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I'm right again dot com
An Unincorporated Division of The Anonymous Anything Society
Mark Owen is a pseudonym. I would just soon not repeat the outing of his actual name.
Owen or whatever is name is, goes to great lengths, as does his attorney, in rejecting any and all of what they believe to be all possible claims that Owen violated any stricture against revealing classified information.
Nothing serves us better than someone telling the truth, especially if there has been misdirection coming from a government spokesperson. Owen claims that his prime reason for his revelations was to set the record straight. It has been stated that profits from the book will go to assist members of our Armed Forces and their families.
As a brief editorial here: Lately, our government has not always done a good job in getting its stories straight the first time around. After the "official version" has been given by a high official, there is a certain amount of backing and filling before a more accurate account is revealed in a Congressional hearing.
With that having been said, let me first do a bit of personal nitpicking at the tome.
More than half of the first part of the book is devoted to Owen's biography and a long slog through the quadrillion sections of the Navy's Organizational Chart, as the members of the elite team of Navy Seals are chosen and trained, interminably. Many tools of the trade are explained in excruciating detail. One must quickly learn a lot of unique terminology and become acquainted to some small degree with a huge amount of weapons nomenclature.
I suppose it would have made for a much slimmer book and less profits if Owen had said in the opening paragraph, "Seal Team Six climbed into helicopters one dark night and we headed off toward Pakistan," and then follow this up with succinct sentence or two to bring the readers up to speed. One is prompted to become impatient by the long setup.
Once the team members do get in the choppers and head toward Abbottabad, the writer goes at full gallop. If you then want every detail, you will get them at approximately the firing rate of a .50 caliber machine gun.
From the time the first chopper drops precipitously onto a wall, until the last word of "No Easy Day," it's an incredible, breathtaking, firefight adventure, even if by this time you've read about everything that thus far has been revealed.
73,
Phil Richardson, Observer and Storyteller
Phil's current post can be read at: http://www.imrightagain.com
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