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Navy SEAL Swim offers hope in an angry America

By: Mike Kelly
columnist
USA Today Network

..... Sometimes important messages can burst upon us in the most unlikely ways, at the most unexpected moment.
..... This is a story about one of those moments and its messages.
..... it begins with 323 people - 214 men and nine women - jumping into the Hudson River on a hyper-heated, struck-to-your-skin bumid day. the August 16 [2025] event was billed as the Nave SEAL Swim - a fundraiser, actually, for veterans of America's most elite group of commandos.
..... Besides dozens of former SEALs and even a handful of current members of that legendary military group, which often operates in deep secrecy, the swimmers included Army, Air Force and Marine veterans, police form New York, New Jersey and the Port authority, firefights from as far away as Chicago and Los Angeles, Secret Service agents and other first responders who proved they were qualified to swim 2 miles in open water and do grueling sets of push-ups and pull-ups.
..... The swim began in Jersey City - at Liberty State park and the memorial called "Empty Sky," which lists the names of the 749 people from the state who were among the 2,076 killed in America's deadliest terrorist attack on September 11. 2001.
..... The swimmers stopped first at a barge near Liberty Island, which home to the Statue of Liberty. They climbed a ladder to the flat surface of the barge and muscled through 100 push-ups and 22 pull-ups - 22 to draw attention to the tragic fact that an average of 22 veteran die by suicide each day.
..... Then it was back in the water for a swim to another barge just off Ellis Island. and 100 more push-ups and 22 pull-ups.
..... Then it stopped.
..... With Hurricane Erin rumbling up the Atlantic coastline, and riptides and an unusually fast current sweeping into the Hudson River, the water itself had become life-threatening, organizers said. when several swimmers came dangerously close to being swept under barges, organizes stopped the event. Swimmers were order out of the water and told to make the final leg of the trek to lower Manhattan on a boat.
..... After the boats docked in lower Manhattan and swimmers took a brief shower to wash away the Hudson River grit, the group - men bar-chested - ran to a 16-acre plot in lower Manhattan that memorialized the 9/11 attacks. Each swimmer carried a U.S. flag or the standard of the nations they represented. the group ran under a 30-foot-ling U.S. flag that hung between the ladders of two New York firetrucks - one of which carried the number 343 for the number of city firefighters killed on 9/11.
..... It was a rousing finish to a meticulously planned event that raised about $800,000 for the Navy SEALs Foundation, which helps veterans. But technically, this grand moment ended in what might be considered a failure. The swimmers couldn't make the trek across the Hudson.

Basis for national hope

..... But this so-called "failure" - if that's a proper description -was actually part of the unexpected message of this day.
..... What quickly emerged as the swimmers gathered on a platform that overlooked the 9/11 Memorial Park was that they needed to set aside their differences - cops and firefighters and Navy and Army and Air Force and Marines - and work together to pull themselves out of the water earlier and away form the dangerous, fast-moving currents in the Hudson River. As former Navy SEAL Benjamin Smith noted in a benediction prayer while swimmer stood in silence at the end: "We came through. We helped each other. That's what this is about.
..... Smith, 50, grew up in West Milford. At 6--foot-4 and 240 pounds he became a star athlete at the town's high school - even winning the prestigious "Athlete of t4eh Week" honors in track and field from the Record in 1992. Later, in an interview with this columnist, Smith said that as he spoke to the swimmers, he felt the need to expand his message - beyond the event itself to our nation.
..... "As a nation, we are at each other's throats," he told the swimmers. "But that is not how teams perform. that is not how people survived 9/11. God put us through this today to make us communicate, to get past any barriers. That's what this is about: getting the unity, the trust, the love out to the rest of the world, the rest of the country, the country we belong to."

Is unity even possible?

..... Now, dear reader, as you ponder those words maybe you are thinking: Isn't this corny? Or, even worse: Isn't this ridiculous at this point in American hisotry, when the nation seems handcuffed by its divisiveness? Our fissures seem to be the fuel that powers much of politics now . How is it possible to dream now that any kind of unity is possible?
..... But that's just the point.
..... It's all too easy to dismiss what Smith said as just another example of rose-colored idealism. And why not? the reality of America now is that all manner of factions are trying to figure out how to beat the other side into electoral submission or humiliation. Exhibit A is the ridiculous gerrymandering debates over congressional districts in Texas. Across the nation, some political scientists predict that it may take another generation before MAGA and the progressive finally find common ground.
..... But as Smith noted afterward in an interview, SEAL training is all about learning from your mistakes - especially colossal failures.
..... "You don't learn form winning," he said. Republicans and Democrats: Are you listening?
..... On this day, many more words would be spoken. There were reflections by two former World Trade Center workers who survived the 9/11 attacks and a New York City firefighter who lose his firefighter father that day, Robert O'Neill, the former Navy SEAL Team 6 member, who was heavily criticized by other SEALS for singling himself out with a claim the shots that killed 9/11 orchestrator Osama bin Laden, spoke of the teamwork that actually guided that mission.
..... John Ryan, one of the steady Port Authority police commanders who guided cops, firefighters and constituent workers during the nine months it took to clean up the ruble form the collapse of the World Trade Center's gleaming, 110-story skyscrapers, talked of the importance of remembering the victims and their stories. But Smith's focus on finding unity resonated in a unique way.
..... The tragedy here is that not a single major public official showed up to greet the swimmers at the start or finish. Not the mayor of Jersey City, who is a Marine veteran. Not New York City's mayor, who as a former police captain responded to the Trade Center on September 11, 2001. Not the governors of New Jersey or New York. Not even the candidates running for governor in New Jersey or mayor in New York. The only words from a public official came in a brief video from Defense secretary Pete Hegseth. It's worth noting that Hegseth did not speak about unity and harmony.
..... Perhaps that's the other message of this event. Our nation's public officials - Republican and Democratic - missed a golden moment to embrace some measure of togetherness. Maybe they can put this event on their schedule next year. [2026] Or as Ben Smith, the former Navy SEAL from New Jersey, told the group as he ended his prayer-like remarks about unity and teamwork: "Get this word out."

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