Book Review – Chuck Pfarrer’s “SEAL Target Geronimo – The Inside Story of the Mission to Kill Osama bin Laden”
On May 2, 2011, Osama bin Laden, the world’s most wanted bad guy and leader of the al-Qaeda terrorist group that attacked us on September 11, 2001 (among other times as well), was shot and killed by U.S. commandos during a daring nighttime raid.
Almost immediately after the raid and killing of Osama bin Laden was publicized, the public wanted to know more. Who participated in the raid? How did they find OBL after all of his years on the run? Did OBL and his colleagues put up a fight?
Some of the details quickly emerged when politicians began talking.
We quickly learned that it was the elite SEAL Team Six that carried out the raid. OBL was hiding in a compound in Abbottabad, a town in northern Pakistan. One of his couriers lead the CIA right to his hideout. As far as the raid itself, details were still conflicting. Depending on where you got your news, Osama and his fellow men, A) put up a deadly, 45-minute gunfight, B) Osama surrendered but was executed by the SEALs, or C) the SEALs were deadly efficient and killed OBL and all of the enemy fighters within seconds, keeping their gunfire trained on the combatants and not women and children.
It was just a matter of time before somebody came forward and publicized a book about SEAL Team Six’s raid and the killing of Osama bin Laden. Chuck Pfarrer, a novelist and retired Navy SEAL, was one of the first to tell the world about Operation Neptune Spear, the mission that finally ended the life of Osama bin Laden.
Chuck Pfarrer’s SEAL Target Geronimo – The Inside Story of the Mission to Kill Osama bin Laden takes a look at Operation Neptune Spear and the actual raid that took place at bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. Or, at least that’s what the book attempts to do.
SEAL Target Geronimo is more of a quick history lesson regarding the elite Navy SEALs and some of their recent missions in the Middle East.
The book begins with an outside perspective of the raid in Abbottabad. We see how one of the people living in the city experienced the unusual helicopter activity followed by a few explosions. Like everybody else in the city, this particular person had no idea what was taking place not far from his residence.
Pfarrer’s book then takes a step back and goes into some history about the Navy SEAL program and how only the best of the best are allowed to join SEAL Team Six. The information presented here is basic at best. Check out Richard Marcinko’s Rouge Warrior if you want *real* information about the formation of SEAL Team Six. Marcinko is the guy who actually built the program.
After discussing SEAL Team Six, Pfarrer takes us through the pirate hijacking of the Maersk Alabama off the coast of Somalia in 2009 (made famous again in the 2013 film Captain Phillips). The actual act of piracy is glossed over here. Pfarrer instead focuses on the SEAL snipers on the USS Bainbridge as they continually tracked and had their sights set on the pirates. The book describes this act in a long, drawn out drama until the soldiers are finally given the order to shoot. They do so and SEAL Target Geronimo quickly jumps to a new topic.
Chuck Pfarrer takes us readers on a long road documenting the life and times of Osama bin Laden, from his days as a wealthy son of a prestigious family to Osama’s multiple wives and life after college. We also learn somewhat of Osama’s actions during the Soviet war in Afghanistan (1979-1988). And, surprise, surprise, Osama bin Laden had a hatred towards the nation of Israel along with countries that supported it, including the United States of America.
After discussing bin Laden’s life and his hatred towards Israel and non-Muslims, Pfarrer changes topics and discusses the case of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in Iraq. Yes, WMDs were found after the U.S. invaded Iraq in 2003, and yes, some of them were used in IED attacks against our troops. One of those attacks with deadly sarin gas was actually confirmed by a news organization, though it and other attacks by chemical weapons were quickly swept under the rug. Chuck Pfarrer cites searches about WMDs through the released classified documents by WikiLeaks, though he himself doesn’t exactly go into further detail.
SEAL Target Geronimo then finally gets to Operation Neptune Spear and the actual raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. This part of the book, the most interesting section, goes by very quickly as the SEALs are put into motion and their equipment is transported overseas. Pfarrer then quickly talks about the raid, from the insertion of the SEAL team to the shooting of “Geronimo” (a.k.a. Osama bin Laden). After that the SEALs are quickly extracted and bin Laden’s body is buried at sea.
Out of the 220 or so pages in my hardback version of the book, only about thirty pages talk about the SEAL Team Six raid into Abbottabad, Pakistan. That’s it. The other 190 pages are just filler covering brief topics from the formation of the commando organization to the life and times of Osama bin Laden. If you’ve paid attention to the news and have read other books about Navy SEALs, most of SEAL Target Geronimo will be a bore. There’s really nothing new that we didn’t already know about the SEALs and the top secret SEAL Team Six. Books and TV shows documenting SEAL Team Six have been around for at least twenty years.
For me, the most revealing thing in SEAL Target Geronimo was the acknowledgement of the stealth helicopters used during the raid. Specifically, the revealing part wasn’t about the publicized “Stealth Hawk” helicopters but rather the even more secretive (and quieter, more powerful, stealthier) “Ghost Hawk” version of the UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter.
As a whole, SEAL Target Geronimo was a huge disappointment.
First of all, Chuck Pfarrer was NOT involved with the SEAL team raid in Pakistan. He’s a former Navy SEAL and claims to have spoken with those who were actually involved with the raid. His information about Operation Neptune Spear is second-hand at best, though most of the information seems to be straight out of the news stories.
And second, there just wasn’t much information about Operation Neptune Spear at all. Most of the book talked about other subjects relating to al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden. For an “inside story” about the killing of the world’s most wanted terrorist, the details about such a massive event seem to be missing here.
The only good things about SEAL Target Geronimo are: A) It’s a fast read (you won’t waste much time reading the book), B) it briefly exposes that WMDs were discovered in Iraq and actively being used by al-Qaeda, and C) it’ll (hopefully) motivate you to read much better books about Operation Neptune Spear and SEAL Team Six.
