I recently watched the movie Lone Survivor – a movie adaptation of Marcus Luttrell’s book of the same name. I give the movie an overall B+. There were several things I really liked about it, one glaring thing I didn’t like, and a few omissions which I found regrettable. Spoiler alert: If you have either…
In anticipation of the release of the movie Lone Survivor next month, Dan Klaidman has just published an excellent article on Marcus Luttrell in The Daily Beast, under their banner “The Hero Project.” The article is entitled Navy SEAL Marcus Luttrell Survived the Taliban, But His Struggle Was Just Starting, and can be read by clicking…
The latest Naval Special Warfare Ethos Magazine is out, and it includes my essay On Becoming a (good) SEAL. The entire issue can be seen here. My essay faces a great essay by Capt Bob Gusentine providing guidance to future Senior Enlisted Advisors. There are a number of really good articles in this issue, including…
The text of this essay appears in the current edition of the NSW Ethos Magazine, an only slightly edited version of what appears below. For the link to the full issue of Ethos, go to NSW Ethos: —————————————— We see a lot of chatter in the media about the deterioration of ethics and character in…
I prepared this essay for Naval Special Warfare’s Ethos Magazine. Though it didn’t make it into their published magazine, I thought I would share it, for those interested in the challenges Navy SEALs face in managing their ‘brand.’ ——————- A couple of years ago, I picked up the book Cowboy Ethics – What Wall Street…
This post appears in Issue 18 of Naval Special Warfare Ethos Magazine, and hopes to inspire some of the SEALs and SWCCs (Special Warfare Combatantcraft Crewman – part of the Naval Special Warfare community wtih the SEALs) to dive a little deeper into the profession they’ve chosen, and read the experience and perspectives of others curently…
This is part 2 because I have already written on this topic for Naval Special Warfare’s Ethos magazine, and posted it in this blog in January of this year – just scroll down. I think it was a pretty good essay, but it didn’t get much attention when I wrote it – but it was…
The below is an essay recently published in the Naval Special Warfare Magazine Ethos, available on-line. They had asked me to write something about ‘The Family’ and this is what I came up with. I heard Radm Dixon Smith, Commander Naval Region Southwest, use the “Fighter, Family, Fleet” alliteration in a speech, and he tells me it is being…
This essay appears in the current edition of Naval Special Warfare’s Ethos magazine. The essay was inspired by discussions I’ve had with colleagues about the challenges SEALs now face, being in the spotlight as the new American heroes and media darlings. This can be pretty heady stuff with some new and unfamiliar challenges for young men who have been trained…
I was asked by NSW Ethos magazine to write an essay on “Quiet Professionalism,” after a spate of books, interviews, articles and the like by SEALS, mostly retired, have appeared in the wake of the raid that killed Osama bin Laden. SEALs are appearing on O’Reilley, Imus, in a new movie (Act of Valor,) and on, and on. I am also a retired…
