Author and former Navy SEAL Remi Adeleke shares his advice for veterans and how civilians can best support them.
Remi Adeleke
Former Navy Seal
How did you become a Navy SEAL?
I was born in Nigeria and left after my father passed away in 1987. My mom brought me to New York City, and I got into a lot of trouble in my teenage years. I was just following the patterns of the environment I grew up in.
Then, long story short, I decided to get out of the street life and join the Navy. When I went to the Navy recruiter, I had already made the decision I wanted to be a SEAL, but I didn’t have the academic schooling and was really skinny, so I didn’t qualify at all.
After I got to my first command with the Navy, I went to boot camp, and after boot camp, I went to school as a corpsman and a medic. Then I went to my first command, which was Naval Hospital Camp Pendleton. That’s where I put the pedal to the metal studying the ASVAB training book and studying different fitness techniques. That was 2003 and six months later, I was qualified academically and physically.
I went into SEAL training in January of 2004, made it more than halfway through, and ended up getting kicked out because I’d failed a dive test four times. I was essentially kicked out of SEAL training and went back to Camp Pendleton. I was stationed with the Infantry First Division, did a year there, and then I went back to SEAL training, starting all over again from day one. I finally made it through SEAL training and I ended up on West Coast-based SEAL teams and had a great career. I was the SEAL of the year in my first year on the team.
After my third deployment, my first son was born in 2014 and my second son was born in 2015. Having had my father die when I was five, I wasn’t fearful of death. I wasn’t worried about that. I was just more concerned about being away from my kids because the SEAL teams are just gone so much. If it’s not deployment, it’s training, training, training. So, I just wanted to be home and be a father.
I started focusing on my education while I was still on the SEAL team in 2015. I had already acquired a bunch of credits from when I was an associate and a medic, and interestingly, a lot of the credits from my different engineering and biology courses transferred over, so I ended up getting my Bachelor’s in about a year and a half. Then I jumped into my master’s program. The university had actually partnered with the SEAL team, so it was a seamless transition. They had a small campus on the SEAL base that we were able to utilize.
Then, in May 2016, I was hired to work on my first film, which was Transformers, and that took my career path in a different direction. After working as a consultant on that film, other film and TV opportunities started coming to me, and I gradually transitioned over. I’ve been in business now for eight years, helping make film and TV shows authentic, especially with action and military-related themes.
Transitioning from that to a writer, I was able to get into the Writers Guild of America. I was hired to adapt a book called Slave Stealers into a limited series for TV. Then I gradually transitioned from being just a writer to a writer/director and directed a short film on human trafficking, specifically organ harvesting, which is something that I’ve been passionate about for a number of years.
Are you still involved in any kind of organizations or initiatives that are directly working with veterans?
I work with the Seaforth Foundation, which is a nonprofit that doesn’t just help veterans, it also helps active-duty SEALs. Charlie Keating was a SEAL, and we were deployed and then went to combat together. He ended up getting killed in an operation in Northern Iraq in 2016. His father, brother, and wife started the Seaforth Foundation in his honor. They provide resources to not only SEALs but also to their spouses and children. They offer a place to recuperate and get PTSD help.
You’ve obviously successfully transitioned into a very vibrant and successful civilian life after your journey as a Navy SEAL. Is there any advice you can offer for soldiers who might be doing the same soon?
Do your research. Really figure out what it is that you want to do. Take the time before you get out to excavate your past and your skills, and discover how you can utilize those skills in the civilian sector. Reflect on your service and ask yourself, “What is it that I really want to do?” Then, create a plan.
You should also plan for contingencies because what you might have in mind may not work out exactly as you think it will. An important part of planning is saving. Save enough money so that you can focus on doing what you want, as opposed to doing what you have to do. I know a lot of veterans who are in that situation; they didn’t want to take a certain job, but they didn’t have a proper plan in place and they now can’t work toward what they really want to do. Saving and planning are the two key components of a healthy transition.
Looking ahead, what do you hope to achieve in terms of supporting veterans and raising awareness about their needs, and how can others get involved in this important cause?
The first answer that comes to mind is recruiting. Recruiting is down across the board, across every branch of the military, and it is a national security issue. Where I think civilians can help is by getting the word out there and learning what the benefits of joining the military are. A lot of people are not aware of the benefits of joining the military, and because they’re not aware of it, they don’t communicate that to people who can potentially serve. I would not have been able to buy two houses without the VA loan, and the only reason I was able to get the VA loan was by serving in the military. I went to college for free, I got my master’s, and I got paid to get my master’s. My kids have scholarships to go to college. The list goes on and on and on about the benefits that young people get: I got to travel the world, learn about other cultures, serve with a diverse group of people, and expand my mind. That’s one way civilians can help is by learning the benefits of serving so that you can properly communicate that information to people.
