Marc Lee became the first Navy SEAL to lose his life in Operation Iraqi Freedom when he was killed on August 2, 2006. His mother, Debbie, and Scottsdale Gun Club, celebrate his birthday each year as a way to eulogize and celebrate his service to God and country.
Marc was born on March 20, and this year they will be honoring him on March 21.
Marc was part of Task Unit Bruiser, SEAL Team 3, which was led by Jocko Willink. Following Marc’s death, Debbie founded America’s Mighty Warriors, a group that exists “to honor the sacrifices of our Troops, Veterans, and Gold Star Families by providing programs that improve quality of life, resiliency and recovery.”
Each year, as people come together to celebrate Marc’s birthday, the rooms at Scottsdale Gun Club are full of veterans, including many former special forces members, who are here today because of the care and attention they received from America’s Mighty Warriors.
America’s Mighty Warriors – AWR Hawkins: Scottsdale Gun Club
Breitbart News talked with Debbie about the upcoming event, and she said, “First of all, we want people to remember, not just Marc, but all those who’ve sacrificed and given so much for us. And we also don’t want the yearly gathering to have a morbid, funeral vibe. We want people to have hope, to be encouraged, and to see that we make a choice of how to respond to the toughest days.”
She continued, “When we come together for Marc’s birthday, we see the lives he changed and the lives he is still changing in such a crazy, crazy way… He made a choice to give his life to save his teammates and now, through what we’re doing with America’s Mighty Warriors, we still get to see Marc saving his teammates, not just those he served with on Task Unit Bruiser, but his brothers in arms deployed around the world.”
Debbie talked about how she hopes the night to celebrate Marc’s life will also be a time in which other veterans and former special forces members see that America’s Mighty Warriors is there for them and that “it’s not a sign of weakness to stand up and say, ‘I need help.’”
She stressed that America’s Mighty Warriors is not just there for the individual veteran but for Gold Star families as well.
We asked Debbie what her group does with/for Gold Star families and she noted that the group has a house in Arizona called the Heroes Hope Home and one in Florida called the Serenity Hope Home, both of which are free to such families. America’s Mighty Warriors pays for their airfare, their rental car, etc., to come stay in one of the homes. She noted that America’s Mighty Warriors does retreats around the country to let Gold Star families know “not only that we won’t forget their fallen but also that we won’t forget them.”
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio and the director of global marketing for Lone Star Hunts. He holds a PhD in Military History with a focus on the Vietnam War (brown water navy), U.S. Navy since Inception, the Civil War, and Early Modern Europe. He enjoys reading Philosophy and novels by Jack Carr and Nelson DeMille. Follow him on X: @awrhawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly at [email protected].
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