OT - A Giving Opportunity for a Great Veterans' Organization - The Navy SEAL Foundation

I did want to share a few thoughts on this past weekend as a follow up & heart felt "THANK YOU" to all who donated to this cause and to any and all Veteran's organizations.

My weekend started on Saturday with a 40 min OWS at the same spot as Sunday's swim would start. When I was done, I saw a few older guys hanging out.  One was wearing a "Navy Swimming" baseball cap.  Another was wearing a "USNA '73" ball cap, and the third was wearing a tan ball cap with a velcro removable Seal frogman patch on it.  I enthusiastically greeted them with a "Go Army, Beat Navy", and we had a great conversation.  It turns out they were all roommates at the Naval Academy together, and the gentlemen wearing the tan cap retired as a Navy CAPT and lost his son, SO1 Patrick Feeks, a SEAL, in Afghanistan on August 16, 2012. We had a lengthy discussion of his son, and how much the Navy SEAL Foundation means to them all and how they use the TB Frogman swim as a means to remember their sons and his mates sacrifices while bringing a 20+ person team together to help raise close to $40k in his name.

We had a happy hour/dinner where I met the son's wife, and she shared similar stories about her husband as well as all the fellow SEALs wives and girlfriends and all the Army, Marine, and Air Force bad ass gold star wives she's met since her husband passed away.

I met a handful of other gold star families, and they had a strong presence at the event.

The morning of the swim was another one filled with plenty of emotion, but also a strong appreciation and recognition for the type of people that stand up and put their lives on the line in the name of our Country.

They had a presentation of colors from a local HS JROTC team, followed by the singing of the Nation anthem as the sun started to rise over the Bay.

A Navy LT then read the names of Marine, AF, and Army special operators that lost their lives over the last year. Although it was a shorter list than previous years, it was still humbling to hear the long list of young lives lost in the defense of our Country.  They LT then read the list of names of Navy Special warfare members lost since September 11, 2001.  This reading went on for over 10 minutes and was over five pages long.  While they only read their names, each name carried with it a story of service, sacrifice, dedication, and heroism.

All 175 of us then headed out in 7 waves of 18-28 people.  The 2nd wave was filled with friends and family members of fallen SEALs as well the highest ranking SEAL in history ADM(R) Eric Olsen.

I was in the final wave, but wasn't the final one out of the water.  My 1:56 in the water really didn't mean a whole lot other than trying to not drink the entire bay and just keep moving.  I'll save those details for later.  As I exited the water, ADM(R) Olsen was just ahead of me, and it was pretty humbling to see him at that time.  I had one of the USNA grads (Rugby player, SEAL and Ranger school grad) that I met at previous events greet me, and as I got out of the water, hand me a Budweiser and said, "I told you I 'd have one of these waiting for you, brother!"  Then Patrick's Dad, CAPT (R) Feeks handed me the Navy SEAL Foundation Tampa Bay Frogman Finishers coin.  They had Gold Star families thanking us and each swimmer was greeted and handed a coin by one of them.

We had a great after party and are still waiting for final numbers on the total raised over the last several months.

While I went in wondering how fast I could make it across and where I would stand vs. the other participants, I left realizing the whole weekend wasn't about the swim at all.

This event was more about honoring the service of the SEALs we lost in defense of our Nation while raising funds to take care of the families they left behind and the SEALs still serving and those who will serve in the future.

Never Leave a Man Behind.

Thank you all who contributed and who continue to support our Veterans of all services.