We are thrilled to share with you this wonderful essay written exclusively for Bookreporter.com by Rorke Denver, a Navy SEAL officer whose memoir, DAMN FEW: Making the Modern SEAL Warrior (co-written with Ellis Henican), released in February.
This Father’s Day, America’s military recruiters and America’s booksellers ought to form some kind of alliance. I’ll bet they have more in common than either realizes. I know this from personal experience: It was the heart-pounding hero stories my father read to me and my little brother --- “Hannibal and the Elephants,” “Jason and the Argonauts” --- that first ignited in me a craving for far-away adventure. Then when I was away at college, my dad sent me a copy of MY EARLY LIFE by Winston Churchill. That book is what convinced me to devote my own life to military service and become an officer in the U.S. Navy SEALs. For me, books and being a warrior have been thoroughly intertwined.
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