HOOTEN YOUNG

Through this column, we’ve been fortunate to meet veterans from every branch of service and all walks of life. Some of these brands are one and two-man startups. Others have developed brands with national or even international recognition. Few bring with them the gravitas of a career like Norman Hooten’s.

- Tom Marshall

Norman joined the Army on a Special Forces enlistment contract in 1980, inspired deeply by the events of Operation Eagle Claw — the failed attempt by U.S. Special Operations to rescue American hostages being held in Iran. His career started in the 5th Special Forces Group, first on a SCUBA team before transferring to one of the now-defunct Special Atomic Demolition Munitions teams. SADM was a Cold War-era program that equipped various special operations teams with backpack-sized nuclear weapons, which would be hand-carried to their targets by airborne or waterborne insertion, emplaced, and set with enough time delay for the operators to (hopefully) exfiltrate the area before detonation.