Excerpt: 'SEAL's Code' by Sharon Hamilton
Sharon Hamilton joins us to share an excerpt from her new SEAL's Code, book three in her Bad Boys of SEAL Team 3 series, and explain why she and many others wear red on Fridays.
Sharon: I participate in the wearing of red on Fridays, standing for Remember Everyone Deployed. I have passed out over 15,000 red wristbands so people could wear red and not interfere with their normal daily work attire. Many, like me, wear their wristbands 24/7.
This movement was started by the Special Operations Association and Special Forces Association community in the U.S., around the year 2005, and quickly spread worldwide. But, Red Fridays has long been popular in Canada as a way to show support for the Canadian Armed Forces.
Today, we celebrate everyone deployed, no matter the country, no matter the uniform. Those who serve, sacrifice much to do so. They don't do it for money or fame. They do it out of a deep love of country and the desire to protect the innocent.
The R.E.D. Friday campaign isn't political either. It's not a demonstration of opinion of wars, the policies of it, the politics involved. We wear red just to show support for the military men and women and their families. People who have relatives in the armed forces know that when the soldier is deployed, the whole family goes with them in spirit, so this supports that as well.
In doing research for my new book, SEAL's Code, I wanted to honor the sacrifice and service of Navajo Code Talkers in World War II. It is said that their creation of the code used to send messages to front lines in the Pacific theater saved thousands of lives on both sides due to a shortening of the war. Some credit them with the win. What many people don't know is that these Code Talkers, who took their native Navajo or Dine language, combined it with Choctaw and a few other native languages, and created this top-secret code by using such substitution words as buzzards for bombers, eggs for bombs and frogs for amphibious landing crafts.
Unlike the infamous Enigma machine the Germans used to create code, each cryptograph had two arms, two legs, an M-1 rifle and a helmet. The radio dispatch announcing the U.S. flag was flying at Iwo Jima, indicating the landing had been successful, can be literally translated to:
Mouse Turkey Sheep Uncle Ram Ice Bear Ant Cat Horse Intestines
These Navajo Marines, who served so honorably and many of whom lost their lives during the war, were not even given the right to vote until after the war's end, some not until 1953.
About SEAL's Code:
Danny Begay has tried to drive out the voices of his ancestors, but his Navajo roots will not die. Summoned back to Arizona to visit his dying grandfather, a former Navajo Code Talker, he knows he has disappointed his hero grandfather. He buries himself one more time in the arms of a stranger before going back to Northern California.
Luci Tohe teaches at a reservation school, safeguarding the health of her ailing mother and little sister's future, her own life on hold. She doesn't expect the young Dine warrior she meets to be anything but a distraction from her loneliness.
Danny decides to join the Navy, as a SEAL, becoming the man he knew he was destined to be. Before deployment, he goes back to visit the girl he cannot get out of his mind. A dangerous human trafficking element threatens Luci and her family. Danny vows to protect them all.
EXCERPT
On and on it went. Danny wouldn't quit. He suspected Jeffrey let it be known to a couple of the guys on the squad that Danny was ill. They began cleaning his gear, letting him use the shower first and get a little extra rest. Day by day, Danny found he was not getting worse, but was maintaining. They brought him extra protein, made sure on the timed swims he got to swim drag. When they carried poles down the beach each of the men carried a little more weight so Danny could get by. All he had to do was survive one more week, pass the underwater pool test and he was done. He'd have a week to catch up with his sleep.
From the first day he jumped into the cold pool water, his body began to tense, and then cramp up. His fingers were splayed at odd angles like they'd been broken at the joints, making it hard to make the adjustments with his breather, put on his equipment, untie the kinked hoses that were set up as traps for the boys. Holding his breath became extremely painful. His lungs were on fire. His right eye popped a blood vessel. Each day after the testing, Danny came up on the short list, the list of guys who were on the verge of being cut. They only had three tries at one last underwater exercise and Danny had not passed the first two.
Tomorrow his fate would be sealed.
"So what do you guys do when you need that extra strength, Danny?" Jeffrey asked that night before the trial. "You got any secrets, sacred stuff you can call on?"
"Nah. Just the chanting. They do a blessing. Protection is big on the res. But fighting? We don't pray for that."
"Why the hell not? Everyone else does."
"Just not our way. Fighting is a whole other language."
"Okay, so who protects you in times of lack? When things are the blackest?"
Danny looked out over the inlet to the night sky. The moon was large and yellow. "That's what we call the warrior, the hunter moon. We tell the stories in the fall, right now, about the great hunts, the warriors that came before."
"So you pray to that moon right now, Danny."
"No you don't pray to a moon, man."
Then Danny listened, and yes, he heard the singing coming back as he thought about the October stories he'd heard from his grandfather. He allowed the singing to envelop him as he stared into the center of the moon, felt its power and the warmth of its glow on his face. He felt his body healing. He wasn't cured, but he allowed the singing and the moon's light, covering him like a healing paste, to bring him the strength to finish the trial one more time.
"Tomorrow's the day, Jeffrey."
"Yup. Your right of passage, my man. I'll be standing on the other side of the tank with all the guys who are gonna go on, and I'll be the first one to pull your sorry butt up to stand with us."
Danny didn't take his eyes off the moon.
Find out more about Sharon and her books at authorsharonhamilton.com.