The History of Navy Seals
- The Navy's success during World War II relied heavily on its frogman program, which utilized highly trained swimmers to plant underwater demolitions to destroy enemy craft or underwater obstacles. The underwater demolition teams (UDTs) performed well in the North African and South Pacific campaigns, as well as the D-Day invasion of Normandy. The program became so successful that the Navy's top brass felt the program needed to be developed further, as evidenced by the UDT's successes later in the Korean War.
- The beginnings of the Vietnam conflict led then-president John F. Kennedy to realize a new type of warfare was needed to hamper the success of the Viet Cong guerrillas. JFK and Navy leaders agreed to expand the UDT program to include all facets of environmental operations. Based on the model of the Army's storied Green Berets, these unconventional warfare teams would be codenamed "Seals," based on the acronym. The plan was to have two teams, named One and Two, that would be based on the US's eastern and western coasts, allowing the teams to be deployed quickly to cover American interests overseas. Applicants were taken from all branches of the military, but preference was given to those with UDT experience.
- SEALs were used for a variety of missions during the initial stages of the Vietnam War, working alongside other Special Forces as well as the CIA. The usual method of long-range artillery fire to combat enemy positions was abandoned in favor of direct close-quartered combat, a specialty of the teams. The teams worked as mentors to the South Vietnamese Army, helping arm and train counter-guerrilla teams while still conducting successful missions into heavily fortified enemy territories in the north. As the war drew to a close, the SEALs continued operations until 1972.
- SEALs have operated continuously since Vietnam, seeing involvement in many regional altercations that served U.S. interests. When President George Bush declared war on Iraq in the 1990s (the Gulf War), SEALs were often carried into hostile zones to rescue downed personnel, to recover vital equipment or to train insurgents to fight against Iraqi loyalists. The SEALs also saw limited action in Somali peacekeeping actions later in the same decade.
- Since 2000, more SEAL teams have been added, now totaling 10 as if 2009. Each team is stationed for ease of deployment, as were teams One and Two at their inception. SEALs currently perform operations in the ongoing battle against terrorism, training and conducting special operations in Afghanistan as well as receiving much publicity over the rescue of freighter captain Richard Phillips, who had been taken hostage by pirates off the coast of Somalia in 2009.