Lone Survivor_ The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes of SEAL Team 10 ( PDFDrive )

at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis.
We went to Arlington National Cemetery afterward to visit the graves of
Lieutenant Mike McGreevy Jr. and Petty Officer First Class Jeff Lucas, of
Corbett, Oregon. They both died in the helicopter and were laid to rest shoulder
to shoulder in Arlington, as they had died in the Hindu Kush.
Next we flew back across the country to visit the huge family of Petty
Officer James Suh. Everyone came to the cemetery to say a prayer for one of the
most popular guys in the platoon.
Chief Dan Healy is buried in the military cemetery at Point Loma, San
Diego, not far from Coronado. We all made the journey to northern California to
see his family. Then we drove to Chico, and I told Axe’s wife, Cindy, how hard
he had fought, what a hero he was, and how his final words to me were “tell
Cindy I love her.”
Danny Dietz was from Colorado, and that’s where he was buried. But his
family lived in Virginia near the base at Virginia Beach. I went to see his very
beautiful, dark-haired wife, Patsy, and tried the best I could to explain what a
critical role he had played in our team and how, in the end, he went down
fighting as bravely as any man who ever served in the U.S. Armed Forces.
But grief like Patsy suffered is very hard to assuage. I know she felt her loss
had smashed her life irrevocably, though she would try to put it together. But she
sat with Danny’s two big dogs, and before I went, she said simply, “I just know
there will never be another man like Danny.”
No argument from me about that.
As the year drew to an end, my injuries improved but remained, and I was
posted back to Coronado. I detached from SDVT 1 and joined SEAL Team 5,
where I was appointed leading petty officer (LPO) to Alfa Platoon. Like all
SEAL platoons, it has a near-clockwork engine. The officer is responsible, the
chief is in charge, the LPO runs it. They even gave me a desk, and the
commanding officer, Commander Rico Lenway, instantly became like a father to
me, as did Master Chief Pete Naschek, a super guy and veteran of damn near
everywhere.
But it was a very reflective time for me, returning to Coronado, where I had
not lived since BUD/S seven years ago. I walked back down to the beach where
I’d first learned the realities of life as a Navy SEAL and what was expected and
what I must tolerate; the cold, the freezing cold and the pain; the ability to obey
an order instantly, without question, without rancor, the bedrocks of our
discipline.