Anyone watching Top Shot season 3 has seen Jake Zweig, the Navy SEAL, act like a perfect heel, but his real life sounds quite interesting — three-time Washington State science fair winner, state wrestling champion, Naval Academy grad, etc. — with both highs and lows, some you might expect, and some you wouldn’t:
I went to the Navy prep school because I came out of High School not really knowing how to read to well. So the first week at Prep School Jim Golladay who was the first Navy seal to graduate from the academy received the bronze star for his actions in Panama. I didn’t know what a Navy Seal was but I knew about Army Rangers and Green Berets and that’s all what I wanted to do growing up next to Fort Lewis,All the people I knew and my friends parents were in the Army. So that’s what started me down that path.
I will say this, I am not a very good conformist, so to say I didn’t fit in well at the naval academy is an understatement, I tried to conform but I am just not a good conformist. I played football there and wrestled til my senior year.
I didn’t get a Seal billet out of the Naval academy because I had been in a little trouble there, nothing big, just conduct problems. They said once you get your qualification on a ship we will pick you up, so I went there and got qualified in six months. It normally takes 18-24 months but I was working 100-110 hour weeks and eventually I got my Surface Warfare Officer Pin, and got picked up on the first lateral transfer board to Seal teams. I spent another year on the ship and reported to Seal training in 1997.
So what inspired you to go for the Seal Team?
It wasn’t really that it was an inspiration, it was that they were doing the things I wanted to do, traveling the world. I wasn’t doing it for the glory, I had the unfortunate chance to get shot in high school so I wasn’t oblivious to gunfights.
Wait, you got shot in High School? Where?
In my hip.
Does it give you trouble walking or running?
No, but the bullet is still in my hip, the doctors couldn’t get it out. I went to the Navy academy the month after it happened.
It didn’t affect you in training?
No, I was out running the next day, it didn’t hit me in any important areas.
So why did you decide not to do Military as a career?
It was interesting, Being a Seal is a job that looks great from the outside but you have to give up your whole life to be a Navy Seal, the Divorce rate is 98% in the Seal teams so the people who tell you that you can have a family and be a seal don’t know what they are talking about. It came down to I didn’t think we were going to War and I wanted to have a family so I decided to go to Michigan and get my Masters in Business Administration. I am still involved with Omega Psi Phi my fraternity from the Naval Academy and what I will do is take these helmets they get and paint them up with their insignias and colors and then send it back to them.
When did you get out of the Seals?
I got out in May of 2001, right before everything started.
His undergrad degree is in computer science, and he has an MBA as well. Oh, and he’s an artist, too — when he’s not coaching football.
Man,
Jake is an awesome shining Black Warrior! He is no less a warrior than Civil War General Sherman or World War II General Patton. In competition he is supremely confident, utterly ruthless in his efforts to win, and committed to the absolute destruction of his competitors! Isn’t that what Tier One Operators are supposed to be? Good Luck in all your endeavors, Mr. Zweig.
He is jerk and he quit. A true discredit to our special forces. He is special alright and ought to be in an mental institution. I would frag him if I had to serve with that kind of ass.