In 2011, shortly before before his last deployment Aaron Vaughn, a member of SEAL Team Six told his father, “Dad, they hate us, but they fear us. Lethal brute force is all they respect”
Aaron Vaughn was killed shortly after telling his father this, he was one of 31 American warriors killed in Extortion 17. The essay below is believed to have been written by a member of that same team. That team that just three months prior had eliminated the world’s number 1 terrorist, Osama Bin Laden.
These men knew something drastic had changed within the command ranks. They were betrayed by two of the highest officials within this current administration. Their identities were exposed, putting them and their family members in harms way.
Vice President Joe Biden was the first to betray them. Three days later Leon Panetta, now being labeled a traitor to his former boss betrayed these young men by exposing their identity to a group of people gathered for a luncheon in Washington D.C. These two “Men” were sworn to secrecy the night Bin Laden was killed inside the Situation Room of the White House. It should never be revealed SEAL Team Six was responsible for the raid. They decided otherwise…
Ninety days later SEAL Team Six was shot down while traveling to assist a group of Army Rangers engaged in a fierce fire fight in the Tanqi Valley of Afghanistan. They were crammed onto a sixty year old Vietnam era helicopter. Requests for pre assault ground fire was denied three separate times before the chopper was blown out of the sky by Taliban ground forces. These men knew something was coming…
The following letter was among Aaron’s belongings …
“Team guys nowadays are getting reamed for not maintaining a professional appearance. Our profession is war, and we should look like warriors. We aren’t in the profession of looking good, we are in the profession of of killing people and destroying things; so while you’re standing in front of the mirror polishing your boots, counting your ribbons, and looking good the men will be in the field or in the gym or, God forbid, beating some pinko’s ass at the bar…In a brotherhood of warriors, you are the only as strong as your weakest man. Well we are letting weaker men slip through the cracks every day. Soon it is going to bite us in the ass.
There is a distinct difference between the navy and the Navy SEAL Teams. If a man spent 10 years in the navy before getting through BUD/s and into the Teams, he would still be a new guy, regardless of his rank, because this is a different community. We have lost sight of what makes us different and special, and we are conforming to the standards of others, and forgetting about those set by our fathers and brothers before us. In fact, as a community, we have completely forgotten…If we accept the fact that most of our leaders believe that form takes precedence over function, then we can all be one family again and we can reward each other with silver stars after deployment even though all we did was sit in the TOC ( Tactical Operations center) and complain about bad comms(communications).
Excuse me for arguing with the idea that the most prudent “ go, no-go criteria” are ensuring good comms with people in the TOC who have no control over the actions on; or having a neat, attractive “PowerPoint” presentation for the mission briefs when really we could have spent that time getting ourselves ready to kill Muslims. Without these two elements ( comms and PowerPoint), SEALs simply cannot operate; even if they have 90 people on target full of bullets, grenades, piss, and vinegar.
who decided that we needed more officers in the teams? Moreover, who decided that we needed more ‘“operators” in the teams altogether. We don’t need either, holy shit! The enlisted men run the teams?!? Bull-Fucking-shit; not anymore. The enlisted guys either paint their noses brown and enjoy twenty years of good evals, or keep their blood red and spend their careers fighting a losing battle. They have only two options and if neither of these is viable, goodbye navy. some people want to believe that we haven’t lowered our standards, but it’s so easy to see that we clearly have and continue to do so.
It’s alright though, we’ll just flood the teams with more bodies and all our prayers will be answered. First, we’ll lower the standards for BUD/s, then we’ll make it so painfully difficult and time consuming to take someone’s bird away, that it will be nearly impossible. Then, we’ll lower the standards of everything else in NSW (Naval Special Warfare) and instead of 2,000 special operators, we’ll have 5,000 operators. Who needs special anyway? The Army doesn’t like special and unconventional, so let’s just throw that crazy shit out the window and paint the green cookie cutter blue and gold and call it ours.”
“I Am My Brothers Keeper”
