SOF, COIN, and the Question of Host Nation Viability: An Interview with Dick Couch
– by Robert Tollast
Few writers have a better knowledge of special operations over the past 40 years than Dick Couch, who graduated from Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL (BUD/S) in 1969 and served in Vietnam with SEAL Team One. Couch went on to work with the CIA, and following his government service, he has published some 17 fiction and nonfiction books including NY Times bestseller Act of Valor. More recently, Couch has been embedded with MARSOC and his book on MARSOC training, Always Faithful, Always Forward will be on the shelves in 2014.
The Sheriff of Ramadi was released in 2008 and charts Couch’s experience embedded with US Navy SEALs, Marines and soldiers during the battle for Iraq’s most contested town, where he witnessed firsthand the transition to carefully orchestrated, population focused counterinsurgency, culminating with the “Anbar Awakening,” and the routing of al-Qaeda…
