I'll be honest with you - I'm no hero. Sure, the media tries to brand every Navy SEAL as some kind of Batman dressed in cammies. There's even a line in one of our cadences: "Superman is the man of steel, he ain't no match for Navy SEAL." You've seen the movies - we're indestructible, invincible. But that night, the one you read about in the papers...all I really wanted to do was get laid. 

One harmless f*** with a Curaçao whore, no strings attached. I picked her out of a lineup - wild, dark hair, long legs and a crooked smile. After she sucked me off, I relaxed back onto the creaky, cum-stained cot, thankful for the blissful moments she gave me when I actually forgot for a second the faces of my buddies who died because I made the wrong call, the tears of the children I couldn't save, and the eyes of the enemies I slaughtered during their last seconds of life. 

But before I left, her hazel eyes peered into my soul. She whispered in a distinct Californian accent, "My name is Annie Hamilton. I'm an American citizen. I was kidnapped from a cruise ship five years ago. You're my last hope. Please save me." 

One desperate plea. This wasn't a Hollywood blockbuster or a New York Times best-selling thriller. I knew that this time there was no room for excuses, no margin for errors. I had one chance to put the cape on and be her hero.