Charles Patrick "Chuck" Pfarrer, III (born April 13, 1957) is an American novelist, screenwriter, and former U.S. Navy SEAL from Biloxi, Mississippi.

Pfarrer is the author of the 2011 book "SEAL Target Geronimo: The Inside Story of the Mission to Kill Osama bin Laden", a New York Times Best Seller., which was controversial because he gave a different account of the raid than had the government. (See Death of Osama bin Laden—Alternate account.)

Biography

Pfarrer is the son of Charles Patrick Pfarrer, Jr., a career naval officer, and Joan Marie Pfarrer, a registered nurse.

Pfarrer is a graduate of the Staunton Military Academy, and studied Clinical Psychology at California State University at Northridge and the University of Bath in the United Kingdom. Pfarrer went through Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL training (BUD/S) in 1981 and spent 8 years as a Navy SEAL. He served as a military advisor in Central America, trained NATO forces in Europe and the Mediterranean, undertook duties in the Middle East, notably in Lebanon during the Lebanese Civil War. As executive officer of the SEAL Team assigned to the Multi-National Peacekeeping Force, he witnessed the 1983 Marine barracks bombing in Beirut. Pfarrer was one of the SEAL Team leaders responsible for the apprehension of Abu Abbas and the hijackers of the cruise ship Achille Lauro. Pfarrer ended his service as Assault Element Commander at the United States Naval Special Warfare Development Group (DEVGRU), formerly known as SEAL Team 6.

After leaving the military, Pfarrer embarked on a career as a Hollywood screenwriter. His film credits include writing, acting and production work in Navy SEALs, Darkman, and Hard Target. Pfarrer was the screenwriter on The Jackal. His spec screenplays for Virus and Red Planet were also made into movies. He is an uncredited writer on the films Arlington Road, Second Nature, Sudden Impact and Green Hornet. He is the author/creator of six graphic novels for Dark Horse Comics, and wrote and produced two interactive full motion videos, Flash Traffic and Silent Steel, both for Tsunami Media. Pfarrer was active in the 2004 effort to recall Writer's Guild of America president Charles Holland, who had wrongly claimed to be a wounded combat veteran, intelligence officer and Green Beret. Holland eventually resigned under fire.

Pfarrer’s best-selling autobiography, Warrior Soul, The Memoir of a Navy SEAL, was published in 2004. His first published novel, Killing Che, was in 2007.
Pfarrer is the author of the 2011 book "SEAL Target Geronimo: The Inside Story of the Mission to Kill Osama bin Laden", a New York Times Best Seller., which was controversial because he gave a different account of the raid than had the government. (See Death of Osama bin Laden—Alternate account.)

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