Choice Book

Over the summer I read the book I Am A SEAL Team Six Warrior  by Howard E. Wasden. The purpose of the book was to show that courage and perseverance are the key to getting far in life and reaching your goals. There are many times in the book where Howard is faced with difficult challenges but overcame them by being courageous and not giving up. One example is from his childhood. Howard lived with his mom and his stepdad. His stepdad was very strict and often even abusive. whenever Howard forgot to do his chores or did something he didn't like, he would beat Howard with his belt, sometimes to the point of him bleeding. Howard was also sent to work on his dads watermelon farm. His job was to pick and load the watermelons onto a truck. Work was grueling in the heat, but Howard never complained. It took courage and perseverance for Howard to live through the beatings his dad gave him, and for him to get through the long days of work on the watermelon farm. When Howard graduated high school, he decided to join the Navy. He decided he wanted to be a rescue swimmer. That decision took courage because being a rescue swimmer is one of the most dangerous jobs you can have in the Navy. Howard was stationed on an aircraft carrier for most of his service. There was one mission where Howard and a few other people had to escort a Russian submarine with the use of a helicopter. The mission seemed Mundane and casual until something went wrong. Suddenly the helicopter started to fall out of the air towards the ocean. The crash was so violent it knocked the wind out of Howard. After he caught his breath, he realized that the helicopter was filling with water and he had to act fast. He activated the self inflating life raft and dragged himself and the rest of the helicopter crew on. After several hours of waiting a second helicopter came to pick them up and took them back to the aircraft carrier. It took courage for Howard to act the way he did, and because of his bravery, someone mentioned he should become a Navy SEAL. Howard looked into it and thought being a Navy SEAL would be amazing. He decided to give it a shot. Navy SEAL training is the hardest military training in the world. It is six months long and has up to a 90% dropout rate. It took courage for Howard to go to Navy SEAL training and it took a lot of perseverance to not give up. There is a one week long portion of training where candidates go for a week with only about four hours of sleep and run up to 200 miles. It took perseverance not to just give up and get some rest. Because Howard did not give up during training, he got to become a Navy SEAL and eventually got to be in one of the most elite special operations units the world, SEAL Team Six.