Remembering the Fallen: Petty Officer Jon Tumilson

As many of you may or may not know, on August 6th 2011, 25 Navy SEALs were killed when Afghan insurgents shot down a Military helicopter located in eastern Afghanistan. ( I will follow this post with a synopsis of the event, but for now use this http://abcnews.go.com/m/story?id=14245387&sid=76 abc story as a starting point.)


Today, I would like to talk about 1 of the 25 SEALs who were killed on August 6th, 2011. His name is Jon Tumilson and he was a Petty Officer, from Rockford, Iowa. Jon was also a member of SEAL Team Six; the team credited with the killing of Osama Bin Laden. However, on this day Jon found himself and his other 30 comrades (  a total of 30 men with 5 not being Navy SEALs and 1 being a rescue dog) defenseless as a rocket propelled grenade launcher was able to hone in on their helicopter--killing everyone on  board. 

Jon joined the  SEALs straight out of highschool and was described as his peers as someone who always, "did the best that he could" and someone  who, "pushed others to be better." Yesterday, August 24th, Jon's funeral was held in his old high school. The picture that you see in this post, is of his casket and his loyal dog laying beside it. Of the people who commented on Jon's funeral they all noted that Hawkeye (Jon's dog) did not move from the casket for the duration of the memorial. 

In my humble opinion, we should all try to learn from Jon and put into action even the simplest of things that he did on this Earth. For one, instead of  just going through the motions, how about you strive to improve in every day life.Also, instead of just focusing on yourself, push others around you to excel in their daily endeavors as well. Although we may not be able to do what the SEALs do, we can still make the community and the world a better place.



Thanks for reading. JG


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