Being a Navy Seal

This past block day our Senior Literature class was visited by a Navy Seal named Clay. He spoke to us about his life both post and prior to becoming a Navy Seal and how it has affected his life. He has gone on numerous missions to various countries and has lived through countless horrific events that haunt him through the night. One specific incident happened across seas at a coffee shop where Clay was enjoying a cup of coffee with a few of his navy seal brothers. Across the street they spotted a young girl of about twelve years old with a bomb strapped to her. She began to cross the street heading straight for them. Clay was thinking about whether or not he should tackle her and sacrifice himself with the girl and save everyone in the coffee shop. However he just couldn't bring himself to do that and therefore he just shot her before she could get close enough and he remembers watching her blow up in the middle of the street only moments later. This event really hit him hard because of the fact that he had to execute an innocent young girl who was probably convinced or forced in to wearing the bomb and almost blowing up the whole coffee shop. Not to mention that Clay's oldest daughter was the same age as this girl around the time that this happened so he was affected in the way that it was like he had just killed his own daughter and then watched her blow up in to pieces. As Clay began to speak about his family, he conveyed that he has not been able to maintain a healthy relationship with a women because of his longterm absences and the stress of the danger he is constantly in that entails these long trips. Currently he is in his third marriage and has three or four daughters. Clay strongly voiced his opinion of believing that women should not be Navy Seals because of the inconceivable amount of endurance that must be attained and that including a women on the Navy Seal team could disrupt the brotherhood and cause distraction or senseless decisions. What I picked up from this was that Clay was thinking about his daughters and envisioning them following in his tracks. He has expressed his intense overly protective feelings about his daughters and honestly I don't blame him for feeling he needs to look after them so closely after all that he has gone through and witnessed. Therefore I connect his protective views over his daughters to him omitting the idea of women sacrificing their lives to be a Navy Seal.

Near the end of Clay's presentation the most intense and intriguing question arose: How many people have you killed? He responded by saying that he has only ever tallied the people he has assassinated by hand and that he had stopped counting in 1992 at 117 people. This was absolutely mind blowing to comprehend. 117 people and he is still a Navy Seal to this day. Clearly that number has risen and not to mention that that number only counts the number of people slaughtered by hand. The most important aspect that Clay had to say about this is that he attempted to make the process as painless and humane as possible. He additionally mentioned how different it is to kill someone by hand than it is by gun. This is because by gun all that is done is pulling a trigger but by hand you feel it happening and you are there with the person as it occurs. This is probably why he counted the people he had murdered by hand because each one resonated so deeply within him.