
The History of SEAL Team 6 - aaronbrethorst
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/07/world/asia/the-secret-history-of-seal-team-6.html
======
discardorama
> “They have become sort of a 1-800 number anytime somebody wants something
> done,”

This is what happens when the military gets overused and tired; you have to
reach for your "special" resources and use them as regulars. An example would
be: you have an axe, and you keep chopping wood with no time to sharpen it and
take care of it, it'll become dull; then your only option, if you still want
to chop wood, is to bring out your Shun knife and use that.

We need to cut back on our engagements overseas, and stop fighting other
peoples' wars. We need to give our military folks time to rest, regroup and
retrain, and take care of themselves.

~~~
Dewie3
> We need to cut back on our engagements overseas, and stop fighting other
> peoples' wars.

People that think that the US overseas engagements are a charity are funny.

~~~
discardorama
Very few people outside the "Conservative" echo chamber think this way. And I
use Conservative in quotes because (based on my reading) very few true
Conservatives would support military adventurism abroad, when our national
security is not at stake.

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l4mbda
Funfacts: Odd-numbered teams are based on the West coast, even numbered on the
East coast.

SEAL Team 6 was created after the original SEAL Team 1. They wanted the
Soviets to think there were 4 other teams already operating.

There's a great 6-part YouTube series on the basic SEAL training, and how
_incredibly_ demanding it is both physically and mentally.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQFRePXMI9M](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQFRePXMI9M)

~~~
ViViDboarder
While interesting for sure, those are facts included in the article too. Worth
reading.

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paganel
As an European this glorifying of people who kill other people when we're at
the beginning of the 21st century is a little perplexing.

Also, by the looks of it this latest US tactic of treating wars as video-games
("lets kill the big boss and then it's game over!") is actually very counter-
productive, as in it hasn't won them anything big. But, then again, long-term
diplomatic strategy and trying to make sense of the world (as guys like
Metternich and Talleyrand did) is a lot more complicated when you can easily
send in the drones.

~~~
dba7dba
All civilized people that look down on 'warriors' can thank the 'warriors' for
the privilege of acting civilized.

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danso
The satellite images of the SEAL Team 6 headquarters are credited to
"Satellite images from U.S.D.A. and Google Earth"...I don't recall USDA
imagery being used often, is it because other official sources of imagery have
blocked these kinds of classified images?

[http://graphics8.nytimes.com/newsgraphics/2015/03/09/subredw...](http://graphics8.nytimes.com/newsgraphics/2015/03/09/subredwingmap/1e372a0879c9306378cdde4cd4474a3d67c9597f/subredwingmap-1040.jpg)

~~~
plorg
In my (rural, midwestern) hometown, Google Earth credits the USDA for imagery
in most places. Some places may not offer much value for commercial satellite
overflights.

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11thEarlOfMar
Euphemisms like Kerry's '...someone wants something done...' make me shudder.

I can't help but come to the conclusion that any 'marginally legal if that'
activity that it administered by the government will suffer from a kind of
Peter Principle, where it continues being expanded until a major mistake goes
public.

~~~
jallmann
> I can't help but come to the conclusion that any 'marginally legal if that'
> activity that it administered by the government will suffer from a kind of
> Peter Principle, where it continues being expanded until a major mistake
> goes public.

No institutional activity, "marginally legal" or otherwise, is at a stable
equilibrium. That's why checks and balances should exist within most systems,
that's why we have freedom of the press, and that's why whistleblowing is an
important (albeit last-resort) activity.

That being said, it's hard to be upset about anything in the article -- it was
reasonably balanced. Moreover, you can bet that the fact this is being
published will spur some degree of internal review. Seems like the system, as
a whole, is working as intended.

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mrbill
Intresting timing, I finished re-reading Haney's "Inside Delta Force" last
night. Definitely pick it up (after reading Beckwith's "Delta Force").

"Rogue Warrior" (and "Red Cell", presented as fiction but if you read enough
on the subject, you can realize that it's most definitely "based on true
events") by Marcinko and "Combat Swimmer" by Gormly are an interesting pair,
considering that Gormly replaced Marcinko after much drama.

Sadly, the "Rogue Warrior" fiction series quickly devolved into "big-dick
drinkin' swearin'" pulp trash. He's changed coauthors 2-3 times now.

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venomsnake
Rogue Warrior is mandatory read. It is sad to see that the team that was
created as elite unit with no fat to trim (they had no support at the begining
- Marchinco trained them as pilots, medics, engineers, whatever skills were
needed) has been bloated so much and used as a conventional weapon.

Also - the whole point of the Seal 6 was that they were bad boys - that way
they could mask themselves as civilians.

~~~
crdb
Whilst Marcinko is no doubt a legend, reading Rogue Warrior should be
mitigated by following it up by Gormly's "Combat Swimmer". Gormly inherited
the unit after Marcinko had some issues with his chain of command (whether
justified or not, is up to you to decide - we all know Marcinkos) and has his
own (or the Navy's?) opinions about the man. Like Kurosawa (Rashomon), it is
often better to know more than one point of view...

A more balanced account of what it is like to run these kind of units can be
found in Beckwith's own "Delta Force" (also consider "The Mission, The Men and
Me" by Blaber and "Inside Delta Force" by Haney).

The ultimate such unit may have been the Rhodesian Selous Scouts, and whilst
Pamwe Chete is out of most people's price range, there are numerous excellent
books on the subject. Whether or not you agree with Rhodesian politics, the
tiny unit who pulled off Operation Eland and allegedly caused the majority of
enemy casualties in the Rhodesian Bush Wars is worth reading about.

In the same spirit as Rogue Warrior, check out "The Phantom Major" which
chronicles Sir David Stirling's efforts to create what became the SAS. "Mad
Mike" Calvert's various books pick up where Stirling allegedly left (some,
such as Stiff in "See you in November", claim that Watchman International
amongst others was a front for the MI6's black ops, so Stirling never really
"retired") and also has some nice stuff about Orde Wingate, another
interesting leader (both in results, and as a person) who unfortunately did
not survive Burma.

On a separate note, in "19 with a bullet", Korff claims that the South African
1 Recce's selection procedure was 8 weeks of walking through the bush with no
food except a weekly tin of beans and two slices of toast to share between
two, and no weapons or kit. The unit generally sounded very interesting and
I'd be grateful if anybody knows of any good books or writings, I personally
have not found much.

~~~
venomsnake
I think the main problem is that after 6's creation the Navy had no idea what
they really had on their hands. It was unconventional unit for unconventional
missions. That was problem with the first two SEAL teams in Vietnam too where
their potential was wasted.

Those units should be given clear mission and wide operational freedom, while
it seems that the army top brass prefer to have predictable units with
undefined mission (WTF is nation building and why and how should the military
do it is prime example).

The NYTimes article seems to confirm that - a lot of SEAL 6 one shot missions
were stellar, while their conventional ones were messy.

I would give Gormly's book a shot though.

~~~
crdb
Always slightly embarrassing to comment on these things as a civilian (what do
I know)... nevertheless...

It was worse than that - the failure of Eagle Claw was due precisely to Delta
Force's operating with the help of standard branches, and "not special"
logistics. We never found out whether Beckwith's plan was any good as none of
the men made it to Tehran, after too many of their helicopters literally
crashed on each other on the refuel site.

Beckwith was, obviously, incensed at having to cancel his first mission due to
other people's incompetence, and began the lobbying process that led to the
creation of JSOC in 1980. This allowed for the systematic creation of
"special" units in many branches, most famously 160th SOAR and the ISA (which
is very important - the Selous Scouts built their own Special Branch in part
because of Reid-Daly's personality, but mainly because they found the existing
one to be lacking or not quite as cooperative as required).

At the risk of creating a simplistic narrative: JSOC grew in scope and power,
particularly as COIN (Counter-Insurgency - under which your "nation building"
falls - see Col. Gian Gentile's book for a fairly famous critique) was making
its way into the Pentagon as the new, happy, less (visible) collateral damage,
cheaper, conquer countries cleanly doctrine. So special operation forces went
from being strange pariahs operating on the fringes and occasionally shunned
by more traditional minded commanders (including, allegedly, Norman
Schwartzkopf), to (today) a desirable career passage if one is aiming to
collect stars on the collar (McChrystal is a famous example).

It's important because it has changed US foreign policy. There is a large,
thriving JSOC with direct contact with the President and wars have been
renamed "low intensity operations", offering low cost high impact war in neat
PowerPoint format. So, gradually, EO 12333, EO 12036 and EO 11905 (respective
executive orders by Reagan, Carter and Ford prohibiting assassinations) were
selectively relaxed starting in the late 90s. The extent to which this has
impacted foreign policy is fuzzy, because anything written recently is of
dubious accuracy due to operational security being maintained (should really
get on to reading WikiLeaks some day). But I wouldn't be surprised to hear
that the Green Berets had been resurrected into JSOC as a "grow a cancer in
the enemy's land" type force, except more deniable than SOG or the Contras
ever were.

------
3327
For the length of the article it is actually very uninformed.

Not any new information. OMEAGA program has been around for years it is known
for years.

SEAL team articles are hot and get readers, unfortunately this is a glorified
article and its main point "no oversight" in the opening paragraph is seldom
visited.

TLDR : Seal team 6 rescued many hostages, lost members, has the coolest toys
in town.

~~~
danso
> TLDR : Seal team 6 rescued many hostages, lost members, has the coolest toys
> in town.

A great example of a poor use of TLDR. That was not even remotely the point of
the article. And instead of implying that only uninformed idiots have never
heard of the "OMEAGA program" and how it's been around for years, why don't
you point to mainstream sources that have previously made the point about
Omega that the NYT does?

> The missions, part of the Omega Program, allowed the SEALs to conduct
> “deniable operations” against the Taliban and other militants in Pakistan.
> Omega was modeled after the Vietnam-era Phoenix Program, when C.I.A.
> officers and Special Operations troops conducted interrogations and
> assassinations to try to dismantle the Vietcong’s guerrilla networks in
> South Vietnam.

> Another former Team 6 member, an officer, was even more dismissive of some
> of the operations. “By 2010, guys were going after street thugs,” he said.
> “The most highly trained force in the world, chasing after street thugs.”

------
runjake
This article has a number of inaccuracies, the most blatant is that they
incorrectly identified the base's credit union complex as the unit's new
headquarters.

The HQ is still at the same old location on Dam Neck, as well as some other
satellite offices, ranges, courses, etc.

------
vonklaus
>sluiced

wash or rinse freely with a stream or shower of water.

Never heard of this word before. Rolls of tongue.

~~~
ericssmith
Example usage:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cozw088w44Q](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cozw088w44Q)

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ilaksh
This is propaganda and some of it is quite false (for example the bin Laden
stuff). They are killers, enforcers, doing dirty-work for the most deadly,
brutal and dominant empire the world has ever seen.

Your reality is false, a myth created to ensure the perpetuation of the status
quo.

~~~
mercurial
> This is propaganda and some of it is quite false (for example the bin Laden
> stuff). They are killers, enforcers, doing dirty-work for the most deadly,
> brutal and dominant empire the world has ever seen.

I have no love lost for imperialism, wherever it comes from, but it sounds
like you never heard of Rome or the way Genghis Khan solved problems.

