Night Fighter: An Insider’s Story of Special Ops from Korea to SEAL Team 6
About this audiobook
For readers of American Sniper, the stirring account of a life of service by the “father of the US Navy SEALs”
One month after the Bay of Pigs fiasco, when President John F. Kennedy pressed Congress about America’s “urgent national needs,” he named expanding US special operations forces along with putting a man on the moon. Captain William Hamilton was the officer tasked with creating the finest unconventional warriors ever seen. Merging his own experience commanding Navy Underwater Demolition Teams with expertise from Army Special Forces and the CIA, and working with his subordinate, Roy Boehm, he cast the mold for sea-, air-, and land-dispatched night fighters capable of successfully completing any mission anywhere in the world. Initially, they were used as a counter to the potential devastation of nuclear war, and later for counterterrorism and hostage rescue. His vision led to the formation of the celebrated SEAL Team 6. In this stirring, action-filled book, Hamilton tells his story for the first time.
Night Fighter is a trove of true adventure from the history of the late twentieth century, which Hamilton lived, from fighter pilot in the Korean War to operative for the CIA in Vietnam, Africa, Latin America, and Europe, from the Pentagon to Foggy Bottom, and from the Cuban Missile Crisis to the Reagan White House’s Star Wars. Like American Sniper, here is the record of a life devoted to patriotic service.
About the author
William H. Hamilton Jr. served as a fighter pilot in the Korean War before his involvement in underwater demolition teams. In 1961, he became the commander of UDT‐21, in Little Creek, Virginia, where, with Roy Boehm, he was responsible for developing the Navy SEAL program. Later, he was one of two men responsible for developing SEAL Team Six. Hamilton retired from the Navy in 1986. He lived with his wife in Virginia Beach, Virginia, until his death in 2016.
Charles W. Sasser, a veteran writer of military history and other books, was himself a member of the Special Forces (Green Beret) and is the bestselling author, with Craig Roberts, of One Shot One Kill and, with Roy Boehm, of First SEAL. He lives in Chouteau, Oklahoma.
Bill Thatcher's recent audiobooks include The Secessionist States of America by Douglas MacKinnon.
Craig Roberts is a US Marine veteran of the Vietnam war, where he served as an infantryman. He is also a career law enforcement officer, and a retired Army officer with thirty years’ service in active duty and reserves. He is an accomplished author with fourteen books in print, both fiction and nonfiction. He lives in Locust Grove, Oklahoma.
