Show Your American Pride!

I have a great, big, heart-felt thank you to give out to a very special man whose concern for my husband and I is still being felt, even after his death.

You see, Senior Chief Dan Healy became a great friend to my husband from the moment they met, three years ago. When my husband was first assigned to SEAL platoon Alfa as a support person, we expected some discomfort since Jim was senior to Dan (they were both chiefs then). Dan would of course be platoon chief since he was a SEAL, and Jim is a diver and only there to support the platoon as their corpsman; but still, two chiefs in one platoon can spell trouble.

Dan, however, made it clear from the beginning that he wanted them to work together. He established a co-leadership working style with Jim and made sure that the officers and the petty officers all knew they worked as a team. Jim was always included in all their training and planning, and with Dan's help they all came to respect Jim and include him as one of their own.

Not long after deploying into the war zone, Dan made Senior Chief, but it didn't keep him from working with Jim as a team leader. Although they split into two groups and went into separate areas, he kept in touch through emails and phone calls, keeping each other informed on the troops and their needs, like all good chiefs do.

Dan died in a helicopter crash last June. Jim mourned for him, but also pledged to remember a saying posted on a wall at Bagram Air Base: Live a Life Worthy of Their Sacrifice. He has striven to do so ever since.

Last month we were anxiously waiting for the results of the Senior Chief boards when Jim was looking through some old boxes of work items he had brought home. In one he found a small box containing Senior Chief anchors. On the box was written "KEEP DREAMING."

Dan had given him the anchors before they left on deployment last year. He wanted Jim to have them because he was confident that Jim was going to make it before he did. Of course, Dan actually made it first - just before he died, which was well-deserved.

Finding these anchors that had been forgotten was just Dan's way of letting us know that he was still around, rooting for Jim to make it. Up to that point, I had been disappointed so many times that I had resigned myself to the worst - but finding these made me feel that Jim just had to make it, not for us but for Dan.

Jim had his Senior Chief anchors pinned on last week. While the CMC was pinning on the collar devices, Jim told him the story of these special anchors. The CMC remarked these devices would be heavy to wear. And they are, because they carry all the weight behind them of a man who truly is someone to live a life worthy of.

Hooyah, Senior Chief.