Like many units around the globe, the United States Navy SEALs are an elite group of warriors trained to bring the maximum fight to the enemy in key and decisive engagements. However, this unit is amongst the best of the best and has distinguished itself for decades in successful high-risk operations, enabling America and her allies to achieve countless victories.
The U.S. Navy SEALs can trace their lineage back to the underwater demolition divers of WWII, who helped clear invasion beaches of obstacles and explosives, ensuring the main force could land safely. Similar missions were carried out by these divers during the Korean War, but with the Cold War heating up and America facing a growing threat in Asia, the Kennedy Administration decided to continue to develop and enhance the capabilities of these units, helping to establish the SEAL teams as we know them today. SEAL is an acronym for sea, air, and land, built on the amphibious nature of the previous generation of divers. These elite teams would be trained and prepared for an even broader set of skills and mission sets.
With small conflicts and fights popping up all over the globe in the 1960s, the Navy SEALs would see a wide breath of missions, but many focus on their exploits during this period in Vietnam and southeast Asia. Many of these missions are still classified, but by and large the Navy SEALs conducted deep reconnaissance, high level assassinations, attacks on infrastructure, and other guerilla styles of missions. These small teams were often fighting in very close proximity to the enemy, with little to no support due to the deep penetration nature of many of their missions, often operating in restricted areas. At least forty-eight SEALs were confirmed to have been killed across the entirety of the war. Many of these missions are the stuff of legend, and each helped to progress, develop, and establish the force as the tip of the spear of the American military.
After postwar reorganizations restructured much of the military, the Navy SEALs expanded the number of teams they had under their command and were activated for the invasion of Grenada in 1982. Overall, their missions and objectives were achieved, but they were plagued by poor intelligence, faulty equipment, and to some extent bad luck. The forces managed to not be overwhelmed, but suffered losses, and were able to use these lessons learned to minimize such a cascade of issues moving forward.
In 1989, the SEALs would again be called to quell hostilities in the Western Hemisphere, this time in Panama. The teams were to take out key assets like naval vessels and jets, to help contain the Panamanian Defense Forces, enabling additional units to execute their missions against a weakened enemy. Soon after, the SEALs were utilized to help retake Kuwait during the Persian Gulf War. They helped to collect intelligence, as well as deceive the enemy and divert key assets, enabling the main force to once again attack a weakened enemy. The SEALs would also see some action in Somalia, culminating in the fierce fighting of the Battle of Mogadishu (aka Blackhawk Down).
Over the last twenty years, the Navy SEALs had been extensively deployed in support of the Global War on Terror (GWOT). Although mainly fought in Iraq and Afghanistan, this fight saw SEALs used officially and unofficially the world over. SEALs conducted some of the first major raids in Afghanistan and continued to do so for years, as well as participated extensively in each phase of the Iraq War, carrying out countless missions to stem the insurgency. For this period, one of the most important military operations of all time was carried out by SEALs, Operation Neptune Spear, to kill or capture Osama bin Laden. The SEALs deep inserted into hostile Pakistani territory, executed the raid despite countless challenges, managed to kill bin Laden and collect vital intelligence, and exfiltrate back to safety.
Overall, few units over the course of modern history have been so revered and feared. The U.S. Navy SEALs have established the bar by which all other foreign special warfare services are measured by. The SEALs encompass a full warfighting capability few units can match, and as a result often get the deadliest but most rewarding assignments.
