In early May, Navy SEALs' Team Six was credited with finding and killing terrorist Osama bin Laden. Today, a few of the ultimate fighting machines are in Chicago- at the Shedd Aquarium --for Chicago Navy Week.
Navy Week is a salute to men and women who have made anchors away a way of life. And while it wasn't the Red Sea, the SEALs seemed to enjoy Chicago's lakefront view and Shedd's ocean.
"It's amazing down there. I've never really swam with that many fish in one area. Sharks and an eel that was sleeping over on its side and didn't want to move ... so it's pretty fun down there," Adam Bartch, U.S. Navy bomb disposal technician.
Bartch and the others aren't allowed to talk about the death of bin Laden. But they can talk about being a Navy SEAL. SEAL stands for Sea, Air, Land.
"The sea we do combat diving. The air we jump out of airplanes. And the land ... we fight on land, land warfare. You name it we do it. We do all types of missions," said SOCS Joseph Jones, U.S. Navy SEAL.
"It takes a certain special kind of person to do what we do," Navy SEAL Bartch said. "A 'type A,' go out there and save the world kind of person... Tough and courageous."
They prove it every day in our world of many wars. But are they brave and courageous enough to try to sing "Anchors Away"?
"I can sing part of it," joked Navy SEAL Bartch. "I don't really have a very good singing voice.... I'm not that courageous. I failed at American Idol so I mean if..."
Not even Frank Mathie's pleading could work on Bartch, who said, "Not singing anchors away."
But he found some others who were willing to lend a voice.
Learn more about Chicago Navy Week at navyweek.org/chicago2011/.
