No stardom, no glitz, just honor for SEALs

I half-expected them to appear on “The Today Show.” Or maybe toss out the first pitch at that new Yankee Stadium. Or show up in grainy video on TMZ.com, grabbing a latte at Starbucks. I’m conditioned that way. In this age of instant celebrity, I figured the three Navy SEAL snipers who took out three pirates off the coast of Somalia last week would get the full star treatment. Lady GaGa gets it. David Beckham gets it. Even a sweet Scottish spinster who can belt out Broadway tunes is getting it. Not these guys. We won’t even learn their names. They remain anonymous because they and the Navy want it that way. The SEALs are true heroes, of course, but they’re the old-fashioned kind. They do the amazing and then slip back into the scenery, leaving us to wonder who they were. They’re different. Way, way different. And that’s refreshing. “It’s not about accolades, medals or recognition,” said Nicholas Rocha, a former SEAL and co-founder of the United Warrior Survivor Foundation in Coronado, which helps spouses of special forces operatives lost in duty. “It’s about that person to your left, that person to your right.” SEALs go into it knowing they won’t be needing any Hollywood agent, no matter what they pull off. Read the entire Union Tribune article here.