Tedisco Inducts Former U.S. Navy SEAL into NYS Senate Veterans Hall of Fame
Senator Jim Tedisco
May 15, 2018
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ISSUE:
- Veterans Hall of Fame
Senator Jim Tedisco (R,C,I,REF-Glenville) today at a ceremony at the state Capitol in Albany inducted Mayfield resident Daniel Izzo, who is the Fulton County Undersheriff, into the New York State Senate Veterans Hall of Fame for his courageous service as a decorated former U.S. Navy SEAL.
As an elite U.S. Navy SEAL, Izzo served for 28 years retiring as a Master Chief having completed a dozen major combat deployments to a variety of countries, including Afghanistan, Iraq, Kuwait, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Liberia. Izzo has earned over 50 combined service awards, most notably two Bronze Star Medals, one with the combat “V” distinction for valor and three separate Combat Action Awards.
Izzo was selected as one of just 22 Navy SEALs to participate in a pilot program that laid the ground work for how the SEALs would fight the Global War on Terror. This program involved sending two-man teams into foreign countries that had a strong Al-Qaeda presence. Many of the missions Izzo participated in still remain highly classified.
During a combat operation in Afghanistan, Izzo’s team came under attack from rocket fire. With total disregard for his own safety, Izzo manned a grenade launcher to return fire and single-handedly stopped the attack and saved the lives of numerous coalition members. For his courage and selflessness, Izzo received the Bronze Star. Izzo received a second Bronze Star while serving in Iraq for his leadership of a 236-man Navy SEAL counter insurgency unit and for leading a 23-day-long combat operation in Northern Iraq, where his team removed 36 enemy insurgents from the battlefield.
Tedisco previously presented Izzo with the New York State Senate Liberty Medal, the state Senate's highest honor, for his courageous service to our country.
“Fulton County Undersheriff Daniel Izzo is the real deal. He’s a true American hero and patriot who time after time put his life on the line as a U.S. Navy Seal in some of the most dangerous places on Earth to keep our nation safe and free and protect our very way of life,” said Senator Tedisco. “Daniel Izzo truly deserves to be enshrined in the New York State Senate Veterans Hall of Fame where he will be in the company of his fellow heroes for all time.”