Approved by a SEAL

Chief Michael Jaco, US Navy SEAL, retired, supports DOWN RANGE, book 2 of my new Shadow Warriors series with Harlequin HQN and HRS. He’s not only written the Dear Reader letter in the front of the book, but also provided a quote for it on the back cover. He was in UDT-12, BUD/s Class 116, Seal Team 5. Later, he was invited to Seal Team 6 and was in the Red Man Squadron. ST-6 was later known as DEV-GRU. This was the same squadron that took out bin Laden. His SEAL pedigree is peerless with twenty-four years of service within this vaunted black ops military branch.

THE INTUITIVE WARRIOR

Since leaving the SEALs in 2002, he has been a security contractor around the world, protecting people, to this day. It was his book (paperback and ebook), THE INTUITIVE WARRIOR, that grabbed my attention. Chief Jaco had not hired a professional writer to interview them and then turn their words and stories into a book. The author’s voice gets diluted that way. His book isn’t diluted. It was powerful, ALIVE, pulsating with heart and experience with the author’s raw passion for being a SEAL, was clearly obvious. Chief Jaco’s book so inspired me I sent him an email to him via his website and asked him if he’d look at 66 unclassified technical questions I had about SEALs because I was writing DOWN RANGE.

Chief Jaco agreed and it was his beautiful, intelligent wife, Tracy Jo Jaco, who called me in April, 2013 and asked if we could get together at lunch. I met them and Chief Jaco took my 66 questions and was impressed with the depth of research I’d done on SEALs. Based upon that, he agreed to give me four hours of his time so I could interview him. I was so grateful he would do this for me, but after all, I was in the US Navy just like him, and a vet. I’ve often found that I can get interviews with men and women in the military simply because I was one of them at one time. Military connection are thicker than blood and it is a family in its own right. And vets tend to support vets without question.

Chief Jaco also agreed to read DOWN RANGE and after reading it, wanted to write a Dear Reader letter forward to the book, as well as give it a quote. I was deeply touched by his reaction to my SEAL book. Most importantly, and he agreed, I had not stereotyped SEALs. They are, after all, human. But they’re trained a certain way, and I wanted to make sure I got that part correct. He found two small errors in my book and I corrected them. I thought he’d find a lot more! But I had done three years of research, reading every SEAL book written by a SEAL, to try and gain insight into their black ops world. DOWN RANGE is a book about a SEAL, and now, it has been approved by a SEAL. It just doesn’t get any better than that. I hope you enjoy the story. Stay tuned for more Shadow Warrior series books with SEAL heroes in them in 2014.

Lindsay McKenna