Adm. Frank “Mitch” Bradley, the commander on the heart of the controversial Sept. 2 strikes on an alleged drug-running boat within the Caribbean Sea, has served for many years as a Navy SEAL officer whereas rising by means of the ranks to guide all U.S. particular operators globally.
Bradley will transient lawmakers on Capitol Hill on Thursday in a bipartisan inquiry into the incident, through which two survivors from a primary strike have been later seen climbing again into the boat, a supply conversant in the incident instructed ABC Information.
The supply mentioned the pair of survivors have been later killed in a second strike as a result of they have been deemed to “nonetheless be within the battle” as a result of they have been in communications with different vessels close by and have been gathering among the cargo of medication the boat had been carrying.
The White Home and Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth have mentioned it was Bradley’s name to order the second strike.
The preliminary assault was overseen by Hegseth himself, who instructed reporters on the White Home on Tuesday that he watched the primary strike unfold earlier than leaving for conferences. He mentioned he didn’t see any survivors or any additional strikes that adopted.
“Admiral Bradley made the right determination to in the end sink the boat and eradicate the risk,” Hegseth mentioned.
“He sunk the boat, sunk the boat, and eradicated the risk. And it was the appropriate name. We now have his again,” he mentioned.
U.S. Navy Admiral Frank “Mitch” Bradley, incoming commander, U.S. Particular Operations Command, delivers remarks throughout the USSOCOM Change of Command Ceremony in Tampa, Florida, October 3, 2025.
Airman 1st Class Monique Stober by way of Reuters
On the time of the assault, Bradley was the three-star admiral in control of the Joint Particular Operations Command that oversees probably the most delicate particular operations missions carried out by models like SEAL Group Six and Delta Power.
Bradley graduated in 1991 from the U.S. Naval Academy, the place he studied physics and was a varsity gymnast, in response to his Navy biography, and has commanded in any respect ranges of U.S. particular operations.
Secretary of Protection Pete Hegseth speaks alongside President Donald Trump and US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick throughout a Cupboard Assembly within the Cupboard Room of the White Home in Washington, December 2, 2025.
Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP by way of Getty Photographs
He was among the many first to deploy into Afghanistan after the 9/11 terror assaults, his bio says.
Initially from Eldorado, Texas, Bradley earned a Grasp’s Diploma in physics from Naval Postgraduate College in Monterey, California, the place he obtained a provisional patent for his analysis in 2006, in response to his bio.
Those that served with him characterised him as among the many navy’s finest.
Retired Navy Cdr. Eric Oelerich, a former SEAL and present ABC Information contributor, mentioned Bradley, who’s been a mentor to him for many years, is an adaptive chief and “probably the most clever officers” within the U.S. navy.
“Bradley is an instance of the easiest of what’s within the U.S. navy,” mentioned Oelerich, who commanded particular operators as a Navy officer. “And he’s a person extraordinarily grounded in morality.”
Retired Brig. Gen. Shawn Harris, who labored with Bradley and is now a Democratic candidate for Congress in Georgia, instructed ABC Information the admiral is “an excellent chief.”
Used to working within the shadows as a senior particular operations chief, Bradley made a uncommon public look in July at a Senate affirmation listening to. Nominated to function the four-star commander of U.S. Particular Operations Command, he was confirmed and assumed the rank and command function in October.
On the time of the September strike, Bradley headed Joint Particular Operations Command (JSOC), which has operational authority over the navy’s elite particular warfare models.
In his affirmation listening to to guide Particular Operations Command, the mum or dad group of JSOC, Bradley mentioned officers underneath his command can be centered on stopping civilian hurt and the legal guidelines of warfare.
“Simply to resonate, it’s not solely an obligation to stick to the legislation of armed battle to guard civilians, it’s vital to our success and competitors to symbolize our values,” Bradley instructed Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass. “I imagine that each uniformed, each civilian, and each contractor that’s employed or in oversight of the usage of deadly drive has a vital obligation to have the ability to do this, and I do decide to protecting that as a spotlight for our command, if confirmed.”
Warren replied, “That may be a sturdy reply, and I recognize it.”
The administration has maintained that the 11 individuals killed within the Sept. 2 incident — in addition to the greater than 80 killed by strikes within the Caribbean and the jap Pacific Ocean — weren’t civilians however moderately terrorist combatants that the U.S. was empowered to kill on self-defense grounds.
Some authorized consultants, including a group of former military lawyers , have mentioned they imagine the individuals killed within the follow-up strikes have been not within the battle and due to this fact not authorized navy targets.
