The CIA began to use SEALs in its Phoenix Program, an effort to undermine the Viet Cong in South Vietnam through counterterrorism and counterintelligence operations. Before the mid-1960s, SEALs in Vietnam were being used to reconnoiter beaches and landing sites, survey waterways, and train South Vietnamese commandos. Navy/National Archives)īut Vietnam was the first war in which the Navy SEALs were fully funded and fully developed, graduating three classes of SEALs from the Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL Course (BUD/S) every year.īy 1967, the number of BUD/S classes increased to five per year. The UDT/ “Frogmen,” predecessors to today’s SEALs, on a mission to clear mines off the coast of North Korea in 1950. The SEALs were descended from the World War II-era joint “Scouts and Raiders” and the Navy’s UDTs which were used extensively throughout that war.Īlthough they kept a low profile throughout the Korean War, the UDTs’ Frogmen perfected many of their operations along the North Korean coastline (even moving inland in many cases) and honed their commando abilities against a real-world enemy. The Navy SEALs, as we know them today, were established in 1962 in a commitment from the Kennedy White House to develop America’s unconventional warfare capabilities. The Navy SEALs were about to be reborn and tested in the jungles of Vietnam. Within months of the start of the Vietnam War, the Frogmen were carrying rifles and became experts in special operations tactics. During World War II and the Korean War, the Navy’s special operators were mostly “Frogmen,” members of the Underwater Demolition Teams (UDT). When the war in Vietnam kicked off, the Navy’s special warfare operations weren’t exactly the same as we know them today.
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