To those who have never been a part of a military team this is moving and explains somewhat what the Navy Seal is about...
TRIBUTE TO NAVY SEALS
CONGRESSIONAL RECORD
SENATE
PAGE S9429
July 29, 2005
“Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, I rise today to recognize and pay tribute to the 10 courageous sailors who lost their lives in Afghanistan during Operation Enduring Freedom on 28 June 2005 by printing the eloquent words of U.S. Navy RADM Joseph Maguire, Commander, Naval Special Warfare Command and U.S. Navy CAPT Pete Van Hooser, Commander, Naval Special Warfare Group Two, during a memorial speech at Naval Amphibious Base Little Creek on July 8, 2005.”
“I ask unanimous consent to print this tribute in the RECORD.”
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in the CONGRESSIONAL RECORD, as follows:
(By Rear Admiral Joseph Maguire)
Good Morning. On behalf of the Commander, United States Special Operations Command, General Doug Brown, the United States Navy, the proud men and women of Naval Special Warfare, I'd like to welcome everybody to this morning's memorial service for our ten fallen Sailors.
We're honored to have with us today the leaders of our nation and our Navy. We are joined this morning in grief. The chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Senator John Warner, Congresswoman Thelma Drake, our local Congresswoman, Ambassador Joseph Prurer and Mrs. Prurer, Undersecretary of the Navy Aviles, the Vice Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Willard and Mrs. Willard. The Commander Fleet Forces Command, Admiral Nathman and Mrs. Nathman, and the General Council of the United States Navy, Mr. Mora. In addition to that we have many general officers [From the joint services, retired community, retired Flag Officers. I'd also like to extend a welcome to our many veterans here today, our combat veterans.
I would also like to extend a warm welcome to our families in Naval Special Warfare, especially to the families of Squadron Ten, whose husbands are still deployed and engaged in combat operations far away. But most importantly I'd like to welcome the families of the ten SEALs that we honor here today. Earlier in this week I along with General Brown and many others have been attending memorial services for our United States Army Special Operations Aviation Regiment, the 160th, located at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, and Hunter Army Air Field, where as you all know we lost eight brave Special Operations Aviators.
This morning we pause to honor the memory of ten Navy SEALS, in particular the six SEALS who were home ported here at the Naval Amphibious Base in Little Creek. I'd also like to extend a welcome to those who can't be with us physically in this theater right now. The theater holds 1800 people and we filled that up earlier this morning. And for those of you in the overflow where we have nearly 2000 people seated, I welcome you this morning and I apologize that we did not have space for everybody to be in here physically. But I know, spiritually, that you're with us and we sincerely appreciate you being part of the ceremony this morning.
My remarks will be short. I think it's important that you hear from the friends and loved ones, and also Commodore Pete Van Hooser has got some very important things to say.
But what I would like to say as the Commander for Naval Special Warfare and the head of this community, how proud I am to be the Commander for Naval Special Warfare and have the opportunity to lead and serve with these ten fine men. Naval Special Warfare is the smallest war fighting community in the Navy. There are 1750 enlisted men and 600 officers. We're a small town, we literally know each other, and honestly, for those of you it may be hard to believe if you see the way we act with each other, we love one another.
Everything that you see here and everything this morning was put together by their Teammates. I'd like to call your attention to the operational equipment that we have forward here on stage. It traces its proud heritage back to World War II. The Underwater Demolition Teams and the Navy Combat Demolition Units and you'd have to go all the way back to World War II to get the number of Naval Special Warriors who died in one day in one military operation. The loss of one SEAL, the loss of one military man is more than we could possibly bear, but to have ten or our brave men perish in one day along with eight of our Nightstalkers is truly a remarkable day and one that will always be etched in our memory.
But before you though, you have UDT swim fins, a UDT lifejacket, a web belt and a mask. And it may seem strange to you knowing that these Naval commandos died on a mountain top 7,500 feet in elevation in a country 300 miles from the sea. But our nation called. These are the same people that flew the planes into the Twin Towers that flew the plane into the Pentagon that also flew the plane into the ground in Pennsylvania. The Al Qaeda and the Taliban are barely distinguishable and these are the people that these brave men, these ten men, went out to meet and engage in combat. So although the operational equipment that they had on them that day on the 28th of June was not swim fins, not a UDT life jacket, not a mask, perhaps a K-Bar. We thought it's appropriate because we are first and foremost warriors from the sea, Navy men, that we honor them today as SEALs and Navy men.
(cont)