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Beyond all else, Szymanski built a career on loyalty to his fellow SEALs and protecting the military’s most famous brand.

The promotions seemingly overlooked Szymanski’s efforts to shield a SEAL Team 6 operator from repercussions for trying to behead a Taliban fighter his protection and hiring of a senior enlisted SEAL after Team 6 blacklisted the operator for issuing orders to shoot unarmed Afghan men and for telling members of his unit that he wanted a Taliban “head on a platter” and his aggressive politicking for the same SEAL to receive the nation’s highest military award, the Medal of Honor. Although Szymanski did not respond to my requests for comment, SEAL Team 6 and the larger Naval Special Warfare command defended his record by pointing out that all accusations of misconduct are investigated and that none of the allegations against Szymanski have ever been substantiated in an official, formal investigation.īut it is precisely this culture of impunity that has insulated Szymanski and other senior SEALs from accountability. Over two decades, the Navy kept promoting him despite battlefield decisions in Afghanistan that contributed to the deaths of a member of SEAL Team 6, an Air Force special operator, and five other American service members. Szymanski personified the Navy SEAL’s code of silence and moral drift after 9/11. But his rise speaks as much to the SEALs’ failures as it does to their successes. Szymanski in many ways exemplified the SEALs in the age of America’s forever wars, and his legacy extends beyond his battlefield experience: He is an author of the Navy SEAL Ethos, which codifies the elite unit’s aspirational moral code.

By all appearances, his departure marked the end of a storied career as one of the top SEAL officers, having served many of his 36 years with SEAL Team 6 during the post-9/11 wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Szymanski retired as SOCOM’s second in command at the apex of the Navy SEALs. At a ceremony in Tampa, Florida, SEALs past and present came to celebrate Szymanski’s four decades of military service. Timothy Szymanski, deputy commander of the Special Operations Command and a longtime member of SEAL Team 6, retired from the Navy.