Pfarrer says of his motivation in writing the book: “I can’t say that the operators wanted the story corrected, but I can say that I wanted the story corrected. One of the things these guys give up is the privilege of publicly criticizing the management.”
Senior defense officials have pushed back on Pfarrer's account, disputing the timeline he raises and saying that no active-duty SEALs agreed to speak with him for the book. Pfarrer responds that his comrades indeed shared their experiences with him.
“I’m part of the community and have been for a long time. I didn’t have to gain anybody’s trust. They’ve known me. In my previous life I was commander of the same outfit that did this thing. It wasn’t a problem for me to find these guys, because they’re all my friends.”
The book, to be published Tuesday by St. Martin’s Press, “definitely involves some dramatic invention,” Pfarrer concedes. He says, for example, that he recreated conversations that took place in the Joint Special Operations Command’s (JSOC) conference room, which he describes as “three stories underground, and sit[ting] behind a foot-thick, sound-proof steel door with both an electronic card reader and an old-fashioned combination lock, like a bank safe in a spaghetti western.”
Pfarrer is sanguine on the response to the book. “I don’t think the reaction to my book will be as bad as when they found out that Disney was trying to copyright the term ‘Seal Team 6.’ “
