Why I left Navy Seals: I wanted more action and to avoid loneliness

This trial also filed is based on a conversation with Shawn Ryan, a former entrepreneur of Navy Seal and the CIA, and the host of the “Shawn Ryan Show”, a podcast sharing uncon censored stories and in the first person of military veterans, agents of the application of laws and other careers with large challenges. It was published for duration and clarity.

One of the reasons why I left Navy Seals after almost six years is that I did not have enough action.

I was very Gung-Ho to go to war.

I had seen battles in Haiti, Afghanistan and Iraq, but the reality is that you could go up for six years and pass a small game in fact. The rest is training and waiting.

I also saw what over 20 years as a seal will do to someone – to their bodies and their family life.

Many of us have the same injuries and the same symptoms, such as back and knee problems, SSPT and traumatic brain lesions. In addition, almost everyone I knew was divorced, had divorced or divorced. Many of them did not know their children very well.

Your peloton, your teammates, are your main family. Families are secondary. I knew that if I stayed at the rate I was going to, I would be a very lonely retired person.

How I became a Navy seal

I didn’t even know what a Seal Navy was when I decided to join the US military.

I first tried the navy. They told me that I had to go from infantry. Then I went to the army, I told them that I wanted to be a green beret. They somehow laughed at me from the office.

A recruiter of the navy saw me and said to me: “Hey, have you ever thought of the Seal teams?” He gave me a brochure. This is how it started.

I went to the library and I checked each book that I could find on special operations and Navy seals; I looked at all the documentaries on National Geographic and Discovery; And decided that was what I’m going to do.

I did not leave the seals because I had finished with the fight

I succeeded in the buds (underwater demolition / basic seal) and I deployed in Haiti in 2004. These are civil disorders everywhere, but our duties were recognition missions which essentially involved theft on a helicopter every morning in various cities to signal civil disorders.

It was not enough for me and made me really hungry more. I wanted to go to the Middle East.

In Iraq, we were sent with conventional units that have been struck with IED and ambushes. We were going to enter, would train them, then take them into real missions and killed the guys who killed them.

My transition to normal life was difficult

After leaving the navy, I worked for the CIA for a while, which was similar in intensity but I paid four to five times more than what I did as a seal.

After leaving the CIA, I moved from the country in Colombia and I really did cocaine and alcohol. It became a vicious circle, but finally I got out of him and returned to the United States and I launched my podcast the “Shawn Ryan Show”.

I wanted to document the story from the point of view of veterans. I was tired that consumer media badly telling the military stories.

Everyone I brought to the podcast at the start had been through the low points, adrenaline dependencies, drug addiction, broken families, suicide attempts. Many have also found some form of success thanks to entrepreneurship.

We have been running the show since 2019 and now approach our 200th episode. I interviewed many active soldiers and veterans, and one thing that I have learned is that people benefit from hearing their stories.

If I had not left the seals and I had all the experiences I had, I would not have met my wife, created this podcast and met the people who have become my extended family.

When people hear that someone else has succeeded, they start to believe that they may also be.

If you have a unique military story that you want to share, please send an email to the publisher, Jessica Orwig, to jorwig@businessinsider.com.

This story has been adapted from Ryan’s interview For the Business Insider series, “Authorized account.“Find out more about his life before and after the Navy Seals in the video below: