Highly decorated Navy SEAL survived 300 combat missions in 29-year

military career

REVIEW-JOURNAL

Scott Lyon, a longtime Las Vegan who survived 300 raids and combat

missions and liberated dozens of prisoners of war during his 29-year military

career, lost his battle with brain cancer late Thursday. He was 67.

With his passing, the nation lost one of its most respected and highly

decorated Navy veterans, friends and fellow SEAL team members said.

His wife, Patricia, said through a family spokesman, "Scotty was my best

friend. He was my life.

"I've never met a person who could hold a candle to him," she said. "Scott

Lyon was a true American hero in every sense of the word."

Plans are pending for a memorial service with full military honors at the

Naval Amphibious Base in Coronado, Calif.

As a Sea Air Land leader who rose in rank from enlisted man to officer, he

often was called to serve on secret assignments for the CIA. Those operations

comprised two-thirds of his missions.

His assignments ranged from chasing after Cuban revolutionary Ernesto

"Che" Guevara in the mid-1960s while thwarting the spread of communism in

South America, to leading 109 combat missions in Vietnam and Southeast

Asia in 1967 and 1968 and capturing 17 Viet Cong leaders.

One of his close friends, political consultant Kent Oram, who met Lyon when

he moved to Las Vegas in 1982, revered him as a true U.S. hero whose

gallantry made him "the real James Bond."

"I'm proud that Scott Lyon considered me one of his best friends," Oram said.

"Scott was a legitimate American hero. He was my personal hero. It's really

important America never forgets people like Scotty who constantly risked

their lives to protect our freedoms.

"I believe if Scotty could ask for one thing, it would simply be that people

Page 1 of 4

http://www.reviewjournal.com/cgi-bin/printable.cgi?/lvrj_home/2002/Apr-27-Sat-2002/n... 11/26/2010

never forget our veterans. Not ever," Oram said.

Fellow SEAL Bob Gormly, author of "Combat Swimmer -- memoirs of a

Navy SEAL," described the selfless and humble attitude of Lyon's teams.

"Nearly all of us had at least one Purple Heart. ... The feeling among we

officers was that, every time we went on an operation, we could have handed

out medals to all hands, but that would have cheapened the medals.

"Scotty got an incredible number of medals for a SEAL of that era," Gormly

said.

Lyon's list includes a Silver Star, five Bronze Stars, the Joint Service Medal,

four Navy commendations, two Vietnam Medals of Honor, the Bolivian

Presidential Award, the Purple Heart and 28 separate combat awards.

He is mentioned in several best-selling books: "Seals at War" by Barry

Enoch; "Crossfire" and "Centrifuge" by James Pollack; "The Men Behind the

Trident" by Dennis Cummings; and "The Monkey Handlers" by G. Gordon

Liddy.

In a November interview at his home on a golf course in northwest Las

Vegas, Lyon said he was most proud of the time he and six other men

liberated 26 prisoners of war from a camp on Oct. 6, 1968.

"I crawled up on top of this little knoll and saw the (the guards) were asleep. I

took those six guys and ran into this camp. We killed six or seven. We didn't

lose a single person," he said.

In that interview, he offered his insights on the nation's war against terrorism,

saying today's special forces "are a group of special guys who can do it on

their own.

"They don't need generals telling them how to do their jobs, or admirals

trying to tell them how to get there. They're a lot smarter than we were. I'm

not saying they were a lot gutsier."

In 1980, Adm. R.S. Lyon, who is not related to Scott Lyon, said, "My first

choice out of 132 SEAL officers to send on independent duty is Lt. Cmdr.

Scott Lyon."

The "independent" nature of the duty refers to having a free hand to

accomplish the mission. Most of the time, he said, his objective was to

"gather intelligence, search and destroy."

Scott Lyon predicted terrorist leader Osama bin Laden probably won't be

found alive. "I don't think you're going to get him. I think he's going to be

found in a ditch someplace."

In 1985, Lyon was asked how real-life Vietnam combat veterans stacked up

against their portrayal in the film "Rambo," starring Sylvester Stallone. His

Page 2 of 4

http://www.reviewjournal.com/cgi-bin/printable.cgi?/lvrj_home/2002/Apr-27-Sat-2002/n... 11/26/2010

answer: "Sylvester Stallone couldn't even drink out of the same beer glass as

any one of my men. I personally know of at least 100 guys who can actually

do some of that stuff. Not all of it, of course, because no one man can do what

Rambo did."

Scott Robert Lyon was born in Rochester, N.Y., on March 14, 1935.

"I tried to get in the Army when I was 15. They threw me back, and I joined

the Navy when I was 17."

His Navy career began in July 1953 in Norfolk, Va., and ended with his

retirement in February 1982 in Las Vegas, where he was assigned to a

detachment out of Long Beach, Calif. An enlisted man, he reached the rank of

chief petty officer before being promoted to warrant officer in October 1967.

He retired as a lieutenant commander.

He played football for two Navy teams, the Bainbridge, Md., Commodores

and the Pensacola, Fla., Goshawks, before joining the Navy's elite

Underwater Demolition Team. His special operations with that unit involved

fighting with the Greeks against the Turks in Cypress in 1961.

He served three tours in Vietnam beginning in the 1960s, including a stint

with the Provincial Reconnaissance Unit, an agency set up by the CIA to use

North Vietnamese deserters in combat. He received the Silver Star for

gallantry for leading 20 men deep into a Viet Cong stronghold to destroy a

mine warhead factory while engaging in a 26-hour firefight.

In the early 1970s, he was the officer in charge of the Leap Frogs, the Navy's

parachute demonstration team, a part of the Navy's recruiting effort. In 1972,

he was on the staff of the Command Naval Special Warfare Group Pacific,

based in Coronado, Calif.

After his retirement, he was hired by the Clark County manager as a project

analyst.

In 1985, he became one of the directors and founders of the Las Vegas

Panasonic Pro-Am Invitational Golf Tournament. An avid golfer, he was the

2001 President's Cup champion at the Las Vegas Country Club.

He was one of three principals who founded Western Acceptance Corp., now

a publicly traded insurance premium finance company. He served as board

chairman from 1986 to 1988.

In 1988, he became the first head of security for Arizona Charlie's.

In 2000, he joined QTS, a payroll and tax service company, as a board

member and director of business development.

He was a past president of Special Operations Association and was the

group's president from 1987 to 1990; Southern Nevada Military Council;

Page 3 of 4

http://www.reviewjournal.com/cgi-bin/printable.cgi?/lvrj_home/2002/Apr-27-Sat-2002/n... 11/26/2010

Veterans of Foreign Wars; Nevada Saints and Sinners; Fraternal Order of

UDT/Navy SEALs Disabled American Veterans; and was appointed by the

governor and approved by the U.S. Senate to be the Nevada State Director of

Selective Service, receiving the Meritorious Service Award.

He was a member of the U.S. Boxing Association and was an honorary

member of the Nellis Air Force Base Support Team.

He is survived by his wife, Patricia Lyon; son, Keith Lyon; daughter Michelle

Hynes; three grandchildren; a brother, David Lyon; and his mother, Martha

Loyst of Fairport, N.Y.

In lieu of flowers, the family prefers donations to the Nathan Adelson

Hospice of Las Vegas or the UDT-SEAL Association Scholarship Fund.

This story is located at:

Page 4 of 4

http://www.reviewjournal.com/cgi-bin/printable.cgi?/lvrj_home/2002/Apr-27-Sat-2002/n... 11/26/2010

STOLEN VALOR ACT A MISTAKE

Editor,

I read with stunned amazement the naivety of Lt. Col. Strandberg, who describes these shameless pretenders or wannabes as poor souls that we should pity. It's far more reaching than that. The unfortunate truth is that these individuals use "stolen valor" to earn unmerited promotions, pay raises, VA benefits, and to pilfer money from unsuspecting women. They're not just barroom Rambo's trying to impress girls or their drinking buddies, they're college professors, law enforcement officials, politicians, lawyers, preachers, actors, etc. that have doctored their resumes in an attempt to gain respectability in their profession, their community and their family. Perhaps equally surprising is that many have never served a day in the military. And when they are faced head-on and exposed for what they are, it seldom works because their families, co-workers and friends have been so brainwashed that they standby them, in spite of overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

This phenomenon began to surface when Vietnam veterans started to gain long deserved respectability. From a Navy SEAL perspective, when our small community went from being virtually unnoticed to what it is today, the SEAL wannabes have also grown exponentially. When the issue of fake warriors began to surface, a very small, dedicated group of former SEALs working on their own with no outside financial support started a campaign to unmask these pretenders. To date, they have uncovered over 10,000, most of whom are Vietnam vintage. What makes this figure even more startling is that since WWII, we have graduated little over 10,000 from Basic Underwater/Demolition SEAL Training, and during the Vietnam Conflict, we never had more than a few hundred UDTs and SEALs operating in-country at any one time.

Regrettably, The phenomenon has resurfaced.....we now have Mid-East Fake Warriors coming out of the woodwork. With patriotism and respect for the military at its highest level since World War II, the magnitude of the problem is closely associated with that very same high public esteem. Why then is it important to identify, expose and punish those who are either pretenders or wannabes? It's to uphold the honor and reputation of scores that have given their lives in the service of our nation. Imposters who are allowed to remain unexposed are an insult to the memory of those that have made the ultimate sacrifice, and who can no longer speak for themselves.

Again, I'm totally astounded that a military officer would wrap himself in such phony logic, i.e., families would not be able to purchase decorations their loved ones deserved. The only ones that would be barred from purchasing those decorations would be the very pretenders and wannabes that the Act is being directed toward.

Captain (SEAL) Norman H. Olson, USN, Retired 

__________________
The grist mill of SEAL justice turns slowly but it grinds exceedingly fine.