06/04/2026
Special Warfare Operator Senior Chief Thomas J. Valentine, 37, of Ham Lake, Minnesota.  DEVGRU Blue Squadron. Killed in training on 13 February 2008 during a pre deployment free fall parachute exercise in Casa Grande, Arizona.
Valentine enlisted in the Navy in August 1989 and served most of his career with East Coast based SEAL teams.  Combat deployments to both Iraq and Afghanistan. The kind of senior enlisted SEAL whose career arc carried him through the heart of the post 9/11 NSW build out and into the command.
He was killed during a pre deployment free fall training exercise, the kind of evolution every operator at the command runs hundreds of times across a career.  The work is dangerous even when nothing is being shot at. Sometimes it kills men anyway.
Captain Scott Moore, the DEVGRU commander, described him as one of the finest SEALs he had ever known. A role model. An incredible leader. 
Survived by his wife, two children, parents, brother, and sister.