This is so touching. Fallen Navy Seal Charles Keating was honored today…RIP and thank you so much for your service to America!
Schoolchildren, retired Navy officers and throngs of others were expected to line the streets of the Southern California military town of Coronado on Friday to honor a special warfare operator killed in Iraq.
Navy SEAL Charles Keating IV died in a gunbattle with Islamic State fighters this month, making him the third service member killed in Iraq since U.S. forces returned there in 2014. His remains will be transported across a bridge to Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery in San Diego, where he will be buried as a chief petty officer, a rank he received posthumously.
The 31-year-old Keating, who grew up in Phoenix, “was a dedicated and professional SEAL, a true warrior,” his Coronado-based SEAL Team 1 said in a statement.
“The legacy he leaves behind, for his fellow SEALs and for those who knew him, is unmistakable,” the group said. “He died bravely, doing what he loved, and what he believed in.”
Read more: Navy Times