MARINE CORPS AIR STATION MIRAMAR, Calif. -- The front lines in the war on terror reach far and wide, taking U.S. forces to some of the most remote places of the world.

In late June 2005 in Afghanistan’s northeastern Kunar Province, a rugged and mountainous region bordering Pakistan, a four-man U.S. Navy SEAL reconnaissance team was hunting down al-Qaeda and Taliban terrorists.

The SEAL team was spotted, engaged and encircled by perhaps as many as 50 Taliban insurgents while trying to identify their entry routes from Pakistan. Forming a 360-degree perimeter and fighting an unbelievable battle, the SEALs called in for help.

Special Operations Command headquarters, with the help of an unmanned aerial vehicle, saw that the enemy was too close for air support. With a weather front moving in on the battle, commanders agreed to send in a quick reaction rescue force by means of two CH-47 helicopters to fly through the mountains and extract the SEALs.

Flying at a low level, the CH-47s entered the mountains and approached their landing zone. The lead aircraft was hit by rocket propelled grenade fire from additional insurgents not engaged in the initial firefight with the four SEALs, but the pilot managed to keep the bird in the air. With no obvious place to land, the pilot attempted to put down on a mountain ledge, but the rotors were too much for the small landing zone and the weak ground. Rolling off the edge and onto its side, the CH-47 slid down into the mountain valley below and crashed, killing the aircraft’s crew and the 16 SEALs aboard before they could rescue their comrades. Unable to land in the hot LZ, the other CH-47 was called back to base.

With night falling and the weather turning for the worse, the four embattled SEALs kept their guns in the fight. During the firefight that went on for more than two hours, the SEALs took mortar fire, leaving one SEAL unconscious. When he woke up he was alone with two of his comrades dead nearby and the other missing.

The surviving SEAL later encountered an Afghan villager who protected him until he helped him meet up with U.S. forces hours away.

Ironically tragic events like this often garner public attention or media scrutiny, yet the battlefield success stories of America’s special forces in the global war on terrorism seldom see the light of day.

In his new book “Down Range: Navy SEALs in the War on Terrorism,” author Dick Couch, a former SEAL during the Vietnam War-era and a Central Intelligence Agency officer, transports the reader into the secret world of America’s “quiet professionals.” Based on field interviews he weaves a gripping tale of the men who are the first to go into combat and conduct the most specialized, dangerous and covert missions in the war on terrorism.

For SEALs, the goal is to be the best guns in the fight demonstrating the highest standards of military professionalism, stealth, effectiveness and lethality. In seven chapters, Couch takes the reader into the secretive world of the SEAL brotherhood, from their initial training at Coronado to operations “down range’’ — what the SEALs call their area of operations.

Detailing their Close Quarter Defense, hand-to-hand combat techniques and how they have evolved into an effective tool in combating terrorists, Couch relates how CQD became the favorite technique for measured force in the early and mid-1990s after its formal adoption by the Naval Special Warfare Center in 1996. While conducting Visit Board Search and Seizure operations in the Persian Gulf in the 1990s, SEALs used CQD to great effect in stemming Saddam Hussein’s oil smuggling operations by Iraqi tankers.

The behind-the-scenes narrative also recounts how SEALs, working with European special operations forces such as the Polish GROM and the German KSK, spearheaded the Marines’ landing at Camp Rhino in Afghanistan following the Sept. 11 attacks. During one operation — a historical first — SEALs worked with KSK to check out mountain cave complexes, waist-deep in snow, for al-Qaeda bad guys. It was the first time ever American and German units went into harm’s way together on the same side.

Couch provides insight into the nature of Iraq’s battleground and how SEALs are establishing cross-cultural relations between coalition forces and the Iraqi people. He also details how SEAL units are skillfully hunting and eliminating the remainder of the Taliban and al-Qaeda.
“Down Range” is a gripping book filled with first-hand accounts by “operators,” as the SEAL warrior community commonly refers to themselves, given by troops recently returned from Iraq and Afghanistan. The final chapters provide unique analysis of SEAL innovations and about their compounds in Baghdad where SEALs are assisting coalition forces in hostile and unpredictable urban environments.

In a deft narrative, Couch reveals how the SEALs continue to maintain their maritime traditions, although the war on terrorism keeps them active on land. By no means a full operational history, “Down Range” in the end is a representative account of what these highly dedicated and talented warriors have done and continue to do in defense of America against terrorism.