Mykel Hawke (b.
November 29,
1965 in Fort Knox, Kentucky
), also known as Mykel Hawke
Pierce, is the co-founder and director of operations for
SpecOps, an adventure tourism and
training company.
TV appearances
Myke began his TV career quite by accident. He started a Medical
company to work in War Zones after Desert Storm. The work was so
intense, he began his tourism company for his team to get some down
time working in Costa Rica running children's programs. That's when
MTV's Road Rules Central America found Specops and asked Mykel to
help develop the program for their season finale. Hawke ended up
representing SpecOps in a dual role as a bad guy and the good guy
on
MTV Road Rules in 1998. He then
did some consulting for Danish TV in 1999, Boot Camp in 2000 and
Fear Factor in 2001. After Myke's first
TV appearance, he worked on numerous productions as set medic,
security, translator and producer. He was mobilized for two years
after 9/11. Once he completed his tour of duty, with the raised
profile of Special Forces in the media, he was asked to do a number
of other shows as on screen talent. Between 2004-2005 He appeared
as a subject matter expert in survival, warfare, leadership,
medicine and special operations for TV shows such as
Tactical to Practical,
Healthcops,
Britain's
Worst and
Forever Eden. He appeared
in the 2006 movie
Dirty
Sanchez as himself. In 2006, he also filmed an episode of
the
Discovery Channel's
I Shouldn't Be Alive:
Science of Survival in which he taught survival in the
Amazon jungle.
In 2007, he appeared as the Resident Expert on Survival for the
BBC's series about community survival
Castaway Exposed and was featured as a
survival camp instructor on
The Simple
Life 5. He appeared as an
interrogator and fitness trainer for
Kimberly Stewart in
Living with Kimberly. In 2008, Hawke
was a fitness trainer for Kyle's Academy in the UK and appeared on
Fox Reality Revealed, Behind the scenes of Paradise Hotel 2 as the
set Medic & Security, which aired in the US. In 2008, Mykel
also appeared on Channel 5's
The Gadget
Show demonstrating new survival technologies and on the show
Fifth Gear, where he was test driving old
and new military jeeps. Both shows aired in the UK. Hawke was
involved with a new reality series about survival for Discovery
released in Spring 2009. Hawke was on the Travel Channel's
Bizarre Foods with Andrew
Zimmern this June, where Andrew learns to survive and hunt for
his own food in the jungle of Mexico. Myke has been a recurring
guest on Big Brother's Little Brother 2009 in the UK. Myke was on
ABC's Good Morning America with Chris Cuomo discussing Family
Preparedness, AUG 2009. Most recently Hawke was seen on The UK's
Gadget show in NOV 2009 and he had helped out during the summer of
2009 on Kourtney & Khloe take Miami on E!
Currently, Mykel Hawke is filming a new survival series for
Discovery which will air next year.
Military career
Hawke began his service in 1982. Over the years, Mykel has been in
the Active Duty Army as well as the National Guard and Army
Reserves. He served in the enlisted ranks of the U.S. Army Special
Forces, as a Sergeant First Class (SFC), a
U.S. Army Green Beret and
qualified in 3 Special Forces Military Occupational Skills. Hawke
served on a team as an SF Communicator (18E), as an SF Medic (18D)
and as an Intelligence and Operations Sergeant (18F). Later he
became a Commissioned Officer as a Medical Service Officer (70B),
attending Civil Affairs Officer Advanced Course (38A) and Infantry
Career Captain's Course (11A). Moreover, he completed the advanced
officer course of Combined Arms Staff Service School or CAS3.
After the terrorist attacks of
September 11, 2001, Hawke went back
through the entire Special Forces Qualification course, sixteen
years after the first time, to earn his SF Officer Branch of 18A
and served as an
ODA Team
Commander. Captain Hawke has deployed to Latin America, Asia,
Eastern Europe and the Middle East.
He has also served in a number of
conflicts as a U.S.
government contractor as a project manager overseas.
He
established and operated a Combat
Medic School and War Clinic in Azerbaijan
, a Combat Search & Rescue
Program in Colombia
, managed a
Combat Aviation Operation in Sierra Leone
and was Director of Operations for a Medical
Operation in Iraq. Myke still works as a Contractor for the
U.S. Government teaching U.N. troops in Africa and U.S. Forces in
the States.
In the course of his career, Hawke has been in eight conflicts and
over eighty engagements.
Most recently he served in Afghanistan
as a Commander of the Militia. He currently
serves in the
U.S. Army Reserves as a Special Forces Captain
and is assigned to USASFC (U.S. Army Special Forces Command)
located at Fort Bragg, North Carolina where he supports 3rd SFGA
(Special Forces Group, Airborne).
Skills
LANGUAGE :Besides his native
English
language, Mykel has studied advanced
Russian language. After attending the
Defense Language Institute (DLI) for Russian, he taught himself,
used and was rated in six other languages such as
Spanish,
French,
Turkish,
Italian and
Serbo-Croatian. He has studied a
number of other languages such as Thai and Arabic.
MARTIAL ARTS :Hawke is a 3rd degree
black
belt in
Aikido and 1st Degree Black Belt
in Judo. He has studied other arts such as Wu-Shu and Wing Chun
Kung Fu, Kenpo Karate and Special Operations Combatives. Mykel has
a keen interest in global primitive hunting techniques and Native
American Knife & Tomahawk fighting and carried his issued
serial numbered SF Knife and a hatchet with him in combat.
EDUCATION :Myke has a Master's Degree in Psychology and uses this
education combined with his interrogation training and intuitive
skills to work with families and couples as part of his adventure
programs, leadership and team building courses.
Author
Mykel has most recently published a book with Running Press called,
"Hawke's Green Beret Survival Manual". It has sold out and the
second edition is in print. He will be making a Field Manual
Version soon.
He developed a method for learning languages and published a book
called 'The Quick & Dirty Guide to Learning Languages
Fast'.Under his pen name, A.G. Hawke. Hawke also has contributed
two chapters to the book 'The Dangerously Fun Book for Boys Who
Never Grew Up', both of these books are published by Paladin
Press.
Mykel has published other articles and photos of combat from tours
in Africa, South America and Eastern Europe with
Soldier of Fortune magazine. He
has been featured as a Special Forces Operator in other magazines
such Backpacker, Esquire, Maxim and Playboy. His most recent work
is an article on Survival in the DEC 2009 Esquire Magazine Black
Book Edition.
He has also been featured in a book about warfare in Africa called
'WAR DOG, The Modern Mercenary in Action- Fighting Other People's
Wars' by Al Venter. Hawke has said about the book that he was
'honored to be counted as a small man among the other truly great
men who fought in those forgotten wars.'
Family life
Mykel
Hawke is married to Ruth England and
they have a son where he resides in the United Kingdom
.Mykel has two older sons and a grandson
living in United States.
Mykel was born at Fort Knox, Kentucky while his father was
stationed there in the Army. He grew up mostly in the South Eastern
USA in places like Fort Benning, Georgia, Fort Bragg, North
Carolina and Fort Monroe, Virginia as well as at other various
military bases in the states.
His family was very poor and his childhood was spent living with
numerous relatives on and off in between periods of time with his
mother and siblings. They often lived without power, water or other
utilities and sometimes did not even have doors or windows. During
a period of especially tough financial difficulties, and since he
was the eldest, he spent a year living on his own as a teenager and
spent a winter sleeping on the streets. This is why Myke developed
his keen interest in all things survival.
Mykel was an honor roll student and in the chess club in junior
high school, but the family couldn't afford the required clothes
for him to participate in the athletic programs. He fell in with
the other poor teens who were being harassed by the high school
gangs and he organized them into a resistance group for self
protection. It was during this time, that Mykel was expelled for
gang fighting. He never returned to school afterwards.
Myke had been working a part time job at a grocery store to help
the family. This became a full time job now that he was out of
school. He was a model employee and after a while, they generously
offered him a scholarship to get a degree and become a manager, but
he wanted to do something more. He was fortunate enough to get high
scores on his Army entrance test and as such, they made an
exception to allow him into the Army at an early age. Because he
never attended high school, Mykel always had a keen interest in
advancing his education.
Over the decades, Myke has completed his Master's degree and is
still pursuing his Ph.D. in Family counseling. He works towards a
goal of one day doing his dream job, after he retires from active
work, to run a camp for troubled youth like he was, who might not
be as fortunate, to help them find alternative ways to get their
lives on a track towards a better way and place.
For Mykel, the Army was his ticket for an education as the way to
break out from the cycle of poverty and the Special Forces was his
poor man's passport to the world of experience through learning and
living. As such, he uses his life's work and training to counsel
and help others.
References
-
http://www.tv.com/the-simple-life/say-hello-to-myke-hawke/episode/1116153/summary.html
-
http://womenlearnthai.com/index.php/interviewing-myke-hawke-quick-and-dirty-guide-to-learning-languages-fast/
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