Michael Strange

Michael Strange tried to make them smile. He loved snowboarding, surfing, scuba diving, running, and shooting guns on the range.


"He loved his friends, his family, his country; he loved making people laugh. He was one of a kind," Strange's brother, Charles Strange III, 22, said Sunday outside the family's Philadelphia home, where American flags were planted throughout the neighborhood.

Strange, 25, decided to join the military when he was still in high school, and had been in the Navy for about six years, first stationed in Hawaii and for the last two in Virginia Beach, where he became a SEAL about two years ago, his mother, Elizabeth Strange, told The Associated Press.

But he always told his family not to worry.

A Navy SEAL, Petty Officer 1st Class Michael Strange was among 38 to die Saturday when a military helicopter was shot down in Afghanistan.



"He wasn't supposed to die this young. He was supposed to be safe," Elizabeth Strange said. "And he told me that and I believed him. I shouldn't have believed him because I know better. He would say 'Mom, don't be ridiculous and worry so much. I'm safe.'"

Charles Strange said his brother loved the SEALS, especially "the competitiveness, getting in shape and running and swimming and all of that."

He also had two sisters, 21-year-old Katelyn and 7-year-old Carly, and recently became an uncle. The family last saw him in June, when he came for a weeklong visit for his birthday, his mother said. He was supposed to be back for Thanksgiving.


"It was going to be such a good time," his mother said.

Rest in peace!

RIP...

...molan esos guantes, era DEVGRU?

Esos comtac2 lo delatan!

REST IN PEACE

...y el 416!! pero quería asegurarme!

Es exclusivo del personal del equipo,todavia no he visto SEALs con 416

y que así sea! se me distinguirá de la turba foquera que hay de moda ahora xDDD

R.I.P.

Rest in Peace.

Descansa en paz