WIRTZ-SCOTT

HE  ABSOLUTELY  LOVED  HIS  WORK

The family of Scott Andrew Wirtz knew from an early age that he wanted to be a Navy SEAL.  He was energetic and adventure seeking as a boy, and although he was never really into swimming, he let his parents know he wanted to be a SEAL, and like most of his other goals in life, Wirtz accomplished that objective.  Immediately upon graduating from a Saint Louis high school in 1998 where he was a running back on the football team, he joined the Navy.  He completed SEAL training and for most of his Navy career, until leaving the Navy in 2005, was assigned to SEAL Team Five where he specialized as a sniper.  He served combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as being deployed to locations in Africa, the Philippines and South Korea. 

Upon leaving the Navy he spent several years working for military contracting groups before joining the Defense Intelligence Agency in 2017 as an Operations Support Specialist, charged with overseeing operations to collect human intelligence.  In this role he served three deployments to the Middle East.  When not deployed, Wirtz spent most of his time traveling and visited all of the continents except Antarctica.  He was especially fond of Thailand, where he had a home and spent much of his down time, and Brazil, where he trained as a mixed martial arts fighter. 

Unfortunately, on January 16, 2019 while in a restaurant in Manbij, Syria, Scott Andrew Wirtz lost his life when a suicide bomber killed at least 16, including Scott and three other Americans, and wounded a number of others.  A friend has said, “Wirtz was always the type of person who wanted to serve his country.  He didn’t talk about his desire to serve, he just did it.  He had that mindset from the get-go.  ‘This is what I want to do and so this is what I’m doing.’”  His family said, “He absolutely loved his work.”  He has been laid to final rest at Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery in St. Louis, Missouri.

Submitted by CDR Roy A. Mosteller, USNR (Ret)