Admiral William H. McRaven, USN - Academy of Achievement

<!doctype html> <html lang="en-US" prefix="og: http://ogp.me/ns#"> <head><script type="text/javascript" src="/_static/js/bundle-playback.js?v=HxkREWBo" charset="utf-8"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="/_static/js/wombat.js?v=txqj7nKC" charset="utf-8"></script> <script>window.RufflePlayer=window.RufflePlayer||{};window.RufflePlayer.config={"autoplay":"on","unmuteOverlay":"hidden"};</script> <script type="text/javascript" src="/_static/js/ruffle/ruffle.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript"> __wm.init("https://web.archive.org/web"); __wm.wombat("http://www.achievement.org:80/achiever/admiral-william-h-mcraven/","20180927040818","https://web.archive.org/","web","/_static/", "1538021298"); </script> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/_static/css/banner-styles.css?v=S1zqJCYt" /> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/_static/css/iconochive.css?v=3PDvdIFv" />  <meta charset="utf-8"> <meta http-equiv="x-ua-compatible" content="ie=edge"> <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1"> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="57x57" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20180927040818im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-57x57.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="114x114" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20180927040818im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-114x114.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="72x72" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20180927040818im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-72x72.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="144x144" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20180927040818im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-144x144.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="60x60" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20180927040818im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-60x60.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="120x120" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20180927040818im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-120x120.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="76x76" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20180927040818im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-76x76.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="152x152" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20180927040818im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-152x152.png"/> <link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20180927040818im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/favicon-196x196.png" sizes="196x196"/> <link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20180927040818im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/favicon-96x96.png" sizes="96x96"/> <link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20180927040818im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/favicon-32x32.png" sizes="32x32"/> <link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20180927040818im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/favicon-16x16.png" sizes="16x16"/> <link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20180927040818im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/favicon-128.png" sizes="128x128"/> <meta name="application-name" content="Academy of Achievement"/> <meta name="msapplication-TileColor" content="#000000"/> <meta name="msapplication-TileImage" content="http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/mstile-144x144.png"/> <meta name="msapplication-square70x70logo" content="http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/mstile-70x70.png"/> <meta name="msapplication-square150x150logo" content="http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/mstile-150x150.png"/> <meta name="msapplication-wide310x150logo" content="http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/mstile-310x150.png"/> <meta name="msapplication-square310x310logo" content="http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/mstile-310x310.png"/> <link href="https://web.archive.org/web/20180927040818cs_/https://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Source+Sans+Pro:400,600,400italic,600italic,700,700italic" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"> <title>Admiral William H. McRaven, USN - Academy of Achievement</title>  <meta name="description" content="On May 1, 2011, President Obama and his national security team gathered in the White House Situation Room to watch a commando raid taking place half a world away. As the mission unfolded, the president was in continuous video contact with the senior military officer directing the operation from a base in Afghanistan, Admiral William McRaven. To this task, Admiral McRaven brought three decades of experience in special operations. The first officer to graduate from the Special Operations and Limited Warfare program at the Naval Postgraduate School, he has held commands at every level of the special ops community, from leading a single SEAL platoon, to his final post as commander of U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM). His experience includes commands in Desert Storm and Desert Shield, leadership of SEAL Team Three, and of NATO's special operations command (SOCEUR). At USSOCOM, Admiral McRaven oversaw and coordinated elite forces from all branches of the nation's military, including such storied outfits as the Navy Seals, the Army's Green Berets and Delta Force, and the Air Force Special Tactics Squadron. The success, that night in 2011, of the raid that eliminated Osama bin Laden without a single American casualty was due, in no small part, to the unique expertise of the man who organized and executed the plan, Admiral William McRaven. Since retiring from the United States Navy in 2014, Admiral McRaven has served as chancellor of the nine-campus University of Texas system."/> <link rel="canonical" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/admiral-william-h-mcraven/"/> <meta property="og:locale" content="en_US"/> <meta property="og:type" content="article"/> <meta property="og:title" content="Admiral William H. McRaven, USN - Academy of Achievement"/> <meta property="og:description" content="<p class="inputTextFirst">On May 1, 2011, President Obama and his national security team gathered in the White House Situation Room to watch a commando raid taking place half a world away. As the mission unfolded, the president was in continuous video contact with the senior military officer directing the operation from a base in Afghanistan, Admiral William McRaven.</p> <p class="inputText">To this task, Admiral McRaven brought three decades of experience in special operations. The first officer to graduate from the Special Operations and Limited Warfare program at the Naval Postgraduate School, he has held commands at every level of the special ops community, from leading a single SEAL platoon, to his final post as commander of U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM). His experience includes commands in Desert Storm and Desert Shield, leadership of SEAL Team Three, and of NATO's special operations command (SOCEUR). At USSOCOM, Admiral McRaven oversaw and coordinated elite forces from all branches of the nation's military, including such storied outfits as the Navy Seals, the Army's Green Berets and Delta Force, and the Air Force Special Tactics Squadron.</p> <p class="inputText">The success, that night in 2011, of the raid that eliminated Osama bin Laden without a single American casualty was due, in no small part, to the unique expertise of the man who organized and executed the plan, Admiral William McRaven. Since retiring from the United States Navy in 2014, Admiral McRaven has served as chancellor of the nine-campus University of Texas system.</p>"/> <meta property="og:url" content="https://web.archive.org/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/admiral-william-h-mcraven/"/> <meta property="og:site_name" content="Academy of Achievement"/> <meta property="og:image" content="https://web.archive.org/web/20180927040818im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/mcraven-Feature-Image.jpg"/> <meta property="og:image:width" content="2800"/> <meta property="og:image:height" content="1120"/> <meta name="twitter:card" content="summary"/> <meta name="twitter:description" content="<p class="inputTextFirst">On May 1, 2011, President Obama and his national security team gathered in the White House Situation Room to watch a commando raid taking place half a world away. As the mission unfolded, the president was in continuous video contact with the senior military officer directing the operation from a base in Afghanistan, Admiral William McRaven.</p> <p class="inputText">To this task, Admiral McRaven brought three decades of experience in special operations. The first officer to graduate from the Special Operations and Limited Warfare program at the Naval Postgraduate School, he has held commands at every level of the special ops community, from leading a single SEAL platoon, to his final post as commander of U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM). His experience includes commands in Desert Storm and Desert Shield, leadership of SEAL Team Three, and of NATO's special operations command (SOCEUR). At USSOCOM, Admiral McRaven oversaw and coordinated elite forces from all branches of the nation's military, including such storied outfits as the Navy Seals, the Army's Green Berets and Delta Force, and the Air Force Special Tactics Squadron.</p> <p class="inputText">The success, that night in 2011, of the raid that eliminated Osama bin Laden without a single American casualty was due, in no small part, to the unique expertise of the man who organized and executed the plan, Admiral William McRaven. Since retiring from the United States Navy in 2014, Admiral McRaven has served as chancellor of the nine-campus University of Texas system.</p>"/> <meta name="twitter:title" content="Admiral William H. 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/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/mcraven-Feature-Image-1400x560.jpg"></div> <div class="display--table"> <div class="display--table-cell"> <figcaption class="feature-area__text ratio-container__text container"> <div class="feature-area__text-inner text-white"> <h2 class="serif-8 feature-area__text-subhead back"><a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever">All achievers</a></h2> <h1 class="serif-1 entry-title feature-area__text-headline">Admiral William H. McRaven, USN</h1> <h5 class="sans-6 feature-area__blurb">Global War on Terrorism</h5> </div> </figcaption> </div> </div> </figure> </header> </div>  <nav class="in-page-nav row fixedsticky"> <ul class="nav text-xs-center clearfix" role="tablist"> <li class="nav-item col-xs-3"> <a class="nav-link active" data-toggle="tab" href="#biography" role="tab" data-gtm-category="tab" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever Biography">Biography</a> </li> <li class="nav-item col-xs-3"> <a class="nav-link" data-toggle="tab" href="#profile" role="tab" data-gtm-category="tab" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever Profile">Profile</a> </li> <li class="nav-item col-xs-3"> <a class="nav-link" data-toggle="tab" href="#interview" role="tab" data-gtm-category="tab" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever Interview">Interview</a> </li> <li class="nav-item col-xs-3"> <a class="nav-link" data-toggle="tab" href="#gallery" role="tab" data-gtm-category="tab" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever Gallery">Gallery</a> </li> </ul> </nav> <article class="post-1681 achiever type-achiever status-publish has-post-thumbnail hentry careers-educator careers-military-soldier"> <div class="entry-content container clearfix">  <div class="tab-content"> <div class="tab-pane fade in active" id="biography" role="tabpanel"> <section class="achiever--biography"> <div class="banner clearfix"> <div class="banner--single clearfix"> <div class="col-lg-8 col-lg-offset-2"> <div class="banner__image__container"> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20180927040818/https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/what-it-takes/id1025864075?mt=2" target="_blank"> <figure class="ratio-container ratio-container--square bg-black"> <img class="lazyload banner__image" data-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/mcraven_WhatItTakes_256x256-190x190.jpg" alt="William McRaven"/> </figure> </a> </div> <div class="banner__text__container"> <h3 class="serif-3 banner__headline"> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20180927040818/https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/what-it-takes/id1025864075?mt=2" target="_blank"> Listen to this achiever on <i>What It Takes</i> </a> </h3> <p class="sans-6 banner__text m-b-0"><i>What It Takes</i> is an audio podcast on iTunes produced by the American Academy of Achievement featuring intimate, revealing conversations with influential leaders in the diverse fields of endeavor: music, science and exploration, sports, film, technology, literature, the military and social justice.</p> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="row"> <header class="editorial-article__header col-md-8 col-md-offset-2 text-xs-center"> <i class="icon-icon_bio text-brand-primary"></i> <h3 class="serif-3 quote-marks">One person affecting the life of one other person or ten other people can over time change the world.</h3> </header> </div> <div class="row"> <aside class="col-md-4 sidebar clearfix"> <h2 class="serif-3 p-b-1">The Art of Warfare</h2> <div class="col-xs-12 sidebar--chunk p-b-2"> <dt class="serif-7">Date of Birth</dt> <dd class="sans-2"> November 6, 1955 </dd> </div> </aside> <article class="editorial-article col-md-8"> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"> <html><body><p class="inputTextFirst">William H. McRaven was born in Pinehurst, North Carolina. His father, a career Air Force officer, was stationed at Pope Air Force Base, now known as Pope Field, part of Fort Bragg. The family — including his two older sisters — moved to Texas while William was in elementary school and settled in San Antonio. His mother was born in Texas, and McRaven identifies strongly with the Lone Star State.</p> <p>Young Bill McRaven was drawn to the sea at an early age and began scuba diving when he was 13. An enthusiastic athlete, he competed in as many sports as possible. He played football for the Theodore Roosevelt High School Rough Riders and particularly excelled at track. He has often cited his high school track coach, Jerry Turnbow, as a positive influence. Given the military background of his father and his family’s friends, a career in the military was something he had always considered. After graduating from high school in San Antonio, he entered the University of Texas, Austin on a track scholarship and joined Navy ROTC. After exploring pre-med and accounting courses, he found a congenial major in journalism. He enjoyed writing and found the training in concise communication extremely useful in his military career. He met Georgeann Brady in college. The couple married shortly after graduation and have raised three children. Their marriage has lasted through a 37-year military career requiring constant relocation and deployments around the world.</p> <figure id="attachment_2578" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="wp-image-2578 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180927040818im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/mcr0-001.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-2578 size-full lazyload" alt="William and Georgeann McRaven enjoy a visit to the Auberge du Soleil resort in Napa Valley, California during the 2014 International Achievement Summit." width="2280" height="2277" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20180927040818im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/mcr0-001.jpg 2280w, /web/20180927040818im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/mcr0-001-190x190.jpg 190w, /web/20180927040818im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/mcr0-001-380x380.jpg 380w, /web/20180927040818im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/mcr0-001-760x760.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180927040818/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/mcr0-001.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">William and Georgeann McRaven enjoy a visit to Napa Valley during the 2014 International Achievement Summit.</figcaption></figure><p class="inputText">On entering active service in the Navy, McRaven sought and achieved admission to the training program of the Sea, Air, Land Teams (SEALs), the Navy’s elite special operations force. SEALs are trained to operate in all environments (Sea, Air and Land) including the most extreme climatic conditions. The athletic McRaven took to the exacting demands of SEAL training, a process he likens to “a lifetime crammed into six months.”</p> <p>After completing Basic Underwater Demolition SEAL Training, McRaven was assigned to the newly formed SEAL Team Six. The young lieutenant was given a squad to command, but soon ran afoul of the team’s controversial commander, Richard Marcinko. Their leadership styles clashed and McRaven was relieved of his first command. Faced with this setback, the young lieutenant might have sought to continue his Naval career outside of the SEAL program, but he was determined to prove himself. He was assigned to SEAL Team Four, where he was given command of an entire platoon. McRaven succeeded in his new position and began his ascent through the ranks. In the mid-1980s, the administration of President Ronald Reagan supported a major buildup of U.S. military forces, including an expansion of the SEALs and other special forces. As the special operations community grew, McRaven’s career advanced with it.</p> <figure id="attachment_2581" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="wp-image-2581 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180927040818im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/mcr0-004.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-2581 size-full lazyload" alt="Admiral William McRaven attends the 2011 Medal of Honor ceremony for Sgt. Leroy Arthur Petry, USA, at the White House. (漏 Shawn Thew/EPA/Corbis)" width="2280" height="3215" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20180927040818im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/mcr0-004.jpg 2280w, /web/20180927040818im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/mcr0-004-269x380.jpg 269w, /web/20180927040818im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/mcr0-004-539x760.jpg 539w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180927040818/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/mcr0-004.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Admiral McRaven attends the 2011 Medal of Honor ceremony for Sgt. Leroy Arthur Petry, USA, at the White House.</figcaption></figure><p class="inputText">During the Persian Gulf War of 1990-91, McRaven served as a task unit commander in Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm. Following the war, he was task group commander in the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility. He would later return to the SEALs as commander of SEAL Team Three.</p> <p class="inputText">McRaven earned his master’s degree at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California. He had entered as a student of the National Security Affairs program, but soon saw the need for a graduate level program in special operations limited warfare, not just for the Navy, but throughout the armed services. He helped create the school’s Special Operations and Low Intensity Conflict curriculum and became the program’s first graduate. His master’s thesis, <i>The Theory of Special Operations</i>, was published in 1996 as <i>Spec Ops: Case Studies in Special Operations Warfare: Theory and Practice</i>. It has been reprinted numerous times, has been translated into several languages, and is studied around the world.</p> <figure id="attachment_2585" style="width: 1478px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="wp-image-2585 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180927040818im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/mcr0-008.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-2585 size-full lazyload" alt="Sgt. Cory Remsburg, USA, speaks with Admiral William McRaven, during Remsburg's 2014 retirement ceremony. An Army Ranger, Remsburg was severely wounded in a 2009 firefight with enemy forces in Afghanistan. He has since become a national figure who was highlighted during President Obama's 2014 State of the Union Address. (AP Photo/Savannah Morning News, Corey Dickstein)" width="1478" height="1171" data-sizes="(max-width: 1478px) 100vw, 1478px" data-srcset="/web/20180927040818im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/mcr0-008.jpg 1478w, /web/20180927040818im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/mcr0-008-380x301.jpg 380w, /web/20180927040818im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/mcr0-008-760x602.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180927040818/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/mcr0-008.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Sgt. Cory Remsburg, USA, speaks with Admiral William McRaven, during Remsburg’s 2014 retirement ceremony. An Army Ranger, Remsburg was severely wounded in a 2009 firefight with enemy forces in Afghanistan. He has since become a national figure who was highlighted during President Obama’s 2014 State of the Union Address. (Getty)</figcaption></figure><p class="inputText">In addition to his command experience and academic work, McRaven compiled an impressive record of service in administrative positions, as chief of staff at Naval Special Warfare Group One, with the Chief of Naval Operations, and as assessment director at Special Operations Command (USSOCOM). McRaven’s reputation had spread beyond the Navy and throughout the special operations community. He was named deputy commanding general for operations at the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC).</p> <p>As commander of Naval Special Warfare Group One, Captain McRaven was leading a 1,000-foot freefall exercise in the summer of 2001, when an accident occurred that could easily have cost him his life. While freefalling, the man ahead of him deployed his parachute too soon, and McRaven collided with the chute as it opened. Stunned, he opened his own chute as well, but the lines wrapped his legs separately, wrenching his legs in opposite directions. Immediate surgery was able to repair his broken back and pelvis, but McRaven faced many months of sedentary recuperation. He was lying on a hospital bed in his own home on September 11, 2001 when he saw the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City. With that and the attack on the Pentagon on the same day, McRaven was immediately aware that the United States was entering a new era of armed conflict and that special operations would be needed as never before.</p> <figure id="attachment_2583" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="wp-image-2583 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180927040818im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/mcr0-006.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-2583 size-full lazyload" alt="An Afghan strike force trained by United States Special Operations completes a training session at Camp Morehead, Afghanistan. Admiral McRaven created a plan to replace thousands of U.S. troops in Afghanistan with small special ops teams paired with larger Afghan units to prevent a resurgence of the Taliban. (AP Photo/Dar Yasin)" width="2280" height="1520" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20180927040818im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/mcr0-006.jpg 2280w, /web/20180927040818im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/mcr0-006-380x253.jpg 380w, /web/20180927040818im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/mcr0-006-760x507.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180927040818/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/mcr0-006.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">An Afghanistan strike force trained by United States Special Operations completes a training session at Camp Morehead, Afghanistan. Admiral McRaven created a plan to replace thousands of U.S. troops in Afghanistan with small special ops teams paired with the larger Afghan units to prevent a resurgence of the Taliban. (AP Photo)</figcaption></figure><p class="inputText">When he had recovered sufficiently to report for duty, he returned to Washington to serve as Deputy National Security Advisor and director for strategic planning in the National Security Council Staff’s Office of Combating Terrorism. The remaining ten years of his military career would focus almost entirely on counterterrorism operations and strategy. He was the principal author of the government’s 2006 <i>National Strategy for Combating Terrorism</i>.</p> <figure id="attachment_2587" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-2587 " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180927040818im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/mcr0-011.jpg"></noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-2587 lazyload" alt="May 1, 2011: In the White House Situation Room, President Barack Obama and members of his national security team monitor the raid on Osama bin Laden's compound in Pakistan. He is joined by Vice President Joe Biden (seated, left) and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Defense Secretary Robert Gates (both seated, right). As they watch drone video of the compound, Admiral William McRaven gives them a live briefing by secure video link from a base in Jalalabad, Afghanistan. (White House photo)" width="2280" height="1520" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20180927040818im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/mcr0-011.jpg 2280w, /web/20180927040818im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/mcr0-011-380x253.jpg 380w, /web/20180927040818im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/mcr0-011-760x507.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180927040818/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/mcr0-011.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">May 1, 2011: In the White House Situation Room, President Barack Obama and members of his national security team monitor the raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound in Pakistan. He is joined by Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Defense Secretary Robert Gates. As they watch a drone video of the secret compound, Admiral McRaven gives them a live briefing by secure video link from a base in Jalalabad, Afghanistan.</figcaption></figure><p>In 2006, he was tapped to lead the Special Operations Command Europe (SOCEUR), based in Stuttgart, Germany. He served simultaneously as the first director of the NATO Special Operations Forces Coordination Centre, enhancing and integrating the efforts of all NATO Special Operations Forces. In 2008, now a three-star admiral, he became the 11th officer to serve as commander of Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), with responsibility for leading coordination of techniques, equipment, exercises, training and tactics for joint operations among the special ops community. Although JSOC is based at Fort Bragg, McRaven spent much of his time in Afghanistan, where operations intensified on his watch. In the decade following the attacks on the United States, McRaven commanded hundreds of night raids on suspected terrorist targets.</p> <figure id="attachment_30092" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-30092 " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180927040818im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wp-GettyImages-172044198_master.jpg"></noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-30092 lazyload" alt="2013: Admiral William McRaven, Commander of the United States Special Operations Command at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. (Sebastien Micke/Paris Match/Contour by Getty Images)" width="2280" height="1710" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20180927040818im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wp-GettyImages-172044198_master.jpg 2280w, /web/20180927040818im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wp-GettyImages-172044198_master-380x285.jpg 380w, /web/20180927040818im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wp-GettyImages-172044198_master-760x570.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180927040818/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wp-GettyImages-172044198_master.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">2013: Admiral William McRaven, Commander of the United States Special Operations Command, at the Pentagon.</figcaption></figure><p class="inputText">In the first months of 2011, CIA Director Leon Panetta summoned McRaven to a meeting at CIA headquarters to describe the compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan that Panetta believed might be harboring Osama bin Laden, the Al Qaeda leader who orchestrated the attacks on New York and Washington. Director Panetta asked McRaven to prepare plans for an attack on the compound. The effort was dubbed Operation Neptune Spear. President Obama promoted McRaven to four-star admiral in April and nominated him to serve as the ninth commander of the USSOC, with responsibility of the entire special operations community. While the Senate considered the appointment, McRaven quietly proceeded with plans for the operation to eliminate Bin Laden.</p> <figure id="attachment_2310" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-2310 " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180927040818im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/400.jpg"></noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-2310 lazyload" alt="Academy members Admiral William McRaven, USN, General Philip Breedlove, USAF, General David Petraeus, USA." width="2280" height="2850" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20180927040818im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/400.jpg 2280w, /web/20180927040818im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/400-304x380.jpg 304w, /web/20180927040818im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/400-608x760.jpg 608w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180927040818/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/400.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Academy of Achievement members: Admiral William McRaven, USN, General Philip Breedlove, USAF, and General David Petraeus, USA, at the Banquet of the Golden Plate gala during the 2014 International Achievement Summit.</figcaption></figure><p>During this period the SEALs, Rangers and other special forces units under McRaven’s command at JSOC were carrying out as many as 15 missions a night in Afghanistan, but Operation Neptune Spear presented difficulties unlike any other. Bin Laden’s compound lay within the territory of Pakistan, ostensibly a U.S. partner in the war against Al Qaeda and its Taliban allies. The target was less than a mile from Pakistan’s national military academy. A failed mission would not only permit America’s most wanted enemy to escape but ran the risk of antagonizing an essential ally. Secrecy and surprise were paramount, and President Obama concluded that the Pakistan government and military could not maintain operational security. The president and his advisors considered and rejected the options of a Drone missile strike or of bombing the compound. One had limited chances of success, the other ran the risk of damaging neighboring houses and injuring the occupants. McRaven applied the principles he had outlined in his book <i>Spec Ops</i> and proposed the plan that would delay any chance of discovery until the last possible moment. McRaven had the SEALs rehearse the mission at a full-scale replica of the compound at Bagram Air Force base in Afghanistan.</p> <figure id="attachment_2580" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="wp-image-2580 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180927040818im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/mcr0-003.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-2580 size-full lazyload" alt="Academy member and former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak discusses the civil war in Syria and the threat of ISIS with Admiral William McRaven at the 2014 International Achievement Summit in Napa Valley, California." width="2280" height="1520" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20180927040818im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/mcr0-003.jpg 2280w, /web/20180927040818im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/mcr0-003-380x253.jpg 380w, /web/20180927040818im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/mcr0-003-760x507.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180927040818/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/mcr0-003.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Academy member and former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak discusses the civil war in Syria and the threat of ISIS with Admiral William H. McRaven at the 2014 International Achievement Summit in Napa Valley, California.</figcaption></figure><p class="inputText">On the night of May 1, 2011, helicopters carried Seal Team Six from their base in Afghanistan into Pakistani air space. Admiral McRaven, linked by secure video from Jalalabad to the White House, briefed the president in real time as the operation progressed. Within 15 minutes of the SEALs’ arrival in Abbottabad, all resistance had been overcome and Bin Laden was dead, along with three of his companions. In the next 23 minutes, the SEALs completed a search of the premises, moved all survivors outside, destroyed one helicopter that was damaged during the landing, removed Bin Laden’s body and were on their way back to Jalalabad, two minutes ahead of schedule.</p> <figure id="attachment_2582" style="width: 2714px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="wp-image-2582 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180927040818im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/mcr0-005.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-2582 size-full lazyload" alt="Former CIA Director David Petraeus presents Admiral William McRaven with the Golden Plate Award of the Academy of Achievement at the 2014 International Achievement Summit in San Francisco, California." width="2714" height="1938" data-sizes="(max-width: 2714px) 100vw, 2714px" data-srcset="/web/20180927040818im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/mcr0-005.jpg 2714w, /web/20180927040818im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/mcr0-005-380x271.jpg 380w, /web/20180927040818im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/mcr0-005-760x543.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180927040818/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/mcr0-005.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Former CIA Director General David H. Petraeus presents Admiral William McRaven with the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement at 2014 International Achievement Summit in San Francisco, California.</figcaption></figure><p>News of Bin Laden’s death was greeted with nearly universal relief and approval in the United States, and as McRaven’s role in the operation became known, the Senate moved to unanimously confirm his appointment as commander of USSOCOM. Headquartered at MacDill Air Force Base, Florida, USSOCOM ensures the readiness of all special forces and directs their operations worldwide. Although most of these operations, by their nature, must remain confidential, in 2010 the command reported that special forces were deployed in 75 countries. Special forces conduct counterterrorist operations, long-range reconnaissance, intelligence analysis, foreign troop training, and counter-proliferation operations to arrest the spread of weapons of mass destruction.</p> <figure id="attachment_39017" style="width: 1609px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-39017 " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180927040818im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/makeyourbed-mcraven.jpg"></noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-39017 lazyload" alt="" width="1609" height="2237" data-sizes="(max-width: 1609px) 100vw, 1609px" data-srcset="/web/20180927040818im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/makeyourbed-mcraven.jpg 1609w, /web/20180927040818im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/makeyourbed-mcraven-273x380.jpg 273w, /web/20180927040818im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/makeyourbed-mcraven-547x760.jpg 547w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/makeyourbed-mcraven.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text"><em>Make Your Bed</em> by Admiral William H. McRaven. On May 17, 2014, Admiral McRaven addressed the graduating class of the University of Texas at Austin on their Commencement day. Taking inspiration from the university’s slogan, “What starts here changes the world,” he shared the ten principles he learned during Navy Seal training that helped him overcome challenges not only in his training and long Naval career, but also throughout his life; and he explained how anyone can use these basic lessons to change themselves-and the world-for the better. Admiral McRaven’s original speech went viral with over 10 million views. Building on the core tenets laid out in his speech, McRaven now recounts tales from his own life and from those of people he encountered during his military service who dealt with hardship and made tough decisions with determination, compassion, honor, and courage. Told with great humility and optimism, this book provides wisdom, practical advice, and words of encouragement.</figcaption></figure><p class="inputText">In 2014, Admiral McRaven announced his retirement from the United States Navy after 37 years of service. In May of that year he delivered a commencement address at his alma mater, the University of Texas at Austin. When posted on the Internet, the address drew millions of viewers in a matter of weeks. McRaven was invited to apply for the position of chancellor of the entire University of Texas system. The Board of Regents announced his appointment in July 2014, and retired Admiral McRaven assumed his duties the following January. As chancellor, he presided over a system comprising nine university campuses and six medical centers, employing 87,000 faculty and staff, with an enrollment of 216,000 students.</p> <figure id="attachment_2586" style="width: 2000px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="wp-image-2586 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180927040818im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/mcr0-009.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-2586 size-full lazyload" alt="University of Texas Chancellor William McRaven at a 2015 press conference in Austin, Texas. (AP Photo/Austin American-Statesman, Ricardo B. Brazziell)" width="2000" height="1368" data-sizes="(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px" data-srcset="/web/20180927040818im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/mcr0-009.jpg 2000w, /web/20180927040818im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/mcr0-009-380x260.jpg 380w, /web/20180927040818im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/mcr0-009-760x520.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180927040818/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/mcr0-009.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">University of Texas Chancellor William McRaven at a 2015 press conference in Austin, Texas. (Ricardo B. Brazziell)</figcaption></figure><p>Chancellor McRaven expanded on the themes of his celebrated commencement address in his 2017 book, <em>Make Your Bed: Little Things That Can Change Your Life… and Maybe the World</em>.  In his book, McRaven applied the lessons of his career as a Navy SEAL to the challenges of everyday life and work. In the closing days of 2017, McRaven announced his plans to retire from the University of Texas in 2018, having served four years as chancellor.</p></body></html> <div class="clearfix"> </div> </article> </div> </section> </div> <div class="tab-pane fade" id="profile" role="tabpanel"> <section class="clearfix"> <header class="editorial-article__header"> <figure class="text-xs-center"> <img class="inductee-badge" src="/web/20180927040818im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/inducted-badge@2x.png" alt="Inducted Badge" width="120" height="120"/> <figcaption class="serif-3 text-brand-primary"> Inducted in 2014 </figcaption> </figure> </header> <div class="row"> <aside class="col-md-4 sidebar"> <dl class="clearfix m-b-0"> <div class="col-xs-12 sidebar--chunk p-b-2"> <dt class="serif-7">Career</dt> <dd class="sans-2"> <div><a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/#filter=.military-soldier">Military/Soldier</a></div> <div><a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/#filter=.educator">Educator</a></div> </dd> </div> <div class="col-xs-12 sidebar--chunk p-b-2"> <dt class="serif-7">Date of Birth</dt> <dd class="sans-2"> November 6, 1955 </dd> </div> </dl> </aside> <article class="col-md-8 editorial-article clearfix"> <p class="inputTextFirst">On May 1, 2011, President Obama and his national security team gathered in the White House Situation Room to watch a commando raid taking place half a world away. As the mission unfolded, the president was in continuous video contact with the senior military officer directing the operation from a base in Afghanistan, Admiral William McRaven.</p> <p class="inputText">To this task, Admiral McRaven brought three decades of experience in special operations. The first officer to graduate from the Special Operations and Limited Warfare program at the Naval Postgraduate School, he has held commands at every level of the special ops community, from leading a single SEAL platoon, to his final post as commander of U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM). His experience includes commands in Desert Storm and Desert Shield, leadership of SEAL Team Three, and of NATO’s special operations command (SOCEUR). At USSOCOM, Admiral McRaven oversaw and coordinated elite forces from all branches of the nation’s military, including such storied outfits as the Navy Seals, the Army’s Green Berets and Delta Force, and the Air Force Special Tactics Squadron.</p> <p class="inputText">The success, that night in 2011, of the raid that eliminated Osama bin Laden without a single American casualty was due, in no small part, to the unique expertise of the man who organized and executed the plan, Admiral William McRaven. Since retiring from the United States Navy in 2014, Admiral McRaven has served as chancellor of the nine-campus University of Texas system.</p> </article> </div> </section> </div> <div class="tab-pane fade" id="interview" role="tabpanel"> <section class="clearfix"> <div class="col-md-12 interview-feature-video"> <figure> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180927040818if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/4dZSr-M5OPI?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light&start=0&end=3070&version=3" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/McRaven-William-2014-MasterEdit.00_02_50_26.Still001-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/04/McRaven-William-2014-MasterEdit.00_02_50_26.Still001-760x428.jpg"></div> <div class="video-tag sans-4"> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> <div class="video-tag__text">Watch full interview</div> </div> </div> </figure> </div> <header class="col-md-12 text-xs-center m-b-2"> <i class="icon-icon_bio text-brand-primary"></i> </header> <aside class="col-md-4 sidebar"> <h2 class="serif-3 achiever--biography-subtitle">The Art of Warfare</h2> <div class="sans-2">Napa Valley, California</div> <div class="sans-2">September 14, 2014</div> </aside> <article class="editorial-article col-md-8">   <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>We know there are many things you can’t tell us about the raid that killed Osama bin Laden in 2011, but maybe you can give us the big picture of your thoughts about it.</b></span></p> </div>     <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180927040818if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/asRG___mZws?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/McRaven-William-2014-MasterEdit.00_47_57_04.Still009-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/04/McRaven-William-2014-MasterEdit.00_47_57_04.Still009-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> <figcaption class="achiever__interview-video-terms"> <span>Keys to success —</span> <a class="comma-item" href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/keys-to-success/integrity/">Integrity</a> </figcaption> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p class="p1">William McRaven: What I’m always happy to tell folks is the phenomenal work of the CIA. Our part of the mission was really pretty straightforward.<span class="Apple-converted-space">聽 </span>I mean, it’s kind of viewed as the sexy piece. We flew from Afghanistan into Pakistan and got Bin Laden and came back. And there was an attractiveness to that aspect of it. But that was a pretty straightforward mission for us. In fact, I would tell you that it was — I mean, it had a political aspect of it and an angst aspect of it that was higher than the rest of the missions we do — but from a standpoint of a pure military operation it was pretty straightforward. What I have said before is the credit really belongs to the CIA, who in fact located Bin Laden, and the President and his National Security team, who made the decision; the President, who made the decision to go after Bin Laden when our intelligence really at best had us at about 50/50.<span class="Apple-converted-space">聽 </span>So the President made a decision to risk American lives and frankly to risk his political fortune, I think, to do the right thing for America. And I’m always very appreciative that he did that. And I think those are the big takeaways that the American public ought to have is that the President and his National Security team did the right thing. The CIA — the best intelligence organization in the world — along with the National Security Agency, which was part of their ability to figure out where Bin Laden was, those were the real stars of this mission. I’m very proud of what my guys did, but that’s the sort of things we do pretty much every day.</p> </div> </div>      <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"> <html><body><figure id="attachment_2587" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="wp-image-2587 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180927040818im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/mcr0-011.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-2587 size-full lazyload" alt="May 1, 2011: In the White House Situation Room, President Barack Obama and members of his national security team monitor the raid on Osama bin Laden's compound in Pakistan. He is joined by Vice President Joe Biden (seated, left) and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Defense Secretary Robert Gates (both seated, right). As they watch drone video of the compound, Admiral William McRaven gives them a live briefing by secure video link from a base in Jalalabad, Afghanistan. (White House photo)" width="2280" height="1520" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20180927040818im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/mcr0-011.jpg 2280w, /web/20180927040818im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/mcr0-011-380x253.jpg 380w, /web/20180927040818im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/mcr0-011-760x507.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180927040818/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/mcr0-011.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">May 1, 2011: In the White House Situation Room, President Barack Obama and members of his national security team monitor the raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound in Pakistan. He is joined by Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Defense Secretary Robert Gates. As they watch a drone video of the secret compound, Admiral McRaven gives them a live briefing by secure video link from a base in Jalalabad, Afghanistan.</figcaption></figure><p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>Looking at some of the tenets you outlined in your book <i>The Theory of Special Operations</i>, a lot of it applies to Operation Neptune Spear, as the Bin Laden operation was called.</b></span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">William McRaven: Absolutely. I went right back to the book, because we had such tight security.</span></p></body></html> </div>     <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180927040818if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/8oC9n_wg6OA?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light&start=0&end=65&version=3" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/McRaven-William-2014-MasterEdit.00_42_42_04.Still006-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/04/McRaven-William-2014-MasterEdit.00_42_42_04.Still006-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> <figcaption class="achiever__interview-video-terms"> <span>Keys to success —</span> <a class="comma-item" href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/keys-to-success/vision/">Vision</a> </figcaption> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p class="p1">I had to do the planning for the mission. And I looked at being creative in a number of different fashions, and I won’t go into detail on those, but suffice to say I looked at a lot of ways to get to the target. But at the end of the day, I looked at the point of vulnerability, and I realized that if we did, if we attempted to do some of those other approaches, we were potentially going to be vulnerable hours out. Now we may not have been, but the potential for the Pakistanis to identify us hours away from the target was there. With the helicopters, I knew we could get in and we would probably only be vulnerable about two minutes out, and I felt that was good enough. So I absolutely looked at the point of vulnerability, relative superiority, keeping the plan simple. I mean, we kept the plan as simple as we could. Get onto some helicopters, go to the target, take care of the objective, get back on the helicopters and come back home. Now we came back short of one helicopter, but we had a backup plan for that. So it absolutely followed the model, and I made sure that I went back and looked at my own research.</p> </div> </div>      <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>A lot of people may not realize that there were more than a dozen other operations going on simultaneously. That is just incredible.</b></span></p> </div>     <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180927040818if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/ffjNDhUAy1k?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light&start=0&end=40&version=3" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/McRaven-William-2014-MasterEdit.00_17_25_01.Still004-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/04/McRaven-William-2014-MasterEdit.00_17_25_01.Still004-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p class="p1">William McRaven: This is kind of what we did in Afghanistan. We normally had anywhere from ten to 15 missions a night in Afghanistan where you had Army Rangers or Navy SEALs or other Army Special Operations forces out conducting raids on Taliban targets with the same approach.<span class="Apple-converted-space">聽 </span>Helicopters going from a forward operating base to an objective, taking care of business on the target, getting back on the helicopters and coming back. So one, we didn’t want to change what we were doing for fear that people would know. So when we got to Afghanistan, my force had no clue that I had a separate force that was preparing to go conduct the raid, because we didn’t stop them from anything else that was going on that night.</p> </div> </div>      <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>Because it was important that they not know the details.</b></span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">William McRaven: Absolutely.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>Not just the American public and the enemy.</b></span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">William McRaven: We were trying to keep it as close to hold as possible, and fortunately we were successful in doing that.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>You were taking risks, but they were educated risks.</b></span></p> </div>     <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180927040818if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/ExpNyg7Gewo?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/McRaven-William-2014-MasterEdit.00_42_42_04.Still006-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/04/McRaven-William-2014-MasterEdit.00_42_42_04.Still006-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> <figcaption class="achiever__interview-video-terms"> <span>Keys to success —</span> <a class="comma-item" href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/keys-to-success/preparation/">Preparation</a> </figcaption> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p class="p1">William McRaven: We had, again, done the planning. I knew where all the risks were, and we had planned around those risks to mitigate the risks. So understanding that we wanted to fly in undetected, we knew what the Pakistanis had in the way of defenses. We understood what the compound looked like in Abbottabad.<span class="Apple-converted-space">聽 </span>So we knew all of that information. We had very good intelligence that, again, the CIA and NSA provided us. And so with that good intelligence you were able to figure out where the difficulties in the mission were going to lie, and then take the opportunity to, again, buy down that risk to the point where, when I had the opportunity to brief the President, I was very confident that we could do the mission the way we had outlined it.</p> </div> </div>      <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"> <html><body><p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>He took risks too, political risks.</b></span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s2">William McRaven: Absolutely, he did. He took tremendous risk. I am very proud of what my guys did, but the real risk and the burden was borne almost solely by the President.</span></p> <figure id="attachment_2584" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="wp-image-2584 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180927040818im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/mcr0-007.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-2584 size-full lazyload" alt="In May 2011, President Barack Obama meets with Admiral William McRaven, commander of Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. Just days earlier, Admiral McRaven led operational control of Navy SEAL Team Six's successful mission to eliminate Osama bin Laden, the world's most wanted terrorist leader. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)" width="2280" height="2155" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20180927040818im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/mcr0-007.jpg 2280w, /web/20180927040818im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/mcr0-007-380x359.jpg 380w, /web/20180927040818im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/mcr0-007-760x718.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180927040818/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/mcr0-007.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">In May 2011, President Barack Obama meets with Admiral William H. McRaven, USN, Commander of Joint Special Operations Command, at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. Just days earlier, Admiral McRaven led operational control of Navy SEAL Team Six’s successful mission to eliminate Osama bin Laden, the world’s most wanted terrorist leader.</figcaption></figure></body></html> </div>    <aside class="collapse" id="full-interview">    <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>You were at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey when you wrote <i>The Theory of Special Operations</i>, a remarkable thesis that has been widely read. What was the thinking behind that?</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">William McRaven: I had an opportunity at Naval Postgraduate School to do some thinking about special operations. And more importantly, I had an opportunity to travel to Europe and interview some of the great special operators of World War II and also kind of post-World War II. Most of them were still alive. They were in their 70s — early 70s to early 80s — and the folks I interviewed were still very sharp and remembered the missions they went on as though they were yesterday. So having an opportunity to sit down with these phenomenal officers and enlisted who had been part of some of the great operations in special operations history was just incredibly educational for me. </span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">But I remember as I was interviewing Herr Witzig, who was a German officer, about the raid on Eben-Emael, which was a very famous German raid into Belgium that secured a very difficult fort with a small number of folks. But in the course of my questioning for him, he said, “Well, you are developing a theory here, yes?” And at the time I was actually just trying to cull out the principles of special operations, much like the broader principles of war. But when he touched on the idea that you were developing a theory, I thought, “I think he is on to something.” So I went back and really spent about another six to eight months to figure out how do I take the principles and turn them into a real theory about why special operations succeed. Not just the principles, but why do they succeed, how can you — not analytically, but kind of intellectually — take a look at a special operation ahead of time and say, “Look, are we going to achieve this thing I call ‘relative superiority’ in a timely enough manner and long enough to be able to accomplish the mission?” So it was a wonderful, passionate effort on my part to just kind of find this out. And fortunately, the book got a lot of traction with some of the younger officers, and I’m pleased to see that it got such a wide read.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>The public perception of special operations may be that it’s full of mavericks and is the Wild West of the military. But you’ve said in previous interviews that SEALs may follow their rules closer than anyone. It’s about doing things differently and creatively, but within the rules. Could you tell us about that?</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">William McRaven: Absolutely. Again, I think you are right.聽</span><span class="s1">There is this perception that — it’s not to say we in the special operations community don’t have a swagger. You have to have a swagger, you have to be confident. But when you sit down to do a mission, you have got to do the detail planning. You have to do the detail rehearsals. You have to be physically fit and mentally prepared. And that doesn’t happen by accident. That happens through very difficult training and appropriate preparation. So anybody’s belief that you can go do a complicated special operation in a cavalier manner has never been in the business. To be a really good special operator, you’ve got to care about the details.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>But there is a creative component.</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">William McRaven: Oh, absolutely.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>The more pressure there is, and the more there is at stake, the more ingenious and creative you have to be.</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">William McRaven: You do.聽</span><span class="s1">When we look at a problem, the reason people call special operations forces in is because they looked at it initially as a conventional problem and they said, “Well, you know what, an infantry battalion can’t go do this, or an air strike can’t go do this.” So they have eliminated a conventional approach and now they have come to us. So then it really becomes, “Okay. What is the creative solution to this problem, and how can I apply what skill set we have differently than the infantry battalion or the air strike?” So you absolutely have to be creative, but I think you have to be creative within a framework. If you try to be too creative, the laws of war –the frictions of war — will bring you down just like they will in an infantry battalion. So again, you have to understand where your talents are, where your expertise is, and within that framework be as creative as you can possibly be. So for example, when I did the theory and the thesis, the Germans for example used gliders to get into Eben-Emael. They used gliders because they were quiet and they knew that the Belgians wouldn’t hear them coming. They could put a lot of men in gliders and get on the target quickly.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>When was this?</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">William McRaven: This was at the beginning of the war as the Germans came against the Belgians as part of the initial movement into Belgium and then into France. The Italians used little mini-submarines to go against the British shipping in Alexandria. So the thought that special operations are cavalier isn’t true. Do we have a creative aspect? Absolutely. You have to be creative. You have to look at what tools are out there — mini-submarines, gliders, parachutes, whatever it is — to get you to the objective. And then you have to be right on target with the talented people you bring.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>In your book you talked about security, simplicity, repetition, speed, surprise, purpose. Perhaps surprise is the most creative part.</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">William McRaven: It is. Because t</span><span class="s1">he rest of the stuff is, I don’t want to say <i>pro forma</i>, but the issue is you have to be able to get on target, and you have to be able to do that before the enemy knows you’re there. So when I talk about, in the thesis, this point of vulnerability, when you look at an operation, you want to bring that point of vulnerability — the point where the enemy knows where you are and the enemy can stop you from getting to the target — you want to bring that as close to mission success as you can, as close to the target as you can. So the further that point of vulnerability is away from when you’re on target, the more difficult your mission is going to be. So you want to close that gap. You close that gap by surprise. You gain surprise through things like, again, gliders or mini-subs or ships that look like different ships, as the British did during the raid on St. Nazaire. So this is the creative piece. How do I get to my objective before the enemy knows I am there in a manner that we know will be effective, but generates that surprise that now, once I am on target, your force is probably going to be better than the enemy’s force? But you have to get there, because if the enemy spots you two minutes away, or three minutes away, their ability to engage you — and you not being able to get to target — changes the whole dynamics of the mission.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>Some people have an image of creativity as a sort of muse that alights on your shoulder. It seems that in this case perseverance and discipline are integrally wrapped up with creativity.</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">William McRaven: I think this gets back to the military model: the details have got to be part of the framework of the mission. I will give you a case in point. The British went after a ship in Norway during World War II and they used actual small dry submarines. Mini-subs, basically.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">There were three men in the mini-sub, and they were going after the German ship, the Tirpitz. And the Tirpitz was up in a fjord far into Norway, and they knew that if they could get these mini-subs with these large mines on the side of them, they could come up the fjord, drop these mines underneath the Tirpitz and destroy the Tirpitz, so that it couldn’t get out and wreak havoc in the North Atlantic. Well, the problem was, in the course of the planning for the mission, they knew that they were going to have to tow these mini-subs across from Scotland over to Norway. The problem was that was a long rehearsal and they didn’t want to do the full rehearsal. So they only tested it for a couple of hours, because the guys in the back of the mini-sub would get so sick because it was kind of porpoising up and down underwater. So they said, “We know this is going to work. We don’t have to test it for the full 24 hours or so.” Well, because they didn’t test it for the full 24 hours or so, three of the six submarines never made it, because the line broke, because after 24 hours it was pulled to a length where it just couldn’t withstand the strain and it broke. They would have known that had they tested it for the full 24 hours. So back to the discipline and the detail point. Yes, they were very creative in using a mini-sub to be able to get to the Tirpitz, but they didn’t have the discipline at the time to do the full rehearsal, and that requires discipline. Even though you know you’re going to be miserable during the rehearsal. If you don’t find that out before the real mission, then that part of the mission is probably going to fail, which it did in that case.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">I don’t want to talk about the creative aspect in terms of the arts, because I know that is a lot different, but for a military mission you have to be able to balance the creativity with the discipline or you become cavalier. And that is not what you want. </span></p> <p class="p1"><strong><span class="s1">We have the examples of Mozart and Beethoven, who were incredibly creative within a very, very clear structure.</span></strong></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">William McRaven: Right, absolutely. I wouldn’t compare what we do to Mozart and Beethoven, but the point is well taken.聽</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>The world knows more about your training as a Navy Seal than they might have as a result of the commencement speech you gave at the University of Texas that went viral on the Internet. Could you tell us a little bit about your SEAL training and the impact that had on you?</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">William McRaven: SEAL training is like a whole life crammed into six months.聽</span><span class="s1">The purpose of the training is to weed out those both weak-minded and weak physically before you really even begin the hard SEAL training. So there is a lot of demand placed on you physically, but there was also a lot of demand mentally. They put you in situations where you are either not going to succeed or you’re not going to succeed as well as you thought you were going to succeed. So they will, for example, they used to play a little bit of mind games. They would say, “Okay, we are going to have a four-mile run on the beach.” And as you were closing in on that last couple of hundred meters, they would go, “Oh no, this isn’t the finish line. The finish line is another couple hundred yards down the beach.” And there were a lot of guys who went, “Come on, I was just coming to the finish line.” “No, the finish line is further on.” So you learned that maybe there is no finish line, and you learned how to deal with failure, and you learned kind of what is really inside you, because you were tested physically every day. You were cold, you were wet, you were miserable, and you still had to perform at a certain level.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Once I got through with basic SEAL training — we call it BUDST, Basic Underwater Demolition SEAL Training — I walked away with a belief that there wasn’t anything else that I was going to encounter in life that was going to be any harder than the last six months. And I will tell you, for the most part, that’s been true. I have never been colder, I have never been more miserable, I have never been more tired. So that is really where the training, I think, helped. But it’s true of a lot of military training, whether you’re an Army Ranger — Ranger training is very similar — Special Forces, Green Beret training is very similar, Air Force Special Tactics training is very similar. So any time you are tested I think you learn a lot about yourself, and I think I was all of 22 years old, so I learned it early.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>A couple of things came out in your commencement speech at the University of Texas. One is that small things we do can be very important. Could you tell us about that?</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">William McRaven: The one thing they teach you in the military is really the value of small things. As I mentioned in the commencement speech, I use the bed as an analogy, but it was a little bit of everything. So every morning you had a uniform inspection, and the military uniform that we wore, you had a brass buckle and you had to polish that brass buckle until the point where there were no smudges, that there were no corrosion, that the brass buckle was perfect. And you would spend hours every night polishing that brass buckle, and then, immediately after the inspection, they would have you go jump in the surf zone and now your buckle would be corroded. But the point they were trying to teach you, much like the bed, is the little details matter. Because the brass buckle and the bed later equated to your weapons system. So when we would go out on operations, your weapon — and in the case when I first started, we carried an M-16 — and you would go out and you would be on an operation all night long. You would come back at about 4:00, 5:00 in the morning. And you are really tired, again, you are cold, wet, and you are tired and all you want to do is take a shower and get in bed. But what’s important is you have to stop and clean your weapon first. And you just can’t do a cursory cleaning of it, particularly not if it’s been in the salt water. You’ve got to do a very thorough cleaning. And if you don’t do that, and then the next morning you go out on another operation, now your weapon is corroded and it might not work when you get in combat. So the point is, the little things matter. And that really does transcend into planning, for example. A lot of people ask me about special operations, and there is this belief that it is the bravado and kind of the cavalier approach. What I learned very early on is that’s not what makes our operation special. What makes our operation special is the level of detailed planning and rehearsals that we do, so that the hard things become simple when you’re in a combat situation. You learn that in every military organization from the very beginning, whether it’s how you spit shine your shoes, how you polish your brass buckle, or how you make your bed. The details matter.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>Isn’t there also an aspect of overcoming your fears? You had to do some dives in the dark waters and in cold waters.</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">William McRaven: You’re absolutely right. You’re being tested across the full range of your emotions and your fears. One of the training evolutions is to do what we call a ship attack.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">As you get up underneath the ship, as you approach a ship, there’s a little bit of light above you. You can see it when you are underwater. But once you get close to the ship, the ship blocks out all the light, and the target for a ship is the keel, the center line of the ship. And as you get under there — one, ships have machinery, so there is a very deafening noise as well which can disorient you very quickly. So you have to maintain your composure, you have to be calm, you have to move to the center line. You cannot see anything. So it is so black you literally can’t see your hand in front of your face, so everything is by feel. And you also know that under a ship there are suctions which could, in fact, pull your facemask off or do some things. So you have to be very calm, very composed as you are making your way to the objective, even in a training environment. So this is another aspect of the SEAL training that’s very important is learning to keep your composure when things are very, very difficult. Again, that is something that will weed a guy. A lot of guys could do the physical part, but when they got to this part that — while it was still physical — it was much more mental. It’s about, “Don’t be afraid under a ship. Be calm, take care of business and then get out and then keep moving on.” So a lot of guys struggled with that and didn’t make it through that part of the training.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>When you were a young man undergoing SEAL training, you might have stopped and thought, “I don’t have to do this. I could be doing something else.” Where did you get the strength of character to pursue something so difficult?</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">William McRaven: The young men that join the SEALs or the Army Green Berets or the Rangers, there is a sense of adventure about them and there is a sense of confidence about them. Ninety-nine percent of the people that come through training have played in some sort of sport. So we had, in my class I had a lot of swimmers and rugby players and water polo players and football players. And so you have a level of confidence, you have a level of a sense of adventure. So you come into a situation like that and there is — and of course when you’re young you’re a little bit cocky. You tell yourself, “There’s nothing I can’t do. I am the best at what I’m doing.” So you challenge yourself, and I think it’s true of any endeavor. So I’m not sure that there was this great strength of character. I think it was, fortunately, being young. You come in probably a little bit overconfident, but you also come in physically strong. And you have gone through a process in high school or other places to really build up your, again, your skill set, your sense of adventure, your sense of character that allows you to get through training.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>Were you athletic, too?</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">William McRaven: I was. I was very small in high school, but I did play football and I ran track in high school, which was really where I found my niche. But I played basketball, football, baseball. That’s how kids my age grew up, particularly in Texas. We played every sport imaginable. We didn’t have video games, so every day you were out doing something. I learned that early on. As I mentioned, my father was an incredible athlete, actually as was my mother. But my father taught me football, baseball, basketball, tennis, a little bit of everything.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>You guys liked to hunt together, too, didn’t you?</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">William McRaven: We did. Dad was a big deer hunter and dove hunter, and we spent a fair amount of time together. I remember he would get home from work around 5:30 in the evening, and if it was during dove hunting season, fortunately we were in an area where it was a couple-mile drive to the dove field. So during dove season we spent a lot of good, quality time together. Or during deer season, he had leases every year and we would go out, sit in the blind and hunt deer. I was very fortunate to have terrific parents and terrific siblings. My sisters have been fabulous as well.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>Let’s talk some more about your family and childhood. We understand your father was also in the military. Could you tell us about that?</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">William McRaven: He was a World War II fighter pilot, World War II, a little bit of Korea time. He joined the Army Air Corps in 1940. He had played professional football with the Cleveland Rams, and as he began to see kind of the storm clouds brewing, if you will, he and five guys left the football team and traveled out to Los Angeles, as I understand, signed up to join the Army Air Corps. And then, by 1940 he was in the Army Air Corps, and then when the war broke out in ’41, he went over to Europe and actually fought in cross-border between Europe and France. He flew actually Spitfires — which was a British plane — flew Spitfires in supporting the bombers as they did the cross-channel operations. Then he was down in Sicily and Salerno. So a pretty active World War II career. And then he had a 26-year career in the Air Force.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>So you grew up with the idea of military service.</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">William McRaven: I did.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>That must have been influential.</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">William McRaven: It was, and it wasn’t just my father. All of his friends were all World War II veterans. So you had this Greatest Generation effect on, I think, both me and my sisters. We had family friends like Tex Hill, and Tex Hill was a very famous fighter pilot during World War II. He had 28 confirmed kills, both as a Navy fighter pilot and then he also was part of the legendary Flying Tigers. We had friends from all walks of life within the military that all retired kind of in the same area. So I was raised from this Greatest Generation. They had a tremendous impact on me.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>What about your mom?</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">William McRaven: My mom was born and raised in Texas and she was independent-minded, but she was kind of a woman of the ’50s in terms of her style. She was very gracious, a good Christian woman, but she also had the classic starched hair and she smoked and had her cocktails at 5:00. But she was just a fabulous mother. My father was kind of the historian and the math guy, and my mother was very much about the arts. She taught me poetry and taught me my love of reading and writing. It was a good balance between my mom and dad.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>Do you remember particular books that meant a lot to you as a kid?</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">William McRaven: I was raised more on poetry than I was on books. My mother gave me the classic <i>101 Famous Poems</i> and I can remember, on at least a weekly basis, we would go through it and read one of the poems. Her favorite poem was Rudyard Kipling’s “If.” “If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you…” My father also liked Teddy Roosevelt, so I read a lot of books on Roosevelt as well. It was this kind of confluence of poetry and biographies that I was raised on.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>Your sister once said that it was possible that James Bond had an influence on you.</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">William McRaven: Well, recognizing that I grew up in the ’60s. I was born in 1955, but my really formative years were in the ’60s. Of course James Bond came into vogue in the early ’60s so I saw every James Bond movie. I wish she hadn’t made that comment, but now it is out there in the public forum and the answer is yes. I was absolutely a huge James Bond fan. And John Wayne. I watched every John Wayne film and every James Bond film.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b><i>Thunderball</i> in particular?</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">William McRaven: <i>Thunderball</i>! I love <i>Thunderball</i> because I actually wanted to be a marine biologist initially, but I think <i>Thunderball</i> got me a little bit off track because I liked the action scenes in <i>Thunderball</i>. I started scuba diving when I was 13 years old, so <i>Thunderball</i> to me was very exciting because of all the underwater scenes. I think that kind of helped propel me in a different direction than being a marine biologist.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>You majored in journalism, didn’t you?</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">William McRaven: I did, but probably for not the right reasons.聽</span><span class="s1">I started off in pre-med, did not do so well in pre-med. And then I went to accounting, did even worse in accounting. I went to journalism because I knew there were good-looking women in journalism, so that was something I figured would be a good pursuit. As it turned out, I could write. Writing came fairly naturally to me. And while I struggled in pre-med, and I struggled in accounting, I got into journalism and we were writing ten-page papers three or four times a week and I loved it. I enjoyed writing. It was, again, a skill that came relatively easy to me. So the courses were easier than the ones I had been in, and I had a phenomenal time over the next two years, my last two years at the University of Texas. I was actually in news reporting so I learned how to do what I think is the best writing, in terms of it had to be clear, it had to be concise, you had to check your facts. And all of those things served me well when I later joined the military.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>Especially in military command, communication is key, isn’t it?</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">William McRaven: Absolutely. People always ask me, “Was it of any value to you?” And I said absolutely. Being able to convey your ideas, whether it’s in a speech or a briefing or just a discussion, is critically important for any walk of life, but particularly in the military.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>Going both up and down the chain of command?</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">William McRaven: Absolutely. Actually more so going down, because you have to be able to instill a little bit of leadership in the troops, and you do that by conveying your ideas clearly and concisely so they understand what we call “commander’s intent.”</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>A journalist for the <i>Dallas Morning News</i>, with tongue in cheek, once asked you what was it about the terrifying world of journalism that caused you to take refuge in the serene, undemanding life of a Navy SEAL.</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">William McRaven: Journalism to me was really, I hate to say this, but it was kind of a means to an end. I was trying to get commissioned, and you had to have a certain grade point average to get commissioned. As I said, I struggled early on with pre-med and with accounting, so my GPA before my final two years was pretty low. Once I got into journalism, I actually did pretty well. I brought my GPA up, and that allowed me to get commissioned. I never really thought I would use my degree in journalism, although it turned out to be very, very helpful.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>Is it true that a Green Beret helped inspire you to become a Navy SEAL?</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">William McRaven: He did.聽</span><span class="s1">I don’t know his name, but he was dating my sister at the time. This was probably — I want to say either the early ’70s or the late ’60s, ’69 or maybe ’70. And he came to the house and what was interesting back then — because the Vietnam War was going on — most Army officers didn’t wear what they call their Class A, so their standard uniform. But my sister was getting ready, the doorbell rang and I think I was 16 or 17 years old I guess at the time, and he came to the door and he was wearing his Class As with his green beret. Of course, I had seen the John Wayne movie, <i>The Green Berets</i>, and I was enamored with the Green Berets. So he came in and we began talking. But at the time my mother was trying to get me a Navy ROTC scholarship. So in talking with this Green Beret who had done a number of tours in Vietnam, he said, “Well, if you want to be in the best there is in the Navy, you need to go be a Navy SEAL.” Well, back in 1970 I had never heard of Navy SEALs. Frankly, most of the public had never heard of Navy SEALs. But when I had a Green Beret telling me to go be a Navy SEAL, I figured that was pretty good advice.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>Why do you think he said that instead of the Green Berets?</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">William McRaven: Well, he knew that I was lining up to have a Naval ROTC scholarship. That had come up in discussion. So I was heading down the Navy path, rather than the Army path. I think if I had been heading down the Army path, he probably would have convinced me to go be a Green Beret.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>Were your parents supportive of your taking the military career so seriously?</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">William McRaven: Oh, absolutely. I think they were very pleased. Actually, my mother kind of moved me towards the military. She was looking for a way to get me through college. I was in high school, I really wasn’t thinking about the next step. She kind of set me up for success with a Naval ROTC scholarship. I think they were very pleased. I think my dad would probably rather have had me go in the Air Force, because he was an Air Force officer, but I chose the Navy path and they were pretty pleased with that.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">I don’t think they fully appreciated when I became a Navy SEAL. I know my mother didn’t understand what I was doing. Because in the Air Force back then, the special services officers were those that took care of the golf course and the gymnasiums and did those sorts of things on an Air Force base. And I remember about eight years after I had become a Navy SEAL, I was home and my mother was having a small party and I overheard a conversation with her and one of her friends. And one of the friends, “Well, so what is Bill doing now?” And my mother took kind of a deep breath and she said, “Well, he’s in special services.” And I could tell the tone in her voice was, there was a little bit of disappointment. And so after the party was over, I said, “Mom, what do you think I do?” And she goes, “Well, you told me you were in special services.” I said, “No mom. I’m in special operations.” She said, “Well, what’s the difference?” Okay, so when she found out I was in special operations, I think that created a level of anxiety that I didn’t anticipate. I said, “Well, I’m jumping out of airplanes, and I’m diving underwater, and I’m blowing things up. And I think she would have appreciated it if I would have stayed in special services rather than special operations.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>Cleaning up golf courses?</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">William McRaven: That’s right, taking care of golf courses.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>Your mom probably did prefer the other scenario.</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">William McRaven: Absolutely. My mother passed away in ’86, so I was a Navy lieutenant at the time. She really never understood what I was doing, I think. It was, “Okay, he is some diver or something in the military.” But in 1986 when she passed away, nobody had heard of Navy SEALs. We were a very small community.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>So your mom might have preferred you to be looking after golf courses, but did your dad live to see your future career?</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">William McRaven: He did. And in fact, when I became a Navy captain, which was equivalent to an Air Force colonel, which he had been, we did the promotion ceremony down in Tampa, Florida, and my father was able to come down. The insignia are the same, they are eagles, so my father was able to pin his eagles on my collar. Unfortunately, a year or so later he had a stroke and was never the same again, but it was a terrific moment for both of us.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>You’ve said that if you try to do difficult things in life, you will probably experience failure fairly often, and it will be painful. There was one point in your military career that didn’t go so well. Could you tell us about your experience of losing a command in the early ’80s?</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">William McRaven: I was a brand new Navy lieutenant, and I went to the premier SEAL team of its time. The commanding officer and I had a disagreement about how things would be run and he was the commanding officer. He essentially fired me, removed me from my position as a commander of a SEAL element and it was a very difficult thing to deal with. I was confident enough in my own skill set that I thought I was good enough to do this job. And then you find that either: one, you are not good enough, or two, the circumstances surrounding you didn’t allow you to continue on, which was my case.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>Can you tell us more about that? Was it a personality conflict? This officer has described himself as something of a loose cannon.</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">William McRaven: He was a very flamboyant officer. He had served in Vietnam as an enlisted man — became a mustang, as we say — he was later commissioned. And he was brilliant in his own way and I harbor absolutely no ill-will against Dick Marcinko. But I was young, and he was trying to shape SEAL Team Six at the time. And I came in with probably a little bit more of a conservative belief in how we should run operations. I believed in kind of the basic tenets of good order and discipline because I had learned that — growing up in the earlier part of my SEAL team — good order and discipline made a difference. It made a difference in the morale of the men, it made a difference in the professionalism of the men, it made a difference in the operations. And Dick Marcinko’s approach was a little bit more, I don’t want to say cavalier, but he had a little bit different approach in terms of how he looked at both the relationship of the men and the relationship of the operation. So it was a little bit of a conflict of personality and a conflict of how business gets done on the SEAL teams. But again, he was the commanding officer. So in a military organization, at the end of the day the commanding officer makes the decisions. And again, I don’t fault him for the decision, but it was one of those things I had to deal with personally when I went on to another SEAL team. Because people knew that I had just been essentially relieved of that command position, and that’s not a good thing in any institution. So you have to be able to — it kind of summons up your personal courage — and decide that, “Okay, things didn’t go so well. I’ve got to prove that I’m as good an officer as I think I am. I have got to continue on.” The option to quit was always there. It’s a volunteer force. I could have gotten up and left.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>Did you consider that?</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">William McRaven: I never did. I wanted to make sure in my own mind and in my own heart that I was capable of doing what needed to get done. Frankly, I look back on it as probably one of the more pivotal moments in my career, but I’m glad I went through it. It allowed me, as I became more senior, when other officers that worked for me had those problems, I had an entirely different approach about how I dealt with it than how I was dealt with during my time there with Dick Marcinko. But he was a good officer, he did good things in terms of building SEAL Team Six and we actually have a good relationship now.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>And you did get another chance.</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">William McRaven: I did get another chance. I went from SEAL Team Six to SEAL Team Four, which was another SEAL team on the East Coast. They immediately gave me a SEAL platoon. For a young officer, that’s an important part of your career building and that platoon went very well. After that, I never looked back.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>What was the state of Naval special operations back there in the 1980s? The world didn’t know a lot about Navy SEALs back then, and there weren’t all that many of them either.</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">William McRaven: When I started, I think we had somewhere in the neighborhood of 200 officers and about 500 enlisted men. So to give you some perspective, today we have over 500 officers and 5,000 enlisted men, so we have grown quite a bit in the Navy SEALs. So back to when I joined, it was a very small community. You kind of, at one point in time if you were on the West Coast you knew every officer on the West Coast. If you were on the East Coast, you knew every officer on the East Coast and every enlisted man. Very small, tight community. But frankly, back in the ’70s when I came in, and then as we went through the ’80s, we had learned a lot. The Vietnam generation kind of raised my generation, but we didn’t have a lot of equipment. We didn’t have a lot of money to train. It was post-Vietnam, so there was this belief that maybe we didn’t need special operations anymore, so the amount of funding and available training opportunities for the SEALs went down dramatically until about the mid-1980s. And then in the mid-1980s everything changed. We had the Reagan buildup, we had the establishment of the U.S. Special Operations Command, and with that came more money and we began to train more. And across the board, not only for Navy SEALs, but for Army Green Berets and the Air Force, we really got a lot better starting in about the mid-’80s.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>There wasn’t much room for promotion in the SEAL program at that time, was there?</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">William McRaven: When I came in, in 1977, there were two Navy captains, one on the East Coast, one on the West Coast. You never had any belief that you would be a Navy captain. All I wanted to be was a Navy lieutenant, a SEAL platoon commander. That really was kind of the pinnacle of your SEAL career at the time, because after that you kind of became a staff officer. Now that is not true anymore, but back in the ’70s and the ’80s, once you got through doing your platoon commander tour, you then became an executive officer, which was more of a staff position, a commanding officer, which was more of a staff position. But I aspired to be a Navy lieutenant. And then, at one point in time I remember, about 15 years into my career, I got a call from the person that moves us around called a detailer. And he called and he said, “Hey, Bill. You’ve screened for command.” And I thought, “Wow, so I’m going to be a commanding officer of a SEAL team!” I hadn’t thought about that until the moment he called. I just kind of went — my event horizon was, “What am I going to do today? How am I going to do that as well as I can? And then when tomorrow comes, I’m going to do that as well as I can, and I’m just going to kind of keep moving forward.” And the thought of being an admiral? We had no admirals. So when I came in, nobody aspired to be an admiral. You couldn’t be an admiral. And with only two captains, I didn’t aspire to be a captain. So I have been very fortunate.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>There’s a lot about your career we can’t talk about, but I wanted to jump to a few months before 9/11. I believe it was July 18, 2001. You led a jump exercise that did not go as planned. Could tell us what happened?</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">William McRaven: We were doing a freefall so a static line parachute is where you hook up inside the aircraft, the freefall you jump out with a parachute on your back. So I was doing a freefall operation out in Southern California outside San Diego. And as I was descending, I noticed that there was a jumper below me on my right side and two jumpers below me on my left side. And the jumper below has got — in terms of freefall they always have the right of way. So I was watching this guy over here, and before I knew it this guy here slid underneath me, so he was probably about 500, 600 feet below me and he opened his parachute. So in relative terms, he was coming up while I was going down. So as he opened his parachute, I kind of hit his parachute. It stunned me. I rolled off him. I rolled off his parachute and was a little stunned. So I pulled my ripcord knowing that I was getting to the altitude where you needed to pull it. And the pilot chute which comes out of the back of the parachute wrapped around one leg and then the risers, the webbing that is part of the parachute wrapped around the other leg and I was falling kind of head down towards the ground. The good news was that it opened; the bad news was when it opened it essentially broke me in two. So it broke my pelvis, it broke my back, it ripped a lot of muscles out. But the good news was I did get to the ground, and they came and picked me up in an ambulance and took me to the hospital and plated me and pinned me and got me back together again.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>It’s extraordinary to have the presence of mind to pull the ripcord when all hell is breaking loose.</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">William McRaven: I think it was just an instinctive reaction. Frankly, the smart thing to do would probably have been to wait and get stable again. I was not stable as I was tumbling because I am not a great freefaller. I was a journeyman freefaller. The right thing to do would probably have been to get stable again and make sure I knew what was going on before I pulled. When I hit the parachute I was dazed a little bit, so I really didn’t know what altitude I was at. I was spinning out of control, and I couldn’t see my altimeter, so I pulled. It worked out good in some respects and not so good in others.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>So the doctors were able to put you back together again.</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">William McRaven: Yeah, a little bit. Plated, pinned. Great doctors. When I look at the injuries that the young kids are sustaining today, mine was like a scratch. It was nothing compared to what these young kids are having to encounter or sustain today.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>So you were laid up for a while. Could you tell us where you were on September 11, 2001, and how you perceived the events of that day?</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">William McRaven: We had moved a hospital bed into my house in base quarters in San Diego. So I was literally lying in a hospital bed in my living room when 9/11 happened, and I was watching it on TV just as everybody else was. I knew right then and there that the world was about to change. It was pretty obvious, because I kind of expected what we would do in terms of our reaction, but frankly I didn’t think I would have any play in it because I was still in a hospital bed and recovering from my injuries. Part of my concern as a Navy SEAL and a military officer was I’m not going to be in a position to help the nation because I’m pretty banged up. But I was very fortunate. I healed. It took me a long time to heal, but I healed enough to be able to get to the White House. Then General Wayne Downing had been selected by the President of the United States to run the Office of Combating Terrorism. And General Downing gave me a call and said, “Hey, how would you like to come work for me?” And he knew I had been in a parachute accident, and it was going to be a staff job on the National Security Council staff. So I jumped at the chance and spent two years there and had an opportunity while I was there to kind of heal. And then after that I went back to an operational unit and kept moving.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>Go back for a moment to September 11. You are watching it more or less live on TV. What went through your mind at that point? How did you receive what was happening?</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">William McRaven: Just like every other American, I was stunned, watching the people of New York and later the Pentagon. I was watching the towers fall on TV, and trying to go through, in my mind, what the people of New York were thinking. How were they going to deal with this? To watch the people of New York and the nation come together after 9/11 and make a strong stand, and be very clear that this act of terrorism was not going to interrupt our way of life in a grander scheme, and that we were going to recover from this was, I thought, one of the most awe-inspiring moments of my life. To see the people of New York, in particular, as I watched them deal with this incredible tragedy and hold their heads high and do the right thing.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>Are we going to keep having to deal with extremism, do you think?</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">William McRaven: Absolutely.聽</span><span class="s1">This is a generational problem. And it requires decisive action, it requires early action. While the American people may not want to have to deal with this, what I would tell them is whether we want to or not, it is going to be out there and it is going to affect the global population and thereby affect us. So we can either deal with it now or we can deal with it later, but we are going to have to deal with it. And some people say, “Well, we can’t be the policemen of the world.” I am not sure at this point in time we have a choice. We are the country that can best deal with this, although we certainly need to build a coalition where we have willing and capable partners to go do it, I’m all about that. But where we don’t have wiling or capable partners, and there is a threat out there, then my opinion is we still need to go take decisive action and do something about it.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>A lot has come out in recent years about problems at home with regard to the treatment of veterans, medically for example. Do you see breakthroughs coming in the future?</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">William McRaven: Within the special operations community, for the last three or four years we have worked very hard on dealing with the issues of our returning soft operators and their families. The families are a big piece of this. We started an initiative called the Preservation of the Force and Family Task Force, the POTFF as we used to refer to it.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">When myself and my command sergeant major — the senior enlisted man that is with me in the command — when we went out and we began to talk to the families, we realized that there were a lot of problems out there and problems that I don’t think we fully appreciated. Even though intuitively we knew these guys had been at war at that point in time for ten, 11 years and the strain on the families and the soldiers was huge. As we began to dig into it more, we found it was a lot deeper and a lot more troubling than we thought. So we in the special operations community have put a lot of effort into a number of things. The physical aspect of this, we find, and the research is very strong, that if a guy is physically healthy, if he works out every day, if his nutrition is good, if he is getting enough sleep at night, he is less likely to have domestic abuse issues, alcohol problems, he is less likely to commit suicide or she is less likely to commit suicide. And we have had, unfortunately, our suicide rate has been a lot higher than we would have liked. So we know there is a physical component to this. There is a mental health component to this as well. And a lot of this is about taking away the stigma of, “I’m a tough Green Beret or Navy SEAL and I’m okay.” No, you may not be okay. Sit down and talk to the psychologist, talk to the chaplain, talk to a friend. Talk to somebody. Talk out your problems and then we’re going to make sure we have the people that can help you deal with those problems.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">And then finally the family piece of this.聽</span><span class="s1">It’s great to take care of the soldiers, but we need to put a lot of effort, and I think a lot of money, into making sure that the wives and the kids are well taken care of. Because it is a very difficult thing, and I have been married for 36 years, and I think my wife would echo this, and we haven’t had to deal with it near as much as these young kids have. So you think about these young soldiers that came in right after 9/11 in the special operations community, and they have been fighting continuously since 9/11. So every time they would go on deployment to Iraq or Afghanistan, their wife or their husband had to say, “What if they don’t come home? What’s going to happen?” And that stress and that strain was incredible. So now we are working to help the families and to make them resilient, to talk to the wives and the husbands and say, “You need to exercise as well. You need better nutrition. We need to figure out how you can get better sleep so you can deal with these problems. And oh, by the way, we’re going to set up mechanisms where you will know what is happening with your husband. You need to know also we’re going to take care of you and your husband or you and your wife.” So this has been an important part of this effort for my time in Special Operations Command. When I look back, I think we did a lot of good things in my tenure as the four-star at Special Operations Command, but that’s the one I take the greatest pride in is knowing that we are taking care of the soldiers and their families.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>You have taken on a pretty big job, now that you’ve left the Navy, as Chancellor of the University of Texas, your alma mater. Do some of the skills that you learned in the military pertain to the rather challenging political job in front of you?</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">William McRaven: I absolutely think they do.聽</span><span class="s1">The University came to me and frankly, that was one of the first questions I asked is, “Why are you interested in me? I don’t have the educational pedigree that a lot of the great chancellors and the presidents have.” But they were looking for the kind of leadership skills that I think I have learned over the last 37 years. The role of the chancellor, unlike the role of the president, is really about establishing a vision. It’s about working with all the stakeholders — so the president, the faculty, the students, the Texas legislature, the Board of Regents, the “Texas Exes” — all these various folks. And I do that today. I mean, a lot of people think that the military is: the commander gives an order and everybody moves out. Well, that’s not the way it works. Like any other large organization you have to lead people. You have to mentor people. You have stakeholders, even within the military. So in my last three years, having worked on Capitol Hill and working with the White House and working with the State Department, I understand how to build this coalition of the willing within the stakeholders and get them to move in the right direction. So in my discussion with the senior leaders on the university system, I think they understood, and that’s why they hired me was to, again, make sure the University was moving in the right direction. The university system — it’s not just about Austin, it’s about the larger university system — was moving in the right direction. And that really requires leadership and management, and I have had an opportunity to do that quite a bit over the last couple of years.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>What does being a Texan mean to you? I gather you weren’t actually born in Texas?</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">William McRaven: No, I was actually born — my father was stationed at Pope Air Force Base and I was born in North Carolina. But we moved to Texas in 1963, I believe, so I went to elementary school, junior high school, high school and then I was at the University of Texas. But my father, who was also a transplanted Texan — my mother was born in Texas, born and raised in Texas — my father was a transplanted Texan, but he loved Texas, as did my mother. And of course, there is an aura, I think, around Texans in the sense that they are folks that believe that, “Hey, you pull yourself up by the bootstrap and you keep moving and you don’t complain about things.” And you have this attitude that things can get done if you just work hard enough and press forward. And so I believe that is true of America in general, but Texans take great pride in that. They take great pride in big ideas. They take pride in doing big and grand things. And so I am happy that the opportunity to be the chancellor at the University of Texas hopefully will give me the opportunity to do big things for the people of Texas.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>At the beginning of that famous commencement speech, you quoted the motto of the University of Texas, which is very powerful, “What starts here changes the world.”</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">William McRaven: I thought it was a great motto. I didn’t really start writing the speech in its final form until about two days before I gave the commencement address. I had started working on a different theme about a week or so earlier, and it just wasn’t working. But I love the idea of “What starts here changes the world.”</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">In my remarks earlier this week at the Academy I talked about the movie <i>It’s a Wonderful Life</i>. And that is a Christmas classic that I grew up with long before DVDs. In the movie <i>It’s a Wonderful Life</i>, there is this great scene where George Bailey, who is played by Jimmy Stewart, is taken to the local graveyard there at Bedford Falls, and the angel Clarence tells him, shows him the headstone, the tombstone of his younger brother Harry. And George protests a little bit and he says, “But Harry didn’t die at the age of six. Harry went on to be a Medal of Honor recipient during World War II because he saved 500 guys on a Navy ship.” And the angel says something that, again, I think was very important for the movie. He says, “But you don’t understand, George. You weren’t there to save your younger brother from falling through the ice, and because of that, your younger brother wasn’t there to save the 500 men on the ship.” So not only — in the course of this movie — the point being you did one brotherly act that saved your brother, your brother went on to save 500 people. What started in Bedford Falls kind of changed the lives of those 500 people. So as I began to think about that. I actually went back to my ops analysis people and I said, “Look. We’ve got 8,000 people graduating tonight. So tell me what it would take to get to them affecting 800 million people. What is that?” And so my folks went by, and it was kind of simple math, and they said, “Well, in about 125 years, if each one of them affects the lives of ten people, and those people affect the lives of ten people, and etc., etc., etc., then exponentially within 125 years you have affected the lives of 800 million people.” So the fact that what starts here can in fact change the world, I think, is a great way to look at it. And as I told them in the commencement address, I said, “I saw this happen all the time in Iraq and Afghanistan, where some young soldier would make a decision, like say I’m going to go left instead of right.” Something doesn’t seem right, and as a result of that the platoon is saved from an IED, or they are saved from an ambush. And that one decision by that officer or that enlisted man all of a sudden just changed the lives, not just of the ten people or the 12 people, but of their children and their children’s children and <i>their</i> children’s children. So this was the point I was trying to bring at “What starts here changes the world.” The idea that one person affecting the life of one other person, or ten other people, can over time change the world.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>That decision to take one path instead of another, that’s instinct. It takes a measure of self-trust.</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">William McRaven: It is, absolutely.聽</span><span class="s1">Part of my discussion the other day was there are some things in life you control. I don’t know that you control the sweeping hands of destiny. I have listened to a lot of the speakers here at the Academy this weekend. It has been fascinating. And almost every one of the stories they talk about, you know, “I was planning on doing this and then all of a sudden I went off and did this.” And to me there’s a little bit of destiny in that. Someone or something that moved them in a different direction. But I said that the things that you do control are the little acts of kindness, the little acts of compassion, the little acts of courage that you can do every day. And you have no idea sometimes how that pat on the back to that soldier or that sailor is going to change their life, and then change their kid’s life and their children’s life. So you can control that and so take the opportunity — every opportunity you can — to be kind, be generous, because you have no idea what that can do for people.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>The importance of the small things.</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">William McRaven: Absolutely, getting back to the details in the little things.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>What does the American Dream mean to you?</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">William McRaven: I am living the American Dream. I really believe that. I was raised in a great household with two wonderful parents and two great sisters. I think what I find interesting about the American Dream is, to quote Bubba Watson, “My dreams didn’t go this far.” I never dreamed of being a four-star admiral in charge of U.S. Special Operations Command, because we didn’t have it. Earlier this week, I think it was Wolf Blitzer talking about being in the right place at the right time and then doing the right thing.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">To me, the American Dream is the opportunity for me to be able to be in the right place at the right time and then do the right thing. Not once, not twice, but a lot of times that kind of moved me along this path to be where I am today. But there was nothing that stopped me. And for me the American Dream is, I look at it today — and this is one of the exciting things about being the chancellor — is I look at the changing demographics, and the changing kind of social fabric we have. And I think the human capital that we have in the Hispanics, in the Asians, in the African Americans, and in the women that are out there — give them an opportunity to get an education and it will change everything. And I have seen this firsthand in Iraq, and Afghanistan in particular, where the female population that we spent a lot of time in Afghanistan trying to get them into schools and were very successful at doing that. I guarantee you that will change everything about Southwest Asia. As the women begin to grow up and they have this great education, and you see the incredible character of women like Malala from Pakistan, it’s all about education. I honestly believe that. If we can educate our young kids coming out of high school, we will buy down fear, we will buy down bigotry, we will buy down all of the bad things if we just do a good job of educating.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>Your work is cut out for you.</b></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">William McRaven: It is, but I’m looking forward to it.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>Thank you, sir.</b></span></p> </div>  </aside>  <div class="read-more__toggle collapsed" data-toggle="collapse" data-target="#full-interview"><a href="#" class="sans-4 btn">Read full interview</a></div> </article> </section> </div> <div class="tab-pane fade" id="gallery" role="tabpanel"> <section class="isotope-wrapper">  <header class="toolbar toolbar--gallery bg-white clearfix"> <div class="col-md-6"> <div class="serif-4">Admiral William H. McRaven, USN Gallery</div> </div> <div class="col-md-6 text-md-right isotope-toolbar"> <ul class="list-unstyled list-inline m-b-0 text-brand-primary sans-4"> <li class="list-inline-item" data-filter=".photo"><i class="icon-icon_camera"></i>13 photos</li> </ul> </div> </header> <div class="isotope-gallery isotope-box single-achiever__gallery clearfix"> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66710526315789" title="May 1, 2011: In the White House Situation Room, President Barack Obama and members of his national security team monitor the raid on Osama bin Laden's compound in Pakistan. He is joined by Vice President Joe Biden (seated, left) and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Defense Secretary Robert Gates (both seated, right). As they watch drone video of the compound, Admiral William McRaven gives them a live briefing by secure video link from a base in Jalalabad, Afghanistan. (White House photo)" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - May 1, 2011: In the White House Situation Room, President Barack Obama and members of his national security team monitor the raid on Osama bin Laden's compound in Pakistan. He is joined by Vice President Joe Biden (seated, left) and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Defense Secretary Robert Gates (both seated, right). As they watch drone video of the compound, Admiral William McRaven gives them a live briefing by secure video link from a base in Jalalabad, Afghanistan. (White House photo)">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/mcr0-011.jpg" data-image-caption="May 1, 2011: In the White House Situation Room, President Barack Obama and members of his national security team monitor the raid on Osama bin Laden's compound in Pakistan. He is joined by Vice President Joe Biden (seated, left) and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Defense Secretary Robert Gates (both seated, right). As they watch drone video of the compound, Admiral William McRaven gives them a live briefing by secure video link from a base in Jalalabad, Afghanistan. (White House photo)" data-image-copyright="mcr0-011" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/mcr0-011-380x253.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/03/mcr0-011-760x507.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.68421052631579" title="University of Texas Chancellor William McRaven at a 2015 press conference in Austin, Texas. (AP Photo/Austin American-Statesman, Ricardo B. Brazziell)" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - University of Texas Chancellor William McRaven at a 2015 press conference in Austin, Texas. (AP Photo/Austin American-Statesman, Ricardo B. Brazziell)">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/mcr0-009.jpg" data-image-caption="University of Texas Chancellor William McRaven at a 2015 press conference in Austin, Texas. (AP Photo/Austin American-Statesman, Ricardo B. Brazziell)" data-image-copyright="Bill McRaven" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/mcr0-009-380x260.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/03/mcr0-009-760x520.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.79210526315789" title="Sgt. Cory Remsburg, USA, speaks with Admiral William McRaven, during Remsburg's 2014 retirement ceremony. An Army Ranger, Remsburg was severely wounded in a 2009 firefight with enemy forces in Afghanistan. He has since become a national figure who was highlighted during President Obama's 2014 State of the Union Address. (AP Photo/Savannah Morning News, Corey Dickstein)" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - Sgt. Cory Remsburg, USA, speaks with Admiral William McRaven, during Remsburg's 2014 retirement ceremony. An Army Ranger, Remsburg was severely wounded in a 2009 firefight with enemy forces in Afghanistan. He has since become a national figure who was highlighted during President Obama's 2014 State of the Union Address. (AP Photo/Savannah Morning News, Corey Dickstein)">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/mcr0-008.jpg" data-image-caption="Sgt. Cory Remsburg, USA, speaks with Admiral William McRaven, during Remsburg's 2014 retirement ceremony. An Army Ranger, Remsburg was severely wounded in a 2009 firefight with enemy forces in Afghanistan. He has since become a national figure who was highlighted during President Obama's 2014 State of the Union Address. (AP Photo/Savannah Morning News, Corey Dickstein)" data-image-copyright="Sgt. 1st Class Cory Rembsburg, Adm. William McRaven" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/mcr0-008-380x301.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/03/mcr0-008-760x602.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.94473684210526" title="In May 2011, President Barack Obama meets with Admiral William McRaven, commander of Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. Just days earlier, Admiral McRaven led operational control of Navy SEAL Team Six's successful mission to eliminate Osama bin Laden, the world's most wanted terrorist leader. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - In May 2011, President Barack Obama meets with Admiral William McRaven, commander of Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. Just days earlier, Admiral McRaven led operational control of Navy SEAL Team Six's successful mission to eliminate Osama bin Laden, the world's most wanted terrorist leader. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/mcr0-007.jpg" data-image-caption="In May 2011, President Barack Obama meets with Admiral William McRaven, Commander of Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. Just days earlier, Admiral McRaven led operational control of Navy SEAL Team Six's successful mission to eliminate Osama bin Laden, the world's most wanted terrorist leader. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)" data-image-copyright="Barack Obama, William McRaven" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/mcr0-007-380x359.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/03/mcr0-007-760x718.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66710526315789" title="An Afghan strike force trained by U.S. Special Operations completes a training session at Camp Morehead, Afghanistan. Admiral McRaven created a plan to replace thousands of U.S. troops in Afghanistan with small special ops teams paired with larger Afghan units to prevent a resurgence of the Taliban. (AP Photo/Dar Yasin)" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - An Afghan strike force trained by U.S. Special Operations completes a training session at Camp Morehead, Afghanistan. Admiral McRaven created a plan to replace thousands of U.S. troops in Afghanistan with small special ops teams paired with larger Afghan units to prevent a resurgence of the Taliban. (AP Photo/Dar Yasin)">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/mcr0-006.jpg" data-image-caption="An Afghan strike force trained by U.S. Special Operations completes a training session at Camp Morehead, Afghanistan. Admiral McRaven created a plan to replace thousands of U.S. troops in Afghanistan with small special ops teams paired with larger Afghan units to prevent a resurgence of the Taliban. (AP Photo/Dar Yasin)" data-image-copyright="Afghanistan Special Operations" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/mcr0-006-380x253.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/03/mcr0-006-760x507.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.71447368421053" title="Former CIA Director David Petraeus presents Admiral William McRaven with the Golden Plate Award of the Academy of Achievement at the 2014 International Achievement Summit in San Francisco. (漏 Academy of Achievement)" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - Former CIA Director David Petraeus presents Admiral William McRaven with the Golden Plate Award of the Academy of Achievement at the 2014 International Achievement Summit in San Francisco. (漏 Academy of Achievement)">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/mcr0-005.jpg" data-image-caption="Former CIA Director David Petraeus presents Admiral William McRaven with the Golden Plate Award of the Academy of Achievement at the 2014 International Achievement Summit in San Francisco. (漏 Academy of Achievement)" data-image-copyright="mcr0-005" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/mcr0-005-380x271.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/03/mcr0-005-760x543.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.4100185528757" title="Admiral William McRaven attends the 2011 Medal of Honor ceremony for Sgt. Leroy Arthur Petry, USA, at the White House. (漏 Shawn Thew/EPA/Corbis)" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - Admiral William McRaven attends the 2011 Medal of Honor ceremony for Sgt. Leroy Arthur Petry, USA, at the White House. (漏 Shawn Thew/EPA/Corbis)">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/mcr0-004.jpg" data-image-caption="Admiral William McRaven attends the 2011 Medal of Honor ceremony for Sgt. Leroy Arthur Petry, USA, at the White House. (漏 Shawn Thew/EPA/Corbis)" data-image-copyright="US President Barack Obama awards the Medal of Honor" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/mcr0-004-269x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/03/mcr0-004-539x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66710526315789" title="Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak discusses the civil war in Syria and the threat of ISIS with Admiral William McRaven at the 2014 International Achievement Summit. (漏 Academy of Achievement)" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak discusses the civil war in Syria and the threat of ISIS with Admiral William McRaven at the 2014 International Achievement Summit. (漏 Academy of Achievement)">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/mcr0-003.jpg" data-image-caption="Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak discusses the civil war in Syria and the threat of ISIS with Admiral William McRaven at the 2014 International Achievement Summit. (漏 Academy of Achievement)" data-image-copyright="mcr0-003" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/mcr0-003-380x253.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/03/mcr0-003-760x507.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66578947368421" title="Admiral William McRaven at the 2014 International Achievement Summit in San Francisco with his wife Georgeann (right) and Cindy Breedlove (left), wife of NATO Commander Philip Breedlove. (漏 Academy of Achievement)" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - Admiral William McRaven at the 2014 International Achievement Summit in San Francisco with his wife Georgeann (right) and Cindy Breedlove (left), wife of NATO Commander Philip Breedlove. (漏 Academy of Achievement)">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/mcr0-002.jpg" data-image-caption="Admiral William McRaven at the 2014 International Achievement Summit in San Francisco with his wife, Georgeann (right), and Cindy Breedlove (left), wife of NATO Commander Philip Breedlove. (漏 Academy of Achievement)" data-image-copyright="mcr0-002" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/mcr0-002-380x253.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/03/mcr0-002-760x506.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1" title="William and Georgeann McRaven enjoy a visit to California's Napa Valley with the Academy of Achievement. (漏 Academy of Achievement)" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - William and Georgeann McRaven enjoy a visit to California's Napa Valley with the Academy of Achievement. (漏 Academy of Achievement)">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/mcr0-001.jpg" data-image-caption="William and Georgeann McRaven enjoy a visit to California's Napa Valley with the Academy of Achievement. (漏 Academy of Achievement)" data-image-copyright="mcr0-001" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/mcr0-001-380x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/03/mcr0-001-760x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.25" title="Academy members Admiral William McRaven, USN, General Philip Breedlove, USAF, General David Petraeus, USA." data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - Academy members Admiral William McRaven, USN, General Philip Breedlove, USAF, General David Petraeus, USA.">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/400.jpg" data-image-caption="Academy members Admiral William McRaven, USN, General Philip Breedlove, USAF, and General David Petraeus, USA, at the 2014 Banquet of the Golden Plate ceremonies in San Francisco, California. (漏 Academy of Achievement)" data-image-copyright="400" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/400-304x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2015/12/400-608x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.75" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wp-GettyImages-172044198_master.jpg" data-image-caption="2013: Admiral William McRaven, Commander of the United States Special Operations Command at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. (Sebastien Micke/Paris Match/Contour by Getty Images)" data-image-copyright="William McRaven, Paris Match, Issue 3345" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wp-GettyImages-172044198_master-380x285.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wp-GettyImages-172044198_master-760x570.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.3893967093236" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/makeyourbed-mcraven.jpg" data-image-caption=""Make Your Bed" by Admiral William H. McRaven. On May 17, 2014, Admiral William H. McRaven addressed the graduating class of the University of Texas at Austin on their Commencement day. Taking inspiration from the university's slogan, "What starts here changes the world," he shared the ten principles he learned during Navy Seal training that helped him overcome challenges not only in his training and long Naval career, but also throughout his life; and he explained how anyone can use these basic lessons to change themselves-and the world-for the better. Admiral McRaven's original speech went viral with over 10 million views. Building on the core tenets laid out in his speech, McRaven now recounts tales from his own life and from those of people he encountered during his military service who dealt with hardship and made tough decisions with determination, compassion, honor, and courage. Told with great humility and optimism, this timeless book provides simple wisdom, practical advice, and words of encouragement that will inspire readers to achieve more, even in life's darkest moments." data-image-copyright="makeyourbed-mcraven" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/makeyourbed-mcraven-273x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/04/makeyourbed-mcraven-547x760.jpg"></div>  </figure>    </div> </section> </div> </div> <div class="container"> <footer class="editorial-article__footer col-md-8 col-md-offset-4"> <div class="editorial-article__next-link sans-3"> <a href="#"><strong>What's next:</strong> <span class="editorial-article__next-link-title">profile</span></a> </div> <ul class="social list-unstyled list-inline ssk-group m-b-0"> <li class="list-inline-item"><a href="" class="ssk ssk-facebook" data-gtm-category="social" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Shared Achiever on Facebook"><i class="icon-icon_facebook-circle"></i></a></li> <li class="list-inline-item"><a href="" class="ssk ssk-twitter" data-gtm-category="social" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Shared Achiever on Twitter"><i class="icon-icon_twitter-circle"></i></a></li>  <li class="list-inline-item"><a href="" class="ssk ssk-email" data-gtm-category="social" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Shared Achiever via Email"><i class="icon-icon_email-circle"></i></a></li> </ul> <time class="editorial-article__last-updated sans-6">This page last revised on August 13, 2018</time> <div class="sans-4"><a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/how-to-cite" target="_blank">How to cite this page</a></div> </footer> </div> <div class="container interview-related-achievers"> <hr class="m-t-3 m-b-3"/> <footer class="clearfix small-blocks text-xs-center"> <h3 class="m-b-3 serif-3">If you are inspired by this achiever, you might also enjoy:</h3> <div class="centered-blocks"> <div class="isotope-achiever public-service experienced-war-firsthand illness-or-disability imprisonment-persecution racism-discrimination ambitious spiritual-religious join-the-military pursue-public-office work-in-medicine " data-year-inducted="1968" data-achiever-name="Inouye"> <div class="achiever-block view-grid"> <a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/daniel-inouye/"> <figure class="ratio-container ratio-container--square bg-black"> <div class="lazyload box achiever-block__image" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/inouye-Achiever-Profile-Square-760-190x190.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/05/inouye-Achiever-Profile-Square-760-380x380.jpg"></div> <div class="achiever-block__overlay"></div> <figcaption class="text-xs-center achiever-block__text"> <div class="display--table"> <div class="display--table-cell"> <div class="achiever-block__text--center"> <div class="achiever-block__name text-brand-primary">Daniel K. 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Carter Brown</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/linda-buck/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Linda Buck, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/carol-burnett/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Carol Burnett</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/george-h-w-bush/"><span class="achiever-list-name">George H. W. Bush</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/susan-butcher/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Susan Butcher</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/james-cameron/"><span class="achiever-list-name">James Cameron</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/benjamin-s-carson/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Benjamin S. Carson, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/jimmy-carter/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Jimmy Carter</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/johnny-cash/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Johnny Cash</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/william-j-clinton/"><span class="achiever-list-name">William J. Clinton</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/francis-s-collins/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/denton-a-cooley/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Denton A. Cooley, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/francis-ford-coppola/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Francis Ford Coppola</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ray-dalio/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ray Dalio</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/olivia-de-havilland/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Dame Olivia de Havilland</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/michael-e-debakey-m-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Michael E. DeBakey, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/michael-dell/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Michael S. Dell</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ron-dennis/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ron Dennis</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/joan-didion/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Joan Didion</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/david-herbert-donald-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">David Herbert Donald, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/rita-dove/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Rita Dove</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sylvia-earle/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sylvia Earle, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/elbaradei/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Mohamed ElBaradei</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/gertrude-elion/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Gertrude B. Elion, M.Sc.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/larry-j-ellison/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Larry J. Ellison</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/nora-ephron/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Nora Ephron</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/julius-erving/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Julius Erving</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/tony-fadell/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Tony Fadell</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/paul-farmer/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Paul Farmer, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/suzanne-farrell/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Suzanne Farrell</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sally-field/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sally Field</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/lord-norman-foster/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Lord Norman Foster</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/aretha-franklin/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Aretha Franklin</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/milton-friedman-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Milton Friedman, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/carlos-fuentes/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Carlos Fuentes</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/athol-fugard/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Athol Fugard</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ernest-j-gaines/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ernest J. Gaines</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/william-h-gates-iii/"><span class="achiever-list-name">William H. Gates III</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/frank-gehry/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Frank O. Gehry</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/murray-gell-mann-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Murray Gell-Mann, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/carlos-ghosn/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Carlos Ghosn</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/vince-gill/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Vince Gill</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ruth-bader-ginsburg/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ruth Bader Ginsburg</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/louise-gluck/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Louise Gl眉ck</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/whoopi-goldberg/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Whoopi Goldberg</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/jane-goodall/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Dame Jane Goodall</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/doris-kearns-goodwin/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Doris Kearns Goodwin, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/mikhail-s-gorbachev/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Mikhail S. Gorbachev</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/nadine-gordimer/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Nadine Gordimer</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/stephen-jay-gould/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Stephen Jay Gould, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/carol-greider-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Carol Greider, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/john-grisham/"><span class="achiever-list-name">John Grisham</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/dorothy-hamill/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Dorothy Hamill</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/demis-hassabis-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Demis Hassabis, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/lauryn-hill/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Lauryn Hill</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sir-edmund-hillary/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sir Edmund Hillary</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/reid-hoffman/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Reid Hoffman</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/khaled-hosseini/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Khaled Hosseini, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ron-howard/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ron Howard</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/john-hume/"><span class="achiever-list-name">John Hume</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/louis-ignarro-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Louis Ignarro, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/daniel-inouye/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Daniel K. Inouye</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/jeremy-irons/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Jeremy Irons</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/john-irving/"><span class="achiever-list-name">John Irving</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/kazuo-ishiguro/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Kazuo Ishiguro</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sir-peter-jackson/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sir Peter Jackson</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/donald-c-johanson/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Donald C. Johanson, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/frank-m-johnson/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Frank M. Johnson, Jr.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/philip-johnson/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Philip C. Johnson</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/chuck-jones/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Chuck Jones</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/james-earl-jones/"><span class="achiever-list-name">James Earl Jones</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/quincy-jones/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Quincy Jones</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/beverly-joubert/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Beverly Joubert</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/dereck-joubert/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Dereck Joubert</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/paul-kagame/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Paul Kagame</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/thomas-keller-2/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Thomas Keller</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/anthony-m-kennedy/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Anthony M. Kennedy</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/b-b-king/"><span class="achiever-list-name">B.B. King</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/carole-king/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Carole King</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/coretta-scott-king/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Coretta Scott King</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/henry-kissinger-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Henry A. Kissinger, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/willem-j-kolff/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Willem J. Kolff, M.D., Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/wendy-kopp/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Wendy Kopp</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/henry-r-kravis/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Henry R. Kravis</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/nicholas-d-kristof/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Nicholas D. Kristof</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/mike-krzyzewski/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Mike Krzyzewski</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ray-kurzwell/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ray Kurzweil</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/eric-lander-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Eric S. Lander, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/robert-s-langer-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Robert S. Langer, Sc.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/richard-leakey/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Richard E. Leakey</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/leon-lederman-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Leon Lederman, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/robert-lefkowitz-m-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Robert J. Lefkowitz, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/congressman-john-r-lewis/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Congressman John R. Lewis</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/maya-lin/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Maya Lin</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/george-lucas/"><span class="achiever-list-name">George Lucas</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/norman-mailer/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Norman Mailer</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/peyton-manning/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Peyton Manning</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/wynton-marsalis/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Wynton Marsalis</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/john-c-mather-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">John C. Mather, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/johnny-mathis/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Johnny Mathis</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ernst-mayr-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ernst Mayr, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/willie-mays/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Willie Mays</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/frank-mccourt/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Frank McCourt</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/david-mccullough/"><span class="achiever-list-name">David McCullough</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/audra-mcdonald/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Audra McDonald</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/admiral-william-h-mcraven/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Admiral William H. McRaven, USN</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/w-s-merwin/"><span class="achiever-list-name">W. S. Merwin</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/james-a-michener/"><span class="achiever-list-name">James A. Michener</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/marvin-minsky-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Marvin Minsky, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/mario-j-molina-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Mario J. Molina, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/n-scott-momaday-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">N. Scott Momaday, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/story-musgrave/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Story Musgrave, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ralph-nader/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ralph Nader</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/peggy-noonan/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Peggy Noonan</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/jessye-norman/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Jessye Norman</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/tommy-norris/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Lt. Thomas R. Norris, USN</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/joyce-carol-oates/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Joyce Carol Oates</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/pierre-omidyar/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Pierre Omidyar</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/jimmy-page/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Jimmy Page</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/larry-page/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Larry Page</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/arnold-palmer/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Arnold Palmer</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/leon-panetta/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Leon Panetta</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/rosa-parks/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Rosa Parks</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/suzan-lori-parks/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Suzan-Lori Parks</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/linus-pauling/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Linus C. Pauling, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/shimon-peres/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Shimon Peres</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/itzhak-perlman/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Itzhak Perlman</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/general-david-petraeus/"><span class="achiever-list-name">General David H. Petraeus, USA</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sidney-poitier/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sidney Poitier</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180927040818/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/general-colin-l-powell/"><span class="achiever-list-name">General Colin L. 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