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You have to really want to be a Navy SEAL. The passion you need to endure the rigors of training, to become the best of the best... It's admirable.

To me, basic SEAL training was a lifetime of challenges crammed into six months.

Basic SEAL training is six months of long, torturous runs in the soft sand, midnight swims in the cold water off San Diego, obstacles courses, unending calisthenics, days without sleep and always being cold, wet and miserable.

When I was 17, I was told I had the choice of enlisting in the Navy or going to jail, so I spent the next three years in the Navy.

I don't have any delusions. I don't think I would make it through Navy SEAL training.

I grew up during a time of peace, and my friends weren't joining the military - it wasn't something on my radar. But if you asked me whether I could go back and do it all over again now, and it meant I wouldn't go into filmmaking, there's a part of me that would have loved to try to be a Navy SEAL.

I was a Marine for 41 years, and it wasn't long enough. We enjoy putting on that uniform.

It takes a couple of years just to get the background and knowledge that you need before you can go into detailed training for your mission.

The heart and soul of a Navy SEAL is somebody who's committed to their country and committed to their teammates.

Later, after flying in the Navy for four or five years, spending some time on an aircraft carrier, I applied to and was accepted in a program where I went to graduate school first and then to the Naval Test Pilots School.