I listened to an interview with Admiral William H. McRaven promoting his new book: “Sea Stories: My Life in Special Operations”. The interview was fascinating and I thought to myself, “I have to read that book!”
The first couple of chapters start out slow, telling stories of Admiral McRaven’s childhood. He was a rambunctious youth, getting into trouble at various times, and I suppose the chapters were necessary to give a complete picture of the Admiral’s life, yet I was anxious to read on to the Special Operations stories.
Sea Stories picks up steam as McRaven describes the grueling training he and his fellow cadets endure in “Hell Week” as they strive to become Navy Seals. After relating several torturous accounts of Hell Week, McRaven writes “For the next thirty-seven years I would compare every tough situation I was in to the rigors of Hell Week. Throughout the rest of my career I was never as cold, or wet, or exhausted as I was in Hell Week, and therefore I knew whatever life threw at me, I could make it.” In reading McRaven’s stories of Hell Week I thought “I would have quit”. I admired his resolve in sticking with his desire to become a Seal.
The best parts of the book are McRaven’s detailed stories of “My Life in Special Operations.” Here we read accounts of the Admiral’s Navy Seal exploits, including overseeing the capture of Saddam Hussein, leading a team to kill a terrorist leader in Syria, describing the delicate process in rescuing Captain Phillips from a band of Somali pirates, and more.
McRaven saves the best for last as his final Sea Story is about the raid and killing of Osama Bin Laden. The Admiral was intimately involved in the planning and execution of that mission. I learned new facts about how dangerous and risky the raid was.
And McRaven concludes the book with lessons he gained from his adventurous life. “I learned that life is fragile, and that we should take each day as a blessing,” he writes. “A single round from an Al Qaeda sniper, an IED on a road less traveled, a C-130 that never returned, a head-on collision coming home from work, a parachute that never opened, an x-ray that revealed a growing tumor – nothing in life is guaranteed, so make the most of what you have and be thankful.”
I am thankful we have men like Admiral McRaven willing to sacrifice their own well being for the good of others. “I realized that life is actually pretty simple,” he writes, “Help as many people as you can. Make as many friends as you can. Work as hard as you can. And, no matter what happens, never quit!”
