Down Range: Navy SEALs in the War on Terrorism

Lacking focus

A fun game when reading this book would be to try to keep track of how many times the author drops the names of his other books as you read. This is like reading a book with commercials. Also, he starts a chapter and immediately flashes back to some basic concept and takes the time to describe every aspect - no matter how irrelevant or uninteresting - until you forget where the chapter/action was headed. Between that, the "commercials", and his own bravado, its hard to stay interested.

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READ THIS MASTERPIECE!!

Down Range brings to light the tasks our men of the US Navy SEALS have to go through on a daily basis of deployment overseas.
Dick Couch is an ex-SEAL. He served in Vietnam and was released around the time of the first Gulf War. He writes mainly about SEAL training, but recently released a book about the grueling tasks that come with combat. Down Range is about the terrorists versus the counter terrorists and it is very detailed. In one of the chapters (which are broken up in order of missions), a squadmate is killed. The group is torn by their loss, but continue with the normal day-to-day tasks.
Down Range does not have many critical points, as it is a book outlining top secret missions on the war of counter-terrorism. Basically, there are three main points that keep the wheel turning and the reader interested. The first critical point is when the SEAL completes training. He is then shipped off overseas to the middle east where they complete many missions. The second critical point is when the squadmate dies. This tears at the squad and the reader as they have some sense of connection while reading the novel . The final critical point is near the end when the SEAL goes home to his normal civilian life . The book accomplishes its task of informing the reader of what our Special Forces go through everyday while on deployment .
Dick Couch is a very military driven writer. In the past he has written about SEAL Training, but with Down Range he expands his horizon and puts together a masterpiece.
I loved this book . As much as I am interested in the military, especially special forces, this book kept my attention until the end, and have learned much about the SEALs and the war on terroism than I could find anywhere else!

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Highly Recommended

Loved it.. i read a lot of books about the military especially about Navy Seals. Dick couch gives a great account of how they train and what they go through while in combat "Down Range"

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SEALs in the Sand

Dick Couch, author and former Navy SEAL, takes readers into the life of the SEALs' duties in the war on terrorism. Many of his other novels such as The Finishing School: Earning the Navy SEAL Trident, and The Warrior Elite: The Forging of SEAL Class 228 explain the hellish training that a soldier must go through to earn the title of a "Navy SEAL".
In Down Range Couch shifts gears and writes about how SEALs use their training to fight effectively in the war on terror. He not only researches and interviews Navy SEALs about their experiences in the war; he also uses his experience as a SEAL in Vietnam as a comparison. The book is broken down into seven chapters, each one a different mission that was preformed by the SEALs in Afghanistan and Iraq. Among these pages, Dick Couch vividly explains everything from their successes to failures to when a friend is killed in action.
Couch's attention to his research and detail in his writing greatly propels the story of the SEALs in the Middle East. He explains these missions with great knowledge and compassion, as he was once a SEAL himself. The details in the book provide the reader with not only vivid images of the setting, but also a sense of reality of what war is actually like. To many of the younger readers who weren't around to experience the Vietnam War, Couch aptly consults his experiences as a SEAL. This provides for added depth as well as a comparison to the missions he writes about in this book. It is very interesting to see how much the SEALs have changed in their technology but also stayed the same with their techniques.
While Couch's vivid explanations and comparisons compel the novel, his habitually used military terms and abbreviations take away from the reading. Granted, Couch provides the reader with the appropriate abbreviations, but only one time throughout the book. This means that over the course of the book, the reader to remember over 100 not so simple abbreviations. Having to constantly refer to the Glossary several times per page takes away from the high-quality writing that Couch provides. Another, possibly arguable, flaw in the book is the introduction and first chapter. These 40 pages drag on and bombard the reader with facts and incredible amounts of terminology. It is almost as if Couch is summarizing his six other novels in these pages which could have been done in a shorter time.
For anybody remotely interested in Navy SEALs or the war on terrorism and is looking for a book that properly conveys the message, Down Range is the right choice. However, it is not for people without any prior knowledge of the navy SEALs or any military branch, as it constantly alludes to this basic knowledge. Anyone who is more interested in learning about what it takes to become a Navy SEAL, Dick Couch has a plethora of novels that provide knowledge to such desires.

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Down Range

Down range brings to light the sacrifice these warriors make to keep us safe. It details there deployment in iraq and the way they deal with terrorists-insurgents whichever suites you...

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Following the frogmen

I read Couch's previous book on BUDS and the grit needed to become a SEAL operator. This book extends the vicarious experience of being an operator in real-world situations. Read the author's previous books on SEAL training first to better understand what happens during deployments.

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