Navy SEAL Veteran Craig Sawyer on Early Military Days

Early Navy SEAL Days Craig Sawyer TDJS

Craig Sawyer, a Navy SEAL veteran, shares stories about his early military days as a Navy SEAL, treatment from fellow SEALs as well as early assignments in Desert Storm and afterward.

Click here to read more about Craig Sawyer’s incredible military background

“The David Johnson Show” is a national voice that talks about points of interest in the American military and veteran subculture. Each show episode showcases a different guest with a different story. Sign up to get notified of new episodes at https://thedavidjohnsonshow.com and subscribe to our YouTube channel.

Follow us on Social Media:

Video Transcript:

David:  How do they treat you when you’re the new guy that shows up, and all the new guys that come up to get to the teams?

Craig:  Like dirt. The thing is the older guys with the most experience and the strongest character treated me the best. It was the guys with only one stripe on me with, quite frankly, drinking problems and weren’t really doing well, those are the guys that treated me like dirt.

David:  It’s a theme I’ve noticed in life in certain aspects. I get that. They want to help out the younger guy. They have nothing to prove, so to speak.

Craig:  It was a senior chief that was really outperforming everybody. He was the one that was teaching me stuff, helping me, and mentoring me. That was inspiring and motivating.

David:  What year was that when you got to SEAL?

Craig:  ’88.

David:  ’88?

Craig:  Yeah.

David:  You bounced around from a few SEAL teams in the course of your career?

Craig:  Well, I stayed at SEAL Team One until after Desert Storm. I had become a sniper. Then I went to Desert Storm and got combat action there. Then we captured the first Iraqi prisoners of the war. We were working from the ships and oil rigs. I was the lead Fast Attack Vehicle driver over there. That was a fantastic program. All kinds of wild, crazy stories about that…

David:  I bet.

Craig:  …crashing helicopters and almost driving those things off cliffs. It was [laughs] a wild ride.

David:  A little fun maybe?

Craig:  Yeah. I came back after Desert Storm and then screened for DEVGRU, got picked up for SEAL Team Six”