Charles Patrick Pfarrer III 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.
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 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 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.
Writing career
Screenwriting
While still in the Navy, Pfarrer sold a spec script that he wrote in college. His film credits include writing, acting and production work in Navy SEALs, Darkman, Barb Wire and Hard Target. Pfarrer's other screenwriting credits include The Jackal, Virus and Red Planet. 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. 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 and produced by John Bladecchhi and Alcon co-chiefs Broderick Johnson and Andrew Kosove.
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. Pfarrer's best-selling autobiography, Warrior Soul, The Memoir of a Navy SEAL, was published in 2003. 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. 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.
