Free Republic

The dramatic rescue of an American aid worker and her Danish colleague in Somalia by Navy commandos was a terrific encore to the killing of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan nine months ago. However, all the White House-driven publicity for both events has helped turn the once-secret SEAL Team 6 into a household term, with likely negative consequences. Although SEAL Team 6 and its official successor, the Naval Special Warfare Development Group, have been around since the 1980s, their missions always were kept secret to shield their members’ identities and protect operational security. Every president since the team’s founding has...

Shaun Day made the mistake of running a red at 12:30 a.m. in the city that never sleeps. When pulled over by the cops, they found a 9mm and three mags in his truck. Day told the cops he was a Navy SEAL but didn’t have any proof. As a result, he spent a day in Bellevue under psychiatric care. Until, that is, the Navy sent people to confirm he actually is a SEAL and got him the hell out of there. . . According to nypost.com he was rambling incoherently during the traffic stop. Translation: he told the cops...

WASHINGTON -- In a daring nighttime raid Tuesday, U.S. Navy SEALs rescued two hostages, including one American, who were being held by kidnappers in Somalia, U.S. officials tell NBC News. American Jessica Buchanan, 32, and a 60-year-old Dane, Poul Thisted, were working for a Danish relief organization in northern Somalia when they were kidnapped last October. U.S. officials described their kidnappers as heavily armed common criminals with no known ties to any organized militant group. According to the U.S. officials, two teams of Navy SEALs landed by helicopter near the compound where the two hostages were being held. As the...

A Virginia man claimed to be a Navy SEAL to talk his way out of a gun possession arrest on Thursday, and the New York Police Department committed him to a psych ward thinking his claims of elite military status were the rantings of a lunatic.NYC Police Throw Navy SEAL Into Psych Ward For Claiming... Hes a SEAL Turns out the guy was in fact an elite Navy SEAL. But as the New York Post put it, telling the NYPD “I’m in an elite military unit, you can’t arrest me,” doesn‘t help much when the city’s draconian gun laws are...

Jesse’s Statement: The event this man spoke of never happened. I have been to Mc P’s many times since leaving the Navy. I was never there alone. I was always accompanied by other people. If this happened 6 years ago, someone would have known of it before now. Certainly in the UDT/SEAL community it would have been known. This has to be news to all of us. I have always opposed the war in Iraq but I have never spoken or wished any ill will towards the soldiers. My heart aches that soldiers have died or been wounded because this...

This is the extraordinary moment a cheeky seal pup tailed two dogs while they were having a swim - before trying to join in on their fun. Playful dogs Bolle and Coco were busy cooling off in the sea after a long walk when behind them a mysterious shape appeared to follow them. And when the adventurous seal decided he wanted to take the lead and join them splashing around, Coco looked stunned as she came face-to-face with the pup. ...

My nine hunting companions last weekend in South Texas didn't look particularly special. Ranging from early-30s to mid-40s, they could be mistaken for the young doctor down the street, the general manager of the car dealership, the guy who builds custom motorcycles. But they are extraordinary. Among them, they had a Navy Cross, four Silver Stars, 26 Bronze Stars for valor and four Purple Hearts. These were Navy SEALs with a combined 150 years of service and more than 67 overseas deployments in the war against terror.

Emerson Knives, Inc. has been building custom knives for the Navy SEALs since its founding in 1979. This month, Emerson is memorializing the SEALs whose helicopter was shot down by insurgents in Afghanistan on August 5th with a commemorative Emerson CQC-6 combat knife with a blade constructed with steel from the World Trade Center. The Emerson CQC-6 design has been a sidearm staple for the SEALs since the 1980s. The knife’s letters, CQC, mean “Close Quarter Combat,” and the “6” refers to SEAL Team 6. According to Ernest Emerson,

New details and names have emerged regarding appointees that Obama brought into our White House who allegedly have ties to the Muslim Brotherhood. This article lays out what we have learned and calls for an immediate Congressional investigation. It is no secret that Obama has embraced an enemy that openly states their desire to destroy Western Civilization and declares “Death to America.” Obama’s perplexing actions over the course of his Presidency appear to be more aligned with the agenda of the Muslim Brotherhood and United Nations than with America’s agenda. From Obama’s illegal war in Libya with U.S. military support...

Navy SEAL Jon Tumilson had a very close friend in his life – his dog, Hawkeye. Tumilson, a former San Diego resident, was killed August 6 in the Chinook helicopter crash that also claimed the lives of 29 other American servicemembers. Tumilson’s funeral was on Friday in Rockford, Iowa at Rockford Senior High. Hawkeye was one of the 1,500 souls who attended. As you can see by the gut-wrenching photo on the right, Hawkeye refused to leave his master’s side during the service. Video here

Navy SEAL Aaron Vaughn "didn't want to leave this Earth any other way...He loved his job...I want to tell the world that he was an amazing man...He was a warrior for Christ and he was a warrior for our country...He's with the Lord now and I'll see him again some day," [his widow Kimberly said].

Georgetown University professor C. Christine Fair has written a post at Registan.net alleging that Nicholas Schmidle’s New Yorker cover story detailing the Navy SEAL raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound may be a fraud. At the very least, Fair alleges, Schmidle failed to interview the Navy SEALs involved in the operation–which is not mentioned anywhere in the article, but is apparent from a close analysis of the text. Is that really the way bin Laden dyed? (pun intended)

Meet Cairo from SEAL Team Six Cairo -like most canine members of the elite U.S. Navy SEALs-  is a Belgian Malinois. The breed is similar to a German Shepherd but a bit smaller/more compact -an adult male cca 65 lbs- and is therefore considered better for various parachute jumping and rappelling operations with the USN's SEAL teams.  And this particular dog was indeed the one that entered the Abbottabad compound that night... he even got to meet Obama afterward, although it's doubtful the dog was impressed, these things can smell weakness a mile away, heh. Like their human counterparts, the K9 SEALs are highly...

[snip] Just ask, ahem, President Obama. Seems the big guy lost a magnetic presidential seal that was affixed to the side of his limousine as he wrapped up a fundraising visit to Philly on Thursday. The seal flew off the side of the limo and whipped by motorists in the eastbound lanes of Interstate 76, where it was presumed lost . . . until shortly before noon yesterday. That's when a veteran Philadelphia police officer found the seal on the side of the highway, near the Montgomery Avenue exit, while he was assisting the driver of a disabled vehicle, said...

A man who appeared in a Navy SEAL uniform at a Thousand Oaks school event this week apparently never served in the Navy, military officials said Wednesday. Salhem Dreasden was among those in uniform Tuesday at a tribute to soldiers at Ladera School. The school was honored at the event for outstanding patriotism and support of the armed forces. Dreasden was wearing a Navy uniform that bore his last name, the words "SEAL TEAM," the trident pin insignia of the elite unit and twin bars indicating the rank of Navy lieutenant. The name Salhem Dreasden, however, does not appear anywhere...

It was just a matter of time before the successful Navy SEAL operation against Osama bin Laden on May 1 provoked a complaint that SEAL teams are all-male. Sure enough, Washington Post pundit (and founder of the feminist website Jezebel.com) Anna Holmes came through last week with a column denouncing the “paternalistic, discriminatory” exclusion of women from special-operations units and comparing that exclusion to racial segregation. If you’d like to get a full picture of feminist thought today, just combine Holmes’s column with the ongoing farce at Yale University, which is under federal investigation for allegedly denying female students equal...

Preface Recently, I closed my blog out-of-the-blue and without a clear stated reason. However, I did have a compelling reason for my decision to close shop, and it fit the dramatic blog entry I left announcing that decision. The truth is, I emailed Loretta Fuddy, Acting Director for the Hawaii Department of Health (HDOH) earlier the same day I announced that I was closing my blog; and I felt (and still feel) that the content of that email led to the event which prompted me and my husband to have a conversation about the future of this blog and my...

Pakistan to Return U.S. Chopper Tail By TOM WRIGHT and MATTHEW ROSENBERG ISLAMABAD – Pakistan has agreed to return the tail section of a U.S. helicopter used in the raid that killed Osama bin Laden earlier this month. Sen. John Kerry, who met Monday with senior Pakistani civilian and military officials in Islamabad, said the gesture was among a number of steps both countries had agreed to take to rebuild shattered relations. Pakistan is angered over the unilateral raid that targeted bin Laden in Abbottabad, a military garrison town 40 miles from Islamabad.

Two days after U.S. Navy Seals Team 6 made headlines around the world for the dramatic raid that killed terror mastermind Osama Bin Laden, the Walt Disney Company trademarked their name, reports FishbowlNY. This doesn't effect how the Navy uses the moniker for military purposes, but it does mean we may soon be seeing 'Seal Team 6' branded products and entertainment. According to records viewable online with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Disney filed the Trademark paperwork on May 3, 2011 for 'Seal Team 6'.

I was wrong. There apparently WAS a "seal" on Obama's BC. Savannah Guthrie says she felt it and she took a photo that shows a faint outline of a seal. Unfortunately for Obama, that "seal" IMHO cannot be the same seal as on the Factcheck photos. The size, style, content, and clarity is way off. This "seal" causes even more problems for Obama's case, although it explains why the media didn't see an immediate problem because of the missing seal. Not meaning to pimp my blog, but there is no way to post the images here in a PDF where...

Hero Builders An Oxford company has released an action figure inspired by the capture of Osama bin Laden. Navy SEALs have become national heroes since news broke that they took down Osama bin Laden, so it’s fitting that the newest action figure from a Connecticut company is a fierce looking President Barack Obama as a SEAL. The minute Obama said late on the night of May 1 that the U.S. had found and killed bin Laden, Emil Vicale knew which his action figure company’s would make next -- Rambama. On Wednesday morning, Hero Builders released the Obama SEAL Team 6...

Navy SEAL wannabes lie to get free beers, to get women into bed, to further their civilian careers or to get military benefits. And the number of phonies will probably only grow with the SEALs in the spotlight for the operation that killed Osama bin Laden. In fact, there might be more fakes than the real thing — so despite being outnumbered, retired SEALs and others are doing what they can to stop impostors from stealing the valor that rightly belongs to others who have trained for some of the world's toughest military missions. "There were about 500 SEALs that...

Pastor Jim Moats of Newville, Pa. once had a conversation with a supervisor about the Navy SEALs. He's apparently seen a few movies portraying the SEALs as well. In the Christian Bible Fellowship Church in Newville, Pa., Pastor Jim Moats was apparently known as a Vietnam-era Navy SEAL. Moats was known to tell tales of his time as a SEAL to parishioners and family. His sons, both of whom served in Iraq, even made their dad a plaque honoring the SEALs and other Navy units. The plaque hung on Moats' wall. His tall tales and this plaque had led to...

The night was deathly quiet on that fateful night in May SEAL Team Six was loaded and their choppers on the way The rotor sounds were muffled as they streaked across the land Their mission was top secret and their destination Pakistan The minutes passed by quickly as they traveled through the night Their guns were in the ready as the compound came in sight The landing zone was closing fast as they descended from the sky The compound guards were shooting, and the lead began to fly The SEAL Team now unloaded, they numbered twenty four They knew their...

A recent update to the Federal Communications Commission seal has resulted in a somewhat embarrassing problem for an organization staffed with technology experts and engineers. At some point in the last several months a new color pattern of the FCC seal was placed in one of the FCC’s conference rooms, and additional representations of that new seal are currently scattered across the brand new FCC.gov website that launched at the beginning of April and can be found on sites like Wikipedia. It was at the launch of the new FCC website that Dane Ericksen, a senior engineer at Hammett &...

Holy Spirit Indwelling Series – Part 4 Sealed with the Spirit! Indwelling?As this series has progressed the indwelling of the Holy Spirit has been presented as representative and not the same as the “gift of the Holy Spirit” or being “filled with the Spirit”. This article will focus on the idea of being sealed with the spirit, what it means, and whether or not it is an indwelling as some suppose. In conjunction with examining the terms “seal” or “sealed”, the terms “earnest” and “anointed” will also be discussed.The terms “seal” or “sealed” in the Old and New Testament are...

People on the north coast of Labrador say scores of dead seals have been washing ashore since early December. A conservation officer with the area's Inuit government estimated late last week that hundreds of adult and young seals have died in the area between Hopedale and Makkovik this winter. The Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) is testing the carcasses, but Nunatsiavut conservation officer Ian Winters said many people in the area believe DFO hasn't acted quickly enough. "I think they should have been up here earlier, if you're asking me. A lot of people said the same thing. So,...

Jesse Ventura, announced he will no longer use commercial airlines due to the egregious abuses of the TSA and the government. Ventura said he made the decision to avoid public aircraft after he found himself becoming too comfortable with being routinely searched. He said he was subjected to pat down and search three or four times a week when he traveled for his television show. Ventura had hip surgery and the metal in his body invariably sets off airport metal detectors. Jesse said he will no longer be forced by the TSA to prove he is not a criminal or...

An extremely rare albino seal has been admitted to the Seal Rehabilitation and Research Centre Lenie ‘t Hart (SRRC ) in Holland for treatment of a very serious lung infection. The SRRC is a Dutch veterinary hospital that treats and releases seals that have fallen ill rather than euthanizing them. The SRRC has reportedly only treated 6 such seals in the last 40 years. The last albino seal that was treated at the SRRC was treated there 10 years ago. The SRRC is a treatment facility for seals and an education center for visitors from around the world. Seals are...

Well, he told the truth anyway. From Real Clear Politics: Obama Loses Presidential Seal: "All Of You Know Who I Am"Yes, we do. And it isn't who you convinced your voters you were. Is this an omen? Check out the video here:

We all know how important the presidential seal is to president Barry Hussein Soetoro. He is the only president in the history of the United States of America who made up his own "presidential elect" seal while he was waiting for the oval office to be vacated. WASHINGTON (AP) - The presidential seal has fallen off President Barack Obama's podium and clattered to the stage as Obama delivered a speech to a women's conference. The president was joking with the audience and getting some laughs when he realized what happened. "All of you know who I am," he quipped. (see...

CBS News' Mark Knoller reports via Twitter that when the presidential seal fell off the lectern while Barack Obama addressed the 2010 Fortune Magazine Most Powerful Women Summit tonight, Obama told the audience, "That's all right. All of you know who I am."Obama followed by saying of the staffer responsible for the seal, he is "sweating bullets right now.”Knoller Tweeted that the White House Communications Agency handles the seal and lectern for presidential speeches.

The presidential seal has fallen off President Barack Obama's podium and clattered to the stage as Obama delivered a speech to a women's conference. The president was joking with the audience and getting some laughs when he realized what happened. "All of you know who I am," he quipped.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The presidential seal has fallen off President Barack Obama's podium and clattered to the stage as Obama delivered a speech to a women's conference. The president was joking with the audience and getting some laughs when he realized what happened. "All of you know who I am," he quipped. Obama told the audience that somebody in the back was really nervous, referring to the staffer who hung the seal on the front of the lectern so precariously.

In 2005 Petty Officer First Class David Goggins’ life took a tragic turn. Several of his fellow U.S. Navy SEAL(s) were killed in a helicopter crash during a mission in Afghanistan. To honor them, Goggins vowed to raise money for the Special Operations Warrior Foundation, which gives college scholarships and grants to the children of fallen special operations soldiers. Goggins rationalized that to raise money, he would have to do something extreme, something phenomenal— something incredibly painful. He decided to race ultramarathons when he Googled the 10 most difficult feats in the world. First on the list was the Badwater...

The Department of Defense announced today the deaths of four sailors who died in a helicopter crash Sept. 21 during combat operations in the Zabul province, Afghanistan, while supporting Operation Enduring Freedom. Killed were: Lt. (SEAL) Brendan J. Looney, 29, of Owings, Md., assigned to a West Coast-based SEAL Team. Senior Chief Petty Officer David B. McLendon, 30, of Thomasville, Ga., assigned to an East Coast-based Naval Special Warfare unit. Petty Officer 2nd Class (SEAL) Adam O. Smith, 26, of Hurland, Mo., assigned to an East Coast-based SEAL Team. Petty Officer 3rd Class (SEAL) Denis C. Miranda, 24, of Toms...

Click on link.

In the last month, three of the four American SSGNs (former ballistic missile subs each now carrying 154 cruise missiles and SEAL commando teams) appeared in the Pacific and Indian oceans (the Philippines, South Korea and Diego Garcia). Some through this was a message for China, but, in fact, the SSGNs go where the potential trouble is. When questioned, U.S. Navy officials responded that, for the first time, all four SSGNs were operating at sea, in locations distant from their bases. Two years ago, the U.S. Navy completed the conversion of the last of four Ohio class ballistic missile submarines...

VIRGINIA BEACH By the fall of 1972, the Vietnam War had started to wind down for most U.S. troops. But for Petty Officer Michael Thornton, a 23-year-old Navy SEAL from the hills of South Carolina, it was just starting to heat up. Launched at dusk in a rubber boat by a Vietnamese junk, Thornton was part of a five-man SEAL patrol assigned to gather intelligence near the North Vietnam border. When day broke and they could find no identifiable landmarks, Thornton turned to the patrol leader, Lt. Tom Norris, and said: "I think we're in the wrong place." They had...

A U.S. military jury on Thursday cleared a Navy SEAL of any wrongdoing in the alleged beating of an Iraqi prisoner suspected of masterminding the grisly 2004 killings of four American contractors. Matthew McCabe, a Special Operations Petty Officer Second Class, was facing three charges: dereliction of performance of duty for willfully failing to safeguard a detainee, making a false official statement, and assault. http://scottfactor.com

NORFOLK, Va. -- The prosecution's star witness in the trial of a Navy SEAL charged with abusing a terror suspect was discredited when multiple witnesses testified that Petty Officer 3rd Class Kevin DeMartino had a motive for false accusations. DeMartino, the only witness that said he saw the defendant strike the suspect, could face a dishonorable discharge for not performing his duties correctly when he was assigned to guard the terrorist, giving him motivation to lie on the stand, according to the case being built by the defense lawyers. DeMartino’s job as a Master at Arms (MA) was to stay...

NORFOLK, Va. (AP) ― A military jury began deliberations Thursday in the court-martial of a Navy SEAL accused of punching a suspected Iraqi terrorist. Petty Officer 2nd Class Matthew McCabe, 24, of Perrysburg, Ohio, is accused of assaulting Ahmed Hashim Abed, who is suspected of plotting the 2004 slayings of four U.S. contractors in Fallujah.

A U.S. military judge on Friday cleared a Navy SEAL of any wrongdoing in the alleged beating of an Iraqi prisoner suspected of masterminding the grisly 2004 killings of four American contractors. http://scottfactor.com

<p>A U.S. military jury has cleared a Navy SEAL in an abuse case involving an Iraqi prisoner accused of masterminding an attack that left four Blackwater security contractors dead.</p> <p>1st Petty Officer Julio Huertas, 28, was the first of three Navy SEALs to go on trial for the alleged assault. He was not accused of abusing the prisoner but of failing to safeguard him and attempting to influence the testimony of another service member.</p>

Biblical animation and a quote from: 2 Timothy 2 vs. 19

SEWARD, Alaska - A rescue center in Alaska has taken in an orphaned baby seal that was still in the womb when a hunter killed its mother on Easter Sunday. The Alaska SeaLife Center says a subsistence hunter killed the pup's mother in a village on Nelson Island, in the Bering Sea. The hunter then realized there was a live pup inside the seal and successfully delivered it. The hunter's daughter found a hot line for the Seward rescue center and called to report the incident. Guided by center staff, a village teacher helped transport the pup to the local...

NORFOLK Prosecutors handling the courts-martial of two local Navy SEALs charged with not stopping a teammate's alleged assault on an Iraqi detainee faced another setback Friday. Cmdr. Tierney Carlos agreed to exclude a statement made by one of the SEALs to the special agent investigating the allegations in September because the agent didn't advise him of his right to remain silent. As a result, one of two charges against Petty Officer 2nd Class Jonathan Keefe likely will be dropped. The charges against the three SEALs have sparked protests and calls from some in Congress for the cases to be dismissed....

Canada's parliamentary restaurant will be serving seal meat on Wednesday in a gesture of defiance aimed at a European Union ban on imports of seal products. Canada's Conservative government says it will fight the EU ban, which was imposed last July ... A dish of double-smoked bacon-wrapped seal loin in a port reduction will be on the menu... All political parties will have the opportunity to demonstrate to the international community the solidarity of the Canadian Parliament behind those who earn a living from the seal hunt

Canadian lawmakers are to protest against the European Union’s ban on seal imports today — with their stomachs. About 30 senators, MPs and provincial ministers will gather in the parliamentary dining room in Ottawa to feast on seal meat in a rebuke to opponents of the country’s annual seal cull. The menu, prepared by the parliamentary chef, features hors d’oeuvres of sliced seal sausage and a main course of bacon-wrapped seal loin in a port reduction. “It will be the first time for most of them — especially in a very exquisite way, cooking it with port,” Céline Hervieux-Payette, the...

The US Navy SEALs, America's secretive frogman-commando elite, are to get a new and enlarged pocket submarine which will allow them to travel most of the way to an objective inside in the dry and then exit through an airlock before swimming on for their final approach. Ordinary "wet" SDV mini-sub in action. The SEALs and comparable elite forces such as the British SBS have long used "wet" Swimmer Delivery Vehicles (SDVs) to approach an objective below the waves, allowing them to move faster and further than an unaided frogman can. With a normal SDV, the frog-trooper isn't inside a...