U.S. Navy Seawolves
The Elite HAL-3 Helicopter Squadron in Vietnam
By Daniel E. Kelly
My first experience with Daniel Kelly and his Seawolves was in another of his books based on his first hand experiences attached to a Seawolves detachment in Vietnam. The first one kept me enthralled the entire book with constant action and a lot of insight into the mind of a Seawolves door gunner.
I picked up this book to do a review for Combatsim based on my great experience with the last one.
Ok here it is. Right from the start he hits you hard with some US Navy SEAL action. The mission is an extraction of a VC who may have necessary information. The step by step moment by moment descriptions of the mission could be monotonous if not so well written. The other aiding factor is the use of era slang for everything from weapons to equipment. From that mission he goes into an explanation of how the HAL-3 squadrons were started and why.
So in January of 1967 the decision is made to stand up a revolutionary Navy squadron trained by the best schools from each branch to be the last line of defense for the special forces teams in the field. Special ops teams knew the call “Seawolf, Seawolf” would bring immediate help in the form of UH-1B gunships manned by the crazy killers of the Seawolves team. Behind a wall of HE and WP rockets and .308 tracers the Seawolves came to the rescue time and again. From the small SEAL team strikes in the delta to the Tet attacks in Saigon, Seawolves were there to bring death and destruction wherever it was needed. This book brings it home with personal accounts taken down from the individuals on the scene.
I am not really big on war books. I made it all the way through three, one being Ghost Soldiers the other two both Daniel Kelly books about the Seawolves. My suggestion check it out you will not be disappointed.
