Includes bibliographical references (pages [507]-593) and index.

part 1. Neglect: The reluctant creation and violent demise of the Navy's first commandos, the Marine Corps Raiders ; The sidelining of the Army's amphibious soldier-scouts and the call-up of the Navy's second-string sailors ; The US Army's first commandos and the raid that wasn't -- part 2. Opportunity: Draper Kauffman and the course that cracked the Atlantic wall, then laid the first bricks of the legend of naval special warfare ; The evolving contest that created the Mermen of War, World War II's only indispensable special operations unit ; The contest for the guerrilla war in China and the organization that had "no damn business" fighting in it, the US Navy's army of sailors -- part 3. Relevance: The US Navy's postwar plight, and the sailor-raiders who led her back to significance in Korea ; The resurrection of the Army's Rangersik, and the guerrilla raid that failed to forestall their second death ; Arleigh Burke, the Bay of Pigs, and the launching of the Navy's limited-war SEALs -- part 4. Exigency: Kennedy's Army of Gladiators and the counterinsurgency that blunted their swords, then cleared the way for another contender ; The first SEALs, their search for a mission, and the report that found it for them ; The dam break of conventional war in Vietnam, and the following flood of raiders that failed to beat the Navy to the Mekong Delta, all but one -- part 5. Culmination: The derailing of the first direct-action SEALs in the Rung Sat, and the detachment that restored their prospects ; The direct-action SEALs who dodged diversion, then perfected a mission that propelled the teams past the riverbanks, into history ; The Navy's skeleton key to inland combat and the final against-the-current achievements in the war's ebb tide that exposed the SEALs preeminence as the US military's go-anywhere commandos.