Navy Seals

One member of an elite Navy SEAL team was found not guilty this week of abusing Iraqi prisoners, and the case against two others was set to go to the military equivalent of a grand jury hearing today. The SEALs were part of a team working with the CIA to capture "high-value" Iraqis suspected of being terrorists and bring them to Abu Ghraib prison for interrogation.

Mario Romero was in the middle of training to be a Navy SEAL when he heard about it: the largest loss of life in a single mission in the 40-year history of the elite force of Navy commandos. Eleven SEALs had died in Afghanistan -- three were part of a Special Forces unit that disappeared June 28 in the mountains of Afghanistan, and eight were aboard a helicopter shot down by Taliban guerrillas while attempting to rescue the unit. The most SEALs killed in a single incident in Vietnam was five.

Irve LeMoyne, 57, the first Navy Seal to achieve the rank of two-star admiral. A native of Brownsville, Texas, LeMoyne graduated from the Georgia Institute of Technology in industrial management and later earned a master's degree in management from the Naval Post Graduate School. An expert in underwater demolition, he was assigned to Seal Team I in Coronado in 1966, and served three tours of duty in Vietnam, two as executive officer.

Aboard a military plane flying to San Diego from the Persian Gulf, Lt. Warren Inouye marveled Sunday at the prospect of seeing his new baby son. Chief Petty Officer Barry Richardson wondered whether his wife was really divorcing him. Petty Officer 1st Class Kerry Fischer, 30, envisioned hugging his four children and his wife, Julie. At North Island Naval Air Station, emotions ran high and the wind blew hard as family members of SEALs, who deployed Aug. 8, waited. And waited.

On the third morning of Hell Week, the class of SEAL recruits paddled their rubber dinghies 15 miles. After breakfast, the men swam 400 yards in their uniforms and boots and ran eight miles in the deep sand. Mark Kaldi, a 23-year-old seaman, fainted during the run. "You quit while you passed out," a SEAL instructor told Kaldi, whose face was green. "You know why you passed out? Not enough exercise." Kaldi stared at him blankly and swayed slightly as if he might faint again.

A Navy SEAL was killed and another wounded in Afghanistan on Thursday when a land mine exploded during a training exercise near Kandahar, U.S. military officials said. Navy Chief Petty Officer Matthew Bourgeois, 35, of Tallahassee, Fla., became the 33rd American killed in the nearly 6-month-old Afghan campaign. Bourgeois, a member of the Navy's elite Sea, Air and Land force, was involved in small-arms training at 8:30 a.m. when the explosion occurred.

This is the season of celebrity for the Navy SEALs. The takedown of Osama bin Laden at his hideout in Pakistan thrust the institutionally secretive SEALs into the modern-media spotlight. Soon the SEALs seemed to become America's favorite warriors: silent, deadly, mysterious. There have been innumerable news stories about SEAL Team Six, which killed Bin Laden. Also, a Newsweek cover story ("Navy SEALs: Obama's Secret Army") and a new movie,"Act of Valor,"featuring real SEALs. Add to this mix "American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in U.S. MilitaryHistory" by former SEAL Chris Kyle, with help from San Diego lawyer Scott McEwen and writer Jim DeFelice, whose credits include a biography of Gen. Omar Bradley and a series of military thrillers.

Few Orange County residents can go to the movies and see themselves. Fewer still can say they helped rescue the crew of Apollo 13, NASA's third mission to the moon, which nearly killed three astronauts. Peter Carolan can do both. The 47-year-old Garden Grove resident was one of six specially trained U.S. Navy Seals who waited in helicopters for the Odyssey command module to emerge from its fiery re-entry from space in April, 1970, and splashdown in the Pacific Ocean.

Just what was it about being a Navy SEAL that prepares one for the life of a screenwriter? Chuck Pfarrer, 33, who co-wrote the screenplay for Orion's "Navy SEALS," doesn't ponder the question long. "I think they both require discipline. They are both very humbling. And you're fighting an implacable foe. In the case of a writer, the blank sheet of paper. "There are no rules (in Hollywood). So you bring your own with you.

Rich Cleveland first tried to get through Hell Week to become a Navy SEAL in January. He got hypothermia and passed out. The second time, in March, he broke his leg. Cleveland's third try, two weeks ago, didn't begin badly. For 24 hours, he and the rest of Class 172 tossed 250-pound logs and then kicked them up sand berms, rowed and then shoulder-pressed inflated rubber rafts over their heads.