Posted on 09/09/2026 10:48:03 AM PDT by ransomnote
ransomnote: The prior posts in the series are here:
John “TIG” Tiegen
@TigTiegen12 DAYS OF BENGHAZI:
DAY 9 - 1 of 4TYRONE “RONE” WOODS
I had never worked with Rone before this rotation.
He was our Assistant Team Leader at the Annex and our medic. Before GRS, he had spent 20 years as a Navy SEAL, retired as a Senior Chief, served combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, was also a registered nurse and paramedic. He was the kind of guy who had both the tactical experience and the medical experience you wanted around when things went bad.
What I remember most about him was how laid-back and motivated he was. Easy to work with. No drama. Just did his job.
He had extended his rotation and only had about a week or so left. He should have already been home under his original schedule.
At the time, I had Scottish Highlands (cattle or cows for you city dwellers) back home, and Rone was planning to buy a whole cow’s from me once I got home and had it butchered. That is the kind of thing I remember.
Not some big heroic speech. Not some dramatic conversation. Just two guys talking about normal life back home.
Rone had three sons, including an infant son at the time. He had a family waiting for him, and he was almost done with that extended rotation. A week or so.
That was about all he had left.
And then September 11 happened.
When people talk about Benghazi, they usually talk about the attack, the politics, the investigations and the arguments.
I remember the guys.
Rone was one of them, Laid-back, Motivated, Experienced, leader, medic, A father, A brother, A Son and A Warrior.
And a guy who was supposed to be home already.
#12DaysOfBenghazi #Benghazi #13Hours #NeverForget #HonorTheFallen
September 9, 2026
John “TIG” Tiegen
@TigTiegen
·
2h12 DAYS OF BENGHAZI:
DAY 9 - 2 of 4GLEN “BUB” DOHERTY
Bub was a 9-year Navy SEAL, combat veteran, medic and sniper. He served in Iraq and Afghanistan, responded to the aftermath of the USS Cole bombing, and later worked in some of the same kinds of dangerous places many of us ended up in after the military. He began protective work for the CIA in 2005 and deployed 14 times with the Agency before Benghazi.
But Bub was a lot more than a résumé.
He was a pilot, skier, surfer, mountain biker and triathlete. His family describes him as the kind of guy who collected friends everywhere he went and made people feel like they mattered. He was also the kind of guy who would help somebody through a divorce, watch their house while they were deployed, or just show up when a friend needed him.
He even co-wrote 21st Century Sniper with Brandon Webb.
On September 11, Bub was not originally sitting at the Benghazi Annex with us. He came in with the team from Tripoli after the attack had already started. When they reached the Annex and things were going bad, Bub went up to help Rone on the roof.
That was who he was.
He ran toward the problem.
Bub and Rone were killed together when the mortars hit the Annex early on September 12.
After Bub died, his family and friends built the @GDMFtweet
in his name. Today it helps members of the Special Operations community transition into civilian life through education and vocational scholarships. The foundation says it has now awarded more than $1 million to 135 scholarship recipients. That is worth remembering too.A man can die, but what he stood for doesn’t have to.
Bub was a SEAL, medic, sniper, GRS, adventurer and one hell of a friend to a lot of people.
And two days before September 11, none of us knew how little time was left.
#12DaysOfBenghazi #Benghazi #13Hours #NeverForget #HonorTheFallen
September 9, 2026
John “TIG” Tiegen
@TigTiegen
·
2h12 DAYS OF BENGHAZI:
DAY 9 - 3 of 4SEAN SMITH
Sean Smith is probably the man from Benghazi most people know the least about.
That needs to change.
Sean joined the U.S. Air Force at 17 years old. He served six years as a ground radio maintenance specialist, deployed to Oman, earned the Air Force Commendation Medal, and left the service as a Staff Sergeant.
Then he kept serving.
In 2002, Sean joined the State Department as an Information Management Officer. Over the next 10 years, his work took him to places including Baghdad, Pretoria, Montreal and The Hague. In September 2012, he was in Benghazi on a temporary assignment helping support the mission’s communications and information systems.
But that was only one side of Sean.
He was a husband to Heather and a father to Samantha and Nathan. He was taking college courses and still planning what came next.
And if you knew him online, you probably didn’t know him as Sean Smith at all.
You knew him as Vile Rat!
Sean was deeply involved in EVE Online, where he became one of the best-known members of that gaming community. He built relationships, negotiated, solved problems and earned the respect of people all over the world. Then on the night of September 11, that online world collided with the real one.
Sean was gaming and communicating with friends when the attack began. When his His messages suddenly changed.
“[ransomnote: profane exclamation removed for Free Republic rules]”
“gunfire”
And then he went offline.
For the people on the other side of that computer, Benghazi wasn’t a headline yet. Their friend was there.
A 34-year-old husband and father who had spent virtually his entire adult life serving this country first in uniform and then with the State Department.
Sean wasn’t “the other American” who died with Ambassador Stevens.
He had his own story.
Staff Sergeant Sean Smith
Air Force veteran
Foreign Service officer
Husband
Father
Son
Vile RatAnd one of the four Americans we lost in Benghazi.
He deserves to be remembered by name.
#12DaysOfBenghazi #Benghazi #13Hours #NeverForget #HonorTheFallen
September 9, 2026
John “TIG” Tiegen
@TigTiegen
12 DAYS OF BENGHAZI: DAY 9 - 4 of 4
AMBASSADOR CHRIS STEVENS
Chris Stevens knew Benghazi long before September 11, 2012.
He wasn’t some ambassador who showed up with no understanding of Libya or the risks.
Chris had spent more than two decades in the Foreign Service, much of it in the Middle East and North Africa. Before that, he had served in the Peace Corps in Morocco. He spoke Arabic and French and had served in places including Jerusalem, Damascus, Cairo, Riyadh and Tunis.
When Libya’s revolution began in 2011, Chris was sent to Benghazi as the U.S. Special Envoy to the Libyan opposition.
He arrived by boat in April while Qaddafi was still in power and the war was still going on. At that point, the U.S. Embassy in Tripoli had already suspended operations.
His team initially operated out of the Tibesti Hotel. Then, on June 1, 2011, a car bomb exploded outside the hotel.
Shortly afterward, another credible threat against the Special Envoy mission helped force the team to move. On June 21, Chris and his security detail relocated to what would later become the U.S. Special Mission compound in Benghazi.
Think about that.
More than a year before the September 11 attack, Chris Stevens had already been in Benghazi when a bomb exploded outside the place his American mission was operating from.
He knew Benghazi could be dangerous.
And he kept coming back.
In 2012, Chris became the United States Ambassador to Libya, formally presenting his credentials on June 7.
From everything written about him, Chris genuinely believed in what he was doing there. He believed in meeting Libyans, building relationships and helping Libya move forward after Qaddafi. That is important to remember.
Because Benghazi has become so political that sometimes the actual people disappear from the story.
Chris Stevens was more than “the Ambassador killed in Benghazi.”
He was a Peace Corps volunteer.
A career diplomat.
A man who knew the region, spoke the language and had already put himself in harm’s way in Libya before he ever became Ambassador.
And on September 9, 2012, he still had two days left.
J. Christopher Stevens.
United States Ambassador to Libya.
Diplomat.
Public servant.
Son, Brother, FriendOne of four Americans we lost in Benghazi.
And a man who deserves to be remembered for more than the place where he died.
#12DaysOfBenghazi #Benghazi #13Hours #NeverForget #HonorTheFallen
September 9, 2026
Worth repeating:
Four Dead In Benghazi - Parody of CSN&Y’s ‘Ohio’ :: Jimmy Z
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvW4_sABQMk
This is one of my very favorite parodies, even though I do NOT like the original Neil Young song, which falsely blames Nixon!
“Al Qaeda and Hillary coming.....”
Chris Stevens had served in the Peace Corps in Morocco.
I knew a woman who also had served in the Peace Corps in Morocco, who has since passed away. May her Memory be Eternal!
The two people I spoke to who were in Benghazi spoke highly of the Ambassador as he had come into Libya undercover before he got the position. Also, Rone was one of the snipers involved in the Capt. Phillips rescue.
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