Throughout my time in the Navy SEALs, I saw striking examples of good, mediocre, and terrible leadership. When the leadership was good, it was life-changing. Nobody exemplified that more than Bob Nielsen, our division officer. In the short time we worked together, Bob was a tremendous role model and mentor for me. We talked every […]

America is still one of the greatest countries on the planet with a strong foundation of democracy. But, there’s mold in the closets. The musty shag carpet reeks of stale Budweiser. And the popcorn ceilings have to go. Only that the popcorn ceiling is our electoral process. “There must be some conspiracy out there involving […]

There are no tips or tricks to Navy SEAL training. Everyone has to do the push-ups that make your fingers bleed and the 100-foot rope climbs that tear callouses off hands. Everyone has to endure the brutality of a cold, dark, and unforgiving Pacific ocean. I started class 215 of BUD/S training (Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL) […]

After nearly a year out east, I returned to California in January of 1994 with orders to report to HS-10, the helicopter training squadron in San Diego where I would spend six months learning the ropes before finally deploying as part of an operational squadron. But there were a few more hurdles to clear first, […]

In the spring of 2000 our eighteen-month work-up concluded with an Operational Readiness Exam (ORE), conducted off San Clemente Island, in which a small group of us simulated a covert tagging and tracking op on an enemy vessel. There were some tricky issues with water currents on the way back in, and things got sketchy. […]

Americans hear the name Glen Doherty and know him as one of the brave Navy SEALs killed while contracting in Benghazi, Libya on September 11th, 2012. To Sean Lake and Brandon though, they remember their great friend who was an avid skier and put a smile on everyone’s face. Sean, an experienced snowboarder, lived with […]

My friend Kamal is a world traveler — he has meditated with Tibetan monks in the Dalai Lama’s monastery, trekked the Himalayas, and hiked the Camino de Santiago in Spain. He served in the U.S. Army and studied to be an ER doctor. He has launched tech companies, runs his own venture capital firm, and […]

Read part one HERE, part two HERE, part three HERE, and part four HERE. The fifth excerpt from the upcoming book, “Mastering Fear: A Navy SEAL’s Guide” by Brandon Webb and John David Mann: I grew up on the water. I love it—spent my childhood in it and a good chunk of my adulthood, too. But […]