Matthew G. Axelson
Profile
Age: 29
From: Cupertino, Calif.
Assigned to SEAL Delivery Vehicle Team 1, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii
Incident: Navy Sonar Technician (Surface) 2nd Class (SEAL) Matthew G. Axelson was killed while conducting counter-terrorism operations in the Kunar province, Afghanistan. Coalition forces located his remains while conducting a combat search-and-rescue operation July 10 in the Kunar province. His whereabouts had been unknown since June 28.
Died: July 10, 2005
Fallen SEALs receive Navy Cross
Navy Secretary Donald Winter presented the widows of Sonar Technician 2nd Class (SEAL) Matthew G. Axelson and Gunner’s Mate 2nd Class (SEAL) Matthew Danny Dietz with their husbands’ Navy Crosses on Wednesday evening at the U.S. Navy Memorial in Washington, D.C.
The ceremony, held next to the “Lone Sailor” statue, honored the sacrifice Axelson and Dietz made June 28, 2005, when they died in the mountains of Afghanistan during a mission to “capture or kill” a high-level militia leader. Despite being mortally wounded during a firefight after the group of four SEALs was spotted, the two continued to fight, killing numerous enemy fighters and allowing one of the their teammates on the ground to escape the swarming, numerically superior force.
During his speech, Winter invoked the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks and the importance of special operations troops like Dietz and Axelson in the current war....
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STG3 O'Connell