On this Veteran's Day, November 11, 2021, we want to convey our heartiest thanks to all those who have answered the country's call of service.  Our country’s greatness and freedoms are built on the foundation of your courage and sacrifice.  Your patriotism is an example for all of us.  We are forever grateful to heroes like you.  You make us proud!!  Thank you!  Happy Veteran's Day!

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Pictured is LtJG (Lieutenant Junior Grade) Trey Seitz - Strike Officer on the USS The Sullivans out of Naval Station Mayport in Jacksonville, FL - along with 5 players from the Chargers MLS Next B2008 team (Decker B., Tomas B., Tanner K., Charlie S. & Christopher T.).  LtJG Seitz is Tanner's cousin. 

Last season (in January 2021) LtJG Seitz took this group of 2008 Charger players, during the weekend they were playing in a tournament in Jacksonville, to the Mayport Naval Base to see the USS The Sullivan (pictured behind them). 

The USS The Sullivans (DDG-68) was commissioned in April 1997.  It is a Naval Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, 505' in length, and has a complement of 33 commissioned officers, 38 chief petty officers & 210 enlisted personnel.  It is also the second ship of the US Navy to be named for the five Sullivan brothers – George, Francis, Joseph, Madison, and Albert Sullivan, aged 20 to 27 –  who lost their lives when their ship, the USS Juneau, was sunk by a Japanese submarine in November 1942 in the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal. Some say this is the greatest military loss by any one American family during World War II.*    

Another point of interest is the video below.  Trey Seitz was the “officer on deck” as his ship sailed past the HMS Queen Elizabeth aircraft carrier. The USS The Sullivan’s is returning home after a 9-month deployment.  

* Kurzman, Dan (1994). Left to Die: The Tragedy of the USS Juneau. New York: Pocket Books. ISBN 0-671-74873-4.