Their Story
Remembering Donald L. McFaul.
Chief Engineman (SEAL) Donald L. McFaul was born September 20, 1957, in Orange County, California. He graduated from Bend Senior High School in Bend, Oregon, and enlisted in the Navy, serving first as an engine specialist at Naval Station Treasure Island.
In 1977 he was selected for Naval Special Warfare, and he completed Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL training with Class 95 in the spring of 1978. With SEAL Team ONE he made three deployments out of Subic Bay, Philippines. He left the Navy in 1985, but he missed the teams and came back, studying Spanish at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California, before joining SEAL Team FOUR in 1988.
He deployed to the Persian Gulf and later to Naval Special Warfare Unit EIGHT in Panama.
On December 20, 1989, during Operation Just Cause, Chief McFaul was serving as a platoon chief at Paitilla Airfield in Panama when his platoon came under heavy small arms fire. Seeing that most of the squad ahead of him had been wounded, he left the relative safety of his own position to reach them.
He was carrying a wounded teammate to safety and had nearly reached his own force's perimeter when he was mortally wounded. His actions saved his teammate's life.
Chief McFaul was posthumously awarded the Navy Cross and the Purple Heart. The destroyer USS McFaul (DDG 74) is named in his honor.
