A great promotional video of the
US Navy SEALS.
The United States Navy's Sea, Air,
Land Teams, commonly known as the
Navy SEALs, are the
U.S. Navy's principal special operations force and a part of the
Naval Special Warfare Command and
United States Special Operations Command.[3] The
SEALs' duty is to conduct small-unit maritime military operations which originate from, and return to a river, ocean, swamp, delta, or coastline. SEALs can negotiate shallow water areas such as the
Persian Gulf coastline, where large ships and submarines are limited due to depth.[4]
"
SEAL" is always capitalized in reference to members of the
Naval Special Warfare community. The Navy SEALs are trained to operate in all environments (Sea, Air, and Land) for which they are named. SEALs are also prepared to operate in a variety of climates, such as desert, arctic, and jungle.
All SEALs are male members of the
United States Navy.[
4][5][6][7]
The CIA's highly secretive
Special Activities Division (
SAD) and more specifically its elite
Special Operations Group (
SOG) recruits operators from the
SEAL Teams.[8]
Joint Navy SEALs and
CIA operations go back to the
MACV-SOG during the
Vietnam War.[9] This cooperation still exists today and is seen in the wars in
Iraq and
Afghanistan.[10][11]
History[edit]
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November 2013)
Origins[edit]
The modern day U.S. Navy SEALs can trace their roots to
World War II.[4] The United States Navy recognized the need
for the covert reconnaissance of landing beaches and coastal defenses. As a result, the
Amphibious Scout and
Raider School was established in
1942 at
Fort Pierce, Florida.[7] The
Scouts and Raiders were formed in September of that year, just nine months after the attack on
Pearl Harbor, from the
Observer Group, a joint
U.S. Army-Marine-Navy unit
Scouts and Raiders[edit]
Recognizing the need for a beach reconnaissance force, a select group of
Army and Navy personnel assembled at Amphibious
Training Base Little Creek, Virginia on
August 15, 1942 to begin Amphibious Scouts and Raiders (joint) training. The Scouts and Raiders mission was to identify and reconnoiter the objective beach, maintain a position on the designated beach prior to a landing, and guide the assault waves to the landing beach.[4]
The first group included
Phil H. Bucklew, the "
Father of Naval Special Warfare," after whom the
Naval Special Warfare Center building is named.
Commissioned in
October 1942, this group saw combat in
November 1942 during
Operation Torch on the
North African coast. Scouts and Raiders also supported landings in
Sicily,
Salerno,
Anzio,
Normandy, and southern
France.[12]
A second group of Scouts and Raiders, code-named
Special Service Unit No. 1, was established on 7 July 1943, as a joint and combined operations force. The first mission, in
September 1943, was at
Finschafen on
New Guinea.
Later operations were at
Gasmata, Arawe,
Cape Gloucester, and the
East and
South coast of
New Britain, all without any loss of personnel. Conflicts arose over operational matters, and all non-Navy personnel were reassigned.
The unit, renamed 7th Amphibious Scouts, received a new mission, to go ashore with the assault boats, buoy channels, erect markers for the incoming craft, handle casualties, take offshore soundings, clear beach obstacles and maintain voice communications linking the troops ashore, incoming boats and nearby ships.
The 7th Amphibious Scouts conducted operations in the
Pacific for the duration of the conflict, participating in more than
40 landings.[4]
The third and final Scouts and Raiders organization operated in
China. Scouts and Raiders were deployed to fight with the
Sino-American Cooperative Organization, or
SACO. To help bolster the work of SACO,
Admiral Ernest J. King ordered that
120 officers and 900 men be trained for "Amphibious Raider" at the Scout and Raider school at Fort Pierce, Florida. They formed the core of what was envisioned as a "guerrilla amphibious organization of
Americans and
Chinese operating from coastal waters, lakes and rivers employing small steamboats and sampans." While most Amphibious Raider forces remained at
Camp Knox in
Calcutta, three of the groups saw active service. They conducted a survey of the upper
Yangtze River in the spring of
1945 and, disguised as coolies, conducted a detailed three-month survey of the Chinese coast from
Shanghai to
Kitchioh Wan, near
Hong Kong.[4]
Naval Combat Demolition Units[edit]
In September 1942, 17
Navy salvage personnel arrived at
ATB Little Creek, VA for a week long course in demolitions, explosive cable cutting and commando raiding techniques. On
November 10, 1942, the first combat demolition unit successfully cut cable and net barriers across the
Wadi Sebou River during Operation Torch in
North Africa.
- published: 03 Jan 2016
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