How best to save the world—as saint or soldier? The answer for Eric Greitens is "both."

Like many young idealists, Eric Greitens wanted to make a difference. During college and afterward, he traveled to the world's trouble spots, working in refugee camps, serving the sick and the poor on four continents, from Gaza to Croatia to Mother Theresa's home in Calcutta, among others. Yet he could not prevent violence or save anyone from becoming a refugee, he could only step in afterward and try to ease the damage.

So he joined the Navy SEALs and became one of the world's most elite warriors. In a moving and inspiring memoir, told with genuine humility, Eric offers something new in the history of militarymemoirs: a warrior who wanted to be strong to be good, only to discover that he had to be good to be strong. Throughout his SEAL training and deployments in Kenya, Thailand, Afghanistan, and Iraq, the lessons of his humanitarian work bore fruit. The result is a lesson for us all: The heart and fist together are more powerful than either one alone.

After receiving a Ph.D. as a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University, Eric Greitens joined the Navy SEALs in 2001. He deployed four times during the Global War on Terrorism, and received numerous military awards including the Purple Heart and the Bronze Star. He is the founder and CEO of The Mission Continues, America's leading organization for helping wounded and disabled warriors serve their country as citizen leaders here at home.