Review of Option Delta by Richard Marcinko

Note: Because this page reviews books about the Seal Teams of the U.S. Navy, it is one of the single most searched-for book pages on this website. (The most-searched page is the Statue of Nike, Winged Victory of Samothrace). If you reached this page, you may have searched for books about the Navy Seals or by Richard Marcinko. His books are very popular, but many people after arriving here also purchase Robert Gormly's book "Combat Swimmer: Memoirs of a Navy Seal".

Option Delta by Richard Marcinko

'Option Delta' is just one of several fun books written by and about Seals of the U.S. Navy.

On a recent bookstore trip we spun down to the "M" section and quickly checked for the 1999 copyright (yes!) on Option Delta by former Navy Seal Richard Marcinko and (one presumes) editor writer dweeb John Weisman.
Relentlessly funny, coarse, violent, military and anti-bureaucratic, not to mention multilingual, Big Dick Marcinko, his shooters and his loyal allies from a long life of patriotic SpecWar head for Germany. They drink, they jump out of airplanes, they don't get laid, they freeze and suffer all kinds of painfully violent impact pain to their sensitive body parts (did we mention pain?), and all they get out of it is a couple of nuclearly nasty dead terrorists.

Well dang, where's the fun in that?

For a rollicking good read, GYTACOA (Grit Your Teeth And Click On Amazon). So it's not as original as their earlier adventures, WTF (look it up in the amazing glossary) you'll still enjoy it. But it'll be more fun if you read the others first.

reviewed March 13, 1999

Seal Force Alpha1998
Designation Gold1997
Task Force Blue1996
Rogue Warrior Green Team1995
Red Cell1994

dated 2002 is

Violence of Action by Richard Marcinko, but without John Weisman

I was glad to see another book in this series, but sorry to see the writing partnership end. It is with some sadness that I have decided not to visit amazon.com and pick up a copy of Violence of Action by Richard Marcinko flying solo, written without editor writer dweeb John Weisman.

Instead, I would recommend you consider reading Pakistan, In the Shadow of Jihad and Afghanistan [review] by Mary Anne Weaver. or Richard Preston's book Demon in the Freezer [review], both nonfiction. They'll give you a much better idea of what we're up against than Dickie Doom on You, much as we love his dutiful yet devil-may-care ways.

Sand Dollars by Charles Knief
This really IS a Travis-McGee-like novel, lacking only the social commentary and economist buddy for economic and business analysis. Smooth, readable prose. Exciting underwater action; danger and adventure. Gentlemanly behaviour towards the ladies from a retired Navy Seal. I'm looking forward to more novels from Mr. Knief. This is his second, and it succeeds handsomely.

reviewed May 9

Combat Swimmer: Memoirs of a Navy Seal by Captain Robert A. Gormly, USN (Ret.)

This is a good book to read in counterpoint to Dick Marcinko's Rogue Warrior books, especially since Gormly talks about his time in Vietnam. It saddened and puzzled me greatly to read Gormly's stories of action in the Mekong River Delta.

Chris Stewart must have the page-turning magic, because I read The Kill Box all the way through to the last page, where the pilot hero and his beautiful Iraqi partner take her beautiful sister out to dinner after rescuing her from Iraq. Where do they dine? Read on...

Because first a lot of other stuff happens. They have to capture Saddam Hussein's brother (who kills Saddam before being captured himself) to find out where the three deadly bio-disease canisters are placed near the state funeral for former president George Bush and the current VP, killed when Air Force One was the victim of a fast-acting (and highly contagious) genetically engineered brain disease.

How do they find the brother? A transmitter in a hairpin, inserted into the royal Hussein beret by a deep-cover spy. A hair-brained scheme, to be sure, but fortunately it works, because they need to know the location of the secret underground germ lab, so it can be nuked with a 200 kiloton bomb dropped by a B1 bomber (the author is a B1 bomber pilot). The F15 Eagle arrives on the scene after blowing 2 MIGs out of the air, but oh no! The F15 didn't see the other two MIGs, and HE gets blown out of the air.

But not before ejecting (whew) so the copilot can be rescued from Saddam's evil brother, but only after Saddam's evil brother kills him. So, too late.

Their triumph is tempered with sadness, especially considering the whole episode has been hushed up to avoid alarming the populace (including the 200-kiloton bomb -- one wonders how they kept that one quiet, even though it supposedly exploded entirely underground -- yeah, right). But they seem happy with their final dinner destination, for it turns out that the beautiful long-lost sister not only has never eaten at, but has not even HEARD of ... McDonalds. Next stop Disneyland, presumably, but I think Chris Stewart ought to be saving that for the sequel.

reviewed March 22, 1999

In the meantime, don't say we didn't warn you if you stay up past 2 a.m. reading Option Delta by Richard Marcinko

Reviewed March 13 1999

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