Sea Stories Quotes

“I realized that life is actually pretty simple. Help as many people as you can. Make as many friends as you can. Work as hard as you can. And, no matter what happens, never quit!”
― William H. McRaven, Sea Stories: My Life in Special Operations

“special operations forces were able to achieve “relative superiority” over an enemy by developing a “simple plan, carefully concealed, repeatedly rehearsed, and executed with surprise, speed, and purpose.”
― William H. McRaven, Sea Stories: My Life in Special Operations

“Throughout history, there have always been warriors who understood the risks of serving. They understood that there was a chance their lives could be lost in the pursuit of a greater goal. They understood that they could perish while trying to protect others.”
― William H. McRaven, Sea Stories: My Life in Special Operations

“Hope is not a strategy.” But”
― William H. McRaven, Sea Stories: My Life in Special Operations

“To the warrior, peace has no memories, no milestones, no adventures, no heroic deaths, no gut-wrenching sorrow, no jubilation, no remorse, no repentance, and no salvation. Peace was meant for some people, but probably not for me.”
― William H. McRaven, Sea Stories: My Life in Special Operations

“Many times over I found that my success depended on others. It was the simplest of lessons, one I had been taught in basic SEAL training rowing my little rubber boat. And every success I had from that moment on had been because someone helped me.”
― Admiral William H. McRaven, Sea Stories: My Life in Special Operations

“For a soldier, when you have earned the respect of real warriors, there is no greater feeling in the world.”
― Admiral William H. McRaven, Sea Stories: My Life in Special Operations

“Every historical mission I analyzed for my thesis showed that when a particular part of the mission wasn’t rehearsed, that portion invariably failed.”
― Admiral William H. McRaven, Sea Stories: My Life in Special Operations

“If we were compromised crossing the border we would turn around and try for another day. If we had a helo set down for mechanical problems at a hundred miles out from the target, but the helo was not detected, we would continue on with the force we had. If a helo crashed, but we still had sufficient force to move to the target, we would continue the mission, but alert the Quick Reaction Force and medevac.”
― Admiral William H. McRaven, Sea Stories: My Life in Special Operations

“The list of possible problems was extensive, but the decisions were easy. Hard to make, but easy to discern.”
― Admiral William H. McRaven, Sea Stories: My Life in Special Operations

“Most of my decisions were binary: If we were detected crossing the border would we continue? Yes or no? If we were detected one hundred miles out? Yes or no? Fifty miles out? Yes or no? What if we had mechanical problems with the helicopter one hundred miles out? Fifty miles out?”
― Admiral William H. McRaven, Sea Stories: My Life in Special Operations

“I directed the staff to build a decision matrix, so that in the heat of the moment if something went wrong on the mission, I didn’t have to think through all the alternatives.”
― Admiral William H. McRaven, Sea Stories: My Life in Special Operations

“The first slide gave the battlefield geometry, a map showing the distance between the Afghanistan border and Abbottabad. The second slide was a graphic portrayal of the Pakistani air defense radar coverage.”
― Admiral William H. McRaven, Sea Stories: My Life in Special Operations

“No matter how I compared each Abbottabad option to the relative superiority model, the outcome was the same. The best approach was the simplest and the most direct: fly to the target as quickly as possible, get bin Laden, and get out. Nothing complicated, nothing exotic, just like thousands of missions we had done before. By the end of the week I knew what needed to be done. What I didn’t know was, could it be done?”
― Admiral William H. McRaven, Sea Stories: My Life in Special Operations

“What is crucial for the success of any special operations mission is to minimize the time from when you are vulnerable to when you achieve relative superiority.”
― Admiral William H. McRaven, Sea Stories: My Life in Special Operations

“But special operations missions seemed to defy conventional wisdom—why was this? I concluded that special operations forces were able to achieve “relative superiority” over an enemy by developing a “simple plan, carefully concealed, repeatedly rehearsed, and executed with surprise, speed, and purpose.”
― Admiral William H. McRaven, Sea Stories: My Life in Special Operations

“Next I contacted some of our clandestine operators and asked them to look at the Trojan horse idea. While it had merit, it also had the greatest risk of compromise and took the longest to execute.”
― Admiral William H. McRaven, Sea Stories: My Life in Special Operations

“His injuries were too severe for him to get back in the fight, but that didn’t stop him from serving his fellow warriors. Today Mike helps veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury. He gives back to the nation every chance he can. Over the years that followed, I would run the obstacle course every chance I could, knowing that one day Mike would show up to challenge me. I needed to be ready.”
― Admiral William H. McRaven, Sea Stories: My Life in Special Operations

“I look back on the hundreds of men and women I visited in the hospitals. Every single one of them—every single one of them—asked me the same basic question: When can I return to my unit? When can I be back with my fellow soldiers? When can I get back in the fight? No matter how battered their bodies, all they could think about were their friends, their colleagues, their comrades, still in harm’s way. Never once—never once—did I hear a soldier complain about their lot in life. Soldiers with missing legs, blinded soldiers, paralyzed soldiers, soldiers who would never lead a normal life again, and yet not one felt sorry for themselves. Later that week, Mike was transferred back to the States.”
― Admiral William H. McRaven, Sea Stories: My Life in Special Operations

“It’s easy to judge the wars today and say they clearly did not deliver the peace or the change we had hoped for. But… how many more Americans, or our allies, would have died in embassies, in airplanes, in towers, in subways, in hotels, or on the streets if we hadn’t eliminated terrorists like Saleh Nabhan, or the countless others who were plotting against us? We may never know, but I take some consolation in believing that somewhere out there is a world leader, or a brilliant scientist, or a lifesaving doctor, or a renowned artist, or a loving mother or father—someone who will bring about real change in the world, someone who is alive today because my men did their job.”
― Admiral William H. McRaven, Sea Stories: My Life in Special Operations

“In the meantime, let’s get a Concept of Operations knocked out. I want it simple as usual: one slide on the situation showing the location of the lifeboat and the position of the Halyburton and Bainbridge; one slide on the intelligence regarding the pirates and their chain of command; one slide on the size of the rescue force and your planned movement from CONUS.”
― Admiral William H. McRaven, Sea Stories: My Life in Special Operations

“Sir, the Chairman would like a Concept of Operations within the hour, but he and the Secretary have authorized me to move whatever forces you think appropriate at this time to set the conditions for the rescue.”
― Admiral William H. McRaven, Sea Stories: My Life in Special Operations

“Minutes later I gave the official order to Votel that he was cleared to proceed when he felt the operational conditions were right. The mission was now in his hands.”
― Admiral William H. McRaven, Sea Stories: My Life in Special Operations

“He turned from the window, came and stood directly in front of me. He looked up at me, smiled, and said, “Well, you probably should have let them continue on.” It was not the response I was expecting, but in the years to come I would realize that the greatness of Dave Petraeus was his ability to shoulder the missteps and even the failures of his subordinates: to build loyalty through his personal sense of command responsibility. He knew that both Erwin and I were doing our best. We had made a mistake, one that he knew we would correct and learn from. But now was not the time for an ass chewing, but the time for understanding.”
― Admiral William H. McRaven, Sea Stories: My Life in Special Operations

“Rick Sanchez was the military commander in Iraq. He and I had met only briefly in General Abizaid’s office months earlier, but I liked the man. His leadership in Iraq had been heavily scrutinized, mostly by those who weren’t in the fight.”
― Admiral William H. McRaven, Sea Stories: My Life in Special Operations

“Experience matters, and sometimes all the staff work in the world doesn’t get you better results than what the experienced officer knows intuitively.”
― Admiral William H. McRaven, Sea Stories: My Life in Special Operations

“If a nation is to survive and thrive it must pass on the ideals that made it great and imbue in its citizens an indomitable spirit, a will to continue on regardless of how difficult the path, how long the journey, or how uncertain the outcome. People must have a true belief that tomorrow will be a better day—if only they fight for it and never give up.”
― William H. McRaven, Sea Stories: My Life in Special Operations

“I’ve learned that life has a mystical aspect to it. As a man of faith, I have felt the hand of God too many times not to know that it exists. But when you see his handiwork up close, when you examine all the possible outcomes and determine that only one outcome is possible—but then something else happens—that’s when you know there is more to life than meets the eye.”
― William H. McRaven, Sea Stories: My Life in Special Operations

“He often challenged my decisions, forcing me to defend my position and thereby ensuring a better outcome. But when I made a decision, he accepted it as his own and supported me completely.”
― William H. McRaven, Sea Stories: My Life in Special Operations

“On missions like these you don’t want emotions to drive your decisions. If we were compromised crossing the border and the Pakistanis threatened to shoot down our helos, you could easily convince yourself that the mission was so important that you must press forward. Decisions like that rarely ended well. We had a backup plan for every contingency and a backup to the backup.”
― Admiral William H. McRaven, Sea Stories: My Life in Special Operations