About book No Easy Day: The Firsthand Account Of The Mission That Killed Osama Bin Laden (2012)
An excellent book that takes you on a journey, through the eyes of Mark Owen as he embarks on the mission that killed Osama Bin Laden. The story spans from when Mark was just joining the Navy Seals and still learning the ropes to him leading his team through Osama Bin Laden's compound in Pakistan. I liked that there was a back story to both his life as well as previous missions. It helped progress the story yet never seemed to weigh it down. While reading this, I kept thinking back to the movie, "Zero Dark Thirty" and their attempt at portraying the events. The only critique I had of this book, was that he obviously had to censor certain things for security purposes; but it leaves you wondering as a reader whether you are getting the full picture of what took place or a redacted version that is close enough for you to understand what transpired. For example when they flew into Pakistan he mentions that all the electricity was knocked out due to rolling blackouts. To me, I instantly thought, what a coincidence; soldiers with night vision goggles don't really have the upper hand when people inside the compound can flick the lights on, in turn evening the playing field. Regardless I really enjoyed reading his account of what took place on that fateful night. Even the unknowns, provided for some fun thought provoking questions. I would definitely recommend this book. This is a vivid first-hand account of the life of an elite Navy SEAL operator. The book focuses on the raid that killed Osama Bin laden, but that only occupies a little over half of the book. The first portion of the book sets up the life and experiences of a SEAL in "SEAL Team Six," or DEVGROUP, as Owen says they are now known. For those interested in what it is like to train for and carry out various types of dangerous missions (Owen was also deployed on the mission to recover Captain Phillips, among other missions that are recounted here), this book provides a compelling first-person account. With regard to othe Bin Laden mission, the book provides a riveting and vivid account. The minute-by-minute account of the nighttime raid gives the reader a real sense of what it was like. Owen (the name is a pseudonym) was one of the men who encountered Bin Laden on the third floor of his compound, an encounter that ended in Bin Laden's death. As an account of the mission, and the life of a SEAL, the book is very well done. I have also reak Mark Bowden's account of the Bin Laden mission, and enjoyed that one more for the lead-up to the assault itself, as Bowden does a great job of describing the hunt for Bin Laden and the intelligence that lead to locating him in Abottobad and in situating the mission in a broader context. In that area, Owen's book is much briefer. But it excels in recounting the mission itself (Bowden's book did quite a good job of that as well, though not in quite as much detail as Owen). So, recommended for those who are interested. I found myself skimming a bit with some of the initial missions, but the pages seemed to turn themselves once the Bin Laden mission began.
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Bullshit story , crap writing, everything made up to make the so called 'news' sound real
—Jess
Not spectacularly written, but a phenomenal story.
—nannytrooper
