Sean D. Naylor is a Canadian

journalist A journalist is a person who gathers information in the form of text, audio or pictures, processes it into a newsworthy form and disseminates it to the public. This is called journalism. Roles Journalists can work in broadcast, print, advertis ...

. Naylor is the National Security Correspondent for

Yahoo News Yahoo News (stylized as Yahoo! News) is a news website that originated as an internet-based news aggregator by Yahoo. The site was created by Yahoo software engineer Brad Clawsie in August 1996. Articles originally came from news services such ...

. He previously covered intelligence and counterterrorism for ''

Foreign Policy Foreign policy, also known as external policy, is the set of strategies and actions a State (polity), state employs in its interactions with other states, unions, and international entities. It encompasses a wide range of objectives, includ ...

'' and spent over 20 years at ''

Army Times ''Army Times'' (ISSN 0004–2595) is a newspaper published 26 times a year serving active, reserve, national guard and retired United States Army personnel and their families, providing news, information and analysis as well as community and ...

'', with stints as an embedded reporter with troops in Somalia, Haiti, the Balkans, Afghanistan and Iraq. Naylor has freelanced for ''The New York Times'' and ''Newsweek'' and is the author of two books, ''Not a Good Day to Die: The Untold Story of Operation Anaconda'' and ''Relentless Strike: The Secret History of Joint Special Operations Command''.

Early life

Born in 1966 in

Calgary Calgary () is a major city in the Canadian province of Alberta. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806 making it the third-largest city and fifth-largest metropolitan area in C ...

Alberta Alberta is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Canada. It is a part of Western Canada and is one of the three Canadian Prairies, prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to its west, Saskatchewan to its east, t ...

, Canada to

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

parents, a geologist and a journalist, Naylor earned a master's degree in international relations in 1990 from

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a Private university, private research university in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. BU was founded in 1839 by a group of Boston Methodism, Methodists with its original campus in Newbury (town), Vermont, Newbur ...

. From the age of 18 months until the eve of his ninth birthday, he lived in Surrey, England. He then moved to Dublin, Ireland, and became a music journalist at age 16.

Writing career

After graduating from Boston University, where he studied journalism on a scholarship, he joined ''Army Times''. Naylor's beats included U.S. Army training, readiness and the service's senior leadership. He has covered the military in

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

Somalia Somalia, officially the Federal Republic of Somalia, is the easternmost country in continental Africa. The country is located in the Horn of Africa and is bordered by Ethiopia to the west, Djibouti to the northwest, Kenya to the southwest, th ...

and

Haiti Haiti, officially the Republic of Haiti, is a country on the island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and south of the Bahamas. It occupies the western three-eighths of the island, which it shares with the Dominican ...

. In 1995, Naylor co-wrote his first book, ''Clash of Chariots: The Great Tank Battles''. In January 2002, the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) took a couple dozen journalists, including Naylor, into

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the Durand Line, east and south, Iran to the Afghanistan–Iran borde ...

with Task Force Rakkasan. Naylor spent almost four months covering the

War in Afghanistan War in Afghanistan, Afghan war, or Afghan civil war may refer to: *Conquest of Afghanistan by Alexander the Great (330 BC – 327 BC), the conquest of Afghanistan by the Macedonian Empire * Muslim conquests of Afghanistan, a series of campaigns in ...

, including several days in the

Shah-i-Kot Valley The Shah-i-Kot Valley (also Shahi-Kot, Shah-e-Kot and other variant spellings) is a valley in the Paktia province of Afghanistan, southeast of the town of Zormat. The terrain in and around the valley is notoriously rugged, located at a mean alt ...

at the start of

Operation Anaconda Operation Anaconda or the Battle of Shah-i-Kot was a military operation that took place in early March 2002 as part of the War in Afghanistan. CIA paramilitary officers, working with their allies, attempted to destroy al-Qaeda and Taliban force ...

. He returned to the valley at the end of the operation with

10th Mountain Division The 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry) is a light infantry division (military), division in the United States Army based at Fort Drum, New York. Formerly designated as a mountain warfare unit, the division was the only one of its size in ...

troops. He was one of eight journalists allowed to accompany the troops into battle during Operation Anaconda, and spent the following three years interviewing almost 200 participants and accessed secret documents that explained the full role of the Advanced Force Operations in Operation Anaconda. With this information, Naylor wrote his second book, ''Not a Good Day to Die: The Untold Story of Operation Anaconda'', published in 2005. In 2015, his book ''Relentless Strike: The Secret History of Joint Special Operations Command'' was published by

St. Martin's Press St. Martin's Press is a book publisher headquartered in Manhattan in New York City. It is headquartered in the Equitable Building (New York City), Equitable Building. St. Martin's Press is considered one of the largest English-language publishe ...

Bibliography

* Donnelly, Thomas, Sean Naylor, and

Walter J. Boyne Walter J. Boyne (February 2, 1929 – January 9, 2020) was a United States Air Force officer, Command Pilot, combat veteran, aviation historian, and author of more than 50 books and over 1,000 magazine articles. He was a director of the National ...

. ''Clash of Chariots: The Great Tank Battles''. New York: Berkley Books, 1996. . . * Naylor, Sean. ''Not a Good Day to Die: The Untold Story of Operation Anaconda''. New York:

Berkley Books Berkley Books is an American imprint founded in 1955 by Charles Byrne and Frederic Klein owned by the Penguin Group unit of Penguin Random House. History Berkley Books began as an independent company in 1955. It was founded as "Chic News Compa ...

, 2005. . . *

References

External links

Naylor discusses ''Not a Good Day to Die''
at the

Pritzker Military Museum & Library The Pritzker Military Museum & Library (formerly Pritzker Military Library) is a non-profit museum and research library for the study of military history located in a state-of-the art facility in Kenosha, WI. The institution was founded in 2003, ...

Naylor moderates a panel discussion with Six Colby Award Winners
at the

Naylor participates in a panel discussion, ''Facing the Future:Writing on War in the 21st Century''
at the

*
"Not a Good Day to Die" and Operation Anaconda information
* Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Boston University College of Arts and Sciences alumni Canadian people of British descent Journalists from Alberta Writers from Calgary Canadian war correspondents War correspondents of the War in Afghanistan (2001–2021) {{Canada-journalist-stub