"Cold War Navy SEAL" written by former SEAL and CIA Maritime Branch contractor James Hawes tells as an exciting and adventurous tale as I've ever read, and the best part is that it is a true story about a once-secret mission to the Congo.
The story opens with a prologue about Hawes' early SEAL career as a young Naval officer in another little-known skirmish in Vietnam. Thankfully, many have now heard of Military Assistance Command Vietnam-Studies and Observations Group or MACV-SOG. It was the hairiest assignment of the war running operations behind enemy lines in a joint military/CIA program.
Declassified in the 1990s, not many people realize that it wasn't just Green Berets in SOG but also Navy SEALs who navigated small vessels behind enemy lines and harassed the North Vietnamese. Hawes was one of those SEALs and was due for a second tour to the Mekong Delta but left the Navy on impulse as he was frustrated with bureaucracy.
A new opportunity presented itself when a series of circumstances led to him being recruited into a CIA program. Communists were getting froggy in the Congo and Lake Tanganyika was being used to ferry weapons and supplies to them. With Cubans, including one Che Guevara waging revolutionary warfare across Africa, the CIA wanted them to shut down ASAP. This is where Hawes came in.
The CIA hired him to set up and manage a secret paramilitary Navy on Lake Tanganyika.
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With a recent covert operation in Nicaragua going south, Hawes was able to utilize their patrol boats and exiled Cuban crews. To man the guns and do the fighting, Hawes recruited Mike Hoare's notorious 5 Commando Congo mercenaries to fill the ranks of Force Navals Congolaise. Before long, Hawes' mercenaries are harassing the enemy on Lake Tanganyika, machine-gunning their supply boats, interdicting communists, and even chasing after Guevara himself it was later learned.
"Cold War Navy SEAL" includes all the romance and horror one might expect from such a tale. Hawes becomes deathly ill and falls into the arms of a lovely woman he meets at the embassy. One of the 5 Commando mercenaries murders a British contractor in cold blood before going on the lam. The Cuban exiles fight a pitched battle on the lake and perform exceptionally.
Highly recommended for students of military history, or those looking for a hell of an adventure, "Cold War Navy SEAL" tells the remarkable story of one of America's little brush fire wars that slid into obscurity, and was hidden behind layers of classification.
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Reach Jack Murphy: jack@connectingvets.com or @JackMurphyRGR.
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