From child soldier to decorated Marine
Tchicaya Missamou's life has in many ways been shaped by the brutal lessons of war. Born in Brazzaville in the Republic of Congo in 1978, Missamou was recruited by rebel forces when he was just 14.
"I was taught to kill, I was taught to brutalize," the former child soldier turned U.S. Marine told CNN.
But now Missamou is applying the lessons he's learned from the frontlines to fitness.
At his Warrior Fitness Camp in California, his grueling exercise program is helping hundreds of Americans get into shape and lose weight.
Learning in the Marines
A soldier's story of survival 
Gallery: Child soldier to fitness warrior "My workout is a mind game because I believe when your mind is strong, your body will be strong," said Missamou.
Missamou -- whose life story is chronicled in his recently published memoir "In the Shadow of Freedom" -- is no stranger to harrowing experiences.
As a child soldier, he says he doesn't remember taking someone's life, "but I recall participating in taking someone's life. I was there. It happened."
"We had no choice," he said of his plight as a youth fighter. "Some of the kids were getting drugs, alcohol."
But he was able to escape that life after two years, when he was sent away to live with his father, a lieutenant in the local police who convinced him to join the country's elite military force.
Read More:http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/africa/11/09/congo.tchicaya.missamou/index.html
"I was taught to kill, I was taught to brutalize," the former child soldier turned U.S. Marine told CNN.
But now Missamou is applying the lessons he's learned from the frontlines to fitness.
At his Warrior Fitness Camp in California, his grueling exercise program is helping hundreds of Americans get into shape and lose weight.
Learning in the Marines
A soldier's story of survival Gallery: Child soldier to fitness warrior Missamou -- whose life story is chronicled in his recently published memoir "In the Shadow of Freedom" -- is no stranger to harrowing experiences.
As a child soldier, he says he doesn't remember taking someone's life, "but I recall participating in taking someone's life. I was there. It happened."
"We had no choice," he said of his plight as a youth fighter. "Some of the kids were getting drugs, alcohol."
But he was able to escape that life after two years, when he was sent away to live with his father, a lieutenant in the local police who convinced him to join the country's elite military force.
Read More:http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/africa/11/09/congo.tchicaya.missamou/index.html
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