Mark Owen Quotes

“There is no honor in sending men to die for something you won't even fight for yourself”

— Mark Owen

“Don't just live, but live for a purpose bigger than yourself. Be an asset to your family, community, and country.”

— Mark Owen

“I learned there that the key was first to prioritize all the individual stressors and then act. I break it all down into the little things I can manage. The stressors that I can't affect, I don't worry about. The ones I can affect, I simply deal with one at a time.”

— Mark Owen

Just get to lunch," I muttered to myself.
It was the only way I could control my anxiety. In 1998, I'd made it through Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL, or BUD/S, by focusing on just making it to the next meal. It didn't matter if I couldn't feel my arms as we hoisted logs over our heads or if the cold surf soaked me to the core. It wasn't going to last forever. There is a saying: "How do you eat an elephant?" The answer is simple: "One bite at a time." Only my bites were separated by meals: Make it to breakfast, train hard until lunch, and focus until dinner. Repeat.

— Mark Owen

“Staying in my three-foot world became a mantra for me. It is liberating once you let go of the things you can't control. It seems to work for just about any situation.”

— Mark Owen

“[to Navy SEALs] Quite frankly, I didn't even want to use you guys, with your dip and velcro and all your gear bullshit. I wanted to drop a bomb. But people didn't believe in this lead enough to drop a bomb. So they're using you guys as canaries. And, in theory, if bin Laden isn't there, you can sneak away and no one will be the wiser. But bin Laden is there. And you're going to kill him for me.”

— Mark Owen

“The rule is, "When in doubt, load it out." Of course the more you carry, the greater a toll it takes on your body, the slower you move, the harder it is to react quickly to a threat.”

— Mark Owen

“We were tools in their toolbox, and when things go well they promote it. They inflate their roles.”

— Mark Owen

“There is no "secret sauce," but there is a lot of hard work, dedication, and drive.”

— Mark Owen

“The higher up the food chain the targeted individual was, the bigger a pussy he was.”

— Mark Owen

I watched as the instructors corrected a SEAL and ordered him to do ten push-ups as punishment. As soon as the SEAL started, his buddies hit the floor too.

— Mark Owen

The leaders were less willing to fight. It is always the young and impressionable who strap on the explosives and blow themselves up.

— Mark Owen

“When you're more experienced and have been in the car crash a million times, and have made mistakes and learned from them, everything slows down and something as small as shoes can stand out.”

— Mark Owen

“Politics are for the Washington, D.C., policy makers who safely watched the action on a video monitor from thousands of miles away.”

— Mark Owen

“It is liberating once you let go of the things that you can't control.”

— Mark Owen

“I had no idea if the photos [of Osama bin Laden's dead body] would ever be made public, and I didn't care.”

— Mark Owen

“I've heard one of my SEAL mentors say that there are rules about bitching. He said everyone has the right to bitch about a mission or job for five minutes. After those five minutes, you shut the fuck up and get to work.”

— Mark Owen

People think SEALs are fearless. Think again. No one lives without fear;

— Mark Owen

Take what's there, assess the situation, prioritize, and break it down into small tasks you know you can accomplish or eliminate or fix immediately.

— Mark Owen

“I'd failed my first hooded box test at S&T, but the lesson learned wasn't one I'd forget. Assess, prioritize, and act.”

— Mark Owen

“If you think of a special operations team-SEALs, Special Forces, Rangers, and the Air Force Pararescuemen and combat controllers-like a boat, everybody rows.”

— Mark Owen

“The Army uses the same principle, but they call them battle buddies.”

— Mark Owen

Every SEAL has gone through the same training, tested themselves in the same kind of extreme conditions, and typically trained together extensively to the point where we all wind up capable of doing the most basic tasks extraordinarily well.

— Mark Owen

“Hero is not a word we use easily, and it had gotten to the point where it had lost all meaning in our community. Everyone was a hero now.”

— Mark Owen

“You always want someone in your professional life who is going to be honest, who's going to call you on your bullshit.”

— Mark Owen

“It was no different than making friends in school or at work. Just be yourself, be open, and be a good houseguest.”

— Mark Owen