David Goggins stands among the hardest men alive, the sole member of the US military to finish Navy SEAL training, Army Ranger School, and Air Force Tactical Air Controller training.
Born in Buffalo, New York, in 1975, he endured poverty and an abusive father, scraped by with a 1.7 GPA and undiagnosed learning disabilities, and by his own telling was a 300 pound pest control worker drifting through life when a documentary and a milkshake sparked the decision to become a Navy SEAL.
He first served with the Air Force’s Tactical Air Control Party from 1994 to 1999, then chased BUD/S. It took three tries, sidelined once by pneumonia, once by a fractured kneecap, each time grinding through Hell Week twice before he finally graduated with Class 235 in 2001.
Posted to SEAL Team 5, he shipped to Iraq just weeks after 9/11. In 2004 he became the only SEAL in his class to complete Army Ranger School, finishing as Enlisted Honor Man, the top graduate of the course.
Then came Operation Red Wings in 2005, the mission we've talked about a few times before. Goggins knew every man lost that day, Murphy, Dietz, Axelson, and many of the 16 aboard Turbine 33. Shattered by the losses and determined to support their children through the Special Operations Warrior Foundation, he entered the Badwater 135, a 135 mile nonstop race through Death Valley, despite having almost no preparation. He finished.
That race launched an ultrarunning career that included a world record for pull-ups, more than 60 ultramarathons, and a reputation as one of the world's most recognizable endurance athletes, all while he remained an active duty SEAL.
He retired in 2015 as a Chief Petty Officer after multiple surgeries and a body worn down by years of punishment. Since then, Can’t Hurt Me and his unyielding call to callus the mind have reached millions who never wore a uniform.
A man forged almost entirely from grief, iron discipline, and an absolute refusal to quit.
Respect 🔱
When @vicblends pulls up to the Obama Presidential Center, you know it's going to be a real conversation!
My Brother's Keeper Alliance participant, DaMarion, sat down in the master barber's chair at Home Court for an honest conversation about mental health, resilience, and what it really looks like to push through life's toughest moments.
This is what MBK is about. Real people. Real stories. Real growth.
U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro personally brought a box of evidence to the White House on Monday in an effort to convince President Trump that damage to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool was caused by faulty construction, not vandalism, according to CBS News.
The meeting came just hours after President Trump publicly criticized Pirro for dropping the felony case against former Olympian David Hearn, saying she had "folded like an umbrella." CBS News reports Pirro showed the president evidence her office says was provided by the Interior Department after the indictment and demonstrated the damage resulted from a botched renovation rather than criminal vandalism.
The Justice Department has since moved to dismiss charges against Hearn and three others, arguing new evidence undermined the original prosecution. The dispute has become a rare public rift between President Trump and one of his longtime political allies, with CNN previously reporting the president has privately discussed removing Pirro from her post.
I needed to move a sofa.
I mentioned this to an American. He said, "You know anybody with a truck?"
I did not know anybody with a truck.
He looked at me with real concern. Not pity. Concern. The way you look at a man who has told you he does not have a name.
"You gotta know somebody with a truck."
I asked how one acquires such a person.
He said, "You just do."
This is the third time I have received that answer in this country. It is the answer to everything here. You just do. There is no process. There is only the eventual fact of having.
He said, "Ask Kevin."
I do not know a Kevin. He said Kevin like I should. He said it the way you say a shared uncle.
I met Kevin four days later. Kevin owns a truck. Kevin does not own a truck for himself. Nobody owns a truck for themselves. Kevin owns a truck for a fifteen mile radius.
Inside I said: THIS MAN HAS TAKEN A VOW. HE DID NOT ANNOUNCE IT. HE SIMPLY PURCHASED A BED AND ACCEPTED THE CONSEQUENCES.
Kevin arrived on Saturday. He brought the truck. He also brought a second man.
I had not asked for a second man.
The second man's name is Tony. Tony came because Kevin came. Tony did not know me. Tony did not ask what we were moving. Tony brought gloves.
They moved the sofa in eleven minutes.
I offered them money. Both of them laughed at the same time, which felt rehearsed and was not.
I asked what I owed them.
Kevin said, "Buy the pizza."
That is the price. That is the entire economy. The truck costs one pizza and the pizza is not negotiable and the pizza is also not expensive and everyone knows what size.
Inside I said: THE FEE IS FIXED ACROSS THE ENTIRE NATION AND WAS SET BY NO ONE.
We ate on the floor because the sofa was against the wall and none of us wanted to be the first to sit on it.
Tony told me his daughter plays soccer. I asked if she is good. He said, "She's aggressive."
I still think about that.
Three weeks later, Kevin texted me.
"You free Sunday? Helping Tony move a fridge."
He did not ask if I wanted to. He informed me of a fridge.
Inside I said: I HAVE BEEN CALLED UP. I DID NOT ENLIST. THE PAPERS WERE FILED ON MY BEHALF.
I went. I moved the fridge. I have no truck. I contributed only arms.
Afterward, a man I had never met asked me if I knew anybody with a truck.
I said, "Yeah, I got a guy."
I have a guy.
I am somebody's guy now, too. Tony has told two people about me.
He describes me as "the guy who's strong for his size."
I have never been prouder of a sentence in my life.
Noah got drunk.
Jonah ran away.
Moses stuttered.
Abraham was old.
Lazarus was dead.
Paul was a murderer.
Sarah was impatient.
Elijah was depressed.
Thomas was a doubter.
Yet, they were chosen by God.
Dear son, God doesn’t call the qualified; He qualifies the called.
The victim shaming by the general public is as much a reinforcement as the establishment that runs the psychological trapping. These same voices bitch about blood sacrifices yet fail to connect the dots.
The victim shaming by the general public is as much a reinforcement as the establishment that runs the psychological trapping. These same voices bitch about blood sacrifices yet fail to connect the dots.