5 fascinating facts about Navy SEALs

Science fiction brims with space marines and special forces that fight hand-to-hand in space, on land, in the air, and in the sea. Some of these fictional warriors may be inspired by the U.S. Navy SEALs.

Image: Silhouette of U.S. Navy Seal arising from water revealing only the outline of his head, shoulders, and rifle.
Source: National Navy SEAL Museum

Here are 5 fascinating facts about U.S. Navy SEALs:

1. What does SEALs mean?

Their full name is United States Navy Sea, Air and Land Teams. The term “SEAL” comes from combining SEa, Air, and Land. As the name indicates, SEALs are trained to operate on and under the sea, in the air and on land.

They train to jump from planes and helicopters. They operate watercraft above and below the water. And they perform operations on land as well.

2. What do Navy SEALs do?

SEALs operate in small teams on special missions to capture or kill important enemies. (Here’s how the U.S. Navy describes it: “Carrying out small-unit, direct-action missions against military targets.”) SEAL Team Six killed Osama bin Laden in his compound in Pakistan in 2011. SEAL Teams also conduct very dangerous surveillance missions to spy on an enemy from behind enemy lines. Getting in and out of a foreign country or war zone without being detected is one of their key skills.

Want more fascinating facts about Navy SEALs? Of course, you do! Make sure to keep reading to Fascinating Fact No. 5 to learn about SEALS in space!

3. What is the SEAL motto?

SEAL team members are incredibly tough dudes, and their grueling training only makes them tougher, both physically and mentally. They have two mottoes:

The only easy day was yesterday.

It pays to be a winner.

4. What are some nicknames for U.S. Navy SEALs?

  • Frogmen
  • The Teams
  • The Men with Green Faces

The Navy SEALs earned the last nickname during their time in Vietnam in the 1960s. SEAL team members performed many special functions during the Vietnam War, including training South Vietnamese soldiers, interrupting enemy movements, and performing special operations to capture or kill key North Vietnamese Army personnel. During combat missions, the Navy SEALs wore camouflage paint and the Viet Cong began describing the mysterious, deadly enemy as “the men with green faces.”

5. Have any Navy SEALs been to space?

Yes! Three U.S. Navy SEAL team members have served as U.S. astronauts, showing that SEALs can conquer sea, air, land and space.

Bill Shepherd–The first SEAL in space, Capt. Shepherd is a legend among astronauts and SEALs. He commanded the first crew of the International Space Station. He was awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor.

Capt. Bill Shepherd
Bill Shepherd
Source: NASA and National Navy SEAL Museum

There is also a rumor that he will not confirm or deny, saying “it’s too good a story.” It’s said that NASA gave him a standard interview question, asking what he did best, and he answered, “Kill people with knives.” Of course, this is a vital skill for Navy SEAL team members and he should be very good at it, so the story certainly seems plausible.

Christopher Cassidy–Capt. Cassidy is in space right now! He is the commander of Expedition 63 aboard the International Space Station. He returns to Earth this Wednesday, October 21, 2020, after 6 months aboard the space station. Read here about the details planned for his departure from the space station and his return to Earth.

Capt. Christopher Cassidy
Christopher Cassidy
Source: NASA and National Navy SEAL Museum

Cassidy also flew on the space shuttle Endeavor and served on Expedition 35 on the space station. He has completed 6 spacewalks. In total, Cassidy has spent more than 31 hours in spacewalks. By the time he returns to Earth on Wednesday, he will have spent 378 days in space, giving him the fifth highest total among U.S. astronauts.

Watch this great video from Smarter Every Day on YouTube about SEALs who became astronauts, including a great interview with Cassidy.

Jonny Kim–Dr. Jonny Kim is the third SEAL selected by NASA for astronaut training. He completed more than 100 combat missions for the Navy and rose to the rank of lieutenant. After serving his country, he completed a degree in mathematics and then earned a Doctorate of Medicine at Harvard Medical School.

Dr. Jonny Kim
Jonny Kim
Source: NASA and National Navy SEAL Museum

But that was not enough achievement for Dr. Kim. He became an astronaut candidate in 2017 and has completed his two years of training. He serves in NASA’s Astronaut Office performing technical duties while awaiting flight assignment. While at NASA, he remains on active duty as a Navy lieutenant.

More fascinating facts about Navy SEALs

Navy SEALs have a long history with the U.S. space program dating back to the Gemini and Apollo space missions. To learn more fascinating facts about Navy SEALs, visit the National Navy SEAL Museum in Fort Pierce, Florida. Until you can make it in person, check out the museum website, starting with this section dedicated to the space program.

This is the first winner of the Matthew Cross Writing Contest!

Photo by Andreas Dress (unsplash.com/@andreasdress)

The winner of the Matthew Cross Flash Fiction Collaboration Contest is Frasier Armitage!

SEPTEMBER CONTEST

Frasier wins a $25 Amazon gift certificate and the narwhal amigurumi collectible shown below.

I received so many great entries, and I’ll share some more of them later this week. You can read some of my thoughts on why Frasier’s entry shone above all the rest. (It’s stellar!)

Photo of crocheted narwhal amigurumi, which is a prize for the contest, along with $25

October Contest: I’ll be announcing the October contest soon! (Probably next Monday.)

I started the story below, and see how seamlessly Frasier picked it up after the red line and gave it his own twist!

But this is Frasier’s moment, so enjoy the story!

Hello, Universe!

Jess leaned back in the blue, plastic Adirondack chair on the back deck.  It was a kids chair and he had almost outgrown it.  But it was the only chair that allowed him to tilt his head back to look at the stars.

Tunes from the 1960s purred from the outdoor speaker.  His Mom kept the family speakers on a steady rotation of “decades” music going back seventy years.

They lived in the suburbs.  With light pollution, Jess knew he wasn’t even seeing half the stars up there.  But this summer, with all the bad news online, he found himself escaping to the quiet of the back deck and looking at the starry sky.

In school, he had read about the Civil War and the Holocaust and the Civil Rights Movement and a bunch of other depressing stuff.  And then his grandfather had died.  Jess and his grandfather were not close, but everyone went to the funeral and everyone cried.  Even Jess cried.

Sometime that summer, Jess realized everyone else in his family would die.  Not anytime soon.  Probably not, anyway.  But, eventually, his parents would grow old and die.  And, eventually, Jess would also grow old and die.  And if he ever had kids, they would grow old and die.  Someday, everyone Jess knew would be dead.

It sucked.

Staring up at the night sky made him feel small and a little scared.  It never used to before.  But when he was little, he didn’t know how much empty space was really up there.  And how tiny the Earth really was.

Last week and the week before he had stared up at the stars.

Maybe, he had thought, it would be OK to die as long as I’m remembered.  Maybe I could get famous like Elvis or Beyonce.  So famous that no one would ever forget me.

Jess had thought about that for a couple of weeks.  He would have to be really famous to be remembered in two million years.  Like Hitler famous.  And he didn’t want to be evil.  He remembered seeing photos of the gas chambers and shuddered.

In two million years, the wind might even wear down the Great Pyramids and the even the pharaohs of Egypt would be forgotten.

Words floated from the speaker on the dark, night air.

Words are flowing out like

Endless rain into a paper cup

They slither wildly as they slip away across the universe

It was “Across the Universe” by the Beatles.  His Dad loved the Beatles.  All of the Beatles were dead.

Pools of sorrow, waves of joy

Are drifting through my opened mind

And that’s when the idea struck Jess.  He rummaged through the junk drawer and found a penlight.  He sat back in the kid-size Adirondack and shone the light into the sky.

Dad was an engineer and he knew lots of science.  He said light beams were made of photons.  In space, photons just keep traveling forever–travel at the speed of light, Dad said–unless they hit something. Like a planet or a star.

Jess sent the weak beam of light into space.  He clicked the light on and off.  If he knew Morse Code, he could send a message on a stream of photons into space.  And if that beam never ran into a star or a planet, it would travel forever.  Unlike the pyramids, it would never be worn down by wind or time.

The next day Jess bought a brand new flashlight–the most powerful one he could afford at the big box hardware store.  That night on the deck, he sent coded messages into space.  He looked up Morse code on his phone and shot off the messages in different directions into the sky.

Hi

I am here

My name is Jess

Im alive

I dont want to die

Never forget me

 . . .

Halfway through high school, Jess had learned enough about lasers to build his own high-powered laser from a kit.  He even got his Dad to help mount it on the roof.  Mom thought he was crazy, but Dad was into science stuff and thought it was a cool project.

Jess studied star charts and learned how to aim his laser using the computer in his room.  He sent coded messages into the night sky almost every night.  He aimed the laser into the empty stretches between stars, nebulae, and galaxies to give his messages the best chance of flying forever through space.

No human would ever see them.  Racing at the speed of light away from the Earth, no human could ever catch up with them to capture the light and decode it.

And what alien would ever know how to decode Morse code?  Or care to try?

But Jess knew that his coded messages racing through space would last longer than even the Earth itself.  Eventually, the sun would supernova and the Earth and the Moon and every human landmark in the Solar System would be absorbed, melted, obliterated.  But Jess’s small, silent, staggered rays of light would live on.

Forever.

. . .

In college, he studied engineering and physics, trying to decide which way to go.  Both were incredibly tough.  Jess had programmed the computer in his bedroom at home to aim the roof-mounted laser at the emptiest reaches of space.  He had saved hundreds of different coded messages and each night, his computer sent the messages into space.

He was so busy at school, he forgot about the laser most of the time.  And, miracle of miracles, he finally had a girlfriend!

But when he came home on breaks, he checked the laser on the roof.  He cleared the dead leaves away, wiped the lens, applied another coat of water proofing.  He checked his sky maps and scheduled some new programs to run when he was away.  At night, sitting on the deck, he thought up new messages to send.

Hi

I am Jess

This message will outlast everyone

The pharaohs

The presidents

Taylor Swift

BTS

Remember me

Jess was not trying to reach anyone out there.  He never thought to try to look for replies to his messages.  Besides, detecting a laser reply from space would be quite a trick.  That would take more physics, engineering and money than he had.

So it was merely by luck that he was sitting on the back deck after graduation, drinking a beer and peering up into the sky, that he saw it.


A single star blinked a rhythm of dots and dashes, over and over, like ocean waves. Jess’s beer crashed on the deck, spilling between the planks. He scrambled for his phone and recorded a video, pointing to the heavens, and muttering the words that flickered in clumsy Morse.

Hi Jess

Its grandpa

Dont worry

Everything will be alright

Jess staggered backwards and flipped his camera. He garbled something about his grandfather’s funeral and uploaded it to the Web.

Twenty likes.

Fifty likes.

Three hundred.

Eight thousand.

Within ten minutes, more than a million views ticked across the screen.

Was this really happening?

All he could think about were the lyrics to that Beatles song, stuck on repeat.

Images of broken light
Which dance before me like a million eyes
They call me on and on across the universe

His phone shuddered. Unknown number.

Jai Guru Deva, Om
Nothing’s gonna change my world
Nothing’s gonna change my . . .

“Hello?”

“Hello, is this Jess Dawson?” A voice sharp as gravel crunched down the earpiece.

“Who are you?”

“Name’s Grant Knox, FBI. We’re sending a chopper for you.”

In the distance, a low rumble carried across the sky. Jess shook his head. “A chopper? Why?”

“For your protection, Jess. We saw your video. Half the world’s seen it by now. You’ve no idea how long we’ve been trying to make contact.”

“Contact? With who?”

“You’d best pack some things. We need to get you secure.”

“What are you talking about?”

“You’re about to go down in history, Jess. People will be talking about this forever.”

“About what?” Jess looked at the sky. The flashing dots.

Dont worry

Everything will be alright


I hope you enjoyed this piece of flash fiction that Matthew and Frasier wrote together. It was a fun collaboration!

For more fun endings to this story, look for some honorable mention finalists in a separate blog post later this week. And next week, we’ll reveal the October Contest story beginning and the new prize!

Finally, if you enjoyed Frasier’s prize-winning ending, please make sure to share some kind comments below.

Be stellar!

Matthew Cross and Frasier Armitage

This is how the world ended…

Photo by Collin Armstrong (unsplash/@brazofuerte).

How did the world end?

When a book is set in a dystopian future on Earth, you know something terrible happened. But what happened? Some Sci Fi writers draw it out, feeding you the sad tale slowly piece by piece. Nora Roberts gives it to you straight from the get go.

The Prologue of Of Blood and Bone begins:


They said a virus ended the world.

And then it gets worse . . .

“And yet the innocent–the touch of a hand, a mother’s goodnight kiss–spread the Doom, bringing sudden, painful, ugly death to billions.

“Many who survived that first shocking strike died by their own hand or by another’s as the thorny vines of madness, grief, and fear strangled the world. Still others, unable to find shelter, food, clean water, medications, simply withered and died waiting for help and hope that never came.

“The spine of technology cracked, bringing the dark, the silence. Governments toppled from their perches of power.

“The Doom gave no quarter to democracy, to dictators, to parliaments or kingdoms. It fed on presidents and peasants with equal greed.”

And then Nora Roberts reveals that the world of her novel, which begins in Year Twelve after the Doom, contains both modern technology and “magicks.”

How does the new world work?

Once the world “ends” and a new world begins to rise, it can have elements of science fiction, fantasy or the paranormal. Or a combination.

In pure Sci Fi, the new world can contain technology that is futuristic to us but that existed before the downfall, new technology created after, or a mix of both. In the Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, the leaders in the Capital have flying cars, but they’ve forgotten how to build airplanes. In Ready Player One by Ernest Cline, the world is in bad shape but the technology continues to advance with ever improving virtual reality technology.

[Read my review of Ready Player One.]

Some authors use the apocalypse to clear the world of technology. In Ariel by Steven R. Boyett, one of my favorite novels, all technology just stops working and magic takes its place. After the Change, even something as simple as a bicycle just doesn’t work anymore.

Other authors mix technology and magic. Piers Anthony does this with alternate universes–one magical and one technological–in his Apprentice Adept series. Can you think of something more recent?

Plan your new world!

Imagine your own dystopian future for Earth. What will you include?

  • Science and technology that does not yet exist?
  • Magic, mystical powers, or strange abilities of the mind?
  • Creatures only found in dreams or nightmares?

Please post your comments below.

Be stellar!

Matthew Cross

Factions–In Divergent, you choose a faction to become your tribe. Who do you choose?

Image: Flame in octagonal bowl. Text: Choose your FACTION! -- In Divergent, you choose a faction to become your tribe. Who do you choose!
Photo by KS Kyung (unsplash.com/@mygallery)

Choose your destiny! Choose your tribe!

In the wizarding world of Harry Potter, the students of Hogwarts are sorted into four houses. And, of course, the famous Sorting Hat chooses your house for you.

Young Adult books are about finding yourself. (And Middle Grade books, too!) And part of finding yourself is finding your “tribe,” the type of people you want to hang out with. The kind of people you want to become.

Let’s explore the tribes in a Sci Fi standout: Divergent.

In Divergent, by Veronica Roth, at age sixteen you must choose from one of five factions. You can choose to remain in the faction that raised you. Or you can risk joining another faction. If you fail the tests, you become one of the homeless outcasts, the factionless, a fate worse than death!

Cover of Divergent by Veronica Roth. Image: Flaming bowl of fire imposed over Chicago's skyline

Welcome to the Choosing Ceremony

“Welcome to the Choosing Ceremony. Welcome to the day we honor the democratic philosophy of our ancestors, which tells us that every man has the right to choose his own way in this world.

. . . .

“Our dependents are now sixteen. They stand on the precipice of adulthood, and it is now up to them to decide what kind of people they will be . . . . Decades ago our ancestors realized that it was not political ideology, religious belief, race, or nationalism that is to blame for a warring world. Rather, they determined that it was the fault of human personality–of humankind’s inclination toward evil, in whatever form that is. They divided into factions that sought to eradicate those qualities they believed responsible for the world’s disarray.”

[I]t is now up to them to decide what kind of people they will be.

“Those who blamed aggression formed Amity.”

Amity

“The Amity exchange smiles. They are dressed comfortably, in red or yellow. Every time I see them, they seem kind, loving, free. But joining them has never been an option for me.”

“Those who blamed ignorance became the Erudite.”

Erudite

“And when they clear out [my brother Caleb’s] room, what will they discover? I imagine books jammed between the dresser and the wall, books under his mattress. The Erudite thirst for knowledge filling all the hidden places in his room.”

. . . .

“A long time ago, Erudite pursued knowledge and ingenuity for the sake of doing good. Now they pursue knowledge and ingenuity with greed in their hearts.”

“Those who blamed duplicity created Candor.”

Candor

“The Candor man wears a black suit with a white tie–Candor standard uniform. Their faction values honesty and sees the truth as black and white, so that is what they wear.”

“Those who blamed selfishness made Abnegation.”

Abnegation

Gray hoodie worn by someone waiting for a train

“The houses on my street are all the same size and shape. They are made of gray cement, with few windows, in economical, no-nonsense rectangles. Their lawns are crabgrass and their mailboxes are dull metal. To some the sight might be gloomy, but to me their simplicity is comforting.

If we have little, and want for little, and we are all equal, we envy no one.

“The reason for the simplicity isn’t disdain for uniqueness, as the other factions have sometimes interpreted it. Everything–our houses, our clothes, our hairstyles–is meant to help us forget ourselves and to protect us from vanity, greed, and envy, which are just forms of selfishness. If we have little, and want for little, and we are all equal, we envy no one.

“I try to love it.”

. . . .

“I blame selfishness; I do.”

. . . .

“But I am not selfless enough. Sixteen years of trying and I am not enough.”

“And those who blamed cowardice were the Dauntless.”

Dauntless

Back of shaved head; white gauge in ear; dagger tattoo behind ear
Photo by Panos Sakalakis (unsplash.com/@meymigrou)

“In front of [the school] is a large metal sculpture that the Dauntless climb after school, daring each other to go higher and higher. Last year I watched one of them fall and break her leg.”

. . . .

“At exactly 7:25, the Dauntless prove their bravery by jumping from a moving train.

“My father calls the Dauntless ‘hellions.’ They are pierced, tattooed, and black clothed. Their primary purpose is to guard the fence that surrounds our city. From what, I don’t know.”

Choose your faction!

“In the last circle are five metal bowls so large they could hold my entire body, if I curled up. Each one contains a substance that represents each faction: gray stones for Abnegation, water for Erudite, earth for Amity, lit coals for Dauntless, and glass for Candor.

I will cut into my hand and sprinkle my blood into the bowl of the faction I choose.

“When Marcus calls my name, I will walk to the center of the three circles. I will not speak. He will offer me a knife. I will cut into my hand and sprinkle my blood into the bowl of the faction I choose.”

Which faction will you choose?

Choose one of the five factions. Choose your tribe. How will you decide?

Please post your comments below.

Be stellar!

Matthew Cross

A review of Ready Player One by Ernest Cline–a sprawling Sci Fi adventure that explores nerd culture from the 1980s to the future

Cover of Ready Player One showing Wade Watts climbing the stacks.

Here’s an introduction to the sprawling science fiction blockbuster Ready Player One

The hero, Wade Watts, is a poor, orphaned teenager, whose real life exists on the OASIS, a massively multiplayer online game. He is stuck with a third-level avatar.  “Having a third-level avatar was a colossal embarrassment.”  Wade is a gunter, looking for the creator’s secret Easter Egg hidden in the OASIS.  “The Hunt, as the contest came to be known, quickly wove its way into global culture.  Like winning the lottery, finding Halliday’s Easter egg became a popular fantasy among adults and children alike. . . .  A new subculture was born, composed of the millions of people who now devoted every free moment of their lives to searching for Halliday’s egg.  At first, these individuals were known simply as ‘egg hunters,’ but this was quickly truncated to the nickname ‘gunters.’”

Cover of Ready Player One showing Wade climbing the stacks.

The story begins in the laundry room of Wade’s aunt’s trailer, which is in the Portland Avenue Stacks of Oklahoma City.  The stacks are neighborhoods of trailers-stacked-on-trailers in high-rise fashion.  Wade soon scampers to his hideout, the space in the back of a cargo van buried underneath a mound of discarded cars and trucks, where he can log into the OASIS.

The story moves to the OASIS, where most of the story occurs.  Here’s how Wade describes the OASIS:  “a massively multiplayer online game that had gradually evolved into the globally networked virtual reality most of humanity now used on a daily basis.”

The hero’s best friend is Aech, whose real identity and name were a secret.  “Aech pronounced his own avatar’s name just like the letter ‘H’” and he confided to Wade that his real first name began with the letter “H.”

Cover of Ready Player One showing cast members from the movie.

“Aech’s avatar was a tall, broad-shouldered Caucasian male with dark hair and brown eyes.  I’d asked him once if he looked anything like his avatar in real life, and he’d jokingly replied, ‘Yes.  But in real life, I’m even more handsome.’”

Aech is a senior at OPS #1172, a high school on the virtual education planet Ludus in the OASIS.  “He made quite a bit of dough competing in televised PvP arena games after school and on the weekends.  Aech was one of the highest-ranked combatants in the OASIS, in both the Deathmatch and Capture the Flag leagues.  He was even more famous than Art3mis.”  Aech is also a gunter.

In time, Wade and Aech meet the legendary Art3mis, pronounced “Artemis,” another gunter who is famous for her gunter blog, Arty’s Missives.  “Her avatar had a pretty face, but it wasn’t unnaturally perfect.  In the OASIS, you got used to seeing freakishly beautiful faces on everyone.  But Art3mis’s features didn’t look as though they’d been selected from a beauty drop-down menu on some avatar creation template.  Her face had the distinctive look of a real person’s, as if her true features had been scanned in and mapped onto her avatar.  Big hazel eyes, rounded cheekbones, a pointy chin, and a perpetual smirk.”

The villain is Innovative Online Industries (IOI).  IOI “was a global communications conglomerate and the world’s largest Internet service provider.  A large portion of IOI’s business centered around providing access to the OASIS and on selling goods and services inside it.  For this reason, IOI had attempted several hostile takeovers of Gregarious Simulation Systems [which controlled the OASIS], all of which had failed.”  

Stylized cover of Ready Player One showing a cross section of a head where the exposed brain looks like a maze puzzle

IOI also recruited legions of gunters to look for Halliday’s Easter egg.  These mercenaries of the OASIS are called “Sixers” because they all have six-digit employee numbers starting with the numeral “6.”  “To become a Sixer, you had to sign a contract stipulating, among other things, that if you found Halliday’s egg, the prize would become the sole property of your employer. . . .  The company also provided your avatar with high-end armor, vehicles, and weapons, and covered all of your teleportation fares.  Joining the Sixers was a lot like joining the military.”

This story feels like all your best memories of playing video games.  Any kind of game.  If you like space games, first-person shooters, quest games, arcade games, classic Atari, it does not matter.  Ernest Cline included them all in Ready Player One.  There is at least one scene dedicated to every kind of game, even video games that do not exist yet.  (The one exception may be sports games, unless you consider the jousting in Joust to be a sport.)

You should read this book because if you love reading fiction, then you probably love a good escape from reality.  Wade, the ultimate escapist who even goes to school in a virtual world, takes us on an epic journey through every kind of virtual adventure imaginable.

You may also want to read this book if you love 1980s movies, music, games and trivia.  Or if you love geek or nerd culture.  This book is chock full of references to everything we geeks and nerds love.  Everything!

Cover of Ready Player One showing the stacks in green schematic over black

If you read this book, you’d better not mind nerd culture, endless 1980s references, and the word “sucks.”  Wade likes that word a lot and a few other strong words now and then.  And you’d better not mind a long book.  It’s great, but it’s long.

Here’s a good part:  “I walked across the chamber to the foot of the dais.  From here I could see the lich more clearly.  His teeth were two rows of pointed cut diamonds arrayed in a lipless grin, and a large ruby was set in each of his eye sockets.

“For the first time since entering the tomb, I wasn’t sure what to do next.

Cover of Ready Player One showing gate, figure and key in 8-bit

“My chances of surviving one-on-one combat with a demi-lich were nonexistent.  My wimpy +1 Flaming Sword couldn’t even affect him, and the two magic rubies in his eye sockets had the power to suck out my avatar’s life force and kill me instantly.  Even a party of six or seven high-level avatars would have had a difficult time defeating him.”

Have you already read it?  What did you think?

If not, do you have a question about this book?  Give me a try.

Please post your comments below.

Be stellar!

Matthew Cross