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Two Navy SEALs went missing overboard during an operation in the Red Sea last week, per CENTCOM.
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Search-and-rescue operations are still ongoing, but time is running out.
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Losing Navy SEALs at sea during overseas operations is extremely rare, experts said.
Two US Navy SEALs are feared dead after going missing during a nighttime raid off the coast of Somalia more than a week ago.
The pair were helping seize Iranian warheads for missiles being sent to Yemen when they were lost at sea, US Central Command, or CENTCOM, said in a statement on Tuesday.
The Associated Press reported last week, citing unnamed US officials, that the pair were climbing aboard a vessel when high waves knocked one into the water. The second SEAL, following protocol, jumped in to help, it said. Both vanished.
Search-and-rescue operations for the two SEALs were still ongoing as of Friday morning, a defense official told Business Insider.
Though rescuers have not yet given up the search, experts have said their chances of survival are very slim.
Such an accident is extremely rare, a military analyst and three retired Navy officers said.
“It’s not something that happens often,” Joe Buccino, former director of communications at CENTCOM, told BI.
Still, he said that SEALs are deployed on these kinds of dangerous missions “and when you’ve got speed and they’re operating at sea, sometimes something tragic happens.”
“It’s a tough situation. They’re trained to the highest level,” he added.
Bradley Martin, a retired surface-warfare captain who served in the Navy for 30 years, said he had to deal with man-overboard situations during his career, “but none that I can recall involved SEALs in operations,” he said.
SEAL operations at sea are “high risk,” he added, but SEALs “receive considerable training prior to attempting these, with the result that losses are comparatively rare.”
Past fallen SEALs
The Veteran Tributes website lists 140 Navy SEALs who were either killed in action or died on duty since its creation in 1962.
Over the years, the US Navy has experienced several incidents of SEALs lost at sea during overseas operations.
Four were lost in a rain squall off the coast of Grenada during the US invasion of the Caribbean island in 1983. Their bodies were never recovered, according to the National Navy SEAL Museum.
In 1989, four SEALs were killed during an invasion of Panama. They were on a mission to disable the boat of the then-Panama president, the National Navy SEAL Museum said.
And in 2013, Matthew John Leathers, a 33-year-old special warfare operator 1st class, went missing at sea following training exercises off the coast of Hawaii, per the Daily Democrat. He was never found.
The Navy SEAL Foundation, a Virginia-based nonprofit, has a list of 125 SEAL service members who it says have died since 2002 while on active duty, diplomatic service, or due to service-connected injuries.
Sometimes, no reason is given for their death.
Buccino told BI that some missions are top secret and that the exact number of SEALs lost at sea, dead, or injured during overseas operations is highly classified.
Jack Keller, a Navy SEAL Lieutenant, died at age 29 in February 2023, according to his obituary. No cause of death was given.
Michael Ernst, a veteran Navy SEAL and father of two, also died last year, during free-fall parachute training in Marana, Arizona, according to US Military.com and USNI News.
And SEAL commander Robert Ramirez III, 47, was found dead at his home in California in December. Foul play was not suspected, command officials told The Navy Times.
“Every day, around the globe, on every continent, SEALs are operating for our security, ensuring our way of life,” retired Navy SEAL Master Chief Rick Kaiser, who served in the SEALs for more than 34 years, told Business Insider.
He added: “Most will never know the extent of this training, service, and sacrifice — sometimes at the greatest expense of their lives.”
Losses could be higher
Sam Tangredi, a retired US Navy captain, reiterated that it is “very rare” for a SEAL to be lost at sea.
“I haven’t heard of a similar incident before,” he told BI.
But, he added, “all naval activity at sea is inherently dangerous.”
Those involved have to face tough conditions like being on the lookout while a ship is pitching and rolling in a violent storm, or conducting an amphibious landing at night, Tangredi said.
“People who have never done it cannot possibly grasp how dangerous it is,” he said, adding: “A SEAL hauling themselves aboard a hostile vessel on which some enemy might shoot — that is a task with no margin for error.”
Tangredi also said that, given the dangers they face, “it is surprising that such losses don’t happen more frequently.”
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