AN UNCONVENTIONAL WARRIOR

Nothing at the outset suggested that Richard Marcinko, the son of a Czech-born miner, would revolutionise the very concept of special forces by creating the most celebrated elite American unit in the world: SEAL Team 6. For Dick Marcinko — a scrappy, loud-mouthed young man possessed of extraordinary willpower — everything begins with enlistment as an ordinary seaman in the US Navy as a signalman, until he discovers the existence of the SEALs, the Navy's special forces, and does what it takes to get into one of the only two "teams" in existence at the time. Deployed twice to Vietnam, his exceptional personality drives him to employ particularly aggressive counter-guerrilla strategies against the Viet Cong, even at the cost of defying orders from a high command reluctant to take risks. Appointed military adviser to Cambodia at the end of the Vietnam War, he continues to spend more time in the field than at his desk. Despised by some staff officers and idolised by others, Marcinko then takes command of SEAL Team 2, but the failure of Operation Eagle Claw — carried out by Delta Force to free American hostages held in Iran — triggers a reorganisation of the special operations command. Dick Marcinko is then entrusted with the mission of creating a new special unit capable of operating anywhere in the world, at any time, in any environment. He will henceforth devote all his energy to shaping in his own image this exceptional unit: SEAL Team 6. A name that has, since then, entered history.