Memorial Day 2025 – Remember Those Who Gave All in Benghazi and Protecting Our Border

Memorial Day 2025 – Remember Those Who Gave All in Benghazi and Protecting Our Border

I want to talk about four people who died protecting our country. These four men are hardly ever mentioned on Memorial Day. Actually…I don’t hear enough about these men.

These men are heroes.

Terrorists murdered four Americans on September 11, 2012, in Benghazi:

• Ambassador Christopher Stevens
• Sean Smith
• Glen Doherty
• Tyrone Woods

Sean Smith served in the Air Force. Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods served as Navy SEALs.

Sean Smith

Sean Smith, 34, grew up in San Diego, California. He enlisted in the Air Force at 17:

Smith — a native of San Diego — enlisted in the Air Force in 1995 at age 17. He served six years as a ground radio maintenance specialist, including a deployment to Oman, before leaving the service in 2002 as a staff sergeant. He was awarded the Air Force Commendation Medal. Smith, who had worked at the State Department for 10 years, was in Libya on a temporary assignment when he was killed; Before his temporary assignment to Benghazi, Smith served for the State Department in Brussels, Baghdad, Pretoria, Montreal and The Hague.

At the time of his death, Smith was an expert IT professional who worked as an information management officer with the United States Foreign Service. If you watch the movie 13 Hours (which you should—Michael Bay did these brave men justice!), you’ll see that he set up the security in the house.

Many people did not know that Smith loved gaming, especially the multiplayer game Eve Online where he was known as Vile Rat:

In Eve, Sean briefly was in the top echelon of the game’s player-run government. His influence in the game actually grew for more than half a decade. He rose from ordinary player to master spy to diplomat for the mighty GoonSwarm alliance. He toppled rivals with the soft nudge of verbal persuasion. He helped his alliance win a war among player alliances that raged for three years. He even made peace with the Russians.

“Sean was a quiet and intense guy,” Alex Gianturco, the long-time Eve player and leader of GoonSwarm recently told me. Gianturco is known in-game as The Mittani and wrote a moving tribute to his friend last fall. He met Vile Rat in 2006 in the game and in person, since then, when Sean was between State Department postings or at Eve meet-ups. “He was sort of coiled like a whip, very very smart,” Gianturco said. “Hated the limelight, hated attention.”

“He was so humble about his gaming,” Heather Smith, Sean’s widow, told me over the phone from the Netherlands earlier this week. “He would get rather embarrassed when he was elevated to anything other than just a guy who plays Eve.”

But Sean wasn’t an ordinary Eve player, a fact Heather encountered time and again. She recalled meeting another Eve player in person. “A guy came up to me and, I said, ‘I’m Mrs. Vile Rat’—I didn’t play Eve, so I was always Mrs. Vile Rat—and the guy was like, ‘No way! He’s a legend!’

“And I, like, died laughing. I thought it was the funniest thing I ever heard…I’m pretty sure I brought that up at least once every six months.”

Smith is survived by his wife and two children, Samantha and Nathan.

Glen Doherty

Doherty grew up in Winchester, MA. He joined the Navy SEALs in 1995, which led to 10 years of active service:

A desire to push himself and to use his talents to make genuine change in the world led him to join the Navy SEALS in 1995. He passed the training and became a paramedic and sniper with the Middle East as his area of operations. His team responded to the USS Cole attack, among other missions. In 2001, he got his knees reconstructed and was planning on exiting the military when September 11th happened. He now was not allowed to leave and didn’t want to. He married Sonja Johnson, his girlfriend who he’d known since high school, and went overseas again. He participated in two tours of the 2003 Gulf War, “Iraqi Freedom.” In the first, his team began by securing the Kuwait oil fields before the invasion officially began to prevent the environmentally disastrous recurrence of them being burned, as had happened under Saddam Hussein’s orders during Desert Storm in 1991. Then they led the earliest Marine contingents battling on the move from the south of Iraq towards Baghdad. He was peeled from his unit for sniper duty for several days, returned to it before the taking of Baghdad, and continued with them to take Saddam’s hometown of Tikrit, where they finally got a breather in Hussein’s riverside palaces once those were cleared. He returned for another tour to the troubled country the following year. About fighting in Iraq, he simply believed that the possibility of liberating the country from a tyrant and making democracy possible for the Iraqi people was worth him risking his own life for. In typical Glen fashion, he made close lifelong friends with a number of his team members.

When he left in 1995, Doherty began private security contracting work with the CIA that took him worldwide.

Doherty is one of many men who took up arms and went into the fire to rescue Stevens and others (including Smith). After the house fell, Doherty and others went back to the CIA base to protect and evacuate the mission staff.

The men stayed on the roof in complete darkness, surrounded by terrorists.

Doherty perished with Woods on the rooftop. Doherty went to Woods when he found out his friend was up there alone.

Doherty is survived by his parents and siblings.

Tyrone Woods

Woods grew up in Oregon. When he graduated from high school, he immediately joined the Navy and became a Navy SEAL because of the challenge.

Woods climbed up the ladder, receiving the Senior Chief Petty Officer rank. His hard work also led to many awards:

For heroic achievement in connection with combat operations against the enemy as FOXTROT Platoon Leading Chief Petty Officer deployed with Naval Special Warfare Task Unit-HABBANIYAH in direct support of Operation IRAQI FREEDOM from 7 October 2005 to 22 April 2006. Chief Petty Officer Woods displayed unparalleled leadership under constant exposure to enemy mortar, rocket, sniper, and improvised explosive device attacks during 180 days in the volatile Al Anbar province of Western Iraq. Inserting via boats, helicopters, vehicles, and extended foot patrols, he led 12 direct action raids and 10 reconnaissance missions leading to the capture of 34 enemy insurgents. Additionally, he led 16 SEALs and 8 Iraqi Scouts on a 50-hour, 800-mile mounted patrol that threaded through enemy territory and culminated in the assault on four targets and the capture of a high value Al-Qaeda facilitator. Coming under direct enemy fire as the patrol leader for a 14-man combined overwatch, he immediately maneuvered to a firing position and directed suppressing return fire. His decisive actions effectively suppressed the attack and resulted in no friendly casualties. By his extraordinary guidance, zealous initiative, and total dedication to duty, Chief Petty Officer Woods reflected great credit upon himself and upheld the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.

I didn’t know this! Woods also served as a registered nurse and paramedic.

Woods joined the CIA in 2010, working with Doherty in private security contracting work.

Woods and Doherty stormed the Benghazi home as it came under attack, determined to find Stevens and others as terrorists showered them with bullets and fire.

Stevens and Smith perished. Woods’ small team saved 30 Americans, though. All of them treated the Americans under awful conditions.

Woods and his team, including Doherty, took up arms on the roof of the CIA building.

As mentioned above, Woods died with Doherty on the rooftop from a mortar round.

Woods is survived by his wife and three children, Tyrone Jr., Hunter, and Kai. The last child was born after Woods’ death.

Brian Terry

What can I say about Brian Terry that I haven’t said?

Criminals with a “rip crew” (a gang that stole from drug and human smugglers) murdered Brian on December 15, 2011, as he protected our southern border.

I became good friends with the Terry family. They all told me how much Brian loved serving in the Marines and the Border Patrol. Serving his country is all he ever wanted to do.

Brian grew up in Michigan. He served three years in the Marine Corps before earning a B.S. in Criminal Justice. He then joined the police department in his area.

But Brian always wanted to challenge himself. He chose the Border Patrol in 2007. He loved it.

Brian’s death unveiled a gun-walking scheme called Operation Fast and Furious. No one in the U.S. government has been held accountable.

Brian’s family has never kept quiet. They will never stop talking and honoring Brian’s memory.

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