WASHINGTON — Early one morning last January off the coast of Somalia, Special Warfare Officer Christopher Chambers reached from his team’s combat boat to the smooth railing of a Houthi warship. The sea changed and he lost his grip and fell into the sea. Within seconds, Special Warfare Officer 1st Class Nathan Gage Ingram jumped in to save his fellow Navy SEALs. Both men sank beneath the waves of the Arabian Sea within 47 seconds.
A new U.S. Navy report concludes that both deaths could have been prevented, but the exact reasons why the deaths of two elite Navy SEALs could not have been prevented are even more unclear. It is.
An eight-month Navy investigation report obtained by CBS News found everything from a lack of proper training to malfunctioning and misuse of equipment to the failure of service members to compensate for the extra weight they were carrying. , citing a number of shortcomings. However, their deaths were attributed to the fact that the two SEALs operating on the small combat ship were too heavy and loaded with equipment to remain afloat long before being rescued. .
Naval Special Warfare Operator 2nd Class Nathan Gage Ingram (left) and Naval Special Warfare Operator 1st Class Christopher J. Chambers (right). american navy
Chambers, 37, of Maryland, and Ingram, 27, of Texas, were posthumously promoted by the Navy. The men were part of SEAL Team 3/Task Force 3, which was tasked with intercepting a Houthi ship suspected of smuggling Iranian weapons into Yemen. These weapons have been used by Iranian-backed rebels in Yemen for more than a year, since the start of the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip, to carry U.S. Navy ships and commercial vessels in and around the critical Red Sea shipping lane. has been used to attack.
A heavily redacted report details the sequence of events that led to their deaths.
The report, written by Maj. Gen. Michael DeVore, said environmental conditions were “at or near threshold” for the mission, and that “while not the cause of this horrific accident, they may have contributed.” It is said that
According to the report, confidential and unreleased images of the two men, both equipped with a flotation device called a Tactical Floating Support System (TFSS), appeared before the boarding operation on a suspected Houthi ship on January 11. It shows that Chambers slipped from his SEAL combat boat and fell nine feet into the water.
“Seeing his teammate struggling, (Ingram) jumped into the water to help (Chambers),” the report states. “Handled by the weight of each individual’s equipment, neither physical cables (sic) nor emergency flotation devices, even when activated, were sufficient to keep him on the surface.”
Even if it worked, it is unclear whether the flotation device would have been sufficient to keep them afloat. Chambers was loaded with nearly 50 pounds of equipment. Ingram weighed an additional 30 pounds because he was carrying an extra backpack containing the team’s radio.
Chambers, like some SEALs who were already aboard the suspected Houthi boat, a typical boat in the region known as a dhow, had a trailing ladder. , chose to reach for the rail. Video taken by a U.S. military helicopter hovering 200 feet in the air shows Ingram “intermittently rising to the surface for 26 seconds after falling. The whole tragic event lasted just 47 seconds, with both New South Wales warriors submerged. ”
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It was too early for other SEALs to begin salvage operations. A 10-day search and rescue operation uncovered nothing except a missing SEAL flotation device. The report notes that the ocean depth in this area is approximately 12,000 feet.
The flotation device either didn’t inflate, became dislodged from the man, or was too jammed with another device to fully inflate, according to the investigation report.
“The Navy respected the sanctity of the remains and recognized that the ocean was an appropriate final resting place,” the report said.
The report outlines the following issues related to this incident:
They were not aware of the risks to buoyancy and the role that the sand-assisted flotation material of the emergency buoyancy device should play in achieving buoyancy. Did not complete post-deployment buoyancy test. Tactical buoyancy support system training was inadequate. Conflicting guidance and lack of enforcement of buoyancy requirements. TFSS was not maintained. Does not meet Navy standards
A US Navy official later confirmed that a SEAL team had discovered weapons on a Houthi dhow.
“I extend my deepest condolences to the families, friends, and teammates of Chief Special Warfare Operator Christopher J. Chambers and Special Warfare Operator 1st Class Nathan Gage Ingram,” said U.S. Navy Commander Timothy Hawkins. ” he said. “Chambers and Ingram were part of a team that intercepted the illegal shipment of ballistic and cruise missile parts supplied by Iran and prevented them from reaching Yemen. During this operation, the Navy We have lost a noble warrior. We mourn their loss and we remember them as heroes who died defending our country. ”
The report makes several recommendations, including reviewing training and tactics, clarifying buoyancy guidelines for risk management, and formalizing pre-mission “buddy checks.”
“This incident, characterized by systemic problems, was preventable,” Gen. Michael Kurilla, commander of U.S. Central Command, said in the report.
A SEAL team’s ship-to-ship boarding at sea is considered one of the most dangerous stages of the mission.
“However, multiple layers of protection against personal liability and properly maintained and functioning equipment, processes and procedures protect against such risks,” the report states.
Whether these processes and procedures were lacking, or a combination of failures led to the deaths of the two SEALs, will never be fully determined. The evidence lies at the bottom of the Arabian Sea.
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