Never Fight Fair: Navy Seal's Stories of Comabat and Adventure

The SEALs (acronym for Sea, Air, Land) are the Navy's special forces trained, in the words of one vet quoted here, ``to hurt folks and blow things up.'' Many of the anecdotes Kelly (Brave Men-Dark Waters) collected in this oral history are set in Vietnam. The peacetime training-and-development recollections include a suspenseful account of three SEALs trapped underwater in a miniature submarine, fighting claustrophobia as they attempt to save their lives. Several of the vets speak eloquently about the excitement of parachuting; others discuss how they deployed dogs and dolphins for military duty. A few of the interviewees use this forum to denounce one of their own, Rick Marcinko, for inaccuracies in his 1992 memoir Rogue Warrior. Kelly's loosely organized book suffers from inept editing, and he should have questioned the veracity of certain of these reminiscences, which sound like tall tales. Photos. (Feb.)