Mark Owen

"A hero is no braver than an ordinary man, but he is braver five minutes longer." (Ralph Waldo Emerson). When we think of hero's many of us go to superheroes or fictional characters that save thousands of lives and fight super villains. To some though a hero is a good person, someone serving a greater purpose than themselves. Mark Owen did just that, doing unimaginable things that people hate him or praise him for. Mark Owen was born March 17, 1976 in Aniak, Alaska. His real name is Matt Bissonette but writes under the name Mark Owen to try to stay out of the public eye. When Mark Owen was in Junior high he found a book called Men in Green Faces and while reading it he realized he wanted to become a Navy SEAL. After going to college at Biola University in California he would move on to earn his SEAL trident in 1998. After that his career would take him on thirteen consecutive combat missions including the mission that found and killed Osama Bin Laden.  Mark Owen is not only a soldier but he is brave, determined, and also in inspiration to many other people.

Mark Owen is an extremely brave man risking his life and mind on these high stress and high risk raids. He started his career the second he made that brave promise in junior high to become a SEAL. He didn't know how far this promise would take him but he followed it even if something was trying to stop him. An example of a important mission he went on in his career was the Osama Bin Laden raid, "It was 2004 seven years before I would ride a Black Hawk into Abbottabad, Pakistan, on one of the most historical special-operations raids in history."(Owen). Mark Owen has been apart of so many important missions and even though this was like any other mission he needed to be brave to stay calm and focused on the mission. That bravery doesn't come without consequences though and to know you could get killed or injured takes guts, it takes a hero. There are little things that could be considered brave too. Mark Owen had a lot of those little things leading up to his first deployment,  "In the spring of 1999, he undertook Navy sea, air, and land (SEAL) team and underwater demolition training at a naval facility in Coronado, California." (Gale Biography in Context). This is one of those little decision that takes bravery, he has to have those guts to sign up to get almost tortured for a week in training and then to go through more torture in combat. SEAL training is the hardest training in the military, it takes physical and mental toughness to go through it and become an ultimate soldier for the United States. All of Mark Owen's accomplishments have an impact to someone either directly or indirectly. When he successfully completed the raid on Osama Bin Laden with his team he impacted anyone fighting or affected by the war on terror. He directly saved Captain Phillips life when he was involved on the boat raid to get him back from the pirates. Mark Owen is a hero even though he personally stays humble and says he's not. He doesn't care to be famous he just wants the world to be a better place and for people to know the truth. Mark Owen has dedicated his life to training and to fighting for the people who can't. He saved lives and, similar to so many other heroes, he has specific characteristics only heroes can truly have.

Mark Owen is a determined man following his dreams even though odds were stacked against him at points. He pushed through things such as his training and his more difficult combat missions,  "In one particularly grueling mission in Afghanistan, Bissonnette and his comrades traversed miles of nearly vertical escarpments to sneak up on a Taliban compound."(Filkins). Some could perceive that he is a  determined man because he needed that mental and physical ability to not give up and stay focused. He also needed determination before the mission to prepare himself when he knew how difficult the mission could be. Determination can be seen in different ways also. Some can see it as overcoming regrets or fears you may have,  "Still, in nearly 300 pages of what amounts to a memoir of his life as a SEAL, Bissonnette does not report a single twitch of conscience, barely a moment of reflection, not a twinge of regret."(Filkins). This shows he's determined because he does not regret what he's written or done in his career as a U.S. Navy SEAL. To be determined is to overcome something and he, most likely, had to overcome some difficult decisions made out on the field. To be a Navy SEAL takes determination no matter what form it comes in. They learn to adapt to a situation and overcome it almost instantly completing the task at hand. Mark Owen is a Navy SEAL showing true determination and character in his career and in his daily life.

One of the most important traits a hero needs is to be an inspiration to people. Mark Owen has done that to people that have read his book or heard his story, "My hope is that one day a young man in junior high will read it and become a SEAL, or at least live a life bigger than him."(Owen). This is another example of how he is an inspiration because of how he is striving to help and inspire people. His goal of the book was to inspire a young man to lead a life bigger than him. That is true heroism, to have a goal that betters someone's life or many lives. Mark Owen has not only inspired people by the book, but also by his accomplishments in his career and his perseverance in everything he does. He inspires people in his acts, people can look up to him because he's the epitome of a role model, "The author, writing under the pseudonym Mark Owen - his real name is Matt Bissonnette - was a member of the SEALs for 10 years before he went on the mission to kill Bin Laden" (Filkins). This quote shows he's an inspiration because of his accomplishments, as a Navy SEAL he went on a huge mission and many others in that ten years. He risked his freedom and career to write a story of the truth just to inspire people to be great. Mark Owen has been an inspiration to anyone who strives to be great and lives for a purpose bigger than themselves that he talks so fondly of. He lives a life greater than him and he chose that as an opportunity to teach and inspire others.