John R. Miles

John

retired as a 06 navy seal but he was the first navy seal to swim the english channel and john was telling me this story that and i'll let you tell the story of lewis but he went during some of the warmest months

possible to swim the English Channel and he still said it was freezing beyond belief.

It was like 4850 degrees.

So he said that at no time when he was doing this 12 hour crossing, could you stop or you would immediately go into hypothermia?

And he said that there was this period of time

He's about a third of the way through.

He wants to throw in the towel.

And then he sees his dad on the bow of the boat that's pushing him forward.

And he starts raising names of SEALs who have died in combat that John is swimming for.

And John says that moment and then seeing kind of the American flag relit his determination.

And as he would swim further and further, he

The father kept putting up a different name and then a different name.

And it's so related to Lewis's story and what you write about.

So I was hoping you could share that using Dew's story as a backdrop.

What I thought was so remarkable about it is he did two trials prior to doing the swim and actually warmer water and failed miserably both times.

Yeah.

He was actually extremely fearful.

And as you write, as was the doctor who had to make the decision, could he do this or not?

What I thought was just so amazing is when they would put out the different flags for him, it was like he was swimming for Sweden, he was swimming for Norway, and eventually he was swimming for Britain, where he's from.