Nine months after SEAL Team Six took out the worlds most wanted man, Osama bin Laden, they completed another dramatic and secret mission: rescuing Jessica Buchanan, an American aid worker, from the hands of Somali pirates. In response to her plight, two dozen SEALS parachuted into southern Somalia, killed all nine heavily armed kidnappers, and liberated Buchanan, as well as a second aid worker—all without any American casualties.

The heroic acts in the final moments of this remarkable rescue reveals something of the culture and character of the Navy SEALs. Here are Jessica’s own words:

At one point … this group of men who’ve risked their lives for me already, asked me to lie down on the ground. Because they’re concerned there might be more armed terrors out there. They make a circle around me and then they lie down on top of me, to protect me. And we lie like that until the helicopters come in.

To the world, it was extraordinary. To the Navy SEALs, it was another day’s work. It’s what they do. Because it is who they have become.

Possible Preaching Angle:

This is a powerful reminder that we believers are to be as dedicated to one another and willing to “lay down our lives for the brothers” (1 John 3:16).