No Easy Day: The Autobiography of a Navy SEAL, The Firsthand Account of the Mission That Killed Osama Bin Laden, by Mark Owen (pen name) with Kevin Maurer (Dutton/Penguin, 2012, 316 pages, $26.95) A USA Today’s number one best-seller.
What’s With The Title?
Why call a book, No Easy Day? Because the book is about Navy SEALs (SEa, Air, and Land tactically proficient) who are trained and deployed to areas needing their skills in unconventional warfare. Their philosophy is “The only easy day was yesterday.”
No Easy Day begins with the selection and training of SEALs, and a few sample deployments of the author, Mark Owen, the son of Alaskan ministers who, at age 13, decided to become a SEAL. His father talked him into one year of college which turned into four: a college degree would have qualified Owen to become an officer, but an officer’s life is less tactical and more dictated not only by subordinates but also by superiors and paperwork.
All kinds of war books and stories have been written over the years: histories, memoirs, personal accounts, strategic and tactical texts. Some are “boy books” full of action and weapons and battles. Some are, at the expense of my being called sexist, “girl books” that document how war affects people and the daily life of civilians affected by war. Some are military books, full of specific terms that veterans understand but, without a glossary, are lost on those who have never been in the military.
No Easy Day, No Easy Read
Because of the sensitive nature of SEAL teamwork, we don’t learn much about the non-SEAL life of the author: don’t know if he is married, e.g. (though I suspect he is not). And the introduction, though necessary, takes up nearly half the book but will be engaging for many readers - not this reviewer, however – I felt it too detailed in some places with not enough detail in others. The writing style was simply neither ‘magic’ nor enthralling. Not an easy read but a fast one.
A Warning (of Sorts)
Do not start the last half of the book late at night if you have to go to work the next day. You may just stay up all night to finish it!
The authors take you through the intensive planning and training, and subsequent waiting for approval from the President for the mission to get Osama bin Laden (once his location had been identified), then you join the two dozen troops through infiltration, assault and exfiltration with the target. You will hold your breath through the snafu’s that go wrong and come out the other side with the upmost respect for these men, type A’s all (perfectionists), who train almost more than they work and who really live as a brotherhood of men.
The Controversy
Military members in certain job specialties must send their books and resumes through a governmental review process. Mark Owen did not do this, which sparked a legal controversy: the author denied revealing any classified information but the Department of Defense (DoD) refuted that. After Owen ended up suing his attorney, he forfeited millions of dollars, agreed to turn his royalties over to the DoD and lost his security clearance and all future movie rights* - and also suffered damage to his reputation. This story was still in the news five years later.
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Caveat: This book was a selection of the Veterans Book Club at the Howard County, MD, library, a 6-month program.
*Discussions with DreamWorks and Steven Spielberg halted
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