Inside SEAL Team Six: My Life and Missions with America's Elite Warriors

Unfortunately, I read this book RIGHT after reading Chris Kyle's "American Sniper". The contrast between the two was a bit disappointing because Don Mann was last active with SEAL Team 6 (ST-6) in 1998. By his own admission, there was a dearth of operations during the 80s and 90s with the exceptions of Grenada, Desert Storm, Panama and a few others that we will never hear about. This leads the reader to realize that most of the book focuses on practicing for the game, but not on the actual game. When contrasted with the furious operational tempo faced by modern SEALs like Chris Kyle and Marcus Luttrell, the Teams spent most of their time in training and PRODEV to gain additional skills to bring back to the group. You are not going to find a lot of first-person description of the modern combat experience here. The back cover's reference to the Osama bin Laden operation in Pakistan is an attempt to anchor the most recent highlight of the SEALs with the book. Unfortunately, the context of the story with Mann is that he was contacted by various news agencies to comment on an operation he was not physically involved in. The marketing angle feels a bit slimey.Don Mann spends most of the book recounting his medical corpsman training and his mountaineering, skydiving and diving training. His mental and physical toughness shows itself countless times in the ultra-endurance and adventure races he relentlessly chases. The sheer number of miles Mann runs, swims, bikes, kayaks, and hikes is extraordinary.I feel that I would have been rewarded with the information that Mann can share -- if this was 1998. Since 9-11, the pace of special operations has exploded and there is more information abounding in different formats from different sources than ever.To be fair, the work that the Teams did in the last 20 years has prepared today's operators to become some of the best small-unit fighting forces in military history. The skill set today could a level that could not have happened without standing on the shoulders of the frogmen who came before them. After 9-11, Mann's immense patriotism guided him back to fighting to defend out country with various contracting jobs. The descriptions of his modern work is still pretty sparse -- about 8 pages out of 276 pages of the main manuscript. And most of one of those pages is redacted with thick black bars over the text.And this redacting is something that many reviewers have noted. There are entire pages that are redacted. The publisher says "We have left the redactions in place rather than deleting the challenged material, so readers will understand that Don Mann's experience and knowledge go even further than he is permitted to report due to requirements of the U.S. government." With a few exceptions, I resisted the urge to try and figure out the missing pieces by context. It's obvious that large chunks of the manuscript were considered too sensitive to release and the redacting was complete enough that I could not gather half a clue as to the context of what was left out.Now that I've finished the book, I'm torn between being glad that secrets about this formidable fighting force were not divulged for our enemies' use and the fact that the information could have been handled differently so it could have been included. Case in point, the "American Sniper" selection noted above. Chris Kyle was just in all the hottest places in Iraq and Afghanistan that you hear about on the nightly news. There is no redacting on any pages. Apparently, his publisher took out any challenged material or the Kyle's writer knows how to write around the restrictions. All in all, I found the redacting to becoming more irritating the deeper I got into the book.If you are an aficionado of all things Navy SEALs, then this is a worthwhile book to get for the historical aspects of the training and professional development that team members pursue. If you want to be inspired by the story of a kid heading for a life of petty crime and drugs who turned his energy into a colorful and full career defending our country and becoming one of the premier ultra-endurance athletes in the world, this book is for you (even though you will feel like a couch-lounging slacker because it would be impossible to keep up with Mann). If you are looking for the latest info and the inside story about the modern operator working in the sandbox with the most modern equipment, then this is not the book for you.Don Mann is an exceptional, exceptional individual, athlete and operator who has tirelessly served our country well to protect our freedoms. This service required personal, emotional and physical sacrifices. God bless Don Mann and our Navy SEALs.

Many people have already reviewed this great book, but for reasons different than my own. The focus is usually on Don Mann's experience in Seal Team Six, and in special ops in the Middle East since his retirement; and rightfully so. This is not only where mainstream interest lies, but where Don's greatest contribution to American society lies as well.My reaction to the book was very personal, however. I've known Don for about ten years. I've always referred to him as my "adventure racing mentor," because when I first got into the sport I attended his six-day adventure racing academy in Virginia. I came home from that week completely jazzed about the sport, and I don't believe it was solely because of the attractions of the sport itself; it was also because of Don's presentation of it. He conveys passion in a quiet, mild-mannered way; he has seemingly endless reserves of physical endurance but also of sensitivity; he is the paragon of toughness, but also of patience and kindness. I remember during the registration for my first race, the difficult two-day Endorphin Fix, a swarm of racers thronged the site and Don must have had a million things to take care of. I told him I was having trouble packing my backpack and he made me feel as if he had absolutely nothing else to do at that moment but give me a lesson in gear organization. That's how he is.I laughed and cried throughout the book. My own childhood was also fraught with what Don calls, in the early pages of the book, "a craving for danger, action and adventure." And like Don, I found it in all the wrong places initially. Don says, "I was a bat-out-of-hell, sh---kicker motorcycle punk" and describes scenes of New England biker bars, hair-raising cop chases, drugs and violence.But eventually he learns to channel all the fire into something truly useful. And there's a lesson for all of us in his life story. "Most people have no idea of what their full potential is," he says memorably. "One of my mottoes is Blood from Any Orifice. Because I figure that if you don't push beyond what you think your limits are, you'll never know your true abilities." Few of us have ever learned to push our limits the way Don does.There were stories throughout the book that I'd heard Don tell before, or heard through the adventure-racing grapevine, but never been able to place in such a meaningful context before. Stories about having toenails removed, or passing out from over-exertion after a workout; but also really painful events like when Dawn Mann's son was shot while Don and Dawn were in the middle of running a Beast of the East race. There was Mark Burnett's ruinous railroad operation on Don's first major race plans, for a Beast in Alaska. And Don selling his Harley and mortgaging his house to finance Odyssey Adventure Racing. I realize now that most of these things happened while Don continued to serve his country in overseas operations that he couldn't talk about. We were already impressed with Don's amazing "fire in the belly" and we didn't even know the half of it!My friends in adventure who know Don Mann, if you haven't already read this book, now you see that you must. But for anyone else this book is a must-read too. Read it for insight into the elite team of Seals that took out Bin Laden; read it for the great lessons it can teach our youth who don't know what to do with their potentially destructive energy; or read it for the inspiring co-existence of a action-hero tough guy and a truly great humanitarian who is not afraid to express compassion and love. Just as long as you read it.

First, I want you to know that I've known Don and his wife Dawn for a little over a year, but I had no idea of the life he has led!As the book opens we are introduced to his early life in New England as a troubled young man without direction. Early on he recognized himself as an adrenaline junky and knew that he needed a challenge. Though his narration we are carried step-by-step through his military life as a SEAL. But before we get there, we are given glimpses into his young life - run-ins with the law, fast and furious motorcycle rides and accidents, and the tragic loss of friends. Don has an uncanny way of telling us these stories: I found that I could picture the scene as if I had been there.Through either plain luck or spiritual guidance he found the way to channel his energies productively by joining the military. Once in the military he quickly set his site on the most challenging job he could find: becoming a navy SEAL.As we move to his days as a SEAL the stories continue as we follow him in his carrier. From his experience as a medic and how he used it to save the lives of both military and civilians we get to see the softer side of a SEAL: he cares for, and will do whatever he can, to help preserve human life. His rendition of his life as a SEAL does him, and all the other SEALs, honor by speaking of them in human terms. At the same time, Don shows us that a SEALs training regime, necessary physical conditioning, and missions that they are asked to complete, are often beyond what we would expect of a normal human.Admittedly, I found the redactions to be irksome and had wished the editor had left them out. However, I found it easy to get around them and get back to his story. I was sorry to see the book end.Dr. James E. Perry

Good book!!

anecdotal experiances by the authour.many interesting experiances, successes and failures of seal teams.Honest about relationships within the forces. Blacked out at areas were a pain.

Would have been a great read if 1/3 of the book was not redacted. Just when you think its going to get good, blacklines take out the most important part.

Enjoyed this very much , Don Mann is a person I'd love to meet in person his insight into the teams was amazing and the things he went thought also

Very hard to follow with all the blacked out content, naakes the story very hard to followI can;t seem to finish more than a chapter at a time