Reviews
"Roy Benavidez is a real badass, a modern day Spartan, the heart of what every warrior prays for when everything goes wrong." ----MARCUS LUTTRELL, retired Navy SEAL and author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Lone Survivor "I fought beside and led U.S. Special Operations soldiers, sailors, and airmen during three wars-- World War II, Korea, and Vietnam--including the men [of SOG] depicted in Legend. Never have I read a more powerfully honest, realistic, or moving account of the war in Southeast Asia. Eric Blehm masterfully encapsulates the hearts of the men, their impossible mission, and the quagmire of politics of the era and wraps it up in a single bloody battle that portrays the American fighting man at his best." ----MAJOR GENERAL JOHN K. (JACK) SINGLAUB, U.S. Army (Ret.) "Legend may be the most important book ever written about the men of Special Operations. It brings to life in touching and brutal detail one of Special Operations Force's first true heroes as well as the other heroic men who fought and died with him in the jungles of Cambodia. Master Sergeant Roy Benavidez represented the best of the quiet professionals whose incredible actions were long overlooked and lost to history only to be rediscovered through Blehm's painstaking research and magnificent writing." ----LIEUTENANT COLONEL JASON AMERINE, U.S. Army Special Forces "[Legend] is one of the most honest and engrossing narratives of the war I have ever read.... Blehm faithfully describes the complicated choreography of war, and shows us why the Congressional Medal of Honor was bestowed on Sergeant Benavidez for his actions. A magnificent narrative, painstakingly told by a master storyteller." -- Maj. Gen. Paul Vallely, "Roy Benavidez is a real badass, a modern day Spartan, the heart of what every warrior prays for when everything goes wrong." ----MARCUS LUTTRELL, retired Navy SEAL and author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Lone Survivor "I fought beside and led U.S. Special Operations soldiers, sailors, and airmen during three wars-- World War II, Korea, and Vietnam--including the men [of SOG] depicted in Legend. Never have I read a more powerfully honest, realistic, or moving account of the war in Southeast Asia. Eric Blehm masterfully encapsulates the hearts of the men, their impossible mission, and the quagmire of politics of the era and wraps it up in a single bloody battle that portrays the American fighting man at his best." ----MAJOR GENERAL JOHN K. (JACK) SINGLAUB, U.S. Army (Ret.) "Legend may be the most important book ever written about the men of Special Operations. It brings to life in touching and brutal detail one of Special Operations Force's first true heroes as well as the other heroic men who fought and died with him in the jungles of Cambodia. Master Sergeant Roy Benavidez represented the best of the quiet professionals whose incredible actions were long overlooked and lost to history only to be rediscovered through Blehm's painstaking research and magnificent writing." ----LIEUTENANT COLONEL JASON AMERINE, U.S. Army Special Forces "[Legend] is one of the most honest and engrossing narratives of the war I have ever read.... Blehm faithfully describes the complicated choreography of war, and shows us why the Congressional Medal of Honor was bestowed on Sergeant Benavidez for his actions. A magnificent narrative, painstakingly told by a master storyteller." -- Maj. Gen. Paul Vallely ★ 05/25/2015 Blehm ( Fearless ) delivers an intense tale of how a poor, troubled boy found salvation and purpose as a soldier in the story of Raul "Roy" Benavidez (1935-1998), a Green Beret who saved "at least eight men" during a vicious May 1968 firefight in Cambodia. Incursions into Cambodia were so secret that the troops involved were sworn never to divulge any information about them. . . .Blehm's harrowing and bloody descriptions of the fighting reveal how these missions depended on the paratroopers' mix of superior skill and sheer audacity. Benavidez's incredible actions earned him high accolades; years later, when news of his deeds spread following publication a story in his Texas hometown newspaper, his fellow soldiers pressed for Benavidez to receive his "long-overdue and unfairly denied Congressional Medal of Honor." Blehm gives the jungle hell of the Vietnam War a graphic, suspenseful treatment. (May) -- Publishers Weekly
