Code Name: Johnny Walker: The Extraordinary Story of the Iraqi Who Risked Everything to Fight with the U.S. Navy SEALs Read Online Free Page A

me an advantage in another sport: track. I learned to high-jump.
    Running at a bar and hoisting yourself over it isn’t exactly natural; you can’t do it without a great deal of practice. It was even more difficult for me because I didn’t have experienced coaches, and there weren’t even videos around to show us how it should be done. I learned from pictures and some verbal instructions that one of my coaches gave me. Once I was able to imagine how it should go, I worked on getting my body to do what my brain saw. My body eventually complied—so well, in fact, that I became the best high jumper in the city. By the time I graduated high school, I had the best high school high jump in the entire country—1.95 meters, or just under six and a half feet.
    I should say that, while that was a great jump in Iraq, American high school athletes routinely approach seven feet, and most state records are higher.
    For a short time—a very short time—I thought that maybe I might compete for the Olympics as a high jumper. I entered some regional matches and did fairly well. But I was never serious enough about training to get to the level I would have needed to join the national team.
    I was easily disillusioned when I found there weren’t immediate payoffs. As a teenager I couldn’t see where all the hard work might get me. I remember winning a pair of shoes at a national meet for my performance, finishing first among all athletes under twenty years old. Rather than being happy, my only thought was, What kind of sport is this where all the winner gets are lousy shoes?
    Not exactly the Olympic spirit, I know. But how to be selfless or even a good sportsman were not lessons I had learned. I was immature, and my ambitions centered around money. In my mind, I equated wealth with success. If I were a star—whether it was at track or basketball or something else—I thought surely I would be given a vast house with a swimming pool and beautiful gardens. I would have many fancy cars, BMWs and the like. My house would be on a lake. My family would spend days fishing and hunting.
    More than luxury, more than wealth, the thing success would buy was true freedom. Only money would bring that in Iraq.
    What sort of dreams does a teenage Iraqi boy have? Very similar dreams, I would guess, to the dreams boys all over the world have. We see ourselves as heroes. We want to be important. We want success, though what we know as success is what we are already familiar with. If we know war, we want to be war heroes. If we know sports, we want to be sports heroes.
    My first dream was to be a pilot, flying at the speed of sound. What a dream that was: to be on top of the world, looking down. To be able to travel anywhere in the world. It would have been fantastic.
    As my basketball skills improved, I dreamed of being a great star in Iraq, and the world. I didn’t know much about the United States, so it wasn’t really part of the dream yet. It was too distant, and maybe too perfect, even for a dream.
    Sports brought me local fame and new friends throughout the city. We started spending time in bars, getting into a little trouble—the occasional fight. I was less aggressive than I had been when I was younger, more sure of myself, maybe. Still, if you pushed me the wrong way I would certainly stand up for myself. What’s the American saying? I didn’t start fights, but I certainly finished them.
    Naturally, this was the time I discovered girls. A lot of them want to talk to you when you are a local hero, even in a society where boys and girls are not supposed to mingle. What we did as teenagers wouldn’t raise an eyebrow in America, but in Iraq, simply talking to a girl could cause a scandal. I did my share of talking, with the occasional stolen kiss when no one else was looking.
    To graduate high school and go on to college, I needed to pass a special exam. Math was my downfall. I missed a lot of my math classes because of basketball and other