Growing up, Adam Brown started his life like many American boys. He loved taking risks, pursuing adventures, and playing football for his high school team. But when he died on March 17, 2010 in the Hindu Kush Mountains of Afghanistan, he had become a man who served his country with excellence as an elite warrior and leader. Fearless by Eric Blehm is a tribute to the life and legacy of Navy SEAL Team SIX Operator Adam Brown.
As a young man, Adam always tried to honor his family, but there was a time when it seemed that his life might take a downward turn. Lacking purpose after high school, Adam fell in with the wrong crowd and became addicted to drugs, landing himself in jail. Taking the wake-up call to turn his life around, Adam began to search for meaning. He found it in giving his life to Jesus Christ, finding the love of his life, Kelly, and in the dream to become a Navy SEAL.
Adam’s determination and hard work propelled him to reach higher and higher until his dream of becoming a Navy Seal was realized. Even after reaching his goal, Adam was always the first to volunteer for the most dangerous assignments. His final act of bravery led to the ultimate sacrifice, and the devoted family man and soldier was killed in action. Fearless is an unforgettable tale of a true American hero–a man of courage and daring who gave his all in service to his country.
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Eric Blehm is a bestselling and award-winning author of nonfiction books. In 2006, he won the Barnes & Noble Discover Award for The Last Season (HarperCollins), a gripping account of the disappearance of legendary National Park Service ranger Randy Morgenson; The Last Season was also named by Outside magazine as one of the ten “greatest adventure biographies ever written” in 2009. Blehm’s next book, New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller The Only Thing Worth Dying For (HarperCollins, 2010), was hailed by former congressman Charlie Wilson, of Charlie Wilson’s War, as a “must read” among books about the current war in Afghanistan.
In 1999, Blehm became the first journalist to accompany and keep pace with an elite Army Ranger unit on a training mission. His access into the Special Operations community and reportage set an important milestone for American war journalism two years before reporters began to gain widespread embedded status with the U.S. military in the War Against Terror. Blehm’s immersion with the Rangers is what led him to the previously untold story of an elite team of eleven Green Berets who operated in the hinterland of Taliban-held Afghanistan just weeks after 9/11 (The Only Thing Worth Dying For), as well as to his current book: Fearless (Waterbrook/Multnomah; Random House). On sale in May 2012, Fearless is the heartrending and inspiring story of Naval Special Warfare Operator (SEAL) Adam Brown, who overcame tremendous odds in his rise to the top tier of the U.S. military: SEAL Team Six.
Blehm is the founder of Molly the Owl Books, the independent publishing company behind Molly the Owl—his popular nonfiction children’s book about a barn owl and her family—which won the 2011 Nautilus Award and the 2011 San Diego Book Award. Currently, he is working on his next nonfiction book, which takes place during the Cold War era.
My Impressions:
I have mixed feelings about Fearless, the account of real life hero and Navy SEAL, Adam Brown. While I feel that the story of Adam’s life — his childhood, troubled young adulthood, his journey to become a SEAL and the struggles he faced due to his one time addiction — is a triumph of God’s power and provision, I am reluctant to recommend it to just anyone because of the profanity and crude language it contains. I am not so naive to believe that the men our country trains to be our ultimate warriors are choir boys, but I am a little dismayed that Waterbrook (the publisher) chose not to edit the manuscript more closely. I say all this because while I feel Fearless is certainly a story worth reading, you (the future reader) should be aware of some of its content.
Fearless is the story of a real man. Adam Brown did have a lot of the characteristics of a super hero: grit and determination, the attitude that he would rather die than quit and a love of family and country not to be paralleled. But Adam was human as well. He hit bottom before joining the Navy — drugs, felony charges, and the loss of respect and trust of his family and friends. He struggled with the lure of drugs even into his Navy career. But his steadfast faith and the love of his wife brought Adam to be the man that could be used by his country and by his God. And the fact that he wanted his story, all of it, to be told is a testament to his trust in God and His power to change lives.
So should you read Fearless? If you want to know about a very courageous young man whose faith was in God and want to know a little of what our most elite warriors do to prepare and fight, then yes. But be aware that the language may offend.
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(I received Fearless from Waterbrook in return for a review. The opinions expressed are mine alone.)
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