I remember chatting with Ryan Zinke before he was elected to Congress, and before he became Secretary of the Interior, he would always talk about the big number of Navy SEALs who come out of Montana on a per capita basis.

Why do so many land-locked Montanans become Navy SEALs?

Patriotism for sure. Grit? Determination? A way to see the world and spend more time near or in the water? Either way, it's a remarkable achievement to actually make it through the selection process.

New book highlights Navy SEAL "hell week."

Some of you got to meet the great author Scott McEwen when he came to Montana a few years ago alongside Zinke. McEwen is the co-author of "American Sniper" which was turned into the Academy Award-winning movie about famed sniper Chris Kyle.

McEwen has a new book out called "Hell Week and Beyond: The Making of a Navy SEAL." Here's how his publisher describes the book:

Of the 18 months required to become a Navy SEAL, one week will cause over half of the trainees to quit ("ring the bell"). Only the toughest make it through. In Hell Week and Beyond, Scott McEwen takes the readers to the sands of Coronado Beach in San Diego, where Navy SEALs are put through the most grueling training known to mankind. Grit, commitment, heart, and soul are needed to become a SEAL, because these are the elite forces who go into the toughest battles for America.

 

What is a common theme that McEwen picked up on?

It's something that will also add a heavy dose of entertainment to the book: humor. Humor and, of course, that never-quit attitude.

Scott McEwen: One of the things that I wanted to give people, as far as this COVID-19 coming out of this tunnel we've been in, is that attitude of, you're never out of the game. There's always light at the end of the tunnel...That's kind of this attitude that I wanted to impart on people from this book that wrote it during the COVID period...Look, you can't give up, and one of the things we can learn from this field is as long as your heart is beating, as long as you're able to move a single muscle in your body, you are still in the game.

Click below for the full audio with Scott McEwen:

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