Hero SEAL breaks his silence
Actions during 03 ambush earned secret Navy Cross
By Andrew Scutro
[email protected]
Had it not been for his team­mates, SEAL Lt. Mark Donald believes, he would be dead and there would have been a massacre Oct. 25, 2003, in the mountains near Shkin, Afghanistan.
None of us would have lived, he said at a coffee shop in Arling­ton, Va., recently. And you would have heard about it. And had it not been for the sen­sitive mission he was conducting, the public would have known Don­alds name much sooner than now. In April 2007, the SEAL medical specialist was awarded the Navy Cross, the services second-highest award for valor, by then-Navy Sec­retary Donald Winter. But unlike the six other Navy recipients of the award since Sept. 11, 2001, his identity was kept secret.
Until now. Donald decided to come forward as he nears retire­ment in October. He spoke to Navy Times about that day in 2003.
Two intense battles
Shkin, on the remote edge of Paktika province, shares a border with Pakistans notoriously hostile Waziristan.
Refusing to speak in detail, Don­ald said the mission was ambushed, resulting in a hammer­ing eight-hour firefight. He received a Purple Heart for his wounds from that battle.
No one knew how big of a bees nest there was, he said.
His citation, which is not classi­fied but on which his name had been redacted, tells most of the story.
As part of a mounted convoy on a mission against al-Qaida and Tal­iban in a location not specified as either Afghanistan or Pakistan, Donald and his team were ripped with extremely heavy small arms, machine gun and rocket-propelled grenade fire. They were well­armed and well-trained, he said. They were close enough that you could see them and smell them. According to the citation, Donald got out of his truck shooting, pulled a wounded Afghan com­mander into cover behind the engine block, then pulled out a trapped, unnamed American.
He covered the wounded with his own body while returning fire and providing care, the citation reads. The fire was heavy enough at points to zip through his cloth­ing and gear and hit his weapon.
Donald then went to treat wounded Afghans in the two lead trucks and rallied the remaining troops to break the ambush. Later the same day, a joint unit sweeping the area was attacked near Donald and his team.
Again, he sprang into action.
Knowing personnel were grave­ly wounded Lieutenant Donald without hesitation and with com­plete disregard for his own safety ran 200 meters between opposing forces exposing him to withering and continuous heavy machine gun and small arms fire to render med­ical treatment to two wounded per­sonnel, one Afghan and one Ameri­can, the citation reads. Still under intense enemy fire, wounded by shrapnel, ... he organized the surviving Afghan soldiers and led a 200 meter fighting withdrawal. Donald acknowledges that two Americans died on that mission, which he only describes as task­oriented, carried out by a joint special operations program made up of handpicked men
selected for specific skills.
Defense Department records do not show American personnel were lost Oct. 25, 2003, in Afghanistan. But CIA records do.
Hush-hush honors
On Oct. 28, the agency issued news of a battle near Shkin three days before and the loss of former Navy special operator Christopher Glenn Mueller and former Army special operator William Chief Carlson. The announcement notes that they were tracking terrorists and that both saved the lives of others during the ambush. Donald did not provide any names, saying, Everybody risked their lives that day, and two gave their lives. According to CIA spokeswoman Marie Harf, When the agency honored the service and sacrifice of William Carlson and Christopher Glenn Mueller by releasing infor­mation about their tragic deaths in October 2003, that represented the extent of whats been declassified. Not only has Donalds Navy Cross been kept under wraps these years, but so was the Silver Star he was awarded for similar actions days later. It was just a bad time in that area, he said.
Donald, 41, joined the Marine Corps at 17 after high school in New Mexico in 1985. On a path to a reconnaissance unit, he changed gears and transferred to the Navy so he could be a corpsman.
He got noticed by a SEAL recruiter and ended up in SEAL Team 2 in September 1989. He was commissioned in 2000 as a physi­cians assistant.
Along with his Navy Cross and Silver Star, he wears a Bronze Star with V device and a Combat Action Ribbon.
Donald plans to retire Oct. 16. He said he will continue his work on projects that will benefit veterans.
Thats the only thing I regret, losing my friends, losing my team­mates, Donald said. I miss the hell out of them. Λ
I'm more thankful for the coders!!
