Our Fallen Heroes: Nate Hardy

Nate Hardy was born December 28th, 1978 in Cape Cod. He grew up in Washington and Pennsylvania and his family settled in New Hampshire in 1988. It was in high school where Nate, a star soccer and lacrosse player, made the decision to join the Navy and become a SEAL immediately after graduation. Nate joined the Navy in 1997, following in the footsteps of his two grandfathers, both Navy veterans. After graduating from BUD/s in May of 1998 with class 221, he was subsequently assigned to SEAL Team 8 out of Virginia Beach where he served from 1998 until attending DEVGRUs Green Team selection course in 2007.

During Nate’s first deployment with DEVGRU, as an assaulter during a typical nighttime direct action raid in Iraq against an Al-Qaeda cell, Nate was the second man on the stack to enter the enemy-held building. Upon breaching, Nate and the lead man, Mike Koch, were engaged by enemy small arms fire. Mike and Nate were immediately hit. Mortally wounded, Nate engaged and killed the enemy fighters while dragging his wounded teammate to safety. In his final moments in this world, Nate held on to life long enough to pull Koch to safety. He died that night of February 4th, 2008 with his brother-in-arms Chief Petty Officer Michael E. Koch at his side. As they fought and died side-by-side, Mike and Nate are buried side-by-side to each other at Arlington National Cemetery.

Please watch the following memorial video by Nate’s brother Ben as well as a short speech by a former teammate.

Short Life, Long Reach

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7NOQu1ihG8&w=640&h=385]

Short Life, Long Reach Part 2

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnIkO4KMa8A&w=640&h=385]

DEVGRU operator speaking at SOC Nathan Hardy’s funeral

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0RjK5LzGRE&w=640&h=385]

 

SOC Nathan H. Hardy

Gold Squadron, Naval Special Warfare Development Group, JSOC

Killed in action, Iraq – February 4th, 2008