Author Q&A: Robert Adams

Robert Adams is no stranger to challenges, having made it through both medical school and Navy SEAL training.

After fourteen years in the Navy and eighteen years with the Army Medical Corps, though, it was time to try a completely different — yet still demanding — profession: writer.

Adams recently completed a work of nonfiction called Six Days of Impossible: Navy SEAL Hell Week — A Doctor Looks Back.

In addition to describing the awe-inspiring experiences that all SEAL candidates undergo, the book also analyzes how eleven members of his class were able to endure freezing, filthy conditions and earn their SEAL status.

Adams recently described this latest (and safest) adventure to us.

SADYE: What made you decide to write Six Days of Impossible?

ROBERT: As I read the different books about SEALs and their exploits, I kept waiting for someone to describe the real events of Hell Week. No one did, because it is very difficult to describe.  Six days of no sleep, freezing cold, mental and physical exhaustion, are states that are almost impossible to describe. So I decided to tell the story, clinically, myself.

SADYE: What is your writing background?

ROBERT: I have published articles in medical journals and won some recognition for these. I have also published twice in Fish Alaska magazine for fishing adventures. This is my first book attempt.

SADYE: What has been the proudest or most rewarding part of the writing and publishing experience?

ROBERT: This is my first book. There will be another because so many have asked me to write more! Six Days of Impossible: Navy SEAL Hell Week is a labor of love that shares the stories of great men. 

I am most proud of the great reviews on Amazon written by SEALs or families of SEALs. Wow and hooyah!

SADYE: Obviously, writing a book is not as tough as Hell Week was … but what was the toughest part of it?

ROBERT: For me the obstacle was learning how to work with editors and author advisors. It is challenging to separate advice from requests for money.

Publishing is a business, and all authors want to be seen and heard. Sometimes it is difficult to glean the motivation for money or art.

SADYE: If a reader takes away one thing from your book, what do you hope it is?

ROBERT: I seriously hope that a reader learns one thing: Life hands us challenges that will be difficult to overcome. Some we will have no control over.

These are the ones that build character and prepare us to conquer the most difficult that life will throw at us.

Challenges met against problems we can not control prepare us for future Hell Days and Weeks that no one could have foreseen.

SADYE: What was it like to serve as a Navy SEAL?

ROBERT: There were nights that I went to bed saying to myself, "Damn, I have to sleep eight hours away before I get to wake up and do this again!"  

The job came with adventures, challenges, and opportunities that very few civilian or military employers would ever dream of making available to the best of the best.

Hell Week takes an individual to the physical and mental limits of human endurance. It does that for a reason: One day we might ask a SEAL to do the impossible.  

When our nation calls for a man to do the impossible, there will be many ready to answer the call.

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Learn more about Robert Adams on his website, where his book can also be purchased, and like him on Facebook.

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