Michigan Navy SEAL Dies In Off-Duty Accident Off African Coast

DETROIT -- The Naval Special Warfare community mourning the death of a Michigan native Navy SEAL.

Thirty-five-year-old Lt. Mark Alan Weiss died on Veterans Day in an off-duty diving-related accident off the coast of eastern Africa. Coronado-based Weiss was spearfishing last Saturday with another service member in the waters near Zanzibar, an island off the coast of Tanzania. The other service member was injured and is receiving medical treatment.

The Michigan native was an enlisted SEAL when he completed his basic SEAL and special warfare advanced training in Coronado between April 2001 and July 2002. He was stationed on the east coast until 2008, when he returned to the western United States to complete the Seaman-to-Admiral 21 program at the University of Utah. He was commissioned in 2011 following his participation in that program and was assigned to Coronado in 2016 according to KUSI.

Among his awards and honors, Weiss won a Bronze Star Medal with a Combat "V'' and the Navy Marine Corps Commendation Medal with a Combat "V'' for valor. He was also awarded a Combat Action Ribbon and Iraq Campaign Medal.

Weiss is the second Navy SEAL to die in an accident within the last few months.