The Heart and the Fist: The Education of a Humanitarian, the Making of a Navy SEAL a book review.
This book should be required reading for anyone with an interest in service–from the Peace Corps to the Marine Corps.
It is a riveting true life tale of a modern day renaissance man. From humanitarian intervention in post-genocidal Africa to hunting al Qaeda in coastal villages in the Philippines.
The Heart and the Fist explores the depths of our world and a young man who has served it in many ways.
“The world needs many more humanitarians than it needs warriors, but there can be none of the former without enough of the latter,” are the words of this Rhodes Scholar and Oxford PhD as he makes his decision to join the US Navy SEAL Teams. Rhodes Scholars are meant to contribute to “the world’s fight”, and none have demonstrated a willingness to do so more than Eric Greitens.
Described elegantly and with integrity in Greitens’ memoir are his humanitarian missions to Rwanda, the Balkans, India, Gaza, and many other of the world’s most oppressed and unfortunate regions. These pursuits of the heart are juxtaposed poignantly against SEAL training and four combat deployments with Naval Special Warfare.
Greitens lives the life of a humanitarian and a warrior, and for both roles he is able to extract unique insights by virtue of his extensive study of Greek philosophy, American history, and modern-day saints like Mother Teresa. It is a defining work for our next generation of heroes.
Reviewed in Aug 2014. Updated Jan 2013
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Questions from our SGPT athletes:
Question: Hey Coach Brad,
How’s everything man??
The Heart and the Fist was one of my favorite Navy Seal books, and a favorite book in general.
Im just trying to stay on track for this year for this year man, find some new things to focus on.
Have a good one,
John
Answer: Yes; reading that book now John. Thanks for the recommendation.
Author Bio:
Brad McLeod is married with two kids and an all around average family guy. His motivational audios have been downloaded in over 25 countries.
He grew up in Tallahassee, Florida and despite training all the wrong ways – made it to Navy SEAL training in Coronado, California.
He flunked out of Navy SEAL BUD/S training after making it over half way through (6 months of grueling training).
After a year in the Fleet Navy on a ship he came back to graduate and serve on SEAL Team Four.
His story is simple – Don’t Ever Quit on your Dream! Put one foot in front of the other and fall forward.
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