Best of the Best

Washington, D.C. – This week's drama on the high seas and the remarkable rescue of Capt. Richard Phillips — the "skipper" of the MV Maersk Alabama — makes a perfect start for this week's "War Stories" documentary, "Inside Spec Ops."

We didn't intend it that way, but that's the way it turned out and it contributed to making this special episode of War Stories one of the most exciting and timely documentaries we have made in eight years.

• Catch a brand new episode of 'War Stories: Inside Special Ops,' Saturday, April 18 at 9 p.m. ET and Sunday, April 19 at 2 p.m. ET

To produce this show required unprecedented access to our Spec Ops warriors and our "War Stories" team spent months in the field, embedded with three separate Combined Joint Special Operations Task Forces. Because they trusted us not to put any of these remarkable Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen or Marines in jeopardy by divulging names, showing faces or revealing sensitive information, we are able to show operations never broadcast before.

Making this thrilling documentary about our Spec Ops warriors took us to the Persian Gulf, Afghanistan, the Philippines, Iraq and Spec Ops training sites and bases here in the U.S. We accompanied them on land, sea and air operations in some of the most inhospitable places on Earth. Thanks to our great cameramen, editors and producers, the result is an extraordinary look behind the scenes at how these exceptional warriors train, live and fight.

It's not "Rambo." It's better.

The Spec Ops personnel in this episode are "the best of the best." The Navy SEALs, Army Special Forces, Air Force Special Operators and Marines of Special Operations Command are extremely bright, remarkably fit and technically and tactically competent beyond anything Hollywood can portray. Their ability to conduct "direct action" — as in the rescue of Captain Phillips — or work "with, by and through" their foreign counterparts in a "capture-kill" mission — often hundreds of miles from the nearest U.S. reinforcements — is a testament to both proficiency and courage.

All that and more is in this special episode of "War Stories."

Our "War Stories" team has now made 14 extended deployments to cover those fighting the global war against radical Islamic terrorists. We were the first to go ashore when the Marines headed into Afghanistan in October 2001. We've covered running gunfights during combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and gone with the U.S. and Philippine Special Operators who hunted down bloody Abu Seyef and Jemiah Islamiah terrorists who killed Americans.

Like the SEALs who rescued Capt. Phillips this week, they are all American heroes and we have been blessed by the opportunity to keep company with them.

— Oliver North hosts War Stories on FOX News Channel and is the author of the new best-seller, "American Heroes: In The War Against Radical Islam." He has just returned from assignment in Afghanistan.