Spec Ops Magazine

Special Warfare Operator Senior Chief Thomas J. Valentine, 37, of Ham Lake, Minnesota.  DEVGRU Blue Squadron. Killed in training on 13 February 2008 during a pre deployment free fall parachute exercise in Casa Grande, Arizona.

Valentine enlisted in the Navy in August 1989 and served most of his career with East Coast based SEAL teams.  Combat deployments to both Iraq and Afghanistan. The kind of senior enlisted SEAL whose career arc carried him through the heart of the post 9/11 NSW build out and into the command.

He was killed during a pre deployment free fall training exercise, the kind of evolution every operator at the command runs hundreds of times across a career.  The work is dangerous even when nothing is being shot at. Sometimes it kills men anyway.

Captain Scott Moore, the DEVGRU commander, described him as one of the finest SEALs he had ever known. A role model. An incredible leader. 

Survived by his wife, two children, parents, brother, and sister. 

CAG operator, gadgets on. Personal kit loadout, built the Unit way. High standard on the core platforms, individual choice on everything else.

GIGN snipers on training. France’s national CT precision element.

1st SFOD D’s C Squadron operators during training.

U.S. Marine Force Recon veteran Jason Lee Morrison. Deployed into the invasion of Iraq and saw action across Iraq, Afghanistan, and Israel.  After the Corps, he transitioned into the post service contractor world, including paramilitary work on CIA contracts.

CIA in Afghanistan 25 years ago J.R. Seeger, head of the CIA's Alpha Team and Intelligence officer.

Former 1st SFOD D A Squadron operator Charlie Ross. Two decades in Army Special Operations,  almost all of it at the very top end of the force. A Squadron is the oldest of the Unit’s sabre squadrons, the one that traces its lineage to Beckwith’s original assault element and has been on the line for every major Unit operation since the 70s.

A handful of photos from Matt Bissonnette’s books “No Easy Day” and “No Hero,” documenting his time in the Tier 1 community and at DEVGRU. The two memoirs cover his career from BUD/S through the West Coast SEAL Teams, into Green Team, and through years at DEVGRU including his role on Operation Neptune Spear.

Matt Bissonnette’s MP7 with the rattle can paint job that has become a quiet legend in the cloner and SOF photo community. The pattern almost perfectly mirrors his AOR1 camo, blending the weapon into the kit so cleanly that the rifle nearly disappears against the uniform.