Daniel Izzo

Master Chief Petty Officer Daniel Izzo of Mayfield is a retired U.S. Navy SEAL who served our country with honor for 28 years. 

As an elite Navy SEAL, MCPO Izzo completed a dozen major deployments to many countries, including Afghanistan, Iraq, Kuwait,  Bosnia-Herzegovina and Liberia. He has earned over 45 combined service awards, most notably two Bronze Star Medals, one with the combat “V” distinction for valor and three separate Combat Action Awards.

MCPO Izzo was one of just 22 Navy SEALs selected to participate in a pilot program on how the SEALs would fight the Global War on Terror, particularly in countries with a strong Al-Qaeda presence. Many of his missions remain highly classified today.

During a combat deployment in Afghanistan, MCPO Izzo’s team came under rocket fire attack. With total disregard for his own safety, he manned an MK-19 grenade launcher and returned fire, single-handedly stopping the attack and saving the lives of numerous coalition members. For his courage and selflessness, MCPO Izzo received the Bronze Star.

MCPO Izzo was awarded a second Bronze Star while leading a 236-man Navy SEAL counter insurgency unit in Northern Iraq on a 23-day-long combat operation where his team removed 36 enemy insurgents from the battlefield. In 1996, MCPO Izzo helped recover the remains of 34 passengers, including U.S. Secretary of Commerce Ron Brown, when their aircraft crashed into a mountainside in Croatia. His team also safely evacuated American personnel and their families from the American Embassy in Monrovia, Liberia while under continuous exposure from rebels to small arms gunfire and rocket propelled grenades.

MCPO Izzo was selected as the 1999 Navy SEAL of the Year. He currently serves as the Undersheriff for the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office.