Inside SEAL Team Six(36)

Now things went from bad to worse.

As one of the RH-53 helicopters prepared to leave, it crashed into a C-130 Hercules transport plane. In the ensuing explosion and fire, five USAF aircrew in the C-130 and three USMC aircrew in the RH-53 died.

In the aftermath of the mission—which also damaged President Carter’s chances of being reelected—■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​

The members of SEAL Team Six were considered the most highly trained and lethal warriors in the world.

As soon as I heard that there was a special group of longhaired undercover SEALs stationed on the East Coast, I knew I wanted to be part of the team. But at the beginning of 1983, I was a wet-behind-the-ears SEAL corpsman on a year of probation with the following mind-set: Don’t talk, listen. Do what you’re told, and work as hard as you can.

Most of our leaders at ST-1 were hardened Vietnam combat vets. Legendary soldiers, like Master Chief Claude Willis Jr., who was the most decorated African American in the military. He was a short guy who was loved by everyone on the team. Whenever anyone got in trouble with the police, which happened a lot when SEALs and Marines drank together, Master Chief Willis would put on his uniform with all the medals on it and go talk to the police.

He served as a jumpmaster when we jumped. We’d be on a plane at about ten thousand feet ready to jump. We’d watch the light go from red, to yellow, to green. Then the jumpmaster would yell: “Go!”

I remember seeing a SEAL standing in the door looking nervous just before a night water jump when Willis tapped him on the shoulder and said, “Holy shit! What’s wrong with your chute? Go.”

Then he pushed him out.



Under normal circumstances, each SEAL platoon operates according to two-year deployment cycles: twelve to eighteen months of pre-​deployment workup, followed by six months of active deployment in a theater of operation. This is so that at any given time, at least two of the six platoons in a particular SEAL team are on active deployment.

It involves a tremendous amount of training, which gives each individual operator a chance to acquire and develop specific skills.

The normal workup or pre-deployment cycle is divided into three phases. Phase one is called the professional development phase (PRODEV), during which individual operators attend formal schools and courses. These can include learning:

Scout/sniper operations (Special Operations Target Interdiction Course, or SOTIC)

Breacher operations (learning barrier penetration and methods of entry)

Surreptitious entry (mechanical and electronic bypass)

Technical surveillance

Advanced driving skills

Climbing/roping skills

Advanced air operations (jumpmaster or parachute rigger)

Diving supervision or diving maintenance and repair

Ranger training

Unmanned aerial vehicle operations

Languages

Phase two is a six-month block of unit-level training during which the whole platoon trains in core mission areas, including:

Small-unit tactics

Land warfare

Close-quarters combat

Urban warfare

Hostile maritime interdiction

Combat swimming

Long-range target interdiction

Rotary and fixed-wing air operations

Special reconnaissance



In phase three, squadron integration training (SIT), as many as six platoons conduct advanced training with the support of special boat squadrons, medical teams, EOD, interpreters, intelligence/HUMINT teams, cryptologic teams, and so forth.

When I first got to ST-1 we did lots of shooting, jumping, fast-roping, diving, and swimming. We recorded all our jumps and dives in logbooks.