The Navy’s conclusions come after several moons filled with inquiries about the Jan. 11 mishap.
CENTCOM has decided to halt its search for two U.S. Navy SEALs lost during a nocturnal operation.
Two brave U.S. Navy SEALs tragically drowned in a pitch-black raid off Somalia’s shores last Jan., weighed down by their gear, as revealed by a military probe carried out last Friday.
The report from the Naval Special Warfare Command closes a heartrending nine-month journey to solve the mystery of how two top-tier operatives lost their lives, including a former Division I college swimmer, while choppers and drones patrolled above.
Identified as Nathan Gage Ingram, age 27, now honored posthumously as a Special Warfare Operator 1st Class, and Christopher Chambers, similarly elevated to Chief Special Warfare Operator.
Nathan “Gage” Ingram, at 27, handed his life trying to aid a comrade during an Arabian Sea mission.
Naval Special Warfare Group One
Christopher Chambers drowned as he attempted to board a suspected smuggling vessel…Show more
Naval Special Warfare Group ONE
Chambers, a swimming titan, perished mere days shy of his 37th year. Ingram, a selfless comrade, was on his maiden deployment.
“This sorry feat, stemming from systemic blunders, was avoidable,” penned General Michael “Erik” Kurilla, head honcho of U.S. Central Command, who oversees Middle Eastern missions.
In a heartfelt note to ABC News, the Ingram clan expressed gratitude to the Naval Special Warfare Team for their “diligent efforts” during the inquiry, feeling both honored and grateful for his posthumous rise in rank.
“Though his absence grieves us, the kind thoughts and prayers of companions and kin, near and distant, warm our hearts,” they penned.
“Our pride in his brave sacrifice for this nation knows no bounds. Forever he resides in our hearts, his devotion to his nation, brethren, and loved ones engraved there,” the statement continued.
‘Merely 47 ticks’
On the eleventh day of January, a creeping cargo vessel, named a dhow, meandered through the Arabian Sea near Somali waters.
Investigators were informed that the dhow possibly carried Iranian weapons—missile bits galore—bound for Houthi rebels, who’ve long shown disdain for the ongoing Gaza conflict through naval assaults.
SEALs hit the dhow on Jan. 11 to stymie the alleged weapon-laden seizures targeting the Houthis.
Thomas Gagnier/U.S. Central Command Public Affairs
A plan brewed to send a nine-member ensemble—Chambers and Ingram included—to storm the smuggler’s boat that eve, as commanders, not willing to dawdle, gave personnel enough time to hatch their role while the dhow roved through freely navigable waters.
With choppers and drones making a racket above, the crew hopped off the USS Lewis B. Puller via nimble speedboats, setting eyes on the suspect ship. An improvised ladder cushioned with grippy tape was slung overboard, a team member crowning it “a bullseye,” as per the account.
While some opted for the ladder, others took it upon themselves to clamber over the dhow’s edge—a slippery affair, seemingly freshly lacquered.
The secretive report blackened the SEALs’ names, yet those privy to unabridged details and related public tales shed light.
Two Navy SEALs met their fate attempting to mount this supposed smuggling vessel.
Thomas Gagnier/U.S. Central Command Public Affairs
The final players to board were Ingram and Chambers, the latter a scholastic marvel whom the University of Massachusetts Amherst and the University of Maryland claimed as their own.
As Chambers leapt to grasp the rail, 48 pounds of equipment in tow, the unruly sea swung harsh beats against the stalled craft, snapping Chambers into the waves below.
Though Chambers managed a brief return to air, snaring a piece of ladder, aerial shots indicated he was swept away by the waves, as the report recounts.
Ingram—a novice on his premiere mission—witnessed it all from above.
“Spying his comrade in distress,” leaps Ingram “into the drink to lend [Chambers] aid,” the report penned.
Donning up to 80 pounds in gear, likely lugging a team radio pack, Ingram sank like a stone.
While his helmet skidded the watery surface, Ingram tried deploying a custom float from his rig and attempted stripping his burdens, though the float later bobbed untouched in the sea, much to investigators’ bewilderment.
“The heft of each individual’s load stifled physical prowess and, even with activated emergency devices, were insufficient to keep them buoyant,” concluded the Navy’s exhaustive inquiry.
“A mere forty-seven seconds, and two Gallant warriors of NSW were lost to the abyss,” summarized the probe, deploying Naval Special Warfare’s acronym.
Man overboard
“Man overboard” protocols were promptly enacted though the report suggested those around Chambers and Ingram assumed they’d resurface.
“Special operators hold the firm belief,” the report asserts, “that when one falls overboard, surfacing and self-rescue is expected,” echoed in no less than a dozen interviews.
Navy guidance encourages SEALs to test their “buoyancy,” a curious metric of gear-laden floatiness pre-deployment, yet specifics remain nebulous, largely leaving operators to kit out independently without legislative checks on float-worthiness.
Training was scant on setting off flotation gadgets, the investigation revealed, with some operators barely using these ‘water wings’ at all during their careers, adding to the blunder.
Despite initial thoughts, investigators brushed aside fast-tracked mission constraints as causes for the catastrophe.
“Failing to have fail-safes and multi-level defenses for buoyancy led to these drownings, whether faced with equipment weight, exhaustion from physical feats, or injury amid boarding,” noted the Navy.
For ten full days, the Navy scoured for Chambers and Ingram, though presumed them gone after trawling nearly 49,000 square nautical miles devoid of success.
They concluded, with heavy hearts, that both fellows plunged “straight down owing to burden,” without a trace adrift, as the inquiry summarized.
Steps forward involve the Navy recommending revamps in training and contemplating gear standards pre-mission. Ingram shall forever be remembered as a hero.
“His selfless act of aiding his comrade Cage him his life, spotlighting heroism and embodying the SEAL Ethos,” penned the Navy.
ABC News’ Nate Luna cast light on this report.
Edited by: Ali Musa
Axadle international–Monitoring
