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Born in north-central Texas
Grew up believing in the Christian faith

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Chris had learned about hunting and shooting guns from a very young age
He also got his first gun during this point - uses CO2 tanks.

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Chris spent most of his time working with horses breaking them (ride them till they stop kicking). He got involved with rodeo competitions because of this while still in high school

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He graduated from high school in 1992 and went to college at Tarleton State University in Stephenville, Texas. He originally wanted to be a ranch manager but gave some thought into joining the military - his mother's dad had been in the Army Air Force as a pilot. Chris had thought about becoming an aviator because of this for quite some time. Later on, he thought about becoming a Marine because he liked the idea of fighting. Learning a little bit of special operations, he later thought of joining the Marine Recon. He didn't join then because his family, specifically his mother, wanted him to go to college, so he did.

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After graduating and going through with his injury, he had a lot of time to think about what he wants to do with his future. With this time, he had thought hard about joining the military. He first tried to get enlisted in the marine first. He didn't get in because they happen to be out at lunch at this time. He then went to the Army because the guy who was recruiting called out to him. He asked Chris why he wanted to join the military in the first place, he responded by saying he was interested in the special forces. The army recruiter suggested he should be a ranger instead because in order to become an SF you had to be in the army for quite awhile to gain the proper rankings. Chris didn't know very much about it, so he was told to give it some thought. As he was walking out, the navy recruiter called out to him. After asking Chris about what he was talking about to the Army rec, he asked Chris if he heard about the SEALs. At this time, the SEALs were relatively new so no one really knew much about them. He started to tell Chris about all of the training and what they do. After this, Chris went on to sign up for the Navy. When they had learned about Chris's injury - and the pins in his arms, they had denied him from joining.

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With this in mind, Chris decided to focus on ranching and being a cowboy. Since he already had a good job on a ranch, he saw no point in continuing school. The guy he worked for doubled his pay and gave him more responsibilities as a result.

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Chris kept coming back to David's ranch (the guy he worked for in the beginning) After trying to work for other people that gave him better offers for his own reasons. David let Chris back as many times as he asked too because they had been working together for some time and got along quite well. During 1997-89, Chis had gotten a call from a navy recruiter telling him that they wanted him, even with the pins in his arms (they told him not to worry about those).

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Chris started in something called BUD/S training. This is where they train the absolute most they can out of you, then do it some more. It also trains them to what being a SEAL might look like but not yet training them to become one. This part usually weeds out the people who wouldn't be able to make it in the field and the people who are not mentally strong enough to continue through with it.

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Chris joined the Navy in February of 1999. This is when he started to train in the boot camp. For him, it wasn't hard enough. He wanted something that would challenge him, something that would push him to do his hardest - like the marines.

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During his training, he would work out more seriously, with this time he spent three months on learning the basics of the navy's intelligence specialties and getting his body into better shape. When he saw the real SEALs on the base, this is when he took things more seriously. This gave him the right mindset to do things like running even though he hated it. It gave him the ability to do whatever it takes to get through with anything.

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Chris would work out with other SEAL candidates in the gyms to do things such as calisthenics for at least two hours in said day. They would stay away from weight workouts because the idea was to not be muscle-bound but still have strength and the maximum flexibility.

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Indoc stands for indoctrination, which in this case means that Chris is getting ready to join the real BUD/S training. Indoc is the preparation to get you to the BUD/S training. It acts sort of like training wheels as Chris called it, if, of course, the SEALs had training wheels.

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It wasn't the amount of exercise they had to do in BUD/S, it was the verbal and sometimes even physical abuse that came with the exercise that made it so hard on people. Chris said that this was sort of hard to explain if you haven't quite lived through it yourself though. The misconception that this brings up, is that people think SEALs are all big and muscular people, this is partially untrue because you can be any size and still be a SEAL - you need the will to do whatever it takes.

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During the first week of training, Chris tried his best to stay low. If you were noticed, it was a bad thing. Whether it be during PT, exercise, or even standing in the line, you want to be the least noticeable and do the least to gain attention to yourself. To do this, Chris would try to be the first to do something when asked by the instructor. When he would do this, he would try his best each time to do it perfectly - this would get the instructors to leave you alone. Although he would try his best to stay low, he wasn't able to be completely ignored. The only thing he couldn't do, were pull-ups. Now, it's much harder to do pull-ups in BUD/S because you would have to hang from the bar and then wait for an instructor to tell you when you can start. Right when they started to do the pull-ups, the instructor happened to be right next to Chris, he let out a groan when he started his pull-up. This automatically flagged him to the instructor for being weak.

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During hell week (132 hrs of working out straight) the only break they got was when they would go and eat a meal. They would call this like a meal to meal sort of training because it would be the only break you would have for quite a while.

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A couple of days before hell week started, Chris went out on an IBS (inflatable boat, small) with a group to do some training. Chris was in charge of docking and a huge wave came over while he was getting ready to set and took the boat and put it right on his foot. He went to one of his friends dad, which was a doctor, and he had told Chris that he had fractured his foot. With this information, he would either have to take a break from training - causing him to have to start from the very beginning again, or to keep going through training in a large amount of pain. Chris choose to go on with his training.

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The week right after hell week is a short recovery period they call walk week. By this time, they have beaten you down so bad that your body feels like it's permanently bruised and swollen. You get to wear tennis shoes and don't have to run, you are allowed to fast-walk anywhere. After a few days though, they start to beat you back down. The instructors would tell people to suck it up - they get to tell you when you're hurt and when you're not.

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During his second part of the BUD/S training program, he had to learn how to dive. During this training he was on the dive tower for his second phase. In order to dive from high places you need to equalize the pressure of your inner and outer ears. This would help keep your eardrums safe so they wouldn't burst when you hit the waters surface. When he went to dive off of the tower, he didn't equalize the pressure and ended up bursting his eardrums. He received immediate medical attention and was told he had to be held back so he could heal.