Rorke Denver trains the men who become Navy SEALs-the most creative problem solvers on the modern battlefield, ideal warriors for the kinds of wars America is fighting now. With his years of action-packed mission experience and a top training role, Lieutenant Commander Denver understands exactly how tomorrow's soldiers are recruited, sculpted, motivated, and deployed.
Now, Denver takes you inside his personal story and the fascinating, demanding SEAL training program he now oversees. He recounts his experience evolving from a young SEAL hopeful pushing his way through Hell Week, into a warrior engaging in dangerous stealth missions across the globe, and finally into a lieutenant commander directing the indoctrination, requalification programs, and the "Hero or Zero" missions his SEALs undertake.
From his own SEAL training and missions overseas, Denver details how the SEALs' creative operations became front and center in America's War on Terror-and how they are altering warfare everywhere. In fourteen years as a SEAL officer, Rorke Denver tangled with drug lords in Latin America, stood up to violent mobs in Liberia, and battled terrorists in Iraq and Afghanistan. Leading 200 commando missions, he earned the Bronze Star with V for valor. He has also served as flag aide to the admiral in charge and spent the past four years as executive officer of the Navy Special Warfare Center's Advanced Training Command in Coronado, California, directing all phases of the basic and advanced training that prepare men for war in SEAL teams. He recently starred in the film Act of Valor. He is married and has two daughters.
Ellis Henican is a columnist at Newsday and an on-air commentator at the Fox News Channel. He has written two recent New York Times bestsellers, Home Team with New Orleans Saints coach Sean Payton and In the Blink of an Eye with NASCAR legend Michael Waltrip.
With all the SEALs' recent successes, we have been getting a level of acclaim we're not used to. But something important has been missing in this warm burst of publicityï½. Correcting that is my mission here.
My own SEAL dream was launched by a book. My hope is that this one teaches lessons that go far beyond the battlefield, inspiring a fresh generation of warriors to carry on that dream.
-Lieutenant Commander Rorke Denver
Early praise for Damn Few:
"If you've ever wished you could read the testament of a Jedi Knight, here it is. Damn Few takes us inside the mind of a born warrior. Lieutenant Commander Denver has trained SEALs and led them in combat. He tells us what it takes to reach the superelite level, why he does it, what it means to him, what he thinks the future holds. This is timeless stuff, worthy of being read in the era of Caesar, Alexander, Leonidas-or a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away."
-Steven Pressfield, author of Gates of Fire and The War of Art
Industry Reviews
"Here is the rare book that changes the lives of young men and the views of older ones. Intense, riveting, inspiring and humbling. Damn few make it. Damn few can do what the SEALs do."--Hugh Hewitt
"If you've ever wished you could read the testament of a Jedi knight, here it is. Damn Few takes us inside the mind of a born warrior. LtCdr Denver has trained SEALs and led them in combat. He tells us what it takes to reach the super-elite level, why he does it, what it means to him, what he thinks the future holds. This is timeless stuff, worthy of being read in the era of Caesar, Alexander, Leonidas--or a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away."--Steven Pressfield, author of Gates of Fire and The War of Art
