Last week, I ordered a book about a very special man.
His name is Danny Dietz. His website is sponsored by a dear friend and mentor, Jim Rudolph of Veterans Funeral Care. 
He was portrayed by Emile Hirsch in the Movie Lone Survivor…the story of Operation Redwing.
The book, Danny, The Virtues Within is about his life.
The book arrived today.
I stopped what I was doing and I began to read it. I immediately knew I was holding something special.
The book was even signed to me by Danny’s mother, which was a beautiful srprise. I read through twenty-two pages before I found the paragraphs I wanted to use for this post.
Here they are:
“I truly believe that the best way to honor the fallen warrior, to honor Danny Dietz, is to recommit our lives to the simple values they so dearly upheld. These simple values are the very moral fabric of the freedom to which we Americans so deeply value. And in that moment of recommitment, we must put action to word, motion to emotion. This book is written with that goal in mind.
This is a different kind of Navy SEAL book. There are no mentions of major military operations. There are no harrowing battle scenes. There is not necessarily any of the cool stuff that is the essence of Hollywood. I too have read a lot of those books. I love those books. We need those books. Yet, this is not one of those books. In addition, there are no stories to embellish a legacy that quite frankly needs no embellishment. They are stories of a kid turned adolescent who demonstrated a virtue worthy of the elite Navy SEALs. This is a book of essays focused on the values of an American hero, his community, and what we as his countrymen can learn from such goodness. This is not a self-help book; this is a contempletive book reminding us that the greatest way to honor the fallen is by living lives worthy of their sacrifice. And when we live such lives, we bolster the very liberty for which they fought”
My guess is that you will hear more about this book from me.
I guarantee it.
