I recently finished a great book called Damn Few: Making the Modern SEAL Warrior, by Rorke Denver and Ellis Henican. LCDR Denver is a US Navy SEAL, most recently assigned as the head of SEAL training. He’s also one of the stars of the movie Act of Valor, playing a character largely based on himself.
SEALs are a breed apart, consummate warriors and arguably the elite of the elite among special forces operators. Commander Denver’s book is largely autobiographical, using his own career and experiences beginning with Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL (BUD/S) training, through combat in Iraq and other murkier parts of the world, and recurring stints in charge of various aspects of SEAL training, to illustrate how SEALs are made and what makes them so unique. It is a thoroughly fascinating book and I highly recommend it.
In one chapter dedicated to family life in the “teams,” LCDR Denver talks about the ever-present reality that SEALs say good-bye to their families and may not ever return. Some men write “death letters” to be opened and read by their families if that happens; Act of Valor ends on a moving example of this, and although Denver himself says he’s never written one of these, he talks about what he might say if he did. Prominent in his thinking is a poem attributed to Tecumseh, a Shawnee warrior and leader of a First Nations confederation that fought against the United States in the Old Northwest Territories before and during the War of 1812. The poem is also used in Act of Valor. I quote here the full version:
So live your life that the fear of death can never enter your heart. Trouble no one about their religion; respect others in their view, and demand that they respect yours. Love your life, perfect your life, beautify all things in your life. Seek to make your life long and its purpose in the service of your people. Prepare a noble death song for the day when you go over the great divide.
Always give a word or a sign of salute when meeting or passing a friend, even a stranger, when in a lonely place. Show respect to all people and grovel to none.
When you arise in the morning give thanks for the food and for the joy of living. If you see no reason for giving thanks, the fault lies only in yourself. Abuse no one and no thing, for abuse turns the wise ones to fools and robs the spirit of its vision.
When it comes your time to die, be not like those whose hearts are filled with the fear of death, so that when their time comes they weep and pray for a little more time to live their lives over again in a different way. Sing your death song and die like a hero going home.
