Night Fighter: An Insider's Story of Special Ops from Korea to SEAL Team 6

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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

Reviews

"Night Fighter is unique. It is a most revealing documentary account and living history of the Special Ops, and I know of no other book that offers so complete and objective a glimpse within the organization. By the end, you will know and feel what it was like to be a night fighter from Korea all the way to SEAL Team 6." Chimp Robertson, author of POW/MIA: Americas Missing Men

"It is my opinion that without the commitment, passion, ingenuity and ruthlessness of Hamilton and (Roy) Boehm there would have been no SEAL teams as we know them." John Weisman, co-author of Richard Marcinko's Rogue Warrior series; and co-author of Shadow Warrior

"Through your efforts we have been made aware of a significant threat to the development and construction of a strategic defense system (SDI, 'Star Wars')." Lt. General James A. Abrahamson

"This idea of Bill Hamilton . . . and others into airborne delivery (Helicopter cast-and-recover) was the genesis of the Navy SEALs--SEALs standing for Sea, Air, Land." Orr Kelly, author of Brave Men, Dark Waters

"You (Hamilton) are the father of the U.S. Navy SEALs." Sedgwick Tourison Jr., author of Secret Army, Secret War

"Hamilton was also the man responsible for forming SEAL Team Six. (He) did the country a great service in forming what is now one of America's finest professional warrior units." Rudy Enders, retired CIA officer

"LCDR Hamilton is . . . the foremost expert in UDT matters currently on active duty in the Atlantic Fleet." Vice Admiral John McN. Taylor, COMPHIBLANT

"His aggressive leadership was instrumental in developing the Navy's 'pro-active' anti-terrorist stance, and he has helped shape our anti-terrorist program for years to come." Rear Admiral R.F. Marryott

"For exceptional meritorious conduct in the performance of outstanding service in the First Human Volunteer to perform an underwater ejection . . . for the Pilot Underwater Escape Program." Legion of Merit citation

"Captain Hamilton is widely credited for his significant role in creating the first Navy SEAL commando units." BULLIS Magazine

Author Bio

William H. Hamilton Jr. graduated from the US Naval Academy in Annapolis in 1949 and served as a fighter pilot in the Korean War. Fascination with unconventional warfare led his involvement in underwater demolition teams. In 1961, he became the commander of UDT-21, in Little Creek, Virginia, where, with Roy Boehm as his operations officer, he was responsible for developing the Navy SEAL program. Hamilton subsequently conducted missions with SEALs and CIA in Cuba, Vietnam, Latin America, and Africa. After the Iran Hostage Crisis, he worked in counterterrorism, and was one of two men responsible for developing SEAL Team Six. He also advised the Reagan White House on the security of the Strategic Defense Initiative. Hamilton retired from the Navy in 1986. He residedwith his wife in Virginia Beach, Virginia, until his death in November 2016.

Charles W. Sasseris a full-time freelance writer, photographer, and journalist with more than sixty published books and thousands of magazine articles in publications from Readers Digest and Time/Life to Soldier of Fortune and WWII History. A former Navy journalist, then an Army Special Forces (Green Beret) soldier, he is now retired from the Army (active and reserve). He also served fourteen years as a police officer in Miami, Florida, and Tulsa, Oklahoma, where he was a homicide detective. He has taught history and other subjects at universities, lectured nationwide, and traveled extensively throughout the world. His bio is included in Whos Who in the World, and he was awarded the organizations 2019 Lifetime Achievement Award. In 1986 he was a finalist to fly into space with NASAs Journalist-in-Space Project; in 2001 he set a worlds record by making the first transcontinental flight in an ultralight powered parachute aircraft; he has sailed a forty-foot sloop across the Caribbean, solo-kayaked Canadas Inside Passage, climbed Africas Mt. Kilimanjaro; guided missionaries into Algeria; ridden horses across Alaska, and dog-sledded the Arctic.

His published books have been translated into Chinese, Russian, Serbian, Thai, French, Spanish, and other languages. His most recent and successful books include: Crushing the Collective; Two Fronts/One War; One ShotOne Kill (with Craig Roberts); and The Night Fighter (with Bill Hamilton). He lives in Chouteau, Oklahoma.

Lt. Colonel William Craig Roberts, USA (Retired) served in combat with the USMarine Corps during the Vietnam War, where he was awarded a Purple Heart, Vietnam Cross of Gallantry, and Presidential Unit Citation, among other awards. He also served twenty-fiveyears in the Army National Guard (Infantry) and Army Reserves, retiring as a lieutenant colonel in 1999. In addition he served twenty-sevenyears until retirement with the Tulsa, Oklahoma, Police Department in various assignments to include TAC/SWAT, Bomb Squad, Fugitive Warrants, and police helicopter pilot. As an expert in various weapons, he trained law enforcement and military personnel, including members of the Queens Regiment in England. Roberts is author, co-author, or contributing author of fourteenpublished books: Police Sniper; Kill ZoneA Training Manual for Riflemen; The Medusa File: Crimes and Coverups of the U.S. Government; The Medusa File: The Politics of Terror and the Oklahoma City Bombing; Combat Medic: Vietnam; Hellhound (w/Allen Appel); JFK: The Dead Witnesses (with John Armstrong); The Dragunov Solution; The Hind Heist; The New Face of War, Time Life series (contributing); One Shot-One Kill (with Charles W. Sasser); Crosshairs On The Kill Zone (with Charles W. Sasser); The Walking DeadA Marines Story of Vietnam (with Charles W. Sasser). He lives in Locust Grove, Oklahoma.