Chief Special Warfare Operator Christopher J. Chambers was at the surface for 26 seconds. Special Warfare Operator 1st Class Nathan Gage Ingram — who jumped into the Arabian Sea to rescue his teammate — lasted about 32 seconds. Both men sank under the weight of body armor, radios, and tens of pounds of gear they were carrying to intercept Iranian-made weapons headed to the Houthis in Yemen.
Streamer Hasan Piker thought their unfortunate deaths were hilarious.
Piker, during one of his livestreams, delivered the line with all the bravery of a man who has never left a temperature-controlled room for anything more dangerous than a bathroom break. "Yeah, like those two SEALs that tripped and fell off the f---ing ladder and drowned in the Red Sea," he said, laughing.
They didn't trip. On January 11, 2024, Chambers grabbed the lower rung of a boarding ladder on an unflagged vessel carrying illicit weapons. A wave swept him under. Ingram saw his teammate struggling and went in after him. Neither came back up. The mission they were executing — boarding and seizing Iranian arms shipments before they reached Houthi fighters — was one of the most dangerous special operations tasks being conducted anywhere in the world at the time.
A subsequent military investigation by Naval Special Warfare Command found "deficiencies, gaps and inconsistencies" in training, policies, tactics, and procedures. The report concluded neither SEAL had been adequately trained in emergency flotation procedures for that type of boarding operation. The deaths were preventable — not because the men were clumsy, but because the system behind them failed to prepare for the specific conditions they faced.
Ingram was posthumously awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Medal on April 18, 2025, for what the citation described as bravery and selflessness. He saw a man drowning in hostile waters and jumped in. That's the guy Piker is laughing at.
Watch Piker's gross celebration for yourself
Former Fox News correspondent Adam Housley responded: "Any SEAL would make mincemeat of this clown in less than 30 seconds."
Piker's version of the story — two guys who "tripped and fell off a ladder" — isn't just disrespectful. It's factually wrong in every particular. Chambers didn't trip. He was conducting a nighttime boarding operation in open ocean against a vessel running weapons to a terrorist proxy. The ladder wasn't a metaphor for incompetence. It was the entry point to a ship that didn't want to be boarded, in seas that didn't care who was in them.
This is the same Piker who has built a multimillion-dollar streaming career on the premise that he understands geopolitics better than the people who actually operate in it. The man who bought a $2.7 million house in West Hollywood while lecturing his audience about capitalism. His contribution to the fight against Iranian weapons proliferation in the Middle East is a punchline delivered between gaming sessions.
Chambers and Ingram were operating in the Arabian Sea to stop the flow of arms that were being used to attack commercial shipping and threaten American naval assets. They did it at night, in rough water, carrying equipment that made survival nearly impossible if anything went wrong. Something went wrong.
Ingram jumped in anyway.
Piker made a joke about it from a chair that probably costs more than Chambers' monthly base pay was.
