If you wanna fight with the best, then you'd better be able to run, swim, kill, and even drink with them, too. These are the written — and unwritten — rules of the U.S. Navy's SEAL Team Six.
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00:00If you want to fight with the best, then you'd better be able to run, swim, kill, and even
00:04drink with them, too. These are the written and unwritten rules of the U.S. Navy's SEAL
00:08Team 6.
00:10SEAL Team 6 has something of a storied history — and not necessarily for the best reasons.
00:16In 1980, SEAL Team 6 was founded by Navy SEAL Richard Marcinko, who entered the project
00:21with a plan to build an elite unit of soldiers made in his image. These weren't supposed
00:25to be perfect, disciplined, obedient soldiers. His call was for rebels, outlaws, criminals.
00:30In his own words,
00:31"...if you want to call them sociopaths, you can. SEAL Team 6 is not really a military
00:35unit as much as it is a mafia."
00:38In keeping with that, members of the original incarnation of SEAL Team 6 were expected to
00:42fit right into Marcinko's band of outlaws. Soldiers who joined and tried to enforce discipline,
00:47or complained about the lack of it, were swiftly kicked out of the unit.
00:50Meanwhile, Marcinko explained that he wanted any problems to stay in-house, while painting
00:55himself as a pseudo-mob boss. No outsiders were to get involved — that's just how he
01:00ran things. There was another unofficial rule, too — members had to be able to hold their
01:04alcohol. Marcinko himself confessed to using alcohol as a tool and typically conducted
01:08his interviews in a bar. If a potential recruit couldn't keep up with him, then they weren't
01:13making it into the unit.
01:15Since SEAL Team 6 is one of the most elite military units in the U.S. Armed Forces, it
01:19only makes sense that the recruitment process is extremely demanding. The initial training
01:24program for the SEALs is known colloquially as BUDS, or Basic Underwater Demolition Slash
01:28SEAL Training. As part of this process, recruits undergo grueling physical activities, such
01:33as miles-long runs and swims and long periods of exposure to the elements. On top of that
01:39is the Navy SEALs' infamous Hell Week, known for the fact that recruits typically only
01:43get about four hours of sleep while experiencing hallucinations, hypothermia, and naturally,
01:48pain.
01:49Only a fraction of candidates make it through, and there have been some Navy SEALs who died
02:00during their training.
02:02And then you have to actually get onto SEAL Team 6. Candidates must be at least 21 and
02:06under 28 years old, have served as Navy SEALs for at least five years, deployed at least
02:11twice, and be eligible for high-level security clearance. Then, they have to file a form
02:16called a Special Request Chit, which is required for SEALs to do almost anything, whether that's
02:20get a tattoo, moving off base, or, of course, considering eligibility for SEAL Team 6. Assuming
02:26all of that goes smoothly, candidates are closely vetted by a panel of their superiors,
02:30who ask about any and all aspects of their lives. Though the exact statistics are difficult
02:35to pin down, it's thought that only half of all candidates make it through.
02:39Since soldiers constantly face life-and-death situations, it's easy to understand that they
02:43might be quick to pull the trigger. And generally speaking, the U.S. military is actually somewhat
02:48understanding on that front. Soldiers are trained not to kill unnecessarily, but what
02:52if they misjudge the situation and end up killing someone who, in hindsight, wasn't
02:56actually posing a threat? The law would have to get involved, of course, but legally, the
03:01assumption of a threat can be enough to clear a soldier of technical wrongdoing.
03:05Former SEAL Team 6 operators have spoken about this in the past, however, explaining that,
03:09for them, such an argument wouldn't hold up. For example, one SEAL Team sniper killed
03:13three different unarmed individuals while in Afghanistan and gave his commanding officers
03:17that exact response. He had felt they were a threat at the time, but he wasn't fully
03:22absolved of guilt. On the contrary, he was kicked out of the unit. In SEAL Team 6, the
03:27threat has to be real, not just assumed. Those who break this rule, operators have claimed,
03:31are punished partially.
03:33Generally speaking, SEAL Team 6 missions are authorized to use only non-lethal force, taking
03:38prisoners, herding noncombatants out of their way, or knocking them out. But let's not sugarcoat
03:43it. These non-lethal tactics are still brutal, and when they do shoot, they shoot to kill.
03:49SEAL Team 6 is, by its very nature, an incredibly secretive organization. They engage in some
03:53of the most sensitive operations across the globe, so letting information slip is potentially
03:58catastrophic. Members of clandestine branches of the U.S. military have explained that NDAs
04:03are used to outline what they're allowed to talk about. This includes taking consulting
04:07gigs, and on at least one occasion, members of SEAL Team 6 were caught misusing confidential
04:11information in their side gigs.
04:14Some years back, seven SEALs were paid to consult on Medal of Honor Warfighter, and
04:18though the game didn't divulge the details of any real missions, it does accurately depict
04:22the nature of SEAL Team 6 operations.
04:24"...everybody says they're an assaulter, but I'd say very few actually are."
04:29None of the operators filled out any of the requisite paperwork, and that none of them
04:32had been granted permission to take on such a job. They were all punished and barred from
04:36receiving future promotions. This insistence on secrecy hasn't stopped some SEAL Team
04:416 members from profiting from their knowledge elsewhere, though.
04:44The book No Easy Day, for example, detailed the famous raid on Osama bin Laden's final
04:48hiding place. It was written by Mark Bissonnette, a member of the assault team during the operation.
04:53But those non-disclosure agreements are no joke. After years of litigation, Bissonnette
04:57ended up settling his lawsuit with the U.S. government, and he paid back all of his royalties
05:01— $6.8 million.
05:04SEAL Team 6 missions tend to be violent operations. As former members have reported, in high-risk
05:09scenarios, they're supposed to shoot to kill, and if that means unloading a magazine into
05:13a body, so be it. Additionally, there is a general acknowledgment by both military and
05:18government organizations that SEAL Team 6 often engages in what we could say is legally
05:23dubious activities, and that means it takes people with quite the strong stomach to handle
05:27the job.
05:28But more than that, operators aren't supposed to make a big deal of their operations. They
05:32must be able to blend into civilian life as well as work in stressful military operations,
05:36and they have to switch between the two seamlessly. According to one ex-SEAL,
05:40"...you're asking guys to commit murder, turn around, fly home, and go back to their
05:44home life without missing a beat. Kill somebody in the morning, be home in time for dinner
05:48with the family, and pretend it never happened."
05:51SEAL Team 6 operations have sparked more than a few conversations regarding the ethics of
05:55the team's work. In general, many of those questions concern civilian casualties. Essentially,
06:00are SEAL Team 6 operators employing enough caution to try and avoid them? Many people
06:05think not. One particular operation carried out in a town in Afghanistan, for example,
06:09led to reports of SEALs not only engaging in civilian casualties, but also carrying
06:13out executions.
06:14In response to this controversy, a new technique was developed that required operators to literally
06:19call out to enemies, essentially asking them to surrender before attacking. The intention
06:24was to decrease the number of civilian casualties by better defining the line between enemy
06:28and innocent. But former operators have complained about the implementation of this rule, saying
06:33that it led to more casualties rather than less.
06:36Enemy combatants, they say, would take advantage of the new rule, often sending civilians out
06:40of buildings to shoot from behind them. When you think about it, how do you apply rules
06:44to a group modeled after the mob?
06:46While not technically an official rule recognized by SEAL Team 6, there is something of a tradition
06:51when it comes to disciplinary action taken against its operators, the so-called Rock
06:55of Shame. As far as anyone outside the unit can tell, SEAL Team 6 does actually have a
07:00real physical rock outside their headquarters, onto which they inscribe the names of former
07:05members they feel have essentially dishonored them in some way or another.
07:08The rock has been mentioned in regard to two different former SEALs in recent years, Robert
07:12O'Neill and Mark Bissonette, both of whom have become controversial and polarizing figures
07:17in their own rights.
07:18I actually hit him three times, because I shot him twice when he was standing and once
07:21on the ground.
07:22As you already know about Bissonette, O'Neill has a tie-in with him as well. O'Neill claimed
07:26that he delivered the lethal shot to bin Laden, which is more or less disputed by other SEALs
07:30who were part of that mission.
07:32With the lawsuits and the whole non-disclosure thing, you can see Bissonette's issues with
07:36SEAL Team 6. Reports say that both of their names are engraved on the infamous Rock of
07:41Shame, and neither of them are welcome at the unit's headquarters.
07:45Rank is typically an important part of military structure, one in which officers are given
07:48near-total responsibility and authority over the actions of enlisted men and women.
07:53If you're in SEAL Team 6, however, that's not usually the case. To be entirely clear,
07:57this isn't an explicit rule that operators are expected to follow, but it is a long-standing
08:02tradition. Enlisted soldiers are viewed as more important in SEAL Team 6 than they would
08:06be in other military units. This is because officers don't stick around too long in the
08:10units, relatively speaking. They might serve a couple of tours before rotating in and out,
08:15before going on to serve with other units. In contrast, enlisted soldiers typically stay
08:19with the unit for a longer period of time, and in practice, that means they have a lot
08:23more influence than would otherwise be expected.
08:26In truth, that's exactly how Richard Marcinko always wanted it. Originally an enlisted man
08:31himself, he's quoted as having once said,
08:33"...you get the enlisted in charge. They are the talent."
08:37SEAL Team 6 operators are trained to use firearms, knives, and all kinds of other weapons, including
08:42one particularly surprising tool. The most notable weapon that operators have traditionally
08:47carried is, in fact, a hatchet. They're typically gifted a hatchet made by craftsman Daniel
08:52Winkler, who is best known for making the weapon seen in the movie The Last of the Mohicans.
08:56"...you do what you want with your own scalp. Do not be telling us what we ought to do with
09:00ours."
09:01This is a gift that operators receive after their first year of service, usually paid
09:04for by outside donors, and it may also have use beyond decoration. Some operators have
09:09insisted that they never actually use their hatchets, citing the fact that they're too
09:13bulky to take on missions. But others have said that they have witnessed their peers
09:17using those hatchets to break down doors, get through locks, and even fight enemy combatants.
09:22It's been reported that at least one operator actually killed somebody with their hatchet,
09:26and a number of other operators have supported the reasoning behind using it in hand-to-hand
09:30combat. As one says,
09:32"...what's the difference between shooting them as I was told and pulling out a knife
09:35and stabbing them or hatcheting them?"
09:37Real Team Six is commonly known to be made up of four assault squadrons. Blue Squadron,
09:42Red Squadron, Gold Squadron, and Silver Squadron. But that's not all. There's also the mysterious
09:47Black Squadron.
09:49Originally made up of the unit's snipers, Black Squadron has since been retrofitted
09:52for intelligence purposes. Unlike the Assault Squadrons, which are typically deployed in
09:56combat zones, Black Squadron members work out of embassies scattered all around the
10:00world and follow a different set of rules, secrecy being their guiding principle. Operators
10:05must be able to blend into any surrounding and take on any role required to carry out
10:09their work. Former operators have explained that given the covert nature of the unit's
10:13operations, they weren't allowed any room for mistakes. Intelligence had to be solid
10:17before they could proceed with missions, and they needed to be confident in their success
10:21before making a move. What's more, Black Squadron has also been known to regularly employ female
10:26operators, with men and women usually working in pairs so as to throw off suspicion from
10:29those they are pursuing.
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