Andrew Paul grew up in a military family. His grandfather enlisted in World War II at age17 and flew B-17 bombers in Europe. Other family members were submariners,pilots, a master chief, and a vice commander. As a boy, Andrew remembers thefamily sitting in the living room watching military documentaries together andtelling stories about their own experiences.

"At a pretty young age, I got it in my headI was going to go in the military one day," he said.

Despite people trying to discourage Andrew, whowas 5'7" and 155 pounds, he was dead set on becoming a Navy SEAL. AtVanderbilt University, he joined ROTC, the reserve officers training program.He learned there that the SEALs only take 16 candidates each year. Determinedto become one, he won a slot to go to the Naval Amphibious Base in Coronado.

Then 9/11 happened.

"All of a sudden, the tone of everythingchanges. No longer was I like, 'This is going to be training. I'm going tobe a SEAL.' We knew that if we got through training we were going to war,"he said.
Andrew underwent rigorous training meant todiscourage and dissuade the heartiest of souls. It included physicalpreparation, dive training, small unit tactics, ambushes and raids, explosives,patrolling, sleep deprivation, mission planning, and finally SEALqualification training. Making his way through the whole program, he was thenassigned to a SEAL team.

"After all that, you're in a SEAL team andyou have zero experience," Andrew said.

Andrew was deployed several times and he hasfaced extreme challenges that I can't imagine. In this episode ofChiseled, he shares what it was like becoming a member of the SEALs,rising through the ranks, and deciding when and why it was time to leave.

Speaking of endurance training, Andrew went frombeing in the military at the start of America's wars in Afghanistan and Iraq tobecoming a mortgage lender at the start of the 2008 housing crash. As expected,he hustled his way through the financial crisis and ended up on top. He nowhelps veterans and others become homeowners in his adopted state of California.

If you have questions about his experience orwant to talk about mortgage lending, you can reach Andrew at [email protected] or call him at619-964-9404. You can also find him at www. theveteranadvocate.com.