--- title: "Mike Day, Navy SEAL who survived being shot 27 times in Iraq, dies" description: "Mike Day, a decorated Navy SEAL shot 27 times during a firefight in Iraq in 2007, passed away on March 27." date: "2023-03-29" modified: "2023-03-29" authors: - name: "Max Hauptman" job_title: "Breaking News Reporter" link: "https://taskandpurpose.com/authors/max-hauptman/" url: "https://taskandpurpose.com/news/mike-day-navy-seal-iraq/" categories: - "Military Branches" - "Navy" - "News" tags: - "death" --- # Mike Day, Navy SEAL who survived being shot 27 times in Iraq, dies ![Mike Day Navy SEAL]() *Mike Day with his dog Herja (left) and during training on Pineros Island, Puerto Rico. Photos via @mikeday5326/Instagram.* Douglas “Mike” Day, a highly decorated U.S. Navy SEAL who survived being shot 27 times while deployed to Iraq, passed away earlier this week on March 27. Day served 21 years in the Navy and later worked as an author and an advocate for wounded military veterans. On [April 6, 2007](), Day was nearing the end of a deployment to the Anbar province of Iraq, and leading his SEAL platoon on a raid against an al Qaeda cell in the city of Fallujah. With two Iraqi scouts behind him, Day breached the door of a room and was immediately struck with multiple bullets, knocking his rifle out of his hands. “I took a left-hand turn and they just started shooting at me,” Day [said]() on the Team Never Quit podcast in 2020. Falling to the ground, Day transitioned to his pistol and shot one of the four terrorists in the room. As a second man pulled the pin on a grenade and began running towards the hallway, Day killed him as well. The grenade fell to the ground and detonated, wounding Day with the shrapnel. He briefly lost consciousness, but when he awoke he continued engaging the other men in the room, shooting them with his pistol even as he was struck yet again multiple times from less than 10 feet away with AK-47 fire. [**Subscribe to Task & Purpose Today**]()**. Get the latest military news, entertainment, and gear in your inbox daily.** “After I realized that I actually was getting shot, my second thought was, ‘God get me home to my girls,’ and then extreme anger,” Day [told]() Fox News in 2015. “Then I just went to work. It was muscle memory. I just did what I was trained to do.” Though improbable, Day was still alive, directing several Iraqi scouts to guard a group of women and children who had been found in the building, and using the radio of fellow SEAL Joseph “Clark” Schwedler — who was killed during the raid — to make contact with the rest of his team. It was only then that Day realized the extent of his injuries. [Sixteen]() bullets had torn through his abdomen, arms, legs, groin, and buttocks. Another 11 had been stopped by his body armor. “I didn’t even know how bad I was hurting until they came in and I saw the looks on their faces,” Day [told]() Coffee or Die Magazine in 2020. “We all know that look.” Day was soon evacuated from the battlefield, first to Baghdad, then to Landstuhl, Germany, and eventually to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, walking to the MEDEVAC helicopter without assistance. “I wasn’t being macho, but I was afraid if they picked me up, it would just hurt more,” Day [recounted]() to Coffee or Die Magazine. Day later retired from the Navy in 2010, having been awarded the Navy Cross, two Bronze Stars, and the Purple Heart. He later went on to work for seven years as a [wounded warrior advocate]() for U.S. Special Operations Command. Day’s autobiography, “Perfectly Wounded” was published in 2020. “When you go through something together, or similar, it’s a bond, even if you didn’t do it together,” Day [told]() Coffee or Die Magazine in 2020. “The resiliency that’s built into people after they go through trauma is incredible.” ## The latest on Task & Purpose - **No, the VA isn’t going to** [**reduce your disability payments**]() **if you make too much money** - **Air Force 1-star general relieved for ‘**[**shortfalls**]()**’ in personal conduct** - **What are America’s goals in Ukraine? It’s** [**not totally clear**]() - **Russia is dusting off** [**ancient tanks**]() **as losses mount in Ukraine** - **How the** [**Battle of Nasiriyah**]() **foreshadowed the long slog of the Iraq War** ## Author Max Hauptman is a former breaking news reporter at Task & Purpose. He previously worked at The Washington Post as a Military Veterans in Journalism Fellow, as well as covering local news in New England. ### Author social links [Twitter]() [Instagram]()