Good to Go

December 1, 1970
Former U.S. Navy SEAL Constance and his neighbor, Fuerst, attempt too much in this book, and so miss producing a dynamic chronicle of the daring, elite SEALs in the Vietnam War. In addition to discussing the war, they discourse on Constance's family, childhood and struggles in becoming a SEAL. The power of the book lies in its middle section, which describes the adventures of Constance's SEAL Team Two, a superbly trained, brave, aggressive fighting team that stealthily killed hundreds of Vietcong, assassinated many of their local chiefs and, most importantly, successfully fought off the bloody Tet Offensive assault by the Vietcong in February 1968. The almost fanatic behavior of the team makes for breathless reading. Constance developed from a frightened young SEAL who wondered whether he could kill to a brutal killer with no remorse, participating in over 300 operations during three tours of Vietnam. Along the way, he attracted both fast, loyal friends and bitter enemies. Distracting from this major focus of the book, however, is the detailing of Constance's personal life, covering the unpleasant dissolution of his first marriage, the shock of his father's suicide--and the sadness of no longer being a much decorated top SEAL at his peak but a middle-aged man who hopes that his story will benefit veterans everywhere. Perhaps it will, but even they may wish that he and Fuerst had told it differently.