The Navy SEAL, who killed in Afghanistan, leaving Marine brother ‘Sole Survivor’

Five-year-old Beau Wise’s massive brothers had been greater than massive. Looking at Jeremy and Ben, 10 and eight years older, he noticed grand, invincible figures — figures who led Beau into no small measure of brotherly mischief.

“I was type of constantly getting pulled into numerous completely different shenanigans … principally instigated by Jeremy. He was positively the largest troublemaker of the 4 of us,” Beau informed ABC “This Week” Co-Anchor Martha Raddatz.

Beau remembers the time eldest brother Jeremy threw him down the laundry chute as part of a daring Halloween sweet caper perpetrated on their only sister, Heather. Thankfully, the extra pensive Ben, the center brother, had coated the hard basement ground with laundry before younger Beau came tumbling down the chute.

When the plot inevitably was foiled by mother and father, Jeremy and Ben absorbed the brunt of the punishment.

“I’ll all the time have your again, Beau,” Jeremy stated afterward.

As Beau got here of age he would once more observe his brothers — this time into the navy, into the world of fight, into Afghanistan.

But Jeremy and then Ben would not return. In simply over two years, one explosion and one firefight would depart Beau the oldest living Wise brother, earning him the Department of Defense’s unwelcome designation of “Sole Survivor.”
Beau immortalized his brothers in the e-book “Three Wise Men,” a memoir co-written with writer Tom Sileo.

They describe the brothers coming of age in the Wise house, with inter-sibling rivalry and criticism more typically than not revealing itself to be a type of caring.

When Beau went through a progress spurt, catching up in measurement to Ben, the 2 became adversaries. When one fight turned too heated, too bodily — Beau throwing a punch at Ben and Ben sending Beau crashing into an armoire, cracking its body — Jeremy, who normally performed spectator throughout these adolescent spats, intervened, pulling Ben out of the room for a talk.

When the 2 returned, Ben hugged Beau, apologized and asked for forgiveness.

“Before I could reply, Jeremy stepped beside each of us and placed his hands on the shoulders of his youthful brothers. Ben then stared on the flooring and positioned his hand on my opposite shoulder as we waited for the oldest to break the silence. ‘Guys, hearken to me,’ Jeremy started. ‘Someday, we’ll be old. We also might be fat, bald and broke. Maybe our wives will go away us and we’ll have completely nothing left on the planet. But even then, we’ll be fortunate — and do you know why?’ he continued. ‘We’ll all the time have each other. No matter what happens, you may at all times have two brothers to lean on,'” Beau recalled in “Three Wise Men.”

Their mom typically regaled them with tales of great adventure and heroism from the family’s historical past of army service. As males, the brothers would be part of that legacy, each in his personal way.

Ben, desperate to serve, joined the Army and went on to become an elite Green Beret sniper. Jeremy, dead-set on becoming a Navy SEAL, realized his personal elite objective, ultimately going on to work clandestine operations as a CIA contractor.
Beau favored the stories of his Marine Corps family members — one who fought through the ferocious World War I Battle of Belleau Wood, another who was a commando with the deadly Marine Raiders of World War II. The “each Marine a rifleman” ethos additionally appealed to him and he joined the Corps’ famed infantry as a machine gunner.

Ben and Jeremy fought in eight combat deployments mixed.

On Dec. 30, 2009, Jeremy, while working as a security contractor for the CIA in Khost, Afghanistan, was killed in a blast when an informant-turned al-Qaida double agent detonated a suicide vest on Forward Operating Base Chapman. Six other American CIA operatives additionally have been killed, making it one of the deadliest days for the CIA, second solely the Beirut bombing of 1983.
Beau was in Afghanistan, south of Khost in Helmand Province, when he received the news.

“Immediately, the first response was absolute anger,” Beau told Raddatz. “And then — I simply — the shock came to visit, and it was just numb for some time.”

Beau knew Jeremy was operating in Afghanistan, however solely learned his brother was working with the CIA after he died.

In 2010, Jeremy was honored on the CIA’s Memorial Wall on the company’s headquarters in Langley, Virginia. Beau visited to see his brother’s place on the wall for the first time on Thursday, also speaking with CIA Director William Burns.
Raddatz also visited the CIA campus Thursday, speaking to Burns in his first televised interview since becoming director.

“I just wished to ask you about Jeremy Wise, whose name is right here — contractor, former Navy SEAL. I know you talked to his brother at present,” Raddatz mentioned to Burns.

“I did, which was a privilege, as a result of Jeremy Wise, as you properly know, a exceptional patriot, a SEAL earlier than he got here to CIA, in a household of remarkable patriots, and he was killed – certainly one of seven CIA officers who was killed in Khost Afghanistan in 2009 on one terrible day, one of many worst tragedies in the historical past of the CIA,” Burns stated.
Some of those recognized on the wall are named, like Jeremy, whereas some usually are not. Burns said it’s the nature of clandestine work.

“This memorial wall is hallowed floor for CIA, it now holds 137 stars, every one marking a CIA officer who was killed within the line of duty,” Burns said. “Sadly, a quantity of days in the past at our annual memorial ceremony, we added four new stars to this wall.”

In his guide, Beau recounts the limousine experience to Jeremy’s funeral, and Ben saying, “I cannot believe I’m the oldest brother now.”

Less than two years later, Beau would make the identical limousine experience to the identical Virginia cemetery. This time with no brother at his aspect.

“In that surreal moment, I got here to the same somber realization that Ben had reached 22 months earlier,” Beau wrote. “I was now the oldest residing Wise brother.”
Like Jeremy, Ben died from wounds suffered in Afghanistan.

“He was breaching a cave in Balkh Province, Afghanistan, and as he was going around the entry gap … he took eight to 10 rounds that traveled south to north by way of his chest, legs and groin,” Beau informed Raddatz. “And he was a fighter and he fought for six days. And they ultimately lifted him to Landstuhl Hospital in Germany, and after six days, he ultimately succumbed to his wounds.”

Beau and Ben’s spouse, Tracy, made it to the hospital to see Ben in his ultimate moments.

“I simply went numb, that seems to be my preliminary response to grief. It’s just the shock after which nearly immediately, just numb,” Beau told Raddatz.

“Did you undergo a period the place, ‘Why us? How is that this possible to lose two brothers?'” Raddatz asked.

“I went via a period of ‘Why them?’ I think, and it doesn’t make any sense looking again now, but one of the things that I always thought of was the fathers — why the fathers were lost,” Beau said. “And I assume you discover a way to justify survivor’s guilt, and that is how you understand you have obtained it.”
As the solely real survivor, Beau was advised by then-Marine Commandant Gen. James Amos that he wouldn’t be put in harms way — the one service member to be saved from fight in the Afghanistan struggle for such a purpose. Beau, as a lot a warrior as his brothers, resented it at the time.

“I didn’t take that information very properly at the time,” Beau said. “I do now.”

Sileo, who shaped a deep friendship with Beau while co-writing their guide, stated the second he heard the story he wished to assist inform it.

“The Wise household has sacrificed tremendously at an unprecedented level. But I think their story also represents this generation of warriors for almost 20 years now who stepped ahead since 9-11. Jeremy said it himself. He said, ‘Those people within the World Trade Center could not fight back. I can.’ And then when Ben was at that cave, he informed someone with him, ‘I’ll go.’ And I assume the way this generation of volunteer warriors has stepped forward is so important for all Americans to consider, especially at a time like Memorial Day,” Sileo said.

“Every single day is Memorial Day for them,” he added.
While glad of the ongoing U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, Beau said one of his fears is that the tip of the war will depart only a pale reminiscence of those that died. It’s one of the causes he wrote his book.

Beau has given his massive brothers new life in “Three Wise Men” — their mischievousness, their seriousness, their heroism.

Ben Wise was posthumously awarded the Silver Star, the nation’s third-highest military medal for valor. Jeremy Wise was posthumously awarded the CIA’s equivalent decoration, the Intelligence Star, along with his name etched within the company’s Book of Honor.

Beau left active-duty service in 2016. He and his wife, Amber, have since adopted a son and daughter.

“Even although our youngsters never received to meet my brothers,” Beau wrote within the afterword of “Three Wise Men,” “they’ll most certainly develop up learning in regards to the heroism of Uncle Jeremy and Uncle Ben.”