“Fearless” by Eric Blehm – The Way of the Warrior

When he was still a kid, Adam Brown’s dream was to wear his high school’s team jersey as he was growing up in the quiet town of Hot Springs, Arkansas. Throughout his younger years Adam Brown developed a certain attraction to daredevil activities, perhaps even becoming somewhat of a risk and adrenaline junkie.

Unfortunately, he fell in with the wrong crowd and his risk-taking behavior escalated up until the point where he got thrown in jail. Having touched the bottom of the barrel and fighting his demons, Adam set a noble goal for himself: to become Navy SEAL. 

Eventually, he did reach his goal, becoming the operator of Navy SEAL team SIX. After spending his life taking risks, Adam Brown’s life came to a tragic end on March 17th, 2010, as one last selfless act of heroism turned out to be a sacrifice. Fearless by Eric Blehm is a biography dedicated to Adam Brown, one of the greatest people to ever follow the way of the warrior. 

First off, as you can imagine, much of the book is spent dealing with the many challenges and roadblocks Adam had to face during his life before becoming a Navy SEAL, and that already makes his story more special and interesting than most.

What really left a mark in my mind is the difference in philosophy Adam Brown had with most other Navy SEALs. Typically, it feels as if the only thing the SEALs are concerned with is reaching their goal, and each one of their actions needs to bring them as close as possible to it. However, Adam Brown did not believe that the ends always justified the means, which eventually led him to make bad decisions which, morally-speaking, were right.

Much of the information found in this book has been obtained from interviews with family members, friends and relatives of Adam Brown, and each one of them has at least one interesting story to tell or an insight in his life to give. 

In the end though, they all agreed that Adam Brown truly was one of the few fearless people on this planet, one of those capable of laughing in the face of unstoppable doom. Through the interviews, it becomes visible that Adam Brown did not travel his path on his own, for throughout the way he had good people helping him out. As it seemed to me, Adam Brown became fearless because of his faith in God and his belief that his family and team won’t let him down.

All in all, more than a biography, this book is actually a tribute to a real modern hero, attempting to depict him as the unique and irreplaceable man he truly was. He overcame obstacles that would cause most of us to give up on life, and even in death he serves as a testament of what the human spirit is truly capable of. 

This book was definitely one of the most emotional and insightful ones ever written on the subject of special forces, and if you are even remotely interested in Navy SEALs, this is a read you can’t afford to pass on. 

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Eric Blehm Personal site Eric Blehm is one of those authors who doesn’t pull any punches and is willing to put himself as close to the action as possible, just so he can get a realistic account of things. He has published numerous works in the form of biographies, generally centered on military themes, as is the case with his breakthrough novel, Fearless.