Veteran and author Jack Carr on finding 'mission and passion' when navigating key life transitions

Bestselling author Jack Carr, a former Navy SEAL sniper and military leader, is right now traveling the country to discuss his new nonfiction book, "Targeted: The 1983 Beirut Barracks Bombing," the first in a new series about key terror events around the globe.

For him, the new book — a nonfiction work of military history — is the result of the highly focused new mission he took on after leaving the world of U.S. Special Forces and matching this new mission in life with a longtime passion for writing.

Carr spent 20 years on SEAL teams.

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The veteran's turn to literary endeavors produced novels featuring James Reece, his protagonist, first in "The Terminal List" and then in such New York Times bestselling novels as "True Believer," "Savage Son," "The Devil’s Hand," "In the Blood," "Only the Dead" and more.  

But none of this was a snap. It took mental focus, a key set of decisions and perseverance, he shared. (See the video at the top of this article.)  

Jack Carr spent 20 years on SEAL teams — and spoke to Fox News Digital about how he forged a new path in life once he stepped away from military work, something that is hard for many to do and navigate, he said.  (Jack Carr)

With Veterans Day already on the horizon this fall, Carr spoke to Fox News Digial in an on-camera interview about the importance for anyone moving from the military world to the civilian to chart a new course — and how he was able to carve his own meaningful path. 

As a Navy SEAL Task Unit commander and sniper, Carr had deployments to Afghanistan and Iraq.

"I can only talk from my own experience," he said. "But I recognized as I was getting ready to leave the SEAL teams that it was a hard place to leave."

"They can have a hard time leaving this foundation."

He said, "Meaning, someone has put in their papers to [move] out [of Special Forces] or move into the private sector. And they can have a hard time leaving this foundation." 

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"It was almost like a foundation of cement and their feet were on it and it was drying all around them — and they couldn't move forward," he said. "They couldn't build on that foundation because they were stuck in it because it was just so powerful."

Carr said, "This was five years or 10 years or 15 or 20 — however long they'd spent in the military in Special Operations. It was a very powerful few years, and it's hard to move on from something like that."

Carr, at left, said he'd read many thrillers during his formative years by such authors as Tom Clancy, right, as well as Louis L'Amour, David Morrell, Nelson de Mille and others. They "were my professors in the art of storytelling," he told Fox News Digital — giving him a foundation for a new phase of life.   (Jack Carr; Getty Images)

The bestselling author noted, "I think people in professional sports deal with it. People in amateur sports deal with it. College athletes, too. You know, anybody making a transition in life, [after the] death of a loved one, divorce, a new job — it can be anything." 

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He added, "But my experience just happens to be in the SEAL teams. So for me, it was important to identify a mission going forward and a purpose going forward."

"It was important to identify a mission going forward and a purpose going forward."

Said Carr, "For me, my mission is taking care of my family."

He told Fox News Digital, "We have a middle child with really severe special needs. He needs 24/7 full-time care forever. So my mission was kind of handed to me."

Carr's newest book is his first nonfiction entry, "Targeted: Beirut," published this month.  (Mike Stoner Photography; Jack Carr/Simon & Schuster; iStock)

He continued, "I knew that I loved writing. I loved telling stories. I'd trained myself from an early age, inadvertently, just from the fan perspective, by reading David Morrell and Nelson de Mille and Tom Clancy and ... all these guys who were essentially giants in the thriller space back when I was growing up in my formative years." 

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He said that he'd given himself "this education, and those were my professors in the art of storytelling." 

It was critical, Carr said, to "identify that mission and identify a passion — [for me], writing and then the mission, taking care of the family, and then combining those two."

Carr during his years of military service to the United States of America. (Simon & Schuster)

So "that passion, that mission, can give you purpose going forward." 

He said, "It's going to be different for everyone. But for me, it was very important, too, because I recognized how difficult it was to leave this organization that I was in and turn that page."

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And so "for me, mission and passion combined — for me, anyway. I'm not saying it's going to work for everybody."

But "that was a very natural thing for me to do."

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"And it has given me purpose in life going forward."

Video

Brittany Kasko of Fox News Digital contributed reporting.