U.S. Naval Institute Author highlights Medal of Honor recipient Petty Officer 2nd Class Michael A. Monsoor in new book
Author calls the Battle of Ramadi "The most significant military engagement in the global war against terrorism since 9/11"
ANNAPOLIS, Md. (April 7, 2008) —In a soon to be published book chronicling the role of Navy SEALS in the bloody Battle of Ramadi, former SEAL Dick Couch tells the heroic tale of Petty Officer 2nd Class Michael A. Monsoor, who on Tuesday April 8th is to receive the Medal of Honor posthumously in a ceremony the East Room of the White House.
The commander of a SEAL platoon in Vietnam and author of numerous books, Couch recounts the story of Petty Officer Monsoor and his comrades in The Sheriff of Ramadi: Navy SEALs and the Winning of al-Anbar, to be published this fall by the Naval Institute Press, the book publishing arm of the U.S. Naval Institute.
Petty Officer Monsoor, who appears on the cover of the book, sacrificed his life to save his comrades by throwing himself on a grenade tossed by Iraqi insurgents.
Couch follows the SEAL Task Unit in Iraq's al Anbar Province between 2005 and 2007, detailing the unit's actions in the crucial battle for Ramadi, the provincial capital. He describes the success of special operations forces/SEALs fighting side by side with more conventional forces. The keys to the success of the SEALS, Couch writes, was their ability to adapt to an unfamiliar urban battle space and the code of brotherhood that bound them to one another.
Based on extensive interviews with Army, Navy, and Marine personnel who fought the battle and the author's firsthand assessment of the situation when he reported from Ramadi in 2007, Couch details the previously unrecognized important role of the SEALS in winning the fight to control Ramadi.
He describes the battle as "the most sustained and vicious engagement ever fought by SEALs."
"Dick Couch writes both elegantly and from the gut," said retired Marine Corps Major General Thomas Wilkerson, the CEO of U.S. Naval Institute (USNI). "He is the type of gritty, seasoned author the Naval Institute Press is committed to publishing."
Founded in 1873, the U.S. Naval Institute is a non-profit professional membership organization whose mission is to preserve and promote Naval Heritage and to provide an independent forum to address issues critical to national security. USNI hosts conferences, publishes Proceedings and Naval History magazines, and the Naval Institute Press publishes more than 75 professional and mission-related books a year.
Author Dick Couch is available for media interviews on his cell: 208-309-2726