No Easy Day - Book Review

From the robust brotherhood amongst the SEALs to how they work situationally within missions of the last decade in the Middle East and elsewhere, No Easy Day by Mark Owen brings you into the world, works, and characteristics of a Navy SEAL.

Owen’s story begins in 2004 at the training site in Mississippi and takes the reader on a ride, while it tackles being away from home, the author’s very first experienced kill, and one of the most important missions in American history: the raid that resulted in the death of Osama bin Laden through the eyes of a true American hero. Owen mentions everything that preceded the mission, including training, conversation, and personal thoughts, to the complete aftermath up until the point where President Obama personally invited the whole team to the White House for a beer.

Being that Mark Owen has such an amazing, autobiographical story to tell about an event that he played a huge part in, it was a pretty good read. Unfortunately the writing itself is a bit dull – nothing really pops out or draws the reader in unless they are truly interested in the story itself for its historical value. The story, as mentioned before, is obviously great – but it is unfortunately filled with seemingly colorless phrases with basic diction.

Owen mentions multiple times in his book the risk of being disrespected in his community for writing it, but I am glad he did. The book wasn’t the most compelling piece I’ve ever read, but its historical value and immense information on not only the raid of UBL’s guesthouse, but many other missions and training sequences displayed is something that I definitely enjoyed.