymaker influencing the command structure of the United States Special Forces. Gormly fought in some of the administrative battles to gain teams like the SEALs and the Army's Special Forces a dedicated authority, the Special Operations Command (SOCOM), that could run these elite forces more efficiently than their regular service branches. Elite teams support their parent branches, but Gormly illustrates how an independent SOCOM hierarchy is valuable in joint service operations. Gormly further reveals some of his political skills when he continually pays respects to the tremendous perseverance of his wife.

Many of Gormly's points, and not just those in the epilogue, are hauntingly familiar and pertinent to current events. For example, Gormly mentions the confusion of night combat, and the reader recalls the recent spotlight on Senator Bob Kerrey, a SEAL accused of slaughtering civilians during a night mission in Vietnam. Gormly also reiterates the story of a mission that taught him SEALs should always operate near water, for purposes suited to their capacity, and with the right training. It is a lesson painfully relearned in post-Vietnam missions and one supporting his argument for experienced SOCOM leadership.

“Many of Gormly's points…are hauntingly familiar and pertinent to current events.”

A few missing items proved to be minor annoyances. Military history books often include maps and Combat Swimmer would have benefited from them. In addition, some charts of where the SEALs and other Special Forces sit in the military system would help portray Gormly's climb through the ranks and the position of the SOCOM. There are some photos, nicely synchronized to the book's chronology.

Is Combat Swimmer the book to read if you could only read one book about the SEALs or Vietnam? That is a hard question to answer, but Gormly's memoir deserves consideration. Although David Hackworth was in the Army and not a SEAL, I think the best soldier's memoir including action in Vietnam is still About Face, a grand piece important on many levels. Hackworth's analysis on Vietnam is more insightful and detailed and he was closer to the heart of the conflict than Gormly, though both agree on many issues. The SEAL perspective is one available in many books, but it is easy to recommend Roy Boehm's First SEAL because of Boehm's role in founding the SEALs, his battle recollections, and his insight to the mindset typical of the SEAL operator. Marcinko's Rogue Warrior is also useful in this regard. Gormly too had success as an operator and in shaping the SEAL command and Combat Swimmer is a fine complement to any of the above volumes, bolstered by its astute observations about terrorism and guerilla warfare.

It's a book many political leaders should read and holds good advice for all. Several gaps between the major events in Gormly's substantial career lead readers to believe there is much unsaid and maybe still classified. Perhaps time will grace SEAL enthusiasts with a second Gormly volume. I'll end with something from Gormly's post-mortem about the 1985 Achille Lauro incident, yet another quote that echoes loudly in the present.

To me, the most significant aspect of our action was that it showed the world that the United States of America was willing to take extraordinary steps to apprehend and prosecute international criminals.

Relevance to Combat Simulations:
Unless someone builds a SEAL/Vietnam mod for a first-person shooter, the best way to appreciate some of the action Gormly describes is through the classic SEAL Team by Electronic Arts. It's an oldie though, and might be hard to find. A wargame perspective on unit actions in Vietnam can be found in John Tiller's Squad Battles: Vietnam from HPS Simulations. Perhaps some tinkering with the Talonsoft Campaign Series engine or the Art of War engines could also produce wargame recreations of Gormly's engagements.

Availability:
Combat Swimmer is available from Amazon.com in paperback and hardcover.

Old Reviews: Fast Movers

Over the years I've freelanced for many aviation, gaming, and military sites. Unfortunately, websites can have a limited lifespan and I've lost record of some of those articles as their markets went under and weren't saved anywhere, and when I lost my original word processing document. I wanted to go through an effort to capture the articles where I could so I'm going to copy some content over to my blog. 

The next several posts will be copied from articles I wrote for combatsim.com. In its day, it was a busy site that covered any kind of combat simulation and it also had a very dedicated community that would hang out in the site's attached forums. The site is still active and much of the old content is still there although the forums appear to have been disbanded and the new content looks like just news feeds. 

I wrote several book and movie reviews for the site between 2001 and 2003, and looking back, I'm surprised at how serious a writer I was in those articles. I think I did a good job for an amateur aviation historian; I'm not sure I could do as good a job now, though of course I see places where I could have improved each of those pieces. 

To the owner of that site, I'm capturing the content I provided merely for reference, not to engage in any copyright infringements. I've already lost so many of my past articles and I want to capture them here for the day when combatsim.com goes down, and someday it will go down, not because the current owner is incompetent or uninterested, but because we'll all pass on someday and there's no guarantee someone else will pay the hosting bill. If the current owner is irked by it, please contact me and I will remove the content in lieu of a link to the site instead (saving a local copy in my personal files). 

First up is my review of Fast Movers, an interesting book with some peculiar flaws.

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Fast Movers: Jet Pilots and the Vietnam Experience

by Bernard Dy

Article Type: Book Review
Article Date: October 17, 2001


The goal of John Sherwood's Fast Movers: Jet Pilots and the Vietnam Experience, is to offer a panoramic view of the jet pilots in the Vietnam War. If readers take the subtitle literally, they'll find the book leaves some aspects untouched, and encounter odd bias in the ones included. Fast Movers is a comfortable read and though the title's quirks make it hard to define the right audience, it supports Sherwood's central thesis that a sense of professionalism inspired pilots to fly in hazardous environments.

Sherwood is a U.S. Navy historian, and this brings up a curiosity. Fast Movers covers the major military branches, but favors the U.S. Air Force. For example, Air Force ace Richard S. "Steve" Ritchie practically has his own chapter, but Sherwood ignores Navy ace Randy Cunningham. Cunningham's story is perhaps the more famous of the two, Cunningham having published his Vietnam flying memoir in the book Fox Two. Sherwood appears aware of this and on page 218, he identifies that Ritchie is one of the Vietnam War's two pilot aces.

"…the Vietnam War didn't produce a single ace until 1972…three out of five of these aces were weapons-systems operators…"

It is almost as if Sherwood is resisting mention of the other pilot's name. If this is due to a personal preference or ignorance, the omission is surprising and debatably inexcusable. If due to the unlikely event of legal restriction, it is understandable but should have been noted. Perhaps Sherwood recognized Cunningham's publicity and chose to bypass roads well traveled; one of the book's strengths is its selection of lesser-known players in the war. In the scope of what Sherwood is doing with Fast Movers, the Cunningham point is minor, but an example of his sometimes puzzling choices.

Fast Movers accommodates in its anecdotal approach, with each chapter focusing on a pilot or pilot category. Sherwood goes to a colorful personality in chapter one with the story of Air Force fighter pilot Robin Olds. It's here he begins to establish one sub-theme of the book, in describing the courage and sometimes irreverent outlook common to many fighter pilots. Chapter two follows with the story of Air Force Pilot Ed Rasimus, and three with a long look at Marine pilot Roger Sheets. The prisoner-of-war experience fills chapter four, a sometimes gruesome and heartbreaking section. Navy F-8 Crusader pilot John Nichols is the star of chapter five. The book closes recounting air-to-air scores made by Air Force pilots and weapon-systems operators (WSO) Robert Lodge, Roger Locher, Steve Ritchie, and Charles DeBellevue.

Sherwood introduces the reader to the subjects of each chapter, then delves into their history. He observes similarities and differences in their upbringing. In the following passage, he notes a contrast between Robin Olds and Roger Sheets.

Olds grew up in relative privilege under the tutelage of an iconoclastic Army Air Corps general, attended all the right military schools, including West Point, and was groomed practically from birth to become a military officer. Roger Sheets, by contrast, was the son of a humble Navy chaplain. To him flying in the military was always a privilege, not an entitlement. He therefore treated his superiors with more caution and respect than did Olds. Being the son of a chaplain taught him early how important discretion and subtlety can be in a military environment.

As readers progress through Fast Movers, they discover that when Sherwood refers to "the Vietnam experience," he is writing about war experiences and also the psychology and sociology of pilots. Tactical aviation historians commonly emphasize the experience of flying, with occasional reference to life outside the cockpit. Sherwood views the pilot as a whole and notices both good and bad.

This honesty is commendable, but can also be a source of criticism. Sherwood includes candid comments from various interviewees, on occasion permitting criticism of a person by someone he interviews, but is inequitable in giving the addressed party opportunities for response. When Air Force pilot Ed Rasimus is quoted berating operations officer Jim Gormley for refusing Rasimus command of a flight despite his high experience level but low rank, Sherwood only briefly writes that,

Jim Gormley…probably saw no problem in assigning other retreads [a higher ranking officer rotated into the unit for leadership, but lacking Vietnam tactical experience] to command roles in the unit.

Sherwood is supposing a defense rather than letting Gormley directly address the Rasimus claims. In the same chapter, pilot Cal Tax claims the force commander, Dale Leatham, endangered flyers in one mission by making navigational errors. Leatham is never given an opportunity to address the story. These are the types of discrepancies one expects in oral histories, and most authors reconstructing past battles acknowledge this. Interviewees may perceive an event differently and retellings can suffer from bias, but perhaps Sherwood could have tried harder to address this.

Sherwood's other efforts do not appear to lack for research. Footnotes and attribution are plentiful and thorough, and Fast Movers includes both a glossary and index. The book's Air Force bias is somewhat balanced by references to arguably the top name in naval aviation research, Barrett Tillman, and such others as John Nichols and Paul Gillcrist. Sherwood also, however, references S.L.A. Marshall and David Grossman in searching for connections between air combat and the methods and psychological effect of killing. The reader can make their own decisions about such references, but both of the aforementioned authors have legitimate detractors. Marshall only minimally impresses the outspoken David Hackworth in Hackworth's book About Face, and COMBATSIM.COM's readers are already aware of Grossman's assertions about the relationship between video games and violence (they can also read interesting thoughts about Grossman's work from COMBATSIM.COM's own Dr. Simon Ng).

Fast Movers' style is accessible and clear though sometimes too colloquial. Sherwood's prose isn't profound or poetic, and could sometimes afford more efficiency, but it is competent. Transitions are strong and Sherwood segues nicely from one chapter to the next.

The book's content selection, again, is uneven and misses several sections of the jet community. There is only fleeting reference to strike workhorses of the Navy, the Douglas A-4 Skyhawk and the Vought A-7 Corsair II, though the one A-4 story about Mike Estocin is a powerful one. References to pilots in support roles such as tanking, reconnaissance, strategic bombing, and transport are also rare, though the primary title 'Fast Movers' implies a focus on the fighter and strike roles.

A pilot is always a chapter's marquee character, but many navigators or weapon systems operators add color and insight to the proceedings. Sherwood does well here as the "guys in back" are often overlooked in narratives of military aviation. Fast Movers' use of lesser-known players yields some surprises. Readers learn that thriller author Tom Wilson was an Air Force F-105 back seater.

Other quirks include a seeming fascination with sexual references and symbolism, and more importantly, some hyperbole. One is this surprising statement, in which Sherwood suspects fighter pilots found killing distasteful.

…[John Nichols] did not seek nor desire to kill additional pilots after he had made his first kill. This may be one significant reason why the vast majority of MiG killers in both Korea and Vietnam achieved only a single aerial victory.

Every Vietnam fighter pilot I ever read about wanted to first, kill MiGs and second, kill more MiGs. The reasons US fighter pilots didn't achieve more kills are usually attributed to training, lack of experience with dissimilar air combat, lack of the F-4 Phantom's internal gun, unreliable technology, and the Vietnamese strategy of hit-and-run attacks. Sherwood mentions these other factors, but the quoted statement is befuddling. Rarely is morale or the desire to succeed a documented issue for pilots, who were among the most motivated of all troops in Vietnam.

Sherwood visits this idea only briefly, but it is a sentiment contrary to the book's most persistent theme. Sherwood identifies that some pilots may have had questions about the war and the decisions made by politicians behind it. Many pilots were dismayed with incompetent and/or inexperienced leadership, careerism, and a hostile home population. But regardless of branch, feelings about the war, or rank, most pilots drew motivation from the desire to perform with honor, and to know they could trust and be trusted by teammates.

It's hard to define an audience for Fast Movers because the book isn't the best choice for a novice of Vietnam air war history. There are too many odd omissions and statements. The same reasons make it an imperfect choice for more experienced Vietnam readers, though there is certainly worthy material here. It is not the first book that comes to mind in recommending a single book on the subject, yet few books offer such breadth, made more impressive considering the book's moderate 268 pages.

Few would contest Sherwood's primary thesis, but other entries about the Vietnam air war hold greater significance. Many, from Jack Broughton's Thud Ridge, to the Tillman and Nichols classic On Yankee Station, Cunningham's Fox Two, Frederick Blesse's Check Six, or even the fictional Stephen Coonts epic Flight of the Intruder, are important works that also reveal something of pilot personality. Fast Movers is best for readers able to find the collectable nuggets.

Relevance to Combat Simulations

The book's breadth doesn't deny simulation fans useful material. The chapter recounting Ritchie's aerial kills sports exciting detail about the combat. There's also an interesting recollection where Roger Sheets uses his A-6's low speed maneuverability to outwit a MiG-21 Fishbed. Finally, the discussion of Robert Lodge's downing illustrates the dangers of target fixation.

Availability
Free Press published Fast Movers in 1999, ISBN 0-684-84784-1. It is available from Amazon.com in hardcover, paperback, Adobe digital, and Microsoft Reader digital editions.