Chuck Pfarrer

Charles Patrick Pfarrer III (born April 13, 1957) is an American writer, film producer, and former United States Navy SEAL. As an author, he has penned published screenplays, novels, comic book, and non-fiction works. Regardless of medium, his work usually deal with themes pertaining to the military, and he has worked on blockbuster films like Navy SEALs, Darkman, and Hard Target.

Chuck Pfarrer
Birth name	Charles Patrick Pfarrer III
Born	(1957-04-13) April 13, 1957 Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.[1]
Allegiance	United States
Service/branch	United States Navy
Years of service	1981-1986
Rank	Lieutenant
Unit	SEAL Team FOUR SEAL Team SIX
Other work	Screenwriter, novelist, military correspondent, film producer, actor
Website	Chuck Pfarrer

Life and education

Pfarrer was born April 13, 1957, in Boston, Massachusetts, the son of Charles Patrick Pfarrer, Jr., a career naval officer, and Joan Marie Pfarrer, a registered nurse.[2]

He graduated from Staunton Military Academy in 1975, and studied Clinical Psychology at California State University at Northridge and the University of Bath in the United Kingdom.

Military career

Pfarrer entered active duty with the United States Navy in October 1980 and completed Officer Candidate School in Newport, R.I in 1981. After his commission as an Ensign in the U.S. Navy, he reported to Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL training (BUD/S) at Naval Amphibious Base Coronado. After six months of training, Pfarrer graduated with BUD/S class 114 in September 1981 and spent the next five years as a Navy SEAL. His initial assignment was to Underwater Demolition Team TWENTY ONE (UDT-21) at Naval Amphibious Base Little Creek, Virginia. Following advanced SEAL operator training and completion of six months probationary period, he received the 1130 designator as a Naval Special Warfare Officer, entitled to wear the Special Warfare Insignia. Pfaffer deployed numerous times as a military advisor in Central America, trained NATO forces in Europe and the Mediterranean, and completed a combat deployment in 1983 to Beirut, Lebanon during the Lebanese Civil War when UDT-21 was redesignated as SEAL Team FOUR. As SEAL Assistant Platoon commander assigned to the Multi-National Peacekeeping Force, he witnessed the 1983 Marine barracks bombing in Beirut. In September 1984, Pfarrer reported to SEAL Team SIX in Dam Neck, Va to begin an eight-month specialized selection and training course to become a counterterrorist operator. In October 1985, Pfarrer was one of the SEAL Team assault leaders responsible for the apprehension of Abu Abbas and the hijackers of the cruise ship Achille Lauro. Pfarrer planned, rehearsed and operated during classified training exercises and operations. Pfarrer ended his naval service in June 1986 as Assault Element Commander at the United States Naval Special Warfare Development Group (DEVGRU).[3]

Writing career

Screenwriting

While still in the Navy, Pfarrer sold a spec script that he wrote in college.[4] His film credits include writing, acting and production work in Navy SEALs, Darkman, Barb Wire and Hard Target.[5][6][7] Pfarrer's other screenwriting credits include The Jackal, Virus and Red Planet.[8][9] He became a member of the Western branch of the Writers Guild of America.

He is an uncredited writer on the films Sudden Impact and Arlington Road, and wrote early drafts for Shooter and The Green Hornet.[10] He is the author and 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's screenplay, Crash Site, was in development as a feature film by ALCON media. It was to be directed by Academy Award-winning director Charlie Gibson[11] and produced by John Bladecchhi and Alcon co-chiefs Broderick Johnson and Andrew Kosove.

Fiction

His first published novel, Killing Che, was released in 2007.[12]

Pfarrer's second novel, a work of nautical fiction, was published by the United States Naval Institute Press in April 2016. Based on the epic American short story of the same name by Edward Everett Hale, Philip Nolan, The Man Without a Country is a novelization of Hale's story, and tells of Nolan's court martial and his life as a prisoner on an American ship.

Non-fiction

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 later resigned.[13]

Pfarrer's best-selling autobiography, Warrior Soul, The Memoir of a Navy SEAL, was published in 2003.[14]

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,[15] which was controversial because he gave a different account of the raid than had the government.[16]

He has written op-eds for The New York Times and the Knight Ridder syndicate. He has appeared as an author and counter-terrorism expert on CSPAN-2, NPR, the Arabic network Al Hurra, IPR, Voice of America, Fox News, ABC, America Tonight and The Australian Broadcast Company.

Bibliography

Film

Year	Title	Dir.	Notes
1983	Sudden Impact	Clint Eastwood	Uncredited; with Joseph Stinson, Charles B. Pierce & Earl E. Smith
1990	Navy SEALs	Lewis Teague	with Gary Goldman
	Darkman	Sam Raimi	with Sam Raimi, Ivan Raimi, Joshua Goldin & Daniel Goldin
1993	Hard Target	John Woo	N/A
1996	Barb Wire	David Hogan	with Ilene Chaiken Nominated - Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Screenplay
1997	The Jackal	Michael Caton-Jones	N/A
1999	Arlington Road	Mark Pellington	Uncredited; with Ehren Kruger
	Virus	John Bruno	with Dennis Feldman
2000	Red Planet	Antony Hoffman	with Jonathan Lemkin
2003	Second Nature	Ben Bolt	Uncredited; with E. Max Frye
2007	Shooter	Antoine Fuqua	Early draft
2011	The Green Hornet	Michel Gondry

Print

Year	Title	Genre	Publisher
1992	Virus[17]	Comic book	Dark Horse Comics
	The Thing from Another World
2004	Warrior Soul: The Memoir of a Navy SEAL	Non-fiction Memoir	Presidio Press
2007	Killing Che	Historical fiction Espionage fiction	Random House
2011	SEAL Target Geronimo: The Inside Story of the Mission to Kill Osama bin Laden	Non-fiction	St. Martin's Press
2016	Philip Nolan: The Man Without a Country	Historical fiction Nautical fiction	U.S. Naval Institute

Video games

Year	Title	Publisher	Platform
1994	Flash Traffic: City of Angels	Tsunami Games	MS-DOS
1995	Silent Steel		Microsoft Windows

Awards and decorations

U.S. military decorations Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal Combat Action Ribbon Joint Meritorious Unit Award Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal Navy Unit Commendation Navy Expeditionary Medal Navy Sea Service Deployment Ribbon Navy and Marine Corps Overseas Service Ribbon Navy Rifle Marksmanship Badge Navy Pistol Marksmanship Badge

U.S. badges, patches and tabs Naval Special Warfare insignia Navy and Marine Corps Parachutist Insignia Army Parachutist Badge Military Freefall Parachutist Badge

References

1. "Bio - Chuck Pfarrer [dot] com". Retrieved 21 December 2018.
2. Hall, Kenneth E. (1 July 1999). John Woo: The Films, 2d ed. McFarland. p. 186. ISBN 978-0-7864-8829-2.
3. "FOIA Navy military record Charles P. Pfarrer III". 2 January 2020.
4. Bing, Jonathan (January 29, 2003). "Military tomes take flight as war looms: authors' experience in armed services gives them insight into the fight on terrorists. (The Write Stuff)". Daily Variety. Hollywood, CA. Archived from the original on February 24, 2016 – via HighBeam Research.
5. Kempley, Rita (July 20, 1990). "`SEALs': Missiles And Muscles". Washington Post. Washington, D.C. Archived from the original on February 25, 2016 – via HighBeam Research.
6. Carr, Jay (August 24, 1990). "THE HIGH-POWERED ACTION, OPERATIC SWEEP AND TORTURED LOVE OF 'DARKMAN'". Boston Globe. Boston, MA. Archived from the original on March 1, 2016 – via HighBeam Research.
7. Carr, Jay (May 3, 1996). "The Barbie of `Barb Wire'". Boston Globe. Boston, MA. Archived from the original on March 1, 2016 – via HighBeam Research.
8. Vincent, Mal (January 19, 1999). "``VIRUS COMES UP SHORT ON SCARES. (DAILY BREAK) (Review)". The Virginian-Pilot. Norfolk, VA. Archived from the original on February 24, 2016 – via HighBeam Research.
9. Verniere, James (November 10, 2000). "`Red Planet': A Space Idiocy". Boston Herald. Boston, MA. Archived from the original on February 24, 2016 – via HighBeam Research.
10. Davis, Edward. "The Long Road To 'The Green Hornet': Clooney, Kevin Smith, Wahlberg, Gyllenhaal & More Once Involved | IndieWire". www.indiewire.com. Retrieved 2017-09-13.
11. McNary, Dave (29 July 2015). "VFX Artist Charles Gibson to Direct Action Movie 'Crash Site'". Retrieved 21 December 2018.
12. Weisman, John (April 8, 2007). "The Hunt for Che Guevara, Very Much Fictionalized". The Washington Times. Washington, DC – via Questia Online Library.
13. Roderick, Kevin (March 1, 2004). "New wrinkle at WGA".
14. Krizman, Karen Algeo (February 13, 2004). "'WARRIOR SOUL' EXUDES BRAVADO". Rocky Mountain News. Denver, CO. Archived from the original on September 21, 2014 – via HighBeam Research.
15. "Best Sellers". The New York Times. The New York Times Company. 2011-11-27. Retrieved 2011-12-02.
16. Dozier, Kimberly (November 16, 2011). "Spec Ops Command: book on raid 'a lie'". The Virginian-Pilot. Norfolk, VA. Archived from the original on September 21, 2014 – via HighBeam Research.
17. "Virus #1 (of 4) :: Profile :: Dark Horse Comics". www.darkhorse.com. Retrieved 2017-09-13.

External links

• Chuck Pfarrer on IMDb