A Sense of Duty: A Former Navy SEAL Falls in Love and Begins a New Journey with his Private Consulting Company: Dark Horse Guardians Read Online Free PDF

though he suffered a beating for saying it. Tom had grown up on the tough streets of Chicago, and served as a highly skilled sniper and lead driver. Tom's side-kick, Jake, was actually his step-brother from Chicago. They both joined the Navy to escape the mean streets, not realizing they were jumping from the frying pan into a fire. Jake was a communications and reconnaissance expert. His light brown hair and brown eyes made him look completely different from his step-brother. He was thin and barely six feet tall. The one thing about Jake that Ben admired most was that he had the ability to boil the details of a situation down within a matter of seconds. His critical thinking skills were razor sharp.
    Then there was Sam, a young man from Oregon who was a state finalist on his high school swim team. Sam was an accomplished surfer and swimmer and known for his laid back attitude. Ben enjoyed competitively swimming with Sam while in training. Sam did not return from their last deployment and Ben thought about him often wondering why things happened the way they did. He had no answers. An IED took his life on a routine recon mission. It was instantaneous. Sam was the lead scout and it was usually Ben. That night Ben was sick with a parasitic infection wreaking havoc with his gastrointestinal tract. Weak and unable to do much, he stayed in the middle of the unit, trying to stay hydrated. When he heard the blast, he knew what it was. He ran to Sam but it was too late. The memory of that night would haunt him forever.
    Everyone on the team had played competitive sports and all were in the groove as far as reaching and maintaining the highest level of physical fitness. The group of eight bonded and helped one another through BUD/S and later Seal Qualification Training. Of all his brothers, the one Ben missed the most was Javier, his swim buddy. During Hell Week, they especially supported one another mentally, physically, and psychologically. Their strong bond carried into deployment. Javier held a special place in Ben's heart.
    In theater, each SEAL had coping mechanisms to break the boredom of missions. Memorizing passages from literature was Ben's specialty and he was often known to recite poetry, albeit dark stuff. Elvis would sing songs inserting dirty words. The other guys had their own ways to break the boredom in order to stay awake on especially long recon missions. Ben was often on top physically, due to the fact he was a bit more ritualistic about exercise. He felt as Lieutenant he should be in top shape, as he was the role model. Ben was the navigator and specialized in sensitive site exploitation. He also took the lead in technical surveillance and was a highly qualified sniper.
    Although each man had a specialty, Ben constantly honed their skills cross-training them in all areas. Ben was the first lieutenant, the unit leader, but you'd never know it in the way he interacted with his brothers. He loved them in a way that could never be explained. This was a family akin only to the one he had at home and, sometimes he thought, much stronger than blood family ties. It was not uncommon for SEALs to be closer to one another than to actual family members. Ben believed the bond with his SEAL brothers was so close because it was a chosen one. They came together and suffered the same brutal and unique training, then took the same oath. Their relationship was forged of love, honor, commitment, loyalty. He knew it would take a special woman to understand his uncommon life.
    Ben never talked about Javier Mendoza or how he ended up with his 2004 Dodge Ram pick-up truck. Some subjects were too emotional and defied explanation. The plain fact was: Javier died with a bullet in his head in Ben's arms in Afghanistan during a recon mission that had gone sideways. It was toward the end of the last tour of duty. It was most common for mistakes to be made at the beginning or the ending of a tour. In the beginning, the unit is just getting