Frank and Harry Butler are two of 5 users of the prolonged Butler loved ones who have served or are active responsibility SEALs, an acronym that stands for Sea Air and Land groups. In truth, motion picture producers may well want to choose take note of the likelihood of a really feel-excellent movie about the Butler 5. It would be a impressive tale of cousins, brothers and sons, especially Harry, Frank, Pat, Jeff and Sam.
Harry and Frank, who are cousins, were being the to start with of the Butler bunch to be a part of the Navy and turn out to be SEALs.
“Frank was on SEAL Staff 1 and I was on SEAL Group 2,” Harry spelled out, adding that, together, Groups 1 and 2 only had a complete of 243 guys when the cousins served all through the early 1970s.
Harry graduated from Savannah Higher Faculty in 1967 and from Savannah Complex College in 1969. He then enlisted in the Navy. Frank graduated from Benedictine Army University in 1967 and recognized a Navy ROTC scholarship to Georgia Tech. The other Butler SEALs are: Frank’s brother, Pat Frank’s son, Jeff and Frank’s nephew Sam. Pat graduated in 1981 from Benedictine Navy School and 1985 from the Naval Academy, then on to Naval Exclusive Warfare. Jeff and Sam are not from Savannah.
Although retired as SEALs, equally Harry and Frank continue being happy of their accomplishments whilst serving in the Navy. Frank is the recipient of numerous awards for his contributions to battlefield trauma care and has been nicknamed “The Father of Modern-day Battlefield Drugs.” Furthermore, a highway to an Iraqi hospital is named Frank Butler Boulevard to honor his get the job done.
When people today talk to Harry what members of the elite commando squad do when they’re dispatched for a top secret mission, he minces no words and phrases with his reply:
“There are tons of actually poor people today in this globe (who) would like practically nothing much more than to torture and kill you, your family members and cherished types,” he tells people. “Navy SEALs hunt them down and eliminate them before they get a prospect to trigger you any pain and suffering.”
Other previous SEALs, like Harry’s cousin and native Savannahian Dr. Frank Butler, of Pensacola, Florida, echoed remarks designed by a former commander of the device that achieved the modern hostage rescue in Africa.
“(The commander) claimed ‘It’s an extraordinary honor to come to perform each individual day and be in the business of our country’s heroes.”’
Frank was the oldest of six kids – 3 boys and a few ladies – who all were being reared in Savannah. The boys all grew to become profession Navy officers and the women are registered nurses.
At first, Frank’s dream was to fly F-14s for the Navy but that modified when he noticed his initially SEAL demonstration.
“(It) consisted of a team of SEALs jumping out of a helicopter into the water throughout the bay from the place all of us midshipmen were being seated,” he recalled. “Just after that, there was a speaker who was furnishing a quick introduction to the SEAL teams and what they do, when out of the blue there was a massive sequence of explosions from throughout the bay.”
The SEAL swimmers silently established a sequence of demolition fees and swam absent, making fairly an perception on Frank.
After 4 yrs in the SEALs, Frank entered the Health-related School of Georgia in which he specialised in ophthalmology. He finished an internship at Navy Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida, and went by way of Navy Undersea Healthcare Officer instruction and was assigned to the Navy Experimental Diving Device.
“I labored there for 5 several years as a Diving Medical Analysis Officer and then left to do an ophthalmology residency at the National Naval Healthcare Heart in Bethesda,” Frank reported.
Frank and his spouse, Debbie, have lived in Pensacola for 31 years but adore Savannah and take a look at as usually as they can, he explained. His father was president of the relatives-owned John G. Butler setting up offer enterprise and later became director of the Savannah Housing Authority. Tybee Island’s Butler Avenue is named for his great-grandfather, John G. Butler, who turned the very first mayor of Tybee in 1887.