Harry Beal (August 16, 1930 – January 26, 2021) was the first

US Navy Seal The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

Navy SEAL

Beal joined the

U.S. Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage o ...

in 1948, first serving aboard the U.S.S. Shenandoah as a

gunner's mate The United States Navy and United States Coast Guard occupational rating of gunner's mate (GM) is a designation given by the Bureau of Naval Personnel (BUPERS) to enlisted sailors who either satisfactorily complete initial Gunner's Mate "A" schoo ...

. He joined the underwater demolition team, the precursor to the Navy SEALs, in 1955. When the first Navy SEALs team was established in 1962, Beal was the first to volunteer for the elite special operations force. Later, Beal was credited with pulling John Glenn out of the water after his historic spaceflight. Beal became a SEAL instructor, serving until his retirement from the U.S. Navy in 1968.

Later career

Beal later worked for the

Pennsylvania Department of Transportation The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) oversees transportation issues in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The administrator of PennDOT is the Pennsylvania Secretary of Transportation, currently Yassmin Gramian. Presently, Pe ...

for 20 years until his retirement in 1990. In 2020, a bridge was named after Beal in his hometown of

Meyersdale, Pennsylvania Meyersdale is a borough in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, on the Casselman River, southeast of Pittsburgh. It is part of the Johnstown, Pennsylvania, Metropolitan Statistical Area. In the past, Meyersdale's chief industry was the mining of coal ...

. He died on January 26, 2021.

References

1930 births 2021 deaths People from Somerset County, Pennsylvania United States Navy SEALs personnel Military personnel from Pennsylvania United States Navy sailors {{US-navy-bio-stub