William McRaven
The Commander
Decision under pressure, front of house, leads visibly from the front.
William McRaven is a retired Admiral known for his leadership in special operations, including the mission to capture Osama bin Laden. This interview reveals his focus on moral and ethical decision-making in leadership, as well as his commitment to excellence and accountability in military operations.
“You'd studied journalism And I made a point a couple of years ago when he first made the statement. I said, look, this is the greatest his statement that the media was the enemy of the American people was the greatest threat to democracy in my lifetime. And I was called on that a couple times.”
“What occurred to me was that everything had changed. And in fact, I remember calling my boys and telling them, look, life's never going to be the same from here on out. I mean, this is an attack on American soil. And I didn't know which direction it would go, but I knew things were going to get challenging for us as a nation.”
“Get together so the officers club always go to the officers club on a Friday night. And again, this was the World War II generation. So you think about them, kind of the greatest generation. These men and women grew up as children of World War I, children of the Great Depression, all the men went off and fought in World War II.”
“Well, you know, that generation, that World War II generation, they were not huggers, at least the military men were not huggers. And so after my mother passed away in San Antonio, my dad didn't know, but we were on a classified mission.”
The Axe Files with David Axelrod — Best of The Axe Files: Admiral William McRaven
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