First Seals

From bestselling author Patrick K. O'Donnell, the untold story of World War II's first unit of special operations combat swimmers—precursors of today's US Navy SEALs

He's the godfather of the U.S. Navy SEALs -- the founder of the boldest, brightest,baddestbunch of commandos on the face of the planet. Now Roy Boehm tells how he mastered survival as a warrior -- and changed the course of twentieth-century warfare. Roy Boehm was fated for heroism from the moment he shipped out with the U.S. Navy, eight months before Pearl Harbor. His brilliant fighting career would lead him from the sea battles of the South Pacific to the killing fields of Vietnam. As World War II came to a close and the Cold War began, Boehm saw the need for an unconventional warrior. Drawing on his expertise as a diver and member of the Navy's Underwater Demolition Teams, he created a force capable of attack from sea, air, or land. This unique dedicated and ruthless unit would become the legendary Navy SEALs. With the impact of a depth charge,First Sealdelivers a no-holds-barred look at what it takes to be one of that rare breed of men who live for war...or die for their country.

A gripping history chronicling the fits and starts of American special operations and the ultimate rise of the Navy SEALs from unarmed frogmen to elite, go-anywhere commandos—as told by one of their own. “Deeply researched, well organized, and incredibly engaging . . . This is our legacy with all the warts, the challenges, and the heroics in one concise volume.”—Admiral William H. McRaven, #1 New York Times bestselling author and former commander, United States Special Operations Command How did the US Navy—the branch of the US military tasked with patrolling the oceans—ever manage to produce a unit of raiders trained to operate on land? And how, against all odds, did that unit become one of the world’s most elite commando forces, routinely striking thousands of miles from the water on the battlefields of Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, even Central Africa? Behind the SEALs’ improbable rise lies the most remarkable underdog story in American military history—and in these pages, former Navy SEAL Benjamin H. Milligan captures it as never before. Told through the eyes of remarkable leaders and racing from one longshot, hair-curling raid to the next, By Water Beneath the Walls is the tale of the unit’s heroic naval predecessors, and the evolution of the SEALs themselves. But it’s also the story of the forging of American special operations as a whole—and how the SEALs emerged from the fires as America’s first permanent commando force when again and again some other unit seemed predestined to seize that role. Here Milligan thrillingly captures the outsize feats of the SEALs’ frogmen forefathers in World War II, the Korean War, and elsewhere, even as he plunges us into the second front of interservice rivalries and personal ambition that shaped the SEALs’ evolution. In equally vivid, masterful detail, he chronicles key early missions undertaken by units like the Marine Raiders, Army Rangers, and Green Berets, showing us how these fateful, bloody moments helped create the modern American commando—even as they opened up pivotal opportunities for the Navy. Finally, he takes us alongside as the SEALs at last seize the mantle of commando raiding, and discover the missions of capture/kill and counterterrorism that would define them for decades to come. Written with the insight that can only come from a combat veteran and a member of the book’s tribe, By Water Beneath the Walls is an essential new history of the SEAL teams, a crackling account of desperate last stands and unforgettable characters accomplishing the impossible—and a riveting epic of the dawn of American special operations.

The final book of the Bible, Revelation prophesies the ultimate judgement of mankind in a series of allegorical visions, grisly images and numerological predictions. According to these, empires will fall, the "Beast" will be destroyed and Christ will rule a new Jerusalem. With an introduction by Will Self.