SEALs, in Memoriam
THE INFORMATION IN THIS POST HAS BEEN REVIEWED FOR SECURITY PURPOSES. IT DOES NOT CONTAIN ANY CLASSIFIED OR SENSITIVE INFORMATION.
For those who follow the news, you may remember the short-lived story about the Army MH-47 that crashed in Afghanistan and the subsequent search for possible survivors. Of course, CNN (one of only two news channels that we receive) covered the story until a bigger story supplanted it…like the Tom Cruises flirtations with his newest paramour; or was it Paris Hilton’s latest fashion faux pax? I don’t remember. What I can tell you is that for the SEALS that I am currently serving with, it was much more than a few days blip on the news radar. It was a deeply personal and emotional event that still resonates among the guys here.
Navy SEALs are arguably the best military Special Forces operators in the world. I’d bet that to ask any of the guys in the teams, there is no argument. However they stack up, there is no question that the brotherhood that exists amongst the community is intensely tight. It is a brotherhood; despite the inroads made by female service members and GI Jane notwithstanding, the SEAL teams are still exclusively male. There are support personnel who are female, but that is nothing like being a member of the teams.
SEALs begin their careers in Basic Underwater Demolition School, known as BUDS. To call it rigorous is to call the Hawaii Ironman a weekend stroll through the park. It is designed to weed out every possible person that does not have the willpower, determination and self-sacrifice to never ever under any circumstances give up, give in or quit. Most people may have heard of the BUDS phenonmen of “Hell Week”, a week of intense physical and mental exertion where trainees are denied sleep, rest and food for the better part of five days, all the while subjected to a barrage of physical and mental challenges designed to push them to the limit of human performance…and then beyond.
Once complete with BUDS, SEALs face a long training regimen including jump school and advanced training that lasts upwards of six months. It takes around a year before a SEAL reports to a platoon as an operator. Once part of the team, the team works, trains and plays together constantly. Platoons conduct training, workups, exercises and operational deployments together as a team. Because the community is relatively small (there are only 8 SEAL teams) just about everyone knows someone in another team, or chances are, quite a few people in other teams. The teams and platoons work, train and play together so much, they become family…and losing one is like losing family. In Afghanistan, the family suffered a major loss: 8 SEALs on the MH-47 Chinook helicopter and 3 SEALs on the ground.
Many of the operators that I now work with personally knew one or more of the SEALs that died, so hearing about the loss of so many was a sobering reminder of the everyday dangers that the troops in combat, especially elite Special Forces face with a shrug of indifference. This was the largest single loss of SEALs in any conflict, declared, undeclared or in the shadows since the 1960s so it was particularly difficult.
I’m certainly not going to say that the loss of these operators is any more or less tragic than any of the other 1,752 (as of the time of this writing) soldiers, sailors, airman and Marines lost in Iraq, it does however make more of an impact. I wince during our daily Commander’s brief when I hear about more losses that we have suffered. We say “Coalition Forces” but what we really mean is US forces. I know there have been losses of other country’s forces, but I don’t remember hearing of any within my recent memory, and no other country has anything like the presence that the US has. Also, no other country is engaged in an area of Iraq that is anything as hot as the US (by hot I refer to level of bad guy activity, not heat)!
We watch the news and I see how the war is being reported on by CNN and Fox; then I have my insights to our part of the war effort, and my contacts that I have to gain insight to other portions of the war. In my humble opinion, there are a few points that the average taxpayer needs to understand about what we are doing here, why and how. First, it is entirely probable that we did not have a good post-war plan. Well, not everyone is perfect. Secondly, it is entirely possible that post-Saddam, we made mistakes in beginning to reorganize. Yes, our crystal balls weren’t working that day. I am of the opinion that the US quickly realized the course of action that needed to be pursued, and aggressively began pursuing it (elections, constitution etc). What most people in America don’t understand is the character of the Iraqi people. It is going to take a lot of effort to move them to want to do something good for the country, and that is what we are engaged in.
Most of the focus on the war effort is now two-fold: force protection and training the Iraqis to run their own country after decades of not knowing how. Let’s not forget that it took nearly a decade of ruinous economics and struggle for the US to emerge as a coherent entity after the Revolution: in the MTV generation, we apparently don’t think that amount of time to create a country is good enough. The US forces are actively engaged every day in training Iraqi military leaders and soldiers, recruiting and training police officers and security personnel and putting together a government that does not know itself what it wants to be or how it wants to organize. It takes time, money and the sacrifice of good men (and women) who gut it out, suck it up, make sacrifices both personal and professional in support of what the nation and the nation’s leaders have asked us in the military to accomplish.
Although seemingly merely a blip on the news, the helicopter crash and subsequent search for survivors made much more of an impact here than it did (I’m certain) to the average Joe or Jane Taxpayer. Let’s not forget the sacrifices made by our men and women in uniform, and the sacrifices their family’s make in supporting them. You don’t have to be for the war, but as a nation, we should be in total support of our troops and their families.
Lance Armstrong recently said “I figure, the quickest way to retire is to just pedal faster” which oddly enough, is a perfect metaphor for the situation we are in. The more effort we put into getting the country put back together, starting with training the Iraqi police and military, the faster we can leave, and accomplish the mission of restoring Iraq to the Iraqi people. Unfortunately, it will cost more American lives in the process, a fact which our leadership is evidently prepared to accept. Let us hope that the lives lost don’t become footnotes in the struggle. They certainly are not viewed that way by the SEALs that I am honored to serve with.
NEXT: A typical day in an atypical job
For those who follow the news, you may remember the short-lived story about the Army MH-47 that crashed in Afghanistan and the subsequent search for possible survivors. Of course, CNN (one of only two news channels that we receive) covered the story until a bigger story supplanted it…like the Tom Cruises flirtations with his newest paramour; or was it Paris Hilton’s latest fashion faux pax? I don’t remember. What I can tell you is that for the SEALS that I am currently serving with, it was much more than a few days blip on the news radar. It was a deeply personal and emotional event that still resonates among the guys here.
Navy SEALs are arguably the best military Special Forces operators in the world. I’d bet that to ask any of the guys in the teams, there is no argument. However they stack up, there is no question that the brotherhood that exists amongst the community is intensely tight. It is a brotherhood; despite the inroads made by female service members and GI Jane notwithstanding, the SEAL teams are still exclusively male. There are support personnel who are female, but that is nothing like being a member of the teams.
SEALs begin their careers in Basic Underwater Demolition School, known as BUDS. To call it rigorous is to call the Hawaii Ironman a weekend stroll through the park. It is designed to weed out every possible person that does not have the willpower, determination and self-sacrifice to never ever under any circumstances give up, give in or quit. Most people may have heard of the BUDS phenonmen of “Hell Week”, a week of intense physical and mental exertion where trainees are denied sleep, rest and food for the better part of five days, all the while subjected to a barrage of physical and mental challenges designed to push them to the limit of human performance…and then beyond.
Once complete with BUDS, SEALs face a long training regimen including jump school and advanced training that lasts upwards of six months. It takes around a year before a SEAL reports to a platoon as an operator. Once part of the team, the team works, trains and plays together constantly. Platoons conduct training, workups, exercises and operational deployments together as a team. Because the community is relatively small (there are only 8 SEAL teams) just about everyone knows someone in another team, or chances are, quite a few people in other teams. The teams and platoons work, train and play together so much, they become family…and losing one is like losing family. In Afghanistan, the family suffered a major loss: 8 SEALs on the MH-47 Chinook helicopter and 3 SEALs on the ground.
Many of the operators that I now work with personally knew one or more of the SEALs that died, so hearing about the loss of so many was a sobering reminder of the everyday dangers that the troops in combat, especially elite Special Forces face with a shrug of indifference. This was the largest single loss of SEALs in any conflict, declared, undeclared or in the shadows since the 1960s so it was particularly difficult.
I’m certainly not going to say that the loss of these operators is any more or less tragic than any of the other 1,752 (as of the time of this writing) soldiers, sailors, airman and Marines lost in Iraq, it does however make more of an impact. I wince during our daily Commander’s brief when I hear about more losses that we have suffered. We say “Coalition Forces” but what we really mean is US forces. I know there have been losses of other country’s forces, but I don’t remember hearing of any within my recent memory, and no other country has anything like the presence that the US has. Also, no other country is engaged in an area of Iraq that is anything as hot as the US (by hot I refer to level of bad guy activity, not heat)!
We watch the news and I see how the war is being reported on by CNN and Fox; then I have my insights to our part of the war effort, and my contacts that I have to gain insight to other portions of the war. In my humble opinion, there are a few points that the average taxpayer needs to understand about what we are doing here, why and how. First, it is entirely probable that we did not have a good post-war plan. Well, not everyone is perfect. Secondly, it is entirely possible that post-Saddam, we made mistakes in beginning to reorganize. Yes, our crystal balls weren’t working that day. I am of the opinion that the US quickly realized the course of action that needed to be pursued, and aggressively began pursuing it (elections, constitution etc). What most people in America don’t understand is the character of the Iraqi people. It is going to take a lot of effort to move them to want to do something good for the country, and that is what we are engaged in.
Most of the focus on the war effort is now two-fold: force protection and training the Iraqis to run their own country after decades of not knowing how. Let’s not forget that it took nearly a decade of ruinous economics and struggle for the US to emerge as a coherent entity after the Revolution: in the MTV generation, we apparently don’t think that amount of time to create a country is good enough. The US forces are actively engaged every day in training Iraqi military leaders and soldiers, recruiting and training police officers and security personnel and putting together a government that does not know itself what it wants to be or how it wants to organize. It takes time, money and the sacrifice of good men (and women) who gut it out, suck it up, make sacrifices both personal and professional in support of what the nation and the nation’s leaders have asked us in the military to accomplish.
Although seemingly merely a blip on the news, the helicopter crash and subsequent search for survivors made much more of an impact here than it did (I’m certain) to the average Joe or Jane Taxpayer. Let’s not forget the sacrifices made by our men and women in uniform, and the sacrifices their family’s make in supporting them. You don’t have to be for the war, but as a nation, we should be in total support of our troops and their families.
Lance Armstrong recently said “I figure, the quickest way to retire is to just pedal faster” which oddly enough, is a perfect metaphor for the situation we are in. The more effort we put into getting the country put back together, starting with training the Iraqi police and military, the faster we can leave, and accomplish the mission of restoring Iraq to the Iraqi people. Unfortunately, it will cost more American lives in the process, a fact which our leadership is evidently prepared to accept. Let us hope that the lives lost don’t become footnotes in the struggle. They certainly are not viewed that way by the SEALs that I am honored to serve with.
NEXT: A typical day in an atypical job
posted by James Lewis III at 6:19 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home