In Search of the Warrior Spirit: Teaching Awareness Disciplines to the Green Berets

There appears to be something about this edition that invites reviewers to disclose their background, so I'll follow suit. My background is as a behavioral health practitioner (i.e., "shrink"). In addition to my clinical practice, I work with leaders of all stripes. Been practicing Aikido for 17 years. No military experience (but certainly have wondered what it would be like). I find this book very fascinating and re-read it every few years or so. I've recommended it to many clients, both military and non-military. Every client I've given the book to has found it very helpful. The book has much to say about violence/non-violence, men's issues, life in the military, consulting in organizations, and other facets of life. The thing I most appreciate about this book is the author's willingness to disclose so much about his personal experience. DISCLOSURE: I've never had the priviledge of meeting the author (hope to change that some day), but he graciously agreed to write a foreword to a new interpretation of the Tao Te Ching that I'm writing (The book is scheduled for release in 2007). I'm not writing a favorable review because he wrote a foreword for me ... I asked him to write a foreword because I have so much respect for his work.

There's an old saying "For those who understand, no explanation is necessary. For those who don't, no explanation will suffice." This book and my experience with people's reaction to this book prove the old saying true. I have practiced Aikido since 1990 and left military service as a major in the Air Force (having come from a largely military family on both sides). I remember shortly after starting aikido going to a seminar taught by Saotome Sensei in Phoenix at which the author had been brought for ukemi (attacker for the demonstration) and someone pointing him out as the author of a new book about aikido and the military. I have read the book several times since as I have matured in aikido and grown as a person, and each time I think I get something new and different out of it. I now teach a small dojo in San Marcos TX and my class is roughly half current or ex-military and half college students. I find it amusing how little the two groups sometimes understand each other, and I often recommend this book to my students, especially the military ones. I have not yet heard a less than glowing review. Military service and aikido are both preoccupied with the question of "acceptible levels of violence" "necessary evils" as well as the simple concept of self improvement with training. This is the best discussion of these issues in an aikido framework I have seen, and aside from Terry Dobson "Giving in to Get your way" and Westbrook/Ratti's "Aikido and the Dynamic Sphere", the only coherent ones I have read. I highly recommend it. My personal preference ...I liked the earlier edition, but perhaps that's sentimentality because it affected me early and I liked it the way it was (the telling of a simple story). Adding more didn't really make it better, in my opinion, although I completely agree with Mr Strozzi-Heckler's analyses.

What a unexpectedly wonderful find! Kudos to Dr. Richard Strozzi Heckler for challenging us to look at our beliefs and our use of our most precious asset, our lives. There is so much more to his book "In Search of the Warrior Spirit" than just the narrative chronicles of a military experiment. Over the years, with each reading and rereading of this saga, I find myself moved by the stories of the paticipants, in awe of the accomplishments of the brief Project Trojan Warrior and amazed at the apparently inappropriate post-project use of the paticipants and the results of the project by the conventional military "leadership" (and I use that word guardedly). As one peels back the petals of this literary rose, one is confronted with the inescapable fact that all of us - male or female, civilian or military, religious or someone who disavows religon - are on an eternal quest to discover more of the self that is our own personal Warrior Spirit. Each day is the journey and this book demonstrates that some of the best and brightest (the instructors and students in project) struggle when forced to focus on this quest. If people of of such caliber find that their attempts at personal improvement are not without labor and doubt, then perhaps we can feel not so alone as we go through our journey of self-growth. As a former soldier and as a medical doctor, I can strongly recommend "In Search of the Warrior Spirit" reading for military personnel in combat jobs (especially those in the so-called special operations type units), military historians, martial artists, and folks looking for insight into the common human condition that is espressed in so many individual ways. In short, this book can benefit anyone with an open mind and the desire to become the best person that they can be.

I was in the army for five years, four spent in the 3rd. Ranger Battalion. The book was recomended by our co. X.O. It was a book I could not put down, life changing much as my military career was. I would recomend this book highly to anyone, male or female, no matter what your stance in life is. Especially to young people intending on a life in the combat arms. Rangers Lead The Way!

Richard Strozzi Heckler grapples with the dichotomies we all face in life: how to be strong, yet sensitive enough to our own weaknesses; how to be disciplined in body and spirit, yet not overburdened by convention. The green berets that Heckler taught and got to know harbor the same challenge that many warriors face: that Man ultimately craves peace for himself, yet violence exists in us all (even those who abhor the military and its values), so how do we control it? Today's modern warriors crave peace as much as we all do; such highly-trained individuals as the green berets must also wonder, 'how would I truly face a battle situation?' Written in journal form (Heckler's writing ranks among one of the better essayists). Highly recommended.