Glen Doherty, Former Navy SEAL Killed In Libya Attack, Remembered As 'My Hero' By His Dad

The father of the former Navy SEAL killed in an attack on the American consulate in Libya last week calls his son “my hero.”

Speaking to NECN, Ben Doherty said that he warned his son not to go to Libya, telling him that it was too dangerous but Glen could not be dissuaded.

“He said, ‘Don’t worry Dad. I can take care of myself,” recounts the elder Doherty. “And he could. I knew that.”

After spending eight years as a Navy SEAL, Doherty went into security work and had only been in Libya for two weeks when the attack happened. The 42-year-old hero was fondly remembered in his native Boston, where his father, an former boxer and stockbroker, still lives.

Glen’s brother, Greg, also wrote a touching tribute in the Boston Herald, recalling his desire to push himself and use his talents to change the world for the better. He wrote:

"His way of making everyone around him feel special and loved came from the fact that he genuinely looked up to all his friends, always seeing their greatness in a way they sometimes wished they could see themselves, and from the fact that he felt for them the purest and most loyal of love."

As HuffPost's Andrea Stone reported last week, Glen was also active in a group that fights inappropriate religious proselytizing in the U.S. military. Doherty was passionate about the cause, says retired Air Force lawyer Mikey Weinstein, the founder of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation.

CORRECTION: According to military records provided to ABC News, Doherty was in the Navy SEALs for 8 years, not 18, as previously reported by NECN and The Huffington Post.