Is there anything a SEAL can’t do? The only answer I can come up with is “give birth.” No SEAL has done that yet, but once women are permitted to try out for the Teams, starting in 2016, that could definitely happen.
Where regular people see limitations, a Navy SEAL sees challenges. Take Navy SEAL Tom Hruby, for example. Tom is a reservist SEAL instructor at Great Lakes Naval Station in northern Illinois, as well as being a husband and a father of three. He gets the urge to attend college, so he treks thirty miles to the south to Northwestern University, where he piles on a full course load and tries out for the football team. Walk-ons are rare enough in the land of college football, but Hruby, who is 32 years old, secures a position as a defensive end. (Easy day, as the SEALs would say.)
How does he do it all? The 6’3”, 230-lb. Hruby says, “Stick to what’s important, stick to what you know and just kind of have an attitude.” It’s this mention of an attitude that I find so intriguing. I believe he must be talking about SEAL confidence—the kind of certainty-in-oneself that comes from having survived the most rigorous military training on the planet, not to mention hair-raising missions in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Southeast Asia. Hruby’s coach, Pat Fitzgerald, calls Hruby “relentless, absolutely relentless, like you would suspect from a SEAL.” Well, yeah!
So, this is what we love about Navy SEALs—they can do anything, which makes them seem like superheroes. And everyone loves a superhero. However, this type of alpha male, the classic Navy SEAL, wants to do it all. I can imagine that if Hruby is that “relentless,” he might be a wee bit difficult to live with. Speaking of which, his wife and family are staying with her parents while he attends school. That must put a strain on all of them and cut down on the time he can spend with his family—something to keep in mind as we delve into the attributes of heroism. There is a trade-off that can’t be overstated.
If all men were superheroes like Hruby, there’d be a lot more lawns that needed mowing and dogs that needed walking, or women who’d have to take up the slack on the home front.