Firefight Against Iraqi Insurgents Claims the War's First Navy SEAL

[ECH1969]

When Navy SEAL Marc Alan Lee talked to his wife last week from Iraq, he was upbeat as always, discussing their future, his SEAL team's planned return to Coronado, Calif., in October and the prospect of starting a family.

The next day the 28-year-old Lee, a petty officer 2nd class, was killed in a prolonged firefight with insurgents in Ramadi, making him the first SEAL killed in Iraq.

Two other SEALs were wounded in what a reporter embedded with U.S. troops described as an hourlong firefight between heavily armed and aggressive insurgents and a force of SEALs, U.S. soldiers and Iraqi troops.

As one of the U.S. military's most elite and secretive fighting units, the SEALs almost never reveal their missions to the public, even long after completion.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-seal7aug07,1,6529371.story

[rodeodance]

1. AND 3 troops were killed yesterday

[pooja]

2. If seals were involved, you know things are pretty bad. They

don't send in a special force to just play fight. Wonder what's really going on???

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

3. One of three things, I suspect:

1. Intelligence op that got found out.

2. Snatch and Grab on someone of relative importance that got found out.

3. Blow something way the hell up, that got found out.

[TomInTib]

7. My guess is #2

Extraction is a SEAL specialty.

Damn.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

14. I was just throwing out...

Possible Ops scenarios that make up the syllabus of regular SEAL operations. I am with you, however. Sounds like a parakeet op to me.

[grytpype]

4. What's a SEAL doing on dry land hundreds of miles from water?

I guess they need everyone they can spare.

[QuettaKid]

5. PIC.

Enough of this war bullsh*t. Sick of it. Sick of it all. Let's focus on the cute from here on out.




www.cuteoverload.com

[TomInTib]

8. SEa Air Land

Team3 here ('69-72)

This was probably an extaction mission.

[BrotherBuzz]

11. Here's one that preferred California' s Central Valley over the ocean

[DeepModem Mom]

6. Senator Hagel is right. Don't send our troops on this Baghdad mission.

He suggests a regional peace conference, headed by Bill Clinton and GHW Bush.

[951-Riverside]

9. Lame Seal?

Look at the url, I wonder if thats just coincidence or intentional.

[RamboLiberal]

10. Mean LA Times Middle East

just coincidence.

[Recursion]

12. SEALs aren't supposed to be shooters

These guys are hardcore, but they aren't supposed to go toe-to-toe at the 10 yardline.

Somebody screwed up, and it's sounding as bad as Panama.

[Renew Deal]

13. These guys are too valuable to be doing grunt work.

Isn't it way too expensive to replace them?

[hootinholler]

15. Seals arent' supposed to be grunts...

Shooters they are in my understanding.

[Phrogman]

16. Lots of SEALs have already lost their lives ..

Maybe this is the first man to die in Iraq, but a lot of team guys have already been killed and maimed in Afghanistan.
One of my former platoon mates is involved with counseling the families of SpecWar casualties.

He's plenty busy.

[Irreverend IX]

17. If a SEAL gets into a gun battle...

It means something went disastrously wrong. Those guys carry out missions where the enemy is never supposed to know they were there--intelligence gathering and covert ops type stuff. SEALs getting killed and wounded means that the insurgency is getting strong enough to foil even the best-laid special ops plans.

[951-Riverside]

18. I think the main problem is they tell the iraqi "troops" everything

Recent incidents like the wounding of journalists and potentially "high value" targets like Bob Woodruff and Kimberly Dozier, also the abduction and killing of soldiers left alone at a checkpoint and now the navy seal incident are all linked to Iraqi "forces" getting critical information first hand. I wouldn't be surprised if I found out these iraqi commanders have a say in where & how our troops can operate in iraq.

[Irreverend IX]

19. What do you mean?

Are you saying that the US command is having to bargain with the insurgents over where US troops may operate unmolested and give them information on their operations, and that sometimes the Iraqi forces renege on their agreements? That's pretty crazy, but it might be crazy enough to be true.

[0007]

20. Add one more to the pile

Grass Bush

Pile the bodies high in Austerlitz and Waterloo Iraq
Shovel them under and let me work--
I am the grass; bush; I cover all.

And pile them high in Gettyburg Baghdad
And pile them high in Ypres and Vedum Mossoul and Al Fallaujah

Two years, ten years, and passengers ask the conductor:
What place is this?

I am the grass bush.
Let me work.

Carl Sandburg


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