Here's a tip: Don't get "Demo Dick" [Richard Marcinko] ticked at you. Demo Dick -- born Richard -- is very tough. He likes to hurt people. He's good at it.

Mr. Marcinko, career Navy to the marrow, spent a couple of years as a high-school dropout enlisted man, transferred to UDT (frogman duty) in the early '60s, went to OCS, and was an early member of the SEALs -- the Navy's SEaAirLand commando force. He was probably the only American in the '60s who pulled strings to get into, not out of, Vietnam, where he had, shall we say, much fun.