Bay swim to benefit SEALs, families
Divers to brave chilly waters to aid nonprofit
As Charlie Orbell dives into the frigid San Francisco Bay on Sunday for a 1.5-mile swim under the Golden Gate Bridge, he’ll have two thoughts foremost in mind. Both are somber, but only one of them profound.
The first, he said, will be about how “that water is really, really cold.” The second will be of Brian Bill, a Navy SEAL killed six years ago Sunday when the Chinook CH-47 helicopter he rode in was shot down in Afghanistan.
Bill was one of 17 SEALs and 21 others who died that day, the single worst loss for U.S. forces in 16 years of war in Afghanistan. Sunday’s plunge in the bay, being undertaken by Orbell and as many as 19 other swimmers, will be in honor of not just those slain SEALs, but all other members of the elite fighting force and their families.
The goal of this inaugural Golden Gate Frogman Swim is to raise money for the nonprofit Navy SEAL Foundation, which provides education, grief counseling and other support to SEALs and their families.
Orbell and the others who will be churning the waves feel driven to give their own service in gratitude to those who have served.
“They’ve done such a lot of the heavy lifting in the war on terror, I just feel it’s right to give back to them,” said Orbell, who is flying from his
home in Florida to do the swim. “I will be swimming for Brian because I met his father when I did a triathlon a couple of years ago. But it’s really for all the SEALs.”
Sunday’s swim will be the first expansion west of the Tampa Bay Frogman Swim, which has taken place every year in Florida since 2010.
The concept was born when a high school student asked local journalist Terry Tomalin how to train for applying for the SEALs, and Tomalin — who had not served in the military, but edited an outdoors section — took him on a bracing swim across Tampa Bay. A Navy commander heard of the workout, and suggested they turn it into a fundraiser for a SEAL officer who had just lost both legs in Afghanistan.
“I swam in that very first one, and it’s grown like crazy ever since,” said Rory O’Connor, a 50-year-old former SEAL who now co-chairs the frogman swim. The 3.1-mile Florida event happens every January, pulls in 175 swimmers, and is so popular that this year’s was booked up within 12 minutes of applications going online. To date, it has raised $2.5 million.
O’Connor flew to San Francisco this week to help with Sunday’s swim in conjunction with local coordinators including Ryan Nelson of the South End Rowing Club. Anyone can sign up — if they can handle open-water waves and water temperatures of 60 degrees or colder, which is a stiff challenge even with the wet suits everyone is being advised to wear.
Swimmers will take off at 8:30 a.m. from Kirby Cove, just west of the north end of the Golden Gate Bridge. Keeping fairly near the shoreline, they’ll stroke under the bridge for the 1.5 miles it takes to get to Horseshoe Cove at Fort Baker. The route takes about an hour.
“We certainly do have veterans who swim, but the lion’s share of our swimmers are not vets,” O’Connor said. “It’s not a race — it’s a safe event, and it’s about honoring the SEALs. If someone is just coming to show off, find another event.”
Applicants can register online at the event’s website, and they are asked to find donors to pitch in to support their swim for a total of as much as $2,500 per swimmer. Check-in for the swim starts at 6 a.m. at Horseshoe Cove, and participants will be taken by boat to the starting spot in Kirby Cove.
It’s not all just splashing in the waves, though. Before anyone dives in, there will be an opening ceremony at 7:15 a.m., during which the names of the 116 warriors in the Naval Special Warfare arm of the military — which includes SEALs — who have been killed since the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, will be read aloud.
“That’s a lot of fallen, especially considering the SEAL community (members on active duty) is only 2,500,” O’Connor said. “It’s a big price.”