A Cajun AbroadMy 50 Years of Adventure and Challenge as a Navy SEAL and CIA OperativeA Cajun Abroad is an American adventurer’s well-told recounting of a life dedicated to serving the country he loved. For close to 50 years, Mike Hebert’s work as a Navy SEAL and CIA operative would send him around the world to exotic places few have heard of let alone visited -- from the edge of the creeping Sahara to back alleys in Asia, teeming West African Streets where a wrong turn can have consequences far beyond simply being lost, and on dangerous assignments in the Middle East and Afghanistan after 9/11.

Even as a child Mike Hebert was fascinated by the cultures, languages, cuisines, geography, and habits of people around the world. A Cajun Abroad, will show you why.

Born into a Navy family, it was not surprising Mike Hebert inherited a natural wanderlust and a sense of service. Growing up around bases, seeing the efforts of his mother, father, and stepfather, hearing their stories, and surrounded by men and women in uniform, it was only natural he’d seek out a chance to serve his country.

He would for decades as an elite Navy SEAL and a clandestine operative for the Central Intelligence Agency. It was a career that began, in all places, with an NROTC scholarship to the landlocked University of Idaho, where his sense of adventure and aptitude for languages became the first steps in a lifelong journey.

Bolstered by his father’s tales of his resilient Cajun roots, and confident he could do what it took, Mike Hebert would make the cross-country trip to Idaho for his first challenge in a life of challenges -- being a short-haired, buttoned-down military student on a college campus, where in the 1970s such a distinction was not the best way to fit in. Before he graduated and received his Navy commission he’d see action off the coast of Viet Nam, do hot and dirty scut work on ships of all sizes, including destroyer escorts, and aircraft carriers, pilot a wide variety of aircraft, and jump from planes and helicopters in search of his place in the Navy.

After he watched a short demonstration by a group of SEALs in San Deigo, he knew immediately he would do everything he could to join that elite force. As young officer he’d find himself on missions in the Caribbean, Europe, the storm-tossed North Atlantic, and the frigid Canadian province of Newfoundland.

But the career he had worked so hard to attain, was suddenly cut short. The end of the war in Viet Nam and a shrinking Navy caught him momentarily off guard.

Mike Hebert did what he had always done. He adapted and moved on.

A chance meeting in a hospital where he was recovering from a back injury led to an introduction to the covert actions of the Central Intelligence Agency and to a career path he’d follow for decades in South Asia, West Africa, Europe, and the Middle East and Afghanistan. A Cajun Abroad is Mike Hebert’s homage to the merits of stepping outside the box, the value of travel to understanding the world and its many cultures, and to the value of adventure for its own sake.

Flavored, literally, with recipes from around the world, A Cajun Abroad is also a loving tribute to the allure of good food. Read, eat, and enjoy.

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