Steven Phillip Daugherty – Petty Officer First Class, United States Navy

by

U.S. Department of Defense

Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Public Affairs)
News Release

IMMEDIATE RELEASE No. 840-07
July 07, 2007

DoD Identifies Navy Casualties

The Department of Defense announced today the death of three sailors who were supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom. They died July 6, 2007, as a result of enemy action while conducting combat operations in the vicinity of Baghdad, Iraq. The three sailors were assigned to an East Coast-based SEAL team.

Killed were:

Petty Officer First Class Jason Dale Lewis, 30, of Brookfield, Connecticut
Petty Officer First Class Robert Richard McRill, 42, of Lake Placid, Florida
Petty Officer First Class Steven Phillip Daugherty, 28, of Barstow, California

3 Va.-Based Sailors Killed In Explosion in Baghdad
By Jonathan Mummolo
Courtesy of the Washington Post Staff
Monday, July 9, 2007

Three Virginia-based sailors were killed in Iraq on Friday when a makeshift bomb detonated near their Humvee during combat operations in Baghdad, the Navy said.

Petty Officers First Class Jason D. Lewis, 30, a Navy SEAL, Steven P. Daugherty, 28, and Robert R. McRill, 42, had a combined service record of 34 years and were “patriots in the truest sense,” said Captain Chaz Heron, commander of Naval Special Warfare Group Two, the sailors’ command.

The sailors “embodied the Navy core values of honor, courage, and commitment time and again in training and on the battlefield,” Heron said in a statement.

Naval Special Warfare Group Two in Norfolk is the headquarters for all East Coast-based Navy SEAL teams and, since September 11, 2001, has consistently deployed teams to Afghanistan and Iraq for combat missions, said Lieuetnant David Luckett, spokesman for the command.

Reached at her home in Barstow, California, Daugherty’s mother, Lydia, said her son was proud of his military service.

“He loved his job and his family and was extremely proud of the work he did,” she said. “He was just very dedicated and proud to serve his country.”

Daugherty, of Virginia Beach, joined the Navy in 1999 and was a cryptologic technician. He had a son.

Lewis, survived by his wife, Donna, and three young children, was remembered as courageous by a neighbor, Navy Lieutenant Commander LuAnn Corrado. She said Lewis had left the Navy for a year and then returned, knowing that deployment to Iraq was probable.

“Knowing that he was a SEAL, they don’t tend to sit behind desks,” Corrado said of Lewis, who joined the Navy in 1996. “Knowing he was probably going to get deployed and get sent over in the middle of a war, that’s very admirable.”

McRill, a combat photographer who enlisted in 1991, was remembered by colleagues as an enthusiastic sailor who was a positive example to younger personnel, Luckett said.

“Bobby . . . truly cared about the people lucky enough to work with him,” Luckett said. “He was a mentor to the junior sailors working with him and consistently set the example of what a good sailor could be.”

McRill, who lived with his wife, Katherine, and three children in Yorktown, Virginia, had served on the Norfolk-based USS Theodore Roosevelt and USS Dwight D. Eisenhower.

10 July 2007:

Petty Officer 1st Class Phillip Daugherty, a Navy cryptologic technician from Barstow, was killed by an improvised bomb in Iraq.

Daugherty, 28, was on his second tour in Iraq but was considering coming home next month for his 10-year high school reunion, his mother said.

Daugherty was killed Friday in Baghdad when a bomb exploded under a Humvee in which he was riding. Also killed were Petty Officer First Class Jason Dale Lewis, 30, of Brookfield, Connecticut, and Petty Officer 1st Class Robert Richard McRill, 42, of Lake Placid, Florida.

All were assigned to Naval Special Warfare Group Two, a SEAL team based in Norfolk, Virginia.

Daugherty had a 5-year-old son.

He was student of the month at Barstow High School in June 1997 with a 3.5 grade-point average. After graduating in 1997, he attended Barstow Community College for two years and then enlisted.

“He wanted to see the world and he did,” his mother, Lydia Daugherty, told the Desert Dispatch. “He loved the Navy. He loved everything about it. He was just proud to do his job.”

Daugherty also is survived by his father, Tom; brothers Richard and Robert, and a sister, Kristine.

Daugherty will be buried at Arlington National Cemetery in Washington, D.C., his mother said.

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