...that don’t involve their missions. Even when they’re not blowing things up and killing Bin Laden, these guys rock.
Since 1962, they’ve carried out missions by land, sea, and air. But they’ve done so much more for us than kill bad guys: Here’s a look at some of their greatest hits that have nothing to do with missions...
1. THEY TOOK OUT "FIFTY SHADES OF GREY"
The Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy had been riding atop Amazon’s bestsellers list for six straight months. Although a few books had momentarily taken over the #1 spot on Amazon.com, none had done so for longer than a few hours. The long national nightmare finally came to an end on September 4th with the publication of former Navy SEAL Mark Owen’s No Easy Day: The Firsthand Account of the Mission That Killed Osama Bin Laden. (“Mark Owen” is a pen name.) As of this writing, the Navy SEAL book is still on top.
Bobby Bank / WireImage | Licensed to Alpha Media Group 2012
2. THEY GOT INTO A BAR FIGHT WITH A PROFESSIONAL WRESTLER
In 2006, Navy SEAL Chris Kyle (“the military’s deadliest sniper”) ran into former professional wrestler, Minnesota governor, and SEAL reservist Jesse Ventura in a bar. Kyle and his fellow SEALs were in the bar with the family of deceased Medal of Honor recipient Mike Mansoor when Ventura, who happened to be in town, walked in. Ventura started to talk about his objections to the Iraq War, and Kyle asked him to tone his rhetoric down—after all, they were gathered to honor a fallen comrade. When Ventura kept mouthing off, Kyle punched him out.
Icon / SMI / Retna Ltd. | Licensed to Alpha Media Group 2012
3. THEY CALLED TIGER WOODS ON HIS B.S.
In 2006, Tiger Woods visited the Naval Special Warfare Center off the coast of San Diego and—according to a book by his former coach—undertook "a program that approximated the training for a Navy SEAL candidate... He did training in parachuting, self-defense, urban-warfare simulations and shooting." When his coach told him that he was too old to be a SEAL (the age limit is 28), the 30-year-old Woods reportedly said, "It's not a problem. They're making a special age exemption for me." A SEAL spokesperson confirmed Woods' visits to their facility but emphatically denied that the golfer had trainedwith them or would have been given any such exemption to join. "We never understood his visits to mean he was interested in becoming a SEAL," the spokesperson said.
4. THEY TRIED TO SAVE US FROM A CRAPPY MOVIE
Remember the 1990 crapfest Navy SEALs? We’re happy to report that the Navy was as uncooperative as possible during filming. While they had previously leant their support to films such as The Hunt for Red October (an awesome movie), their Hollywood liaison reviewed the Navy SEALs script and decided it wasn’t up to their standards. “The project is not one the Navy feels comfortable with,” a Navy spokesperson said. When the film was released, critics agreed: Reviews were overwhelmingly negative, and the movie has a weak 19% critical consensus on Rotten Tomatoes.
5. THEY HAVE A TWISTED SENSE OF HUMOR
In No Easy Day, Mark Owen reveals that even the most hardened soldiers have a sense of humor. During one practice run at an abandoned Miami hotel, Owen and his fellow SEALs found a 12-inch sex toy that they nicknamed the "Staff of Power." The toy popped up everywhere over the next several months, from their vehicles to inside gas masks to in a bin of animal crackers. The toy disappeared, and is still on the loose. "To date the Staff of Power is unaccounted for," Owen writes. "I still can't eat animal crackers."
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