Bloglines - The ONE

Bloglines user Lawboat (lawboat@comcast.net) has sent this item to you, with the following personal message:

This is NOT a sea story but is a SEAL story.....wow!!

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Froggy Ruminations The views expressed on this website are my own and DO NOT convey the endorsement of the Naval Special Warfare Command, its tenant commands, or the US Navy

The ONE By Matthew Heidt I have been trying to come up with a way to discuss the ONE who survived the SR near Asadabad, Afghanistan while 11 of his Teammates did not. Well, it seems that a Navy Chaplain who spent some time with him and his platoon has quite a story to tell. Hat tip to BLACKFIVE I spoke to several of this man’s Teammates in Hawaii, and it is interesting that he is a twin and his brother is a Frogman as well. Actually, each of the brothers has half of a Trident tattooed on their backs so that when they stand side by side, it forms one large Trident. When his brother was informed that the ONE was missing, he immediately knew that his brother was alive and evading. According to what I was told, it was not just hopeful speculation, but some of that twin brother mojo letting his brother know that he was still in the fight. The story of this harrowing evasion will probably come out eventually, but while the account that I was unofficially given was not very specific, it is truly awe inspiring. After the 4 man SR was compromised and engaged, they called for the QRF and defended themselves from the large taliban hoard that was firing at them. At some point, two of the SR team members were shot and clearly KIA, one other was severely wounded, and he and the ONE continued to fight. I was told that the ONE dragged his critically wounded Teammate while the wounded man continued to fire at the enemy. Eventually, the pair received close incoming mortar fire and the ONE was “blown off the side of the mountain”. After waking from unconsciousness, the ONE was once again being closed upon by enemy forces. Apparently the ONE is a rather large fellow, and not known particularly for his long distance running. So he ran for a while, stopped and shot a few taliban, then repeated that until he was shot in the a$$; at which point he stopped… and laughed. This went on for a while until darkness fell and he was able to get into a more concealed position. Eventually he was discovered by a local tribesman who took him into his village and notified US forces of his location. The SEALs that were on the MH-47 that were preparing to fastrope into the firefight to rescue their SR brothers were all awarded Bronze Stars with “V” for Valor. The members of the SR team that perished in the firefight were all awarded the Silver Star. Many believe that the ONE may be under consideration for a couple of awards that are even higher than those two. I don’t want to jinx it so I will simply say that I hope he gets what he deserves. It occurs to me that the ONE could use some prayer at this point in his life. It is about this time that someone in his situation might be asking himself questions about why he survived when ALL of his brothers did not. While he deserves every accolade we can give him, he probably needs our compassion and support more than anything else.