One Perfect Op: An Insider's Account of the Navy Seal Special Warfare Teams

351 Pages·2002·1.15 MB·English

by  Dennis Chalker

An Insider’s Account
of the Navy SEAL
Special Warfare Teams

ONE
PERFECT
OP
(cid:2)
BY COMMAND MASTER CHIEF
DENNIS CHALKER, USN (RET.)
WITH KEVIN DOCKERY

I
would first like to dedicate this book to my parents, for get-
ting me to where I am now; to Kitty, who gave me two won-
derful girls; and especially to my daughters, Kacy and Tess,
who had to grow up with a father who was gone for much of
their young lives. They paid the largest price.
And I would like to say a special word about one of my
partners and close friends during my career and after—Foster
Green (Pooster the Rooster). His career path followed mine,
and we worked side by side for years.
Foster passed away in the spring of 2000. He was highly
respected by those in the SEAL community and professionals
elsewhere. He will be missed by all—especially me.

CONTENTS
acknowledgments
INTRODUCTION: Snake, aKA Dennis Chalker
by richard Marcinko
1. One Perfect Op
2. Home and Hearth
3. First Stop, the Army
4. And Now the Navy
5. BUD/S and the Beginning of a SEAL
6. SEAL Team One and Kilo Platoon
7. Echo Platoon and a Taste of High Speed
8. SEAL Team Six, 465 Days a Year
9. Now Here’s to the Land Down Under
10. Gear, Guns, and a Lot of Training
11. A Move, Some Boats, and Some
Time in the Water
12. A Dry Spell
13. A New Group and Some Other Changes
14. First Combat and First Costs
15. On Our Way: Fly the Unfriendly Skies
16. Visiting with the Governor: Don’t
Spit on the Floor
17. A Long Day and a Night
18. Our Teammates
19. Red Cell and a New Mission
20. A Visit to Norfolk
21. The Subs of New England
22. Back to the Philippines
23. The Land of the Rising Sun
24. Sunny California
25. And in the Other Direction
26. Those Are Big Lizards
27. Back in Sunny California
28. Ghosts
29. Another Move,Another Commander,
and the End of an Idea
30. Return, Operate, and Finally Leave
31. To Give Something Back
32. Meet the Kids and Meet the Man
33. The Long Walk and the Longer Party
Epilogue
Glossary
About the author
Credits
About the Publisher
Front Cover Image
copyright
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
N
o person, ever, has been able to finish BUD/S alone. From the
first days in the Teams, you learn to depend on your
Teammates as much as they can depend on you. Life might be a
little easier on all of us if we learned just how much we need
other people to get the job done sometimes.
First of all, I would like to thank Master Chief Tommy
Hatchet for giving me my first motivation for getting through
BUD/S. And my thanks to all my Sea Daddies, especially Master
Chief Gary “Chambo” Chamberlin, Master Chief T. K. “The
Old Gummer” Davis, Master Chief Johnny Johnson—whom
we all still miss today—and Master Chief Tim Prusak; and to my
former COs: Commander Richard Marcinko, Captain Robert
Gormly, Captain Richard Woolard, Captain Ronald Yeaw,
Captain Parks, and Captain Joe Yarborough; and to my former
Team leaders: Commander Duke Leonard, Lieutenant __
Commander John Koenig, Lieutenant Commander Steven __
__