When I was a teenage sailor serving aboard an aircraft carrier during the Vietnam War, “sea stories” was a pejorative term, meaning an embellished tale of braggadocio, as in, “Oh, no, Davis is telling sea stories again!”
In the opening of William H. McRaven's book, “Sea Stories: My Life in Special Operations,” the retired four-star admiral who served as the commander of all U.S. Special Operations Forces offers a more classical definition of sea stories: “Tales of epic adventures recounted by sailors returning home from a long voyage; usually told over a bottle of rum with good friends and intentions.”
His definition of sea stories is certainly more fitting for his book, as Adm. McRaven doesn't need to embellish his dramatic 37-year Navy SEAL career, nor does he necessarily brag, as he shares credit with his team mates and superior officers for the successes of the historical missions he recounts in the book.
Adm. McRaven commanded the special operators who captured Saddam Hussein after the war in Iraq, and he commanded the Navy SEALs who took out the Somalian pirates who boarded a commercial ship off Africa and kidnapped the ship's captain, Richard Philips. And near the end of his most distinguished career, he commanded the Navy SEALs and other special operators who raided the compound in Pakistan and killed Osama bin Laden, the al Qaeda leader who planned and executed the horrific 9/11 terrorist attack on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon.
Adm. McRaven begins his story describing his childhood in England, where his Air Force pilot father was serving in 1960 and his later youthful adventures playing James Bond and sports in Texas. He goes on to describe his arduous Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL Training at Coronado, California, in 1977. Graduating from the elite course, cumulating in “Hell Week,” the young officer became a Navy SEAL.
“I could never have imagined that thirty-six years after graduation I would still be a frogman, having served longer than any other SEAL on active duty,” Adm. McRaven writes.
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