Posted on 07/15/2005 1:13:02 PM PDT by neverdem
Navy SEAL Danny Dietz returned home Thursday, laid to rest at Fort Logan National Cemetery near his boyhood home in Littleton.
A black carriage drawn by a white horse delivered his flag-draped casket to a memorial worthy of a hero - the release of doves, military men moved to tears, taps moaning from a trumpet as the scent of burned powder from a 21-gun salute wafted in the faint breeze.
Dietz, 25, was killed in a firefight with al-Qaeda guerrillas on a mountainside in Afghanistan on June 28.
His body was recovered on the Fourth of July.
Dietz is said to have died trying to protect three of his special forces teammates on the mission, which friends and family called a comfort in the loss.
The Rev. Larry Herrera remembered praying with Dietz in his Sunday school class when the future commando was a young boy. They talked about the lessons of Jesus, how he died so that others could live.
"I don't know if that seed was planted in Danny that day, but I know he had an example who died on a cross," Herrera said. "There is no greater love than to lay down your life for your friends."
Daring as a teenager
Danny Dietz's father, Dan, recalled how his son had a wild streak as a teenager; his energy and daring too strong a lure to the edge.
He drove his motorcycle the way he did his life, with speed and determination. He was always like that, his father said.
When Dietz was a little boy, he practically inhaled candy. His father gave him a huge bag of it, hoping to make him sick and break the habit.
Dietz gobbled it down and asked for another one, his father said, breaking his first smile in a long conversation earlier this week.
He played football at Heritage High School, but his real passion was martial arts, and he became an expert; he was fascinated by ninjas.
"Danny was always training for something," Dan Dietz said.
Dietz was still in high school the first time that his father heard him mention joining the Navy. They were tending a cemetery, his father's job at the time.
At lunch - during which Danny Dietz ate raw oatmeal - another worker asked him what he was going do after high school.
"Going to be a SEAL," he said between chomps.
His final mission
Gunfire rattled across the Afghanistan mountainside. Bullets shredded trees, ricocheted off boulders and pierced Dietz's body, through 80 pounds of gear.
For Dietz, the fight was just beginning.
Gravely wounded, armed with a pistol and a rifle holding a 30-round clip, Dietz fought for another 20 minutes, killing several of the 30 enemies he faced.
Only one man survived the mission, and he credits Dietz for saving his life.
SEALs who knew Dietz expected nothing less. He always pushed himself and always placed others first.
"He was doing what he trained to do," said Dietz's commander at Little Creek Naval Amphibious Base in Virginia, who, like other active SEALs, was not identified because of their covert role in the war on terrorism.
"The fact that he was able to maintain his composure and fight on for as long as he did, wounded and shooting with precision, tumbling down a mountainside to save his teammates' lives, is a testament to ... the kind of man he was."
Never left behind
SEALs live by a simple code: Team first, team always.
"We don't leave men stranded," said Dietz's best friend and SEAL team leader. "It gives you the confidence that you won't be forgotten or left behind."
As with all SEALs, much of Dietz's service will never be known. Anonymity comes with the job.
This much has been told: Dietz's team had been on the ground about half a day, dropped off by a helicopter with orders to find, capture and, if necessary, kill a high-ranking member of al-Qaeda, whom officials won't name.
"It was an important guy," Dietz's commander said. "It was worth the risk."
Earlier, the four SEALs saw some sheep herders, who may have alerted the militants who set up the mountainside ambush, according to the military.
As soon as they were attacked, the SEAL team radioed for reinforcements. As a helicopter arrived, a rocket-propelled grenade brought it down, killing all 16 men aboard.
The mission was the U.S. military's deadliest day in Afghanistan since after the Sept. 11 attacks.
Hundreds of troops were sent to bring home the bodies.
"No matter how bad it gets out there, you know your guys are coming after you. That's the deal we make," said Dietz's best friend.
For his valor in combat, Dietz received the Navy's Silver Star.
"He will definitely go down in special-warfare history as a guy who did his job and did it well," said his commander, who knew Dietz personally among the nearly 900 SEALs under his charge.
SEALs - Sea-Air-Land commandos - are trained to do what others can't, and those who served with him said Dietz rose above many of his comrades.
"The tales of Dietz's exploits are phenomenal around here, really above what anybody could expect," his best friend said. "Feats of strength, feats of endurance, ... showing a cool head."
Thursday in Denver, a friend from middle school who joined Dietz in basic training and SEAL qualifying said Dietz never wavered, even after breaking a foot in his first attempt at making the elite force.
"He was an extremely determined individual when it came to any challenge put before him," said the former SEAL, now a security contractor in Iraq.
Dietz's commander often is asked what it takes to make it. He spares the speeches and offers only two words: "Don't quit."
Dietz never did.
Set up by future mother-in-law
He had only known his future wife, Patsy, a few weeks when he told his best friend that he was going to propose. His best friend urged him to wait.
"He said he knew he was going to spend the rest of his life with her, so there was no reason to wait," his friend recalled.
Patsy Dietz is the stepdaughter of a SEAL senior officer. Her mother set up the date after meeting Dietz at a party.
In a letter she read at memorial services in Virginia, his wife recalled the butterflies she felt the first day they met. "I remember getting lost in your dark eyes."
Dietz's best friend recalled Thursday how Dietz proposed.
"He said, 'Please marry me, and I will serve you the entirety of my life."'
And he did.
Dietz had a way of making others admire him as well.
He respected rank, but he treated supply clerks fresh to the service with that same respect, friends said. He constantly told jokes, but never at the possible expense of another's pride.
When the child of one of Dietz's neighbors in Virginia Beach, Va., was preparing for a school play, Dietz, a good artist, painted sets after work deep into the evening to get everything ready for opening night.
"He was always helping people move in, move out," said one SEAL. "He was constantly giving people rides."
Dan Dietz, himself a Navy veteran, bristled at the suggestion that his son followed in his footsteps. Danny Dietz's strides had always been longer.
The family did not talk to reporters Thursday but issued a statement thanking those in Denver who had expressed sympathy and support: "This is where Danny was born, where he was raised, and now where he comes home to rest a hero."
Before Dietz deployed for the last time in April, he dabbed tears from his wife's face and told her he would do something special for his country.
Dietz kept his word.
And during a memorial service at the military base on Monday, his wife made a promise to her husband. "I am all yours forever."
wow...thanks for posting this.
God Bless him and his loved ones.
God Bless all American servicemen and women fighting to keep America safe!
"Earlier, the four SEALs saw some sheep herders, who may have alerted the militants who set up the mountainside ambush, according to the military."
I have one question: SOP (standard operating procedure) says that anytime you are operating behind enemy lines, and you encounter civilians, you have two choices, and only two choices. (1) take them with you, if they will not keep you from completing your assignment, or (2) KILL THEM AND MAKE SURE THAT THEIR BODIES ARE NEVER FOUND!
Sounds like someone messed up and were ambushed for this oversight!
I was attached to the 7th SOG unit and this is what we were taught.
Hero's every single American soldier that has lost their lives in the defense of this great Nation, and to those who are on the front lines continuing to defend America in her hour of need!
Prayers and thanks. We will not lose because men like this protect us.
RIP Seal Dietz. Someday I will shake your hand and thank you in another place. In the meantime, I will do whatever I can for our country - The United States of America. God Bless our Military!
Oh God, how sad.
Pat Tillman, now this.
And all the rest of our soldiers hurt and killed.
It is true- we have lost many of our finest human beings to this war, for which I will NEVER forgive the muslim hate mongers. EVER. Makes me wish we just turned their deserts into sheets of glass.
Three rifle volleys, not a 21-gun salute.
What a good man he was.
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