A question for all you Navy SEALS

[Monkeyleg]

I've never served in the military, nor do I count amongst my friends any special forces types (an old friend went back into the Rangers 20 years ago, and I haven't heard from him since).

Anywho, the Washington Post did a little piece on what the SEAL who took out bin Laden would be like. I'm just wondering how accurate it is, or if it's just more fluff. The story is here

[Fly320s]

I don't know any SEALs, but I've trained with Jeff Gonzales and his assistant, who were both SEALs.  I've read many of the military books about special forces and I like to follow these kinds of news stories.  So, with all that in mind, I had a description in mind before I read the article.  I would have described an average SEAL as: about 30; in good shape but not ripped or too lean; educated and intelligent; highly self-motivating; willing to try anything and find a way to do it successfully.

There is a bit of overdramatic talk in there, especially from Marcinko, but I'd say it is fairly accurate.

[HeroHog]

My nephew was Seal Six. They are the real deal and not to trifel with. True bad-ass heros.

[Zardozimo Oprah Bannedalas]

From my experience with SEALs at gun shows, he will be mid 40s or late 30s and grossly obese. He wheezes whenever he goes up a flight of stairs, and wears his decorations everywhere. Sometimes he uses his M60 pistol in .45, sometimes he uses the very same AK-47 they gave him in boot camp. He will be loud and inarticulate. Sometimes he uses a 1911, because they don't jam in seawater. He carries a 1911 Glock as backup. They wanted him to use the Mk 23, but he didn't want a puny 9mm.

[HeroHog]

You won't know when you meet a Seal six type guy. They don't brag or advertise, they just do their job. Regular Seals are about the same although you will meet one or two who might talk some but they are most assuredly not the louts you meet above and who brag about being Seals I can assure you.

[Perd Hapley]

From my experience with SEALs at gun shows, he will be mid 40s or late 30s and grossly obese. He wheezes whenever he goes up a flight of stairs, and wears his decorations everywhere. Sometimes he uses his M60 pistol in .45, sometimes he uses the very same AK-47 they gave him in boot camp. He will be loud and inarticulate. Sometimes he uses a 1911, because they don't jam in seawater. He carries a 1911 Glock as backup. They wanted him to use the Mk 23, but he didn't want a puny 9mm.

But mostly, you'll meet them on the internet.

[Monkeyleg]

From my experience with SEALs at gun shows, he will be mid 40s or late 30s and grossly obese. He wheezes whenever he goes up a flight of stairs, and wears his decorations everywhere. Sometimes he uses his M60 pistol in .45, sometimes he uses the very same AK-47 they gave him in boot camp. He will be loud and inarticulate. Sometimes he uses a 1911, because they don't jam in seawater. He carries a 1911 Glock as backup. They wanted him to use the Mk 23, but he didn't want a puny 9mm.

:D :D :D

Thanks. I needed a laugh.

So, basically, every muscular, quiet guy in his 30's at the gym could be a SEAL, ready to rip my head off at a moment's notice? (The area where I live is big-time military).

I've already seen one guy in an FBI t-shirt. I hope he's not an undercover agent.

[PTK]

Also make a note to look for certain lapel pins. Once it was explained to me what to look for, I saw more government people than I thought were around back in CO.

[chefman]

My son who is a corpsman, and personal trainer ,was recently stationed at P-COLA Florida. While out jogging one day he met a Seal out for his daily jog. Big mistake, my son said he would never jog with a Seal again, liked to have killed him.

[Matthew Carberry]

The ones still in the training cycle can be cocky loudmouths who read their own press clippings.  The cycle or so before mine one got kicked out of Airborne school for climbing the drop tower (which was no longer in use, at least for our class) to steal a flag.  No jump school, no Teams.  He wanted to be a badass and ended up a wash-out.

My Reserve unit (Marine Recon) had to go pull some cold weather trainees off the side of a local mountain once.  They didn't wear the proper boots and didn't carry any safety gear, thought they could gut out cold.

Not so much the guys who make the Teams (never met a Devgru guy that I know of) after a bit of seasoning.

You want "quiet professionals" you'll -never- ID as SpecOps guys out of uniform?  I give you the Air Force PJs.  I'm not sure if they have a badge but it'd probably involve disc golf and flip flops, they uniformly have that kind of laid-back mentality in my experience.

[Tallpine]

I've already seen one guy in an FBI t-shirt. I hope he's not an undercover agent.

Well, not any longer 


We had a Navy EOD guy as a neighbor for a while.  He was plumb crazy, so we got along great. 

[TechMan]

From my experience with SEALs at gun shows, he will be mid 40s or late 30s and grossly obese. He wheezes whenever he goes up a flight of stairs, and wears his decorations everywhere. Sometimes he uses his M60 pistol in .45, sometimes he uses the very same AK-47 they gave him in boot camp. He will be loud and inarticulate. Sometimes he uses a 1911, because they don't jam in seawater. He carries a 1911 Glock as backup. They wanted him to use the Mk 23, but he didn't want a puny 9mm.

But mostly, you'll meet them on the internet.

No offense intended to our real heroes.

ZOB and Fistful are describing the below?

[RoadKingLarry]

Here's some of the real deal.


We picked up the batch of SEALs in La Mad on our Med run in '89. They stayed with us for a couple of months and their intended mission got scrubbed. Scuttle but had it that we were to let them off somewhere off the coast in the ME, Syria if I remember right, they were going to swim/boat in and do what ever they do then make there way to Turkey.
Here they are getting in some training time with their inflatables. they practiced taking it out of the freeflood storage and getting it up and running.

I spent some time with a couple of them both on the boat and on the beach. They were serious about serious stuff and when it was play time they played hard. They started out a little arrogant and kind of tried to get their bluff in and intimidate the crew  when they first came on board but that didn't last too long once they figured out that a bunch of bubbleheads had them if not beat then at least matched in the crazy MF department.

They also had some serious "toys" with them. suppressed SMGs (MP5s), shoulder fired rockets, C4...stuff like that. They did a "dog and pony show" for the crew and we got to see and handle their gear. For what it's worth to a man they each had as their personal side arm/back-up a S&W 686 with 4" barrel.

[Matthew Carberry]

Never mind the before, boat pictures I got.  Same Zodiac F470, different clime and place.

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_51198936988#!/photo.php?fbid=56123726283&set=o.51198936988&type=1&theater

The SEALS are the heat when it comes to the water.  They've never dropped their UDT roots.

[Stetson]

I lived next to one growing up. He was very quiet but he would talk occasionally.

My Company Commander was a BMCM SEAL, loud but could motivate anyone.

When I was stationed at NAVWEAPSTA Seal Beach, they would come use the range and since I was the rangemaster/armorer we would talk and shoot together.  These guys tried to get me to apply for BUD/s....didn't happen.  I knew my limits.  I still keep in touch with 2 of them, both are out now though. 

All of them had a quiet confidence but none of them were scary but I was only in one situation where they needed to be scary.  I was busy trying to keep my own ass from getting kicked so I didn't actually see anything. 

[230RN]

Friend of mine has a son in the service.  All he'll tell his dad is that he fixes typewriters.

Hmmmm.... typewriters, eh? Hmmmm.... wonder how many "characters" per minute those "typewriters" cycle at.

[280plus]

I participated in an op one time. We were landing SEALS and Marines on a PI. The SEAL team was staging in my berthing area so I got to talking to them. Couple guys pretty much the same age as me. Very cool, calm and collected is what I remember most. Super nice. Not very big guys. Anyhoo, I asked them if there was anything they needed and there was! Toilet paper! So I scarfed them a roll, watched one of them cut it in half longways through the tube with his enormous looking jungle knife, then they each took a half and  stuffed it away in their gear.  I think that action made me an honorary SEAL operative for about 15 minutes. My procuring of the necessary item was done in a very covert manner.

 

[HeroHog]

My dad was a radioman in the Marines at the tail of WWII in a "Seal like" outfit consisting of 3 or 4 guys. Dad said they had one guy who could take you out at high noon with you standing on a mountain of tin cans and you would never see/hear him coming. That was pretty much the extent of his tales! The rest was snatches and bits I caught from cryptic comments made usually when the news was reporting on deaths during "training exercises" etc. When pushed, he simply said he swore an oath of silence and he would not ever break that oath. This was among family. No one else had a clue about any of that part of his past.

Dad DID teach me some real neat self defense moves, how to quickly scale a fence, how to deal with an attacking dog and how to shoot a pistol. He KNEW stuff and he learned it somewhere is all I can tell you... I've seen him take someone out who was causing an issue later in his life and even then it was scary fast and efficient. Yep. Just a modest US Marine radioman in a small group he only described as living in "Section 8" as they didn't want to birth them with the regular troops.

[Jamisjockey]

Supported the SEALS training once in Yuma.  They were inserting by c130 at our FARP. They had a represenative who came in by HMMVEE to oversee the operation.  When he came into the FARP, he skipped the butterbar and talked right to me, being the senior enlisted on hand.   
Later we saw some of them at the E club.  When one Marine tripped over a chair and spilled some beer on one of the SEALS, the SEAL apologized to the Marine and bought him a replacement beer. 
I've met a few people in life who've told me they'd been SEALs.  The believable ones only told me after they found out I was in the Marines, and were quiet professional guys who were still fit and carried a certain confidience about them. 

[French G.]

I've had casual aquaintances with Specwar, being on the same ship, bought a rifle from one, sold a rifle to another, shot IPSC at Blackwater, squadded with Erik Prince on day, also shot IPSC with some Delta guys who disappeared mid-match early 2002 and never came back. (At the match with full beard going and sat-phone leash  ) The common theme seems to be quiet and polite. You can pick them out in VaBch, massively fit looking, but not like a roid head, laid-back, deep tans, iffy military haircuts, nice watch, sunglasses, shorts and sandals if they have any say. Many of them very normal seeming family folks.

The key word I suspect many people miss in SEAL is "Team." One Seal just doesn't take over a country and probably isn't too scary unless they're the one SEAL sent to remove you. Go on liberty overseas with a SEAL platoon onboard. The chance of seeing one SEAL out alone is zero. I'd hate to be the dumbass that picked a barfight with the one SEAL they saw.

My 2nd Cousin was a Vietnam SEAL, really in it. Good luck telling it. Sir, ma'am, never says the mildest curse word. Pretty weird considering the coarse action he has been party to.

[Sergeant Bob]

We used to get SEALs in Panama fairly often. Used to give them rides over to the munitions dump on the other side of the runway to pick up satchel charges and such. Then they would fly off to parts unknown in the little Casa 212's belonging to Evergreen Air (cough! CIA cough!). They were a very confident bunch.

[Sergeant Bob]

Supported the SEALS training once in Yuma.  They were inserting by c130 at our FARP. They had a represenative who came in by HMMVEE to oversee the operation.  When he came into the FARP, he skipped the butterbar and talked right to me, being the senior enlisted on hand.   
Later we saw some of them at the E club.  When one Marine tripped over a chair and spilled some beer on one of the SEALS, the SEAL apologized to the Marine and bought him a replacement beer. 
I've met a few people in life who've told me they'd been SEALs.  The believable ones only told me after they found out I was in the Marines, and were quiet professional guys who were still fit and carried a certain confidience about them. 

Shoulda took them over to Boystown!

[280plus]

There I was, somewhere western Pacific, 2300-ish, in my berthing area in the red light talking to two SEALS as they got ready to hit the beach / jungle. It was like we were old pals. Kind of like a dream now as I think back on it. 

[RoadKingLarry]

We did get to witness a little SEAL on SEAL "punishment" while they were on board.
One of the senior member of the team liked cinnamon in his coffee. He thought everybody should like cinnamon in their coffee. So he dumped a bunch of cinnamon in one of the big square cans of coffee so that everyone could enjoy cinnamon in their coffee.
That of course did not endear him with the coffee drinking members of the crew, surprising as that may seem.
As a means of atoning for the sins of their team mate the rest of the group restrained the offender and cuffed him to the ladder in the diesel gen room. They then cut off ALL his clothing, shaved him head to toe and painted him neck to knees with prussian blue. He was left in that condition for long enough for the entire crew to be able to witness his penance, a little over 7 hours was long enough to span all 3 watch sections.

[KD5NRH]

My son who is a corpsman, and personal trainer ,was recently stationed at P-COLA Florida. While out jogging one day he met a Seal out for his daily jog. Big mistake, my son said he would never jog with a Seal again, liked to have killed him.

The one that I've met (well, that I know I've met) could run marathons on Saturday and Sunday and still be on his feet most of Monday at work.  I don't know that he ever won, but he always finished strong.  It was pretty obvious he had a military background, (sure, lots of people get regular exercise, but the same serious PT routine every morning before sunrise regardless of the weather is a bit more than most can force themselves to do) and I'd guessed Navy, but never knew he was a SEAL until his wife mentioned it.