Why Shawn Ryan REALLY Left the SEAL Teams

About this video

Ritland’s guest, a former Navy SEAL contractor, describes his post-military contracting work in Afghanistan and anti-piracy operations. He recounts the capabilities of special operations contractors often being underutilized, reuniting with fellow SEALs including a Vietnam-era captain still working in his seventies, and the alternately boring and intense reality of protecting ships from Somali pirates. The guest shares several colorful anecdotes from his contracting deployments.

Key takeaways

• The guest describes contractor teams in Afghanistan as highly capable special operations veterans from various units whose skills were often underutilized until good leadership recognized their potential
• Anti-piracy work involved long periods of monotony punctuated by brief, intense engagements with pirate skiffs armed with small arms and RPGs, according to the guest
• The guest recounts contracting as offering unexpected reunions with former teammates and exposure to non-traditional missions beyond standard security work

Episode details: published September 29, 2025 · 60.5K views · 10:04 long. Summary written by Self Growth Videos from the episode itself. Stories told by Mike Ritland’s podcast guests are the guests’ own accounts, attributed to them — not independently verified. Commentary is Ritland’s, presented as his analysis.

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