“AMERICAN HEARTS” is new on The SITREP. It’s a series of in-depth, candid conversations with United States military veterans.

“Last two weeks of November, 2004, I was tagged as a lieutenant SEAL officer to lead a team of SEAL snipers in conjunction with the taking of the city of Fallujah. The operation was called ‘Phantom Fury’ and we were working directly with Marine units that were going into the city going house to house, block to block … street by street. Our job as snipers was to get out in front, get up on high ground, and support them on high as they moved through the city. It was, as I’m sure you’ve heard, a real tough fight. And the bravery that was shown by both the Marines and the guys I was working with was tremendous and amazing.

So we would stay out in the field from three to seven days, and we would go back to Camp Fallujah for a good night’s rest, a shower, so on and so forth. This one particular instance, I was in our command center, and one of the guys had come back in from using the SAT phone to talk to his wife and he was really distraught. And I was like ‘what’s going on brother?’ He said my wife was robbed at gunpoint last night.”

After more than a decade of war and serving his country as a SEAL, Supko applied to Stanford. It was there, at the prestigious school in Palo Alto, California where he earned a graduate degree in business, and started his journey as an entrepreneur.

“The civil-military divide is so large that their picture of the military is this super rigid, linear, topdown infrastructure where you will do what you’re told, you will go where you’re told when I tell you, you’ll wear what I tell you, and I think they were really surprised when I said that is not the world where I came from …

… they expected me to be a giant meathead, dragging my knuckles. They would go, well I thought all SEALs were 6’4″, 250 pounds. But no, most SEALs are my size, and I’m like 5’10”, 180. And they’re great athletes and super smart, super efficient. While I was at Stanford I was there with two other SEAL officers.”

” … the thing that matters most to human beings, even if they don’t realize it … is purpose. Like having a real purpose, and fulfillment that comes with that purpose. It’s something that moves the needle, and can move the needle in many different ways. Personally. Professionally. Spiritually. I think those things are important.”

” … that goes with having a great sense of self-awareness. But in order to have that sort of self-awareness, you need to continually stretch your boundaries, continually be out of your comfort zone … the environment’s ambiguous, whether it’s mentally hard or physically hard, or emotionally difficult. These are the things that allow you to gain character.”

“Discipline equals freedom.”

Supko is founder of the app PatriotList.US — a secure peer-to-peer marketplace for the military community.

To start buying, selling, and trading with other military and veteran families, please visit www.patriotlist.us and download the PatriotList.US app for Android and iOS devices.

To download the app for Android, click here.

If you have an iPhone, get the app at the iTunes Store by clicking here.