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Greitens, Eric. The Heart and the Fist: the Education of a Humanitarian, the Making of a Navy SEAL. Mariner, 2012.

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Growing up Greitens was constantly being told from those surrounding him that the key to having a successful life was to go to college. He didn't have the best of grades but was always trying his best for fear of not making it to this place that will apparently make everything right in his life, until he finally graduated high school and made it. But after only being in college for a few weeks, he felt like he was lied to. Greitens' major was Public Policy Studies, since his biggest dream was to shape the world and he thought taking this course would teach him about the greatest world affairs and how to change situations, but all he got were math equations and a monotone professor. He learned that a journey wouldn't simply be handed to him, he would have to choose for himself.
"They had promised me that in college we would dive into the deep pools of the world's wisdom about how to live, but instead I was being taught how to plot decision trees. They had promised me that in college we would learn how to shape the world, but they wanted me to do it with math." (Greitens 15)

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After learning he has to choose his own journey in life, Greitens applied for a grant to go to China, despite knowing just about nothing about the country. He was basically walking in blind, but he still wanted to go. His first visit there, he ended up joining a class on kung fu since he was invited and wanted to learn about Chinese culture. After training for about a month, Greitens passed a test where the shifu, or trainer, pressed a sword to his throat and tried to slice through his neck, but by focusing his energy, the sword was unable to cut through. Greitens received spiked nunchucks and a sword for passing, as well as an appreciation for the martial arts.
"I set my hands in prayer in front of my chest, and as the shifu put the point of the sword against my neck, I focused all of my energy on the throat. He pushed forward, and I felt the steel point of the blade against my throat, and then suddenly I was bowing. I had apparently passed the test." (Greitens 19)

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On Greitens next visit, he received a job that was for teaching English to Chinese students. Except, rather than English questions, the students ended up asking about what Americans thought about the Tienanmen Massacre, which was a protest students led that ended with many being killed by the government. He became friends with the students, who had dreams of traveling to the U.S.A and making a change in China. However, these type of questions are illegal and the police catch wind of the students asking these things, so they take Greitens with them to a station for questioning. Greitens didn't give them information on who was asking and he wasted no time getting out of China before anything bad could happen to him. That was when he lost a lot of his naivety and thought that instead of choosing an adventure, it was more about choosing a path with purpose.

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The latest from China. But the Chinese Red Cross estimates of between 4500. People have been killed this weekend. As the army moved in to suppress the student demonstrations. Still the army has not gained complete control. Gary Shepard reports on this weekend's bloody action in Beijing. It was the swift and terrible ending to the Beijing spring of 1989. Hundreds of thousands of students and workers and other local Chinese citizens. Who through their long demonstration for democracy. Had been seeking a peaceful dialogue with the leaders of this vast nation. Received instead the harshest of responses to their demands for reform and freedom. Last night an estimated 30000. Chinese army troops were sent into the capital. To crush what the government called a small band of hooligans and gangsters. Counter revolutionaries. The government called them who were attempting to overthrow the Communist regime that has ruled this country for the past forty years. It is difficult not to use the word massacre to describe what happened. The military is moving in armored vehicles smashed through barricades that have been put up by the protesters. An advance relentlessly toward Tiananmen square. Where for the past several weeks students have been staging a sit in demanding the resignation of hardline Premier League pond. And an end to widespread corruption inside the Chinese Government. They fired automatic weapons into crowds of citizens who for the most part. Could fight back with nothing more than rocks and bottles. They fire their weapons even as the mobs were chanting slogans like you are the People's Liberation Army and we are the people. They fired their weapons into groups of demonstrators that sometimes numbered in the tens of thousands. There has been no official announcement of casualties. Student leaders claim they are staggering. And that the government is attempting to cremate the bodies as quickly as possible so the true number of fatalities will never be you know. Some lost their lives when armored personnel carriers and troop trucks simply ran over them. Others were gunned down as they tried to resist the savage show of course. Finally the troops reach their objective and in a last ditch effort demonstrators tossed firebombs onto the tanks and armored personnel carriers. As they rolled into Tiananmen square. But it didn't take long before the Chinese.

This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.

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Video: June 4, 1989: Tiananmen Square massacre

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The latest from China. But the Chinese Red Cross estimates of between 4500. People have been killed this weekend. As the army moved in to suppress the student demonstrations. Still the army has not gained complete control. Gary Shepard reports on this weekend's bloody action in Beijing.

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Greitens knew that he couldn't change the world by being a student, but he wanted to go through something hard because he knew he would come out of it as a better person. While thinking of this, he remembered the stories his grandfather would tell him about growing up in the Great Depression as a boxer. There was always an occurring trait in his stories, the people his grandfather spoke of had a confidence about them that came from going through tough tests, which was a trait Greitens wanted to have. He picked up boxing lessons with a man named Earl Blair, who had one other student named Derrick Humphrey, and quickly found out how challenging the sport was. But he wasn't only receiving boxing lessons, he was being taught life lessons by Earl, who would beg to differ because he saw no distinction between life and boxing. After about six weeks of training, Greitens finally got his own equipment and begins to feel like he has just taken the first step in his journey.

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Being awoken to bombs wasn't an uncommon occurrence for the soldiers in Iraq, but having the barracks you were in with many others suddenly being hit with a suicide truck bomb was nowhere near as common. Retreating the city was difficult and required exposure to enemy fire, with Greitens and a young Marine in the riskiest area. Greitens got off easy that day, but many were not as lucky. A few weeks later, a friend of his, named Lieutenant Travis Manion, would be shot down in a courageous act that would save the lives of every member of his patrol, teaching Greitens a valuable lesson. "A good peace, a solid peace, a peace in which communities can flourish, can only be built when we ask ourselves and each other to be more than just good, and better than just strong. And a good life, a meaningful life, a life in which we can enjoy the world and live with purpose, can only be built if we do more than live for ourselves." (Greitens 11)

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After seeing his grandfather for the last time, which he didn't know then, Greitens travels to Croatia to volunteer in refugee camps. The first camp he stayed in was the Puntizela refugee camp where he was greeted by a group of children. The camp was located outside Pula, Croatia and Greitens interacts with all age ranges, such as starting a soccer team for children, playing chess with teenagers, and simply talking with adults. He hears about many of the horrific acts that happened to these people, who were from Bosnia but had to flee after the Serbian army attacked the region.
"When the war broke out, the Serbian Army took control of the city, hanging white rags on door frames to mark Bosnian homes. Soldiers stormed these homes to take dishes, televisions, furniture, jewelry- whatever they wanted. Serbian soldiers beat old men with the butts of their rifles, smashed fingers with crowbars, and dismembered bodies with their knives. Serbians soldiers repeatedly raped women and girls. They shot or slit the throats of anyone who resisted." (Greitens 53)

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The second camp Greitens goes to is he Gasinci camp, which was outside Osijek, Croatia. It was far more crowded than Puntizela and each morning everyone was awoken by exploding artillery, where the Croatian Army was regularly conducting maneuvers near the camp. This was where he heard the tragedy of the Srebrencia massacre and finally understood why when he first arrived in Croatia, he was welcomed by a woman asking "Why don't you do anything?" when referring to him being from America. Greitens understood that while sending things to people and volunteering did help, if you really care about the people, you would be willing to protect them from harm through direct, courageous actions.

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Srebrenica massacre | Facts, History, & Photos

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Srebrenica massacre, slaying of more than 7,000 Bosniak (Bosnian Muslim) boys and men, perpetrated by Bosnian Serb forces in Srebrenica, a town in eastern Bosnia and Herzegovina, in July 1995. In addition to the killings, more than 20,000 civilians were expelled from the area—a process known as eth…

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After helping at refugee camps in Croatia, Greitens wanted to do more, so he accompanied his professor, Neil Boothby, to Rwanda. It was a year after the genocide had occurred and the region was still struggling with the events that had happened. Greitens is told to observe the people so he can report back what is working for them and what isn't. He goes into the field to see these people a few times, one of which to monitor a repatriation, where the refugees who fled originally are coming back into Rwanda. Another time was to talk with a group of women who had traveled a long distance to see a doctor for either themselves or their children.
"These women had suffered more than I could have ever imagined, and they still were willing to welcome me, to talk with me. After all the betrayal they had lived through, all the hardship, they were still willing to trust a stranger. If people can live through genocide and retain compassion, if they can take strength from pain, if they are able, still, to laugh, then certainly we can learn something from them." (Greitens 73-74)

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Zaire is one of the countries Rwanda borders and had become dangerous since the genocide, because some Hutu refugees fled there and they had killed and convinced others to kill during the genocide. There were rumors that the camps were so the Hutus could regroup, but Greitens wasn't sure if that is true. When he first crosses the border, he has to stop in a customs hut but the soldiers there weren't all that friendly, in fact, Greitens knew they wanted to rob him of something. However, before anything escalates, he is saved by an American woman named Karen and she takes him to the largest refugee camp surrounding Rwanda, which was in Goma, Zaire. In that camp, there are many aid workers and even more refugees, and something Greitens found very strange was how he could basically walk into any part of the camp no problem, but a refugee boy with an infected ankle was turned away from the clinic. He got that boy help, but thought to himself that he shouldn't have needed to interfere, the boy should have gotten the help he needed the first time around. Greitens says that although he wants to sometimes turn away from humankind after seeing the awful things they are capable of, he stays when he sees someone who has been through hell and back and still can find a reason to smile.

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Rwandan Genocide - Facts, Response & Trials

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The Rwandan genocide, also known as the genocide against the Tutsi, occured in 1994 when members of the Hutu ethnic majority in the east-central African nation of Rwanda murdered as many as 800,000 people, mostly of the Tutsi minority. Started by Hutu nationalists in the capital of Kigali, the genoc…

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After Greitens graduated from college, he received a photography grant that paid for his plane ticket to Bolivia. He chose this country because he met a woman in college who had just returned from a trip there, where she helped with the children of the streets. He realized a bit later on, that this place was different than Croatia and Rwanda, because those places gave hope. Bolivia, however, did not. There, he met children from all sorts of situations, but were ultimately left on the streets, vulnerable to drugs, theft, abuse, and more. Many of the children he saw were sniffing glue as a cheap way of escaping their pain, but the brain damage it will cause later is extensive. Many of the kids are trying their best to live by shining shoes, begging, and selling gum and cigarettes. He visits the Mano Amiga home, which is located on the outskirts of Santa Cruz and he meets many young boys there who still have fun and can smile like any boy in America, but they all have a past that has changed them considerably. Greitens hangs out with seven of the boys the most, even taking them to a soccer game one time. But not long after, a boy named Juan Carlos from a neighboring home died from a small broken bone that had escalated to typhoid after not having proper care. It's a major representation of what many of the children face, because even the smallest of things can kill them in their situation.
"For all of the violence and tragedy and pain that armed conflict brings, I thought that it might be easier for a child to lose a parent or a limb and to live through war than to grow up abused and abandoned. Most of the children on the streets of Bolivia had never known the comforts of family life, were never going to go to college. Few of them, I guessed, would ever know one whole carefree and happy day in their lives." (Greitens 106)

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After applying for a Rhodes scholarship and getting it, Greitens went to Oxford University, where he really began to appreciate life's beauty, things that were worth fighting for. He enjoyed his time there tremendously, learning about diverse cultures and all sorts of history and modern day subjects. There was also a lot of freedom that Oxford offered, with lots of different classes and being able to travel. He met his girlfriend here, who he would be with for five years, and together they would explore all sorts of areas within the United Kingdom. Greitens also joined the Oxford University Amateur Boxing Club, with the head coach being Henry Dean, a man who was highly skilled and trained everyone to be the best they could. Cambridge University is their main rival and Henry has beaten them seven times in a row, which would become eight the night Greitens fights in 1998. Amongst all the fun and freedom he was having, Greitens still continued his humanitarian work in his studies, such as researching the history of Save the Children.

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Save the Children believe in a world in which all children survive, have the chance to learn, and are protected from abuse, neglect and exploitation.

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Just because Greitens went to Oxford now didn't stop him from volunteering when he could, instead he would use his breaks to travel. One of his trips was to the Gaza Strip, a place where the people are said to all be terrorists. But upon arriving, he was welcomed by men on the streets who offered tea and bread, wanting to hear what Americans knew about Gaza. Fifty-three percent of the population was under the age of 18 and Greitens told of how he doesn't think he'll be able to understand the place with just one visit. But, he does understand that these people aren't terrorists, these people are too poor and hungry to be thinking about anything other than where they will get their next meal.
Another trip of his was to Varanasi, India, where next to the river Ganges there was a building known as Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity. Their mission was the help those who were dying and make it as peaceful as they could. The people ranged from being physically ill to mentally ill, and there was even a young boy there, who had begged so often while squatting that he could no longer straighten his legs. Greitens went on another trip to Cambodia where he visited a hospital outside Phnom Penh. The hospital's rooms were packed with men who had recently lost limbs due to a mine explosion. He went on many other trips, but when he returned from his last one, he realized it was meaningless of him to continue writing about how actions needed to be done when he himself hasn't done just that. After a bit of research and talking with two men, he signs up to join the U.S. Navy SEALs.

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Although he knew he would be losing a lot of his freedom and alone time, Greitens wasn't expecting all the rules he would have to learn and follow. It was an entirely new system to follow and he also had to get used to constantly being yelled at by higher ups, something he thought was a bit immature but he understood it could put others under stress. But he was also expecting tough training that would be incredibly challenging, but instead he was given workouts he was already doing and having to perfectly clean his clothes and shine his shoes. Greitens figured he would make the most of it though and helped out people who were struggling, as well as mastering every skill he could while there. By the end of it all, he still thought some of the inspections everyone had to go through were mind-numbing, but figured out everything did ultimately help in some way. After passing the final test, Greitens officially became apart of the Navy and was sent for SEAL training in Coronado, California.
"Uncontrolled fear rots the mind and impairs the body. Navy officers have to perform in situations-an incoming missile, a sinking ship- that could cause people to become paralyzed by fear... OCs was-for many- their first taste of chaos and confusion." (Greitens 142)

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SEAL training is known internationally to be the most intense and difficult military training. Only ten percent of the class going through BUD/S, Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL training, would pass. The other ninety percent fails or goes back another year. Greitens meets many new people during this experience, but many drop out daily. Students go through different training exercises, some are known as evolutions, that incredibly challenging and can cause people to die or pass out. One evolution is known as Drown-Proofing and it's one of the most feared evolutions because students have their hands and feet tied while they swim. But, as hard as these stages are, Hell Week is the most dreaded part of the SEAL training, which Greitens and his class is approaching.

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The average member of the United States Navy's Sea, Air, Land Teams (SEALs) spends over a year in a series of formal training environments before being awarded the Special Warfare Operator Naval Rating and the Navy Enlisted Classification (NEC) 5326 Combatant Swimmer (SEAL) or, in the case of commissioned naval officers, the designation 1130 Special Warfare Officer. All Navy SEALs must attend and graduate from their rating's 24-week "A" School known as Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL ( BUD/S) school, a basic parachutist course and then the 26-week SEAL Qualification Training program.

All sailors entering the SEAL training pipeline chosen by Naval Special Warfare Command must also attend the six-month SEAL specific Special Operations Tactical Medic course in Stennis, MS and subsequently earn the NEC SO-5393 Naval Special Warfare Medic before joining an operational Team. Once outside the formal schooling environment SEALs entering a new Team at the beginning of an operational rotation can expect 18 months of training interspersed with leave and other time off before each six-month deployment.

Entering training to become a Navy SEAL is voluntary, and officers and enlisted men train side-by-side. To volunteer, SEAL candidates must be between 18 and 29 years old, and US citizens in the U.S. Navy. Occasionally, personnel from foreign armed forces allied with the United States will also be invited to take part in BUDS training. For a period of two years, of an initial seven planned, members of the Coast Guard were allowed to attend SEAL training until the exchange program was suspended in 2011. Waivers are available for 17-year-olds with parental permission and on a case-by-case basis for 29- and 30-year-olds. Academically, all applicants must have the equivalent of a high school education, have a composite score of at least 220 on the ASVAB and be proficient in all aspects of the English language. Medically, all potential applicants must have at least 20/70 vision, correctable to 20/25, be able to pass the SEAL Physical Screening Test and have no recent history of drug abuse. Lastly applicants must have "good moral character" as determined by his history of criminal convictions and civil citations.

Since December 2015, women have been eligible to enter the SEAL training pipeline provided they can meet the same acceptance guidelines as men. Women accepted into the program undergo the same training regimen as do the men. As of November 2018, one woman has entered the training pipeline but dropped out during the 3-week Indoctrination phase prior to entering BUD/S. The policy is under review.

Assignment to BUD/S is conditional on the SEAL Physical Screening Test (PST). Prospective trainees are expected to exceed the minimums. The minimum requirements are 500 yd (460 m) swim using breast or combat sidestroke in under 12:30 with a competitive time of 9:00 or less, at least 50 push-ups in 2 minutes with a competitive count of 90 or more, at least 50 sit-ups in 2 minutes with a competitive count of 90 or more, at least 10 pull-ups from a dead hang (no time limit) with a competitive count of 18 or more, run 1.5 mi (2.4 km) running in pants and boots (now changed to shorts and sneakers) under 10:30 with a competitive time of 9:30 or less.

The training curriculum begins at Naval Special Warfare Preparatory School in Great Lakes, Illinois. Here, aspiring SEALs are given a crash course in the physical standards required to even attempt to become a SEAL.

Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL (BUD/S) Training (24 weeks)

BUD/S is a 24-week training challenge that develops the SEAL candidates' mental and physical stamina and leadership skills. Each BUD/S phase includes timed physical condition tests, with the time requirements becoming more demanding each week. BUD/S consists of a three-week orientation followed by three phases, covering physical conditioning (seven weeks), combat diving (seven weeks), and land warfare (seven weeks) respectively. Officer and enlisted personnel go through the same training program. It is designed to develop and test their stamina, leadership, and ability to work as a team.

BUD/S INDOC is a three-week course that introduces candidates to Coronado, the Naval Special Warfare Center and the BUD/S lifestyle. During INDOC, Navy SEAL instructors introduce candidates to BUD/S physical training, the obstacle course and other unique training aspects. This part of training is designed to prepare candidates for day one of the first phase.

The first phase of BUD/S assesses SEAL candidates in physical conditioning, water competency, teamwork and mental tenacity. Physical conditioning utilizes running, swimming and calisthenics and grows harder and harder as the weeks progress. Candidates participate in weekly 4-mile (6.4 km) timed runs in boots and pants (now changed to shorts and sneakers) and timed obstacle courses, swim distances up to two miles wearing fins in the ocean and learn small boat seamanship.

The first two weeks of basic conditioning prepare candidates for the third week, also known as "Hell Week." During Hell Week, candidates participate in five and a half days of continuous training. Each candidate sleeps at most four hours during the entire week, runs more than 200 miles (320 km), and does physical training for more than 20 hours per day. The remaining four weeks involve the acquisition of various methods of conducting hydrographic surveys and creating a hydrographic chart.

Because of its particularly challenging requirements, many candidates begin questioning their decision to come to BUD/S during First Phase, with a significant number deciding to Drop on Request (DOR). The tradition of DOR consists of dropping one's helmet liner next to a pole with a brass ship's bell attached to it and ringing the bell three times.

It has been reported[by whom? ] that all candidates receive two medical examinations within 24 hours after Hell Week.

Upon successful completion of BUD/S, SEAL Candidates go on to receive both static line and free-fall training at Tactical Air Operations in San Diego, CA. The accelerated three-week program is highly regimented, facilitated by world-class Instructors, and designed to develop safe and competent free-fall jumpers in a short period of time.

To complete the course, Candidates must pass through a series of jump progressions, from basic static line to accelerated free fall to combat equipment - ultimately completing night descents with combat equipment from a minimum altitude of 9,500 feet.

The class will learn advanced skill sets in weapons training, close-quarters combat, Small Unit Tactics, land navigation, demolitions, unarmed combat, cold weather training in Kodiak, Alaska, medical skills and maritime operations. Before graduating, students also attend Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape Training (SERE Training).

Graduation from SQT culminates in the awarding of the coveted Navy SEAL Trident and granting of the Navy Enlisted Classification (NEC) 5326 Combatant Swimmer (SEAL) or 1130 Special Warfare (SEAL) Officer. New SEALs are immediately assigned to a SEAL Team at Coronado, CA or Little Creek, VA and begin advanced training for their first deployment.

Following SQT, new SEALs will receive orders to a SEAL Team and assignment to a Troop (TRP) and subordinate Platoon (PLT). New operators will join their Platoon wherever they are in their deployment cycle. The normal workup or pre-deployment workup is a 12- to 18-month cycle divided into three phases.

Phase one of a work-up is Individual Specialty Training. Individual Specialty Training is 6 months long where individual operators attend a number of formal or informal schools and courses. These schools lead to required qualifications and designations that collectively allow the platoon to perform as an operational combat team. Depending on the team's and platoon's needs, operators can expect to acquire some of the following skills (Items in parentheses are Joint SOF Unit Course equivalent):

SEAL Sniper Course | USMC Scout Sniper Course

Advanced Close Quarter Combat/Breacher (Barrier Penetration/Methods of Entry)

Surreptitious Entry (Mechanical and Electronic Bypass)

(18D) Special Operations Combat Medic Course

NSWCFC (Naval Special Warfare Combat Fighting Course)

Advanced Special Operations (MSO)

Technical Surveillance Operations

Advanced Driving Skills (Defensive, Rally, Protective Security)

Climbing/Rope Skills

Advanced Air Operations: Jumpmaster or Parachute Rigger

Diving Supervisor or Diving Maintenance-Repair

Range Safety Officer

Advanced Demolition

High Threat Protective Security (PSD) - (US/Foreign Heads of State or High Value Persons of Interest)

Instructor School and Master Training Specialist

Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Operator

Language School

Joint SOF and Service Professional Military Education (JPME)

Phase two of a work-up is called Unit Level Training (ULT). ULT is a 6-month block run by the respective group (NSWG1/NSWG2) training detachment, where the TRP/PLT's train in their core mission area skills: Small unit tactics, land warfare, close quarters combat, urban warfare, hostile maritime interdiction (VBSS/GOPLATS), combat swimming, long range target interdiction, rotary and fixed wing air operations and special reconnaissance.

Phase three of a work-up is Task Group Level Training. Task Group Level Training is the last 6-month block wherein a troop conducts advanced training with the supporting attachments/enablers of a SEAL Squadron: Special Boat Teams (SWCC), Intelligence(SI/HI/ETC)Teams, Cryptological Support Teams, Communications (MCT/JCSE) Medical Teams, EOD, Interpreters/Linguist, etc. A final Certification Exercise (CERTEX) is conducted with the entire SEAL Squadron (SQDN) to synchronize Troop (TRP) operations under the Joint Special Operations Task Force (JSOTF) umbrella. Following CERTEX, a SEAL Team becomes a SEAL Squadron and is certified for deployment.

Once certified, a SEAL Team/Squadron will deploy to a Joint Special Operations Task Force or Area of Responsibility to become a Special Operations Task Force (SOTF), combine with a Joint Task Force (JTF) or Task Force (TF) in support of other National Objectives. Once assigned, the Troops will be given an Area of Operations (AOR) where they will either work as a centralized/intact Troop or task organize into decentralized elements (PLT-20/SQD-10/TM-5) to conduct operations. NSW Troops have ranged in size from 60 personnel to over 200 and can consist of SEAL's and any USSOCOM operational element and enablers. A SEAL Team/Squadron deployment currently is approximately 6 months, keeping the entire cycle at 12 to 24 months.

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United States Navy SEAL selection and training

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The average member of the United States Navy's Sea, Air, Land Teams (SEALs) spends over a year in a series of formal training environments before being awarded the Special Warfare Operator Naval Rating and the Navy Enlisted Classification (NEC) 5326 Combatant Swimmer (SEAL) or, in the case of commissioned naval officers, the designation 1130 Special Warfare Officer.

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Hell Week is meant to put the students in a place of exhaustion and chaos while doing difficult training exercises. Students can only get 4 hours of sleep a night, typically, and will burn about 8,500 calories a day. Greitens though, finds out with his crew that remaining positive and keeping a sense of humor throughout the week is what makes it survivable.
At the very beginning of the week, students are abruptly woken at night by gunfire and are rounded up in a spot to go through workouts. It's a stressful situation that sets up the entire week of exhaustion, but a man in Greitens' crew knew about this, so they created a plan that got them out of it, which starts the week well for them. But plans couldn't get them out of everything, one of which being surf torture. This training exercise was when men would stand, chest-deep, in 50 degree ocean water until they were just on the brink of getting hypothermia, only to get out for a few moments and immediately get back in. But this was only at the very beginning of the week and the exercises only got harder and harder, trying to push the men until they broke and quit, and it was quite common for men to crack. By just the first day, six more men quit in Greitens' class.
"But in a larger sense, every Hell Week story is the same: A man enters a new world with the aim of becoming something greater than he once was. He is tested once, twice, three, four, five times, each test harder than the last. Then comes the most difficult test of his life. At the end of the week, he emerges a different man. He has met the hardest test of his life, and he has passed or he has failed." (Greitens 164)

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After passing Hell Week, the class continued training but with more study rather than all physical training. But, on one of the mornings, the class heard rumors of two planes crashing into the Twin Towers and after having it confirmed, they were the first class to know they would be sent into war. They trained harder after that, wanting to be there for the country when it was in need. But still, men did continue to drop out until the day they officially became SEALs. Greitens' class walked in with 220 men, but only walked away with 21.
"Standing on the beach, this was our last moment as a class together, and we knew that all of us would be deployed, and some of us might not come back. For all of the incredibly difficult training we'd done, no one had ever shot real bullets at us with the intent to kill." (Greitens 212)

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Greitens never really did study on Afghanistan, saying if you had asked him what countries bordered it, he wouldn't have been able to answer, so on his flight there he was reading up. He was placed on a team of elite SEALs who had served many years already, the only reason he was there was because of the volunteer work he did in camps. He knew how to talk to people, to make them feel welcome, and that's what America needed to gain information and defeat their enemy. When he visits a village and is greeted by a group of children, he finds out strange it is to now be holding a gun and looking for potential danger rather than taking pictures and organizing a game, which is what he would have been doing only a few years prior.
Greitens learns important things while working with professionals, one of which was while interrogating a man they had originally thought was a terrorist.
"Treating Afghanis well was not only essential to the conduct of the campaign to win the intelligence war. I also began to see that it was essential for ourselves... Any man who tortures a prisoner, who shoots an innocent person, might escape formal justice, but he can never escape his own self-knowledge. As I worked with this small group of professionals in Afghanistan, it became clear to me that men need to have strength to conduct themselves with honor on the battlefield." (Greitens 228)

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Greitens is the commander of a Mark V special operations craft detachment, with him in charge of two boats and twenty-one men. He has to deal with a drug issue that will end with three of his men being kick out of the Navy, multiple SEALs from other detachments, and a Lieutenant that was behind the whole issue.
The immediate mission was to "conduct reconnaissance and serve as American ambassadors of good-will as we traveled throughout Southeast Asia" (Greitens 247).

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Greitens was sent to replace a commander of the Naval Special Warfare Task Unit Manda Bay who had damaged relations with the local leaders and his own men. The area was an important outpost against terrorism in Kenya because of instability in the north in Somalia and piracy at sea. Greitens also encourages direct contact with locals to have better relations and establish trust that was never there previously.
"In the name of 'force protection,' the military often rolls up windows, builds walls, and points rifles at the outside world. The best force protection, however, is to be surrounded by friends and allies." (Greitens 268)

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After visiting a hospital full of injured soldiers who had hopes of returning to their unit, but it either may take awhile or they won't be able to return ever, Greitens noted how they all wanted to continue to serve in some way. Later, he researched the different organizations there were for veterans, but noticed none of them were ways from them to continue helping others. So, with his combat pay and help of two friends, he created The Mission Continues. The organization will provide support, both money and a mentor to help them build plans, but also opportunities to rebuild a meaningful life by serving in their communities.
"I've learned that courage and compassion are two sides of the same coin, and that every warrior, every humanitarian, every citizen is built to live with both. In fact, to win a war, to create peace, to save a life, or just to live a good life requires of us- of every one of us- that we be both good and strong." (Greitens 297)