I’ve recently read/listened to two new books by Navy SEAL’s:

I feel both of these books have crossed into an area that is the direction that humanity as a whole is rapidly transitioning into. This awakening is an intuitive knowing and love based desire to be at one with others.

SEAL Team Six: Memoirs of an Elite Navy SEAL Sniper by Howard Wasdin was released at one of the most opportune times, right as SEAL Team Six killed Osama Bin Laden in Pakistan.

The author Howard Wasdin and I have something in common. We both served on the same team within SEAL Team Six that carried out the mission in Pakistan. It was exciting to learn that my old Team and some of the people I have worked with in the past and that I helped put through SEAL training were on that mission.

Unfortunately I cannot confirm or deny that I had been indirectly involved in helping this mission succeed, that I was in close proximity to the action and or that I have been in direct support of military operations for over eight years after leaving the SEAL Teams as an active duty member after 24 years.

I can tell you however that I have delved deeply into the areas of intuitive thought, action and awareness in my own book: The Intuitive Warrior: Lessons from a Navy SEAL on how to Unleash Your Hidden Potential. These abilities can  have a major impact on reducing the need for large scale violent military operations. These abilities can also enhance every aspect of anyone’s life as many people have been telling me since the release of the book.

I am currently in the process of designing a course to give people one on one instruction on how to develop their own intuition. Sometime in March of next year in Sedona, Az I will offer a weekend seminar to interested individuals.

In his book SEAL Team Six Wasdin discusses his childhood development, SEAL Training, actions in the SEAL teams before becoming a sniper at Six and his life after leaving Team Six and then moving into civilian life.

Overall I thought the book an outstanding read. Wasdin came into Seal Team Six shortly after I left so all the people he talks about in the book while at Six I recognize. The most engrossing part of the book and the real reason I wanted to read the book was his account of Somalia operations during the Battle of Mogadishu made famous by the movie Black Hawk Down .

As a SEAL Team Six sniper Wasdin describes taking and making those impossible shots that you have to take or someone in your team is going to die. He also gives accounts of driving, shooting  and being wounded while moving through the city of Mogadishu under withering gunfire in unarmored Humvees. All of the guys that I had talked to that were on that operation with him had given me piecemeal accounts of what transpired on that day. Not only did Wasdin’s story corroborate my friends stories but he also put the entire operation into an articulate and logical perspective. It was interesting to hear Wasdin’s account of the battle looking at my friends and describing their interactions. My friends had mentioned Wasdin in their own accounts but had not gone into the detail that he goes into within the pages of the book or audio program which was the format that I enjoyed the book in. I believe that a whole movie could be done on Wasdin’s life as he describes it in the book that would be entertaining to a mass audience.

If you just read the book to gain a glimpse into the life of a SEAL Team Six operator it would be enjoyable. Not since Richard Marcinco’s Rogue Warrior released in 1993 have insider accounts of SEAL Team Six been released.

I especially liked how Wasdin described his humanity in taking Iraqi prisoners instead of killing them during the Gulf War as a member of SEAL Team Two. He also relates how he and other team members secretly treated a Somali boy that was dying of an infection. They had to raid the house he was living in with balaclava’s on and weapons drawn over several nights, tie up the family and intravenously treat the afflicted boy with intravenous IV’s. This was done for two reasons, one because they were outside of orders and tow so that the family wouldn’t be targeted by the locals for receiving help from the Americans.

Most people think of SEAL operators and commando’s in general as cyborg killing machines but Wasdin helps dispel this mindset in his book. Of course there is the potential if needed of that aspect and personally I have been called a cyborg by my own teammates but my book can easily refute that as being a one sided aspect of myself and other commando’s. I describe that it is actually the intense training and discipline within commando training that actually activates one’s humanity within rather than creating a more limited cyborg type mentality. Intensive training over a longer period of time further refines this humanistic approach.

My personal reflections, interactions and observations over a span of well over thirty years have led to conviction that limited training whether it be military or law enforcement creates a potentially dangerous cyborg type being. As a humanity we should desire and demand that our  protectors be extremely well trained to prevent this type of conditioning for this reason alone. The added benefit of highly trained protectors is that the use of deadly force is less likely. This is because the different levels of threat and non-threat is more easily identifiable to a well trained individual. Another of the multiple benefits that accrue with significant training is that the well trained individual is more often than not to be firmly committed to serving others. Thus they are less likely to become an easily programmable terminator type that destroys everything including non-threats – a non-threat would be someone in proximity to or associated with a real threat – and innocent bystanders.

Wasdin like myself still has contacts within the SEAL community and SEAL Team Six. It’s not unusual to build lifetime bounds with people you depend on with your life and vice versa. I can run into a fellow teammate I have not seen in 10 or 15 years and it’s like we just saw each other yesterday because we pick right up where we left off. It’s a code of professionalism and esprit de corps that never fades. Wasdin alludes to other recent events in the news where our former team rescued a sea captain after firing highly accurate sniper shots from one ship to another. Wasdin must have been especially proud upon hearing hearing of this account as I was.

We are all reminded of the hazards of combat and that war is not always glorious. A large group of SEAL Team Six operators died recently when their Helo was brought down by enemy fire while moving to insert a large group of Six operators and rangers. While this was a different team from the one that Wasdin and  I were in at Six the loss is still a heavy blow.

Wasdin also goes on to describe how he eventually became a practicing chiropractor upon leaving the military. He recounts how he went through periods of post traumatic stress after his significant combat wounds and upon leaving the military. He overcame these periods of depression by focusing on serving others. Which leads to my next book review.

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

This book completely illustrates the future warrior. Grietens was a Rhodes Scholar that had spent many years in humanitarian work all over the world in places like Bosnia. He came to realize that you cannot talk peace and compassion for those that are destitute and oppressed unless you can speak form a position of power. He decided to join the SEAL teams and put his ideas to practice. Greitens story at times suttley touches on intuitive abilities. I believe that like Wasdin they were either coached to stay away from stepping out like I have done in The Intuitive Warrior to introduce the power of intuitive thought or they are skirting on this idea subconsciously and it is leaking through their work.

By not touching on controversial issues you have the opportunity of reaching a wider audience and both of them and their book sellers have done a most outstanding job of accomplishing that. But what a great moment both of these authors had and have to carry the concept of the intuitive mind to humanity. The intuitive mind is the next step in the evolutionary process of humanity and if you are going to talk of humanity I feel that necessity calls for the concept to come forth.

Greitens talks of his life before the teams which is quite interesting. He goes into his account of SEAL training which no matter how many books I read of BUD/S (Basic Underwater Demolition/Sea Air & Land Training) I am still fascinated. Greitens came through training shortly after I left as one of the head chiefs of the first phase of training that contains Hell Week, but he probably remembers an exercise that I developed called Jaco Lunges. Many years after I left the training phase I would hear from former students that wondered who the devil was that invented that exercise. Greitens then goes on to talk about platoon life and combat action in Iraq. His insight into combat action is perfect and reflects what I have seen while there myself.

Like Wasdin’s book he repeatedly talks about how he sees the local people and the people that he is fighting as separate to a certain and obvious point, but not so much to the point where he felt an overwhelming animosity towards them. I think this is crucial and something that should be taught every soldier. In every war the enemy for both sides are always demonized, ridiculed and degraded to the point where you are convinced that they would be better off dead not only for the people you are trying to protect but also to the point where they themselves would appreciate it if you killed them. Greitens humanitarian mindset carried over into his actions against the enemy as did Wasdin’s. This in no way impacted their ability to carry out their missions. Quite the contrary it actually helped them perform their missions better.

Greitens book is very articulate as you would expect from a Rhodes Scholar and former Naval Officer. Here’s a brief description of his book by the author himself: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKbOL2iBm2w

After leaving the military Greitens has begun the greatest part of his life in my opinion. He has begun to integrate former military, many of them severely traumatized from wounds and PTSD, into active participants in serving others once again in a different capacity in the nonprofit organization, The Mission Continues.

The Mission Continues, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, was founded in 2007 after CEO Eric Greitens returned home from service in Iraq as a Navy SEAL. Upon his return, Eric visited with wounded Marines at Bethesda Naval Hospital in Maryland. Without exception, each Marine expressed an unwavering desire to continue serving his country, even if he could no longer do so in the military. One young Marine even said this: “I lost my legs – that is all. I did not lose my desire to serve, or my pride in being an American.” Inspired, Eric used his own combat pay and two friends pitched in their military disability checks to found The Mission Continues.

So there you have it. The wave of the future is being created by former military veterans. Service continues and the service is humanitarian. The intuitive side of the brain or right creative side of the brain wants to connect with and serve others. This is the evolutionary path of humanity. So you may ask yourself am I an evolving human being or do I need to get with the program?