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GOP recognition of SEALs broke deal with Navy

A Republican speaker broke a deal between the GOP and the Navy when he publicly recognized a pair of Navy special operators at the Republican National Convention on Wednesday, a Navy spokesman said, causing the sailors to violate regulations against active-duty service members participating in politics.

The speaker, Orson Swindle, pointed out two Navy SEALs in the audience wearing civilian clothes at the convention in St. Paul, Minn., as part of a salute to the fallen SEAL Master at Arms 2nd Class Michael Monsoor, who was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor in April. The two SEALs, Lt. Leif Babin and Special Warfare Operator 1st Class Tom Deshazo, rose when Swindle pointed them out and asked them to stand.

But the Republicans had agreed not to identify the special operators as a condition for their being able to attend the convention, said Navy spokesman Cmdr. Jeff Davis. Babin and Deshazo had asked for permission to accompany Monsoor’s sister, Sara, who was at the GOP convention to see her brother’s recognition. The Navy agreed, but imposed several conditions, including that they only attend the convention that one night, not speak to the news media, wear civilian clothes and not appear on stage.

Swindle, a former Marine prisoner of war, deviated from the script on his TelePrompTer when he pointed out the two SEALs, Davis said, in an apparent ad-lib. Election-year rules forbid active-duty service members from appearing to support or oppose political candidates, and the Navy wanted an “abundance of caution” to ensure it didn’t appear the SEALs were backing the Republicans, Davis said.

There will probably be no repercussions for the SEALs or the GOP, he said.

The special operators were Monsoor’s teammates — they were with him the day he smothered a grenade in Iraq and later died, Davis said — and have accompanied Sara Monsoor to several events honoring her brother, including the White House ceremony at which their parents accepted his medal from President Bush.

Special operators tend to be highly cautious about their identities. They seldom agree to be quoted by name in news stories and their faces are often blurred in official Navy photographs, but in this case, security concerns were less an issue than the political guidelines, Davis said.

GOP presidential nominee Sen. John McCain’s two sons, one of whom is an active-duty Marine and one of whom is a Naval Academy midshipmen, also have similar Navy Department guidelines for their appearance Thursday at the GOP convention. They were given permission to appear in a biographical video in civilian clothes, but they may not introduce their father or give the impression that the Navy or the Marine Corps supports his candidacy.

A GOP spokeswoman did not immediately return a request for comment.