Hometown: Union City, TN
Branch: U.S. Navy
Unit: East Coast-based Naval Special Warfare unit, SEAL Team 6
Military Honors: Bronze Star Medal with Valor, Purple Heart
Date of Sacrifice: August 6, 2011 - KIA in Wardak province, Afghanistan
Age: 30
Conflict: War in Afghanistan, 2001-2021

Aaron Vaughn’s grandmother told the Associated Press that he wanted to be a Navy SEAL from the time he was a child. Growing up outside of Union City in the northwest corner of Tennessee, Vaughn would ultimately fulfill that dream.

His family moved to Stuart, Florida, when Aaron was a sophomore in high school, but he returned to Tennessee to finish his senior year at Obion County Central High School. He played football and graduated in 1999.

After two years of college in Florida, Vaughn enlisted in the U.S. Navy in June 2002, on his 21st birthday. He knew exactly what he wanted to do. He began SEAL training right after completing basic training at Naval Training Command, Great Lakes, Illinois in February 2003.

Vaughn’s training included time at the Fleet Combat Training Center Atlantic at Dam Neck Annex, Virginia, then Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL training at Naval Amphibious Base Coronado in California. Next came Jump School at Fort Benning, Georgia, followed by Naval Special Warfare Advanced Training at NAB Coronado and in Kodiak, Alaska, from June to November, 2004.

Having achieved his dream of becoming a Navy SEAL, Vaughn served in a West Coast-based special warfare unit (SEAL Team 1) from November 2004 to June of 2008. He completed deployments around the world—including Guam and Germany—and saw combat in both Afghanistan and Iraq.

Vaughn met his wife, Kimberly, while she was on a USO tour entertaining troops in Guam as a Washington Redskins cheerleader. The couple welcomed two children—a son, Reagan, and a daughter, Chamberlyn.

SOC Vaughn was already a decorated fighter and he was asked by the Navy to return stateside as an Assaults Instructor. According to family, he chafed under the assignment, and after two years applied to and earned his way onto the elite SEAL Team 6 in 2010.

As part of Operation Enduring Freedom, SOC Vaughn was deployed with SEAL Team 6 to Afghanistan to fight the Taliban.

On August 6, 2011, Vaughn was aboard a U.S. Army CH-47D Chinook helicopter (call sign “Extortion 17”) on a mission to obtain a high-value target in the mountains of Afghanistan. A Taliban fighter shot the helicopter out of the sky with a rocket-propelled grenade. All 38 aboard were killed. Those Americans lost were among the world’s most highly trained and experienced commandos, including SOC Aaron Vaughn and other members of SEAL Team 6. Vaughn was 30 years old.

For his courage in defending his country, SOC Vaughn was awarded the Bronze Star Medal with “V” for Valor. His citation reads:

For heroic achievement in connection with combat operations against the enemy as an Assault Team Member for a Joint Task Force in support of Operation ENDURING FREEDOM from 28 June 2011 to 6 August 2011. During this period, Chief Petty Officer Vaughn executed multiple operations and was part of a Task Force credited with the elimination and detention of numerous enemy combatants, including several high-value targets. On 6 August 2011, he served as an Assault Team Member for a Special Operations element responding to enemy forces escaping from a nearby raid in an enemy-contested valley in Afghanistan. Chief Petty Officer Vaughn, knowing the valley served as an enemy safe haven, with no sustained coalition force presence and knowing that his mission was to interdict and ambush an armed enemy force, volunteered to pursue an enemy known to have attacked coalition forces with plans for future attacks. He selflessly chose to interdict the fleeing enemy when he boarded the helicopter with his teammates. The aggressive mission to prevent future attacks on coalition forces ended in tragedy when the helicopter on which he was riding was struck by a rocket-propelled grenade, causing the helicopter to crash. By his extraordinary guidance, zealous initiative, and total dedication to duty, Chief Petty Officer Vaughn reflected great credit upon himself and upheld the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.

A documentary feature film, “Fallen Angel, Call Sign: Extortion 17” examines and recounts the loss of the American heroes aboard the Chinook on August 6, 2011.

Aaron Vaughn was a man of deep faith, insisting to his family that he didn’t fear his dangerous job “because he knew where he was going” when he died. When he gave “the last full measure of devotion” to his country, his son Reagan was just under two years old, and his daughter Chamberlyn just nine weeks old.

SOC Aaron Carson Vaughn was laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery, across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C. (Section 60, Site 9927).

To honor Vaughn’s memory, his family established Operation 300—a non-profit organization that hosts weekend adventure camps for children whose fathers were lost during military service.

Sources
Arlington National Cemetery: Aaron Carson Vaughn – Petty Officer First Class (SEAL) United States Navy
OP300: SOC (SEAL) Aaron Vaughn
The National Gold Star Family Registry: Special Warfare Operator Petty Officer 1st Class (Seal) Aaron Carson Vaughn
KALB: ‘Send me’: The story of a fallen Navy SEAL and the cost of freedom
Pritzker Military Museum & Library: SOC (SEAL) Aaron Vaughn
Smithsonian Air & Space Magazine: The Final Flight of Extortion 17
Military Times, Honor the Fallen: Navy Chief Special Warfare Operator (SEAL) Aaron C. Vaughn
The Miami Herald, August 8, 2011: Slain Navy SEAL lived in S. Fla.
The Stuart News, September 12, 2011: Aaron Vaughn
Burial Site: Find a Grave