US Navy Seal who was shot 27 times then walked himself to safety dies 16 years after heroic feat

A United States Navy SEAL who survived being shot 27 times during deployment in Iraq – and then walked himself to a medevac helicopter – died on Monday after dedicating his post-military career to helping veterans.

Douglas ‘Mike’ Day died on Monday, 16 years after he cheated death in the famous 2007 shootout he documented in his memoir Perfectly Wounded.

Day had been leading a raid on a house in Fallujah, when he encountered four terrorists who opened fire on him as he breached a door. His body armor caught 11 of those bullets, while the 16 pierced his body and caused him to drop his rifle. 

Undeterred, Day pulled out his handgun and managed to kill his attackers. Despite the extent of his wounds he continued to direct the raid, saving an Iraqi family before walking out of the house to seek treatment.

After being discharged from the hospital he returned to duty, finally leaving the Navy in 2010 after 21 years of service. He went on to represent Wounded Warriors, and spent the rest of his life advocating for veterans. It remains unclear how he died.

Mike Day was famous for being shot 27 times during a raid in Iraq in 2007

Over the years, Day often recounted the day in April 2007 when his life changed.

‘I took a left-hand turn and they just started shooting at me,’ he told the Team Never Say Quit podcast, recalling how he took point entering a house room with two Iraqi scouts behind him.

Day was hit by the gunfire and dropped his rifle in an instant, but managed to stay on his feet and dispatch one of the terrorists with his pistol.

‘After I realized that I actually was getting shot, my second thought was, ‘God get me home to my girls,’ and then extreme anger,’ he told Fox News. ‘Then I just went to work. It was muscle memory. I just did what I was trained to do.’

One of the militants then pulled the pin on a grenade and began to charge Day, but the SEAL shot him down. The grenade remained armed, however, and knocked Day out when it detonated.

He then quickly regained consciousness and was able to kill the remainder of the terrorists in the house.

To the disbelief of the scouts he was with, Day continued to clear the house, ultimately discovering and guarding a group of women and children they discovered inside.

‘I wasn’t being macho, but I was afraid if they picked me up, it would just hurt more,’ he told Coffee or Die Magazine.

Day showing the vest he was wearing the day he was shot. The vest was struck 11 times, but his body was struck with 16 bullets

Mike Day spent his career after the military advocating for veterans through Wounded Warrior

Day made contact with the rest of his SEAL team, and finally walked out of the house to seek medical treatment.

‘I didn’t even know how bad I was hurting until they came in and I saw the looks on their faces,’ he said. ‘We all know that look.’

The bullets had riddled his body, striking him in the arms and legs, the abdomen, the buttocks, and the groin.

Day’s ribs were also fractured and he suffered contusions to his lungs after his body armor was hit so many times, but the bullets missed all his vital organs. 

‘This was a single gunfight at an ordinary day at the office,’ he wrote during a 2015 fundraiser for the Carrick Brain Centers, the Dallas-based center where he received treatment for PTSD after the gunfight. 

After spending 16 days in the hospital, where he lost 55 pounds, Day was discharged and awarded the Purple Heart. He was also awarded the Silver and Bronze Stars during his career.