Jay W. Seale – Sergeant, United States Army Drug Enforcement Administration Special Agent

Jay W. Seale

March 9, 1963 to August 27, 1994

Jay W. Seale was one of five Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Special Agents killed August 27, 1994, in a plane crash during a reconnaissance mission near Santa Lucia, Peru. This mission was being flown as part of Operation Snowcap, DEA’s cocaine suppression program in Latin America. He was 31 years of age at the time of his death.

Special Agent Seale began his service with DEA in the New Orleans Office in 1991 and later that year was assigned to the Los Angeles Office. Prior to joining DEA, Seale served in the U.S. Army from 1984 to 1988, where he attended the Noncommissioned Officer Academy in Fort Bragg, North Carolina, and the Ranger School at Fort Benning, Georgia. Special Agent Seale graduated from Louisiana
Technical University in Ruston, Louisiana, in 1990.

He is survived by his mother, Frances Seale; his father, John T. Seale and hisbrother, John B. Seale. Special Agent Seale was posthumously awarded the DEA Administrator’s Award of Honor on May 17, 1995.

While he did not strictly qualify for burial in Arlington National Cemetery, he had lost his life in the service of his country and a waiver was approved permitting his burial.

Michael Robert Patterson

Michael Robert Patterson was born in Arlington and is the son of a former officer of the US Army. So it was no wonder that sooner or later his interests drew him to American history and especially to American military history. Many of his articles can be found on renowned portals like the New York Times, Washingtonpost or Wikipedia.

Reviewed by: Michael Howard