Fortune Favors the Brave - Softcover

Meyer, Bruce F.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0312996802 ISBN 13: 9780312996802

Publisher: St. Martin's Paperbacks, 2004

Synopsis

At the end of World War II, when daring marine reconnaissance units made a life-and-death difference in island warfare in the Pacific, a secret unit was formed inside the military. With courageous men risking their lives, Test Unit 1 experimented with new ways of inserting marines behind enemy lines-by sea and by land-and then getting them out again. As America barreled towards a confrontation in Indochina and a new era of warfare, First Force Recon was born...

This is the untold, inside story of a super elite reconnaissance force-U.S. Special Operations Forces who practiced clandestine insertion and extraction by submarine, jet aircraft and helicopter, using tools and techniques that had never been tried before. Strapping you in the harness of a HALO parachute, launching from the torpedo room of a submerged submarine or climbing the extraction rig of a hovering marine chopper, Fortune Favors the Brave is a firsthand account of what it was like to build a new strike force from the ground up... to make sure that the next time America fought a war, Force Recon would be there.

About this title

From the Publisher

Catalog Entry,(Front Flap Copy) Naval Institute Press 2000 Spring Books, pp.3 "U.S. Marine Corps amphibious reconnaissance patrols preceded every major landing in the Pacific during World War II, coming ashore on rubber boats from submarines and high-speed transports to recon enemy beaches. After the war better techniques were developed by a small group of highly trained, fearless Marines who in 1957 established the first of the Corps' now legendary Force Recon Companies. The story of those pioneering post-war years is told by Force Recon's first commanding officer, Bruce Meyers, a legend in his own right. Commissioned six months before the end of World War II to command a combat swimming platoon, Meyers later headed Gen. "Chesty" Puller's amphibious recon school, initiating new ideas for the insertion of small teams behind enemy lines by parachute and by buoyant ascent from submerged submarines. In 1955 Meyers joined the commandant's experimental "Test Unit One as the project officer for its reconnaissance unit that led to first Force Recon.

The book chronicles many Force Recon firsts: HALO jumps from jets; operational parachute jumps from navy carrier aircraft; the locking out and underway recovery of recon patrols from navy fleet submarines; the live pickup by Fulton Skyhook of downed personnel; and the development and use of pathfinding tactics and equipment for Marine helicopter assaults. This groundbreaking work by Force Recon pioneers has never before been recorded in detail. Meyers' account makes it clear that the company earned the reputation it enjoys today.

From the Back Cover

Their Job Was To Get Inside Enemy Territory.
And Be Ready To Fight Their Way Back Out...

At the end of World War II, when daring marine reconnaissance units made a life-and-death difference in island warfare in the Pacific, a secret unit was formed inside the military. With courageous men risking their lives, Test Unit 1 experimented with new ways of inserting marines behind enemy lines-by sea and by land-and then getting them out again. As America barreled towards a confrontation in Indochina and a new era of warfare, First Force Recon was born...

This is the untold, inside story of a super elite reconnaissance force-U.S. Special Operations Forces who practiced clandestine insertion and extraction by submarine, jet aircraft and helicopter, using tools and techniques that had never been tried before. Strapping you in the harness of a HALO parachute, launching from the torpedo room of a submerged submarine or climbing the extraction rig of a hovering marine chopper, Fortune Favors the Brave is a firsthand account of what it was like to build a new strike force from the ground up... to make sure that the next time America fought a war, Force Recon would be there.

"A superb job...this book fills a void that needed to be filled."
-Major Bruce "Doc" Norton, USMC (Ret.)

Edition details

• Publisher: St. Martin's Paperbacks
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0312996802
• ISBN 13: 9780312996802
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 320