posted on Oct, 28 2004 @ 11:34 PM
I used to think that the SAS/SBS was the best. That was till i read a crap load of books on the Navy SEALS. How can u say they arent the best when
you look at their record in vietnam. Even other world spec ops units will say they were the most effective sf unit in Vietnam. For one they had
their own hand picked intelligence upon which they made and used for capturing several VC intact(without any "Gung-Ho"-with the rambo definition"
Firefights and by the way Gung-Ho means Teamwork.) They were never captured in vietnam. They were the most feared unit by the Vietcong and NVA.
Their was a lot of folk lore and urban legends by the vietnamese community of the navy seals coming into their houses at night. Several historians
have stated that they ultimately perfected the art of the ambush. The SEALS fire discipline was so great they wouldn't even flinch no matter how
close the enemy walked by them, they would just wait for their team leaders signal. If you have ever read the book "The Oral History of the Navy
seals" there is an excerpt of a few SEALS driving a small unprotected jeep through several emplacements of enemy VC fire to a US army base just to
retrieve a radio. When the SEALS got in the base there were US army special forces and a few SAS members and when the SEAL team leader asked if any
wanted to leave with them, they were too scared to leave and stayed hiding in one of the rooms requesting arty support. There was also a tale of a
Brit officer attached to a SEAL unit clearing an unoccupied enemy town and the brit officer later awarded himself medals for that mission. And guess
what? This was when the SEAL unit just started forming and their training and BUDS was just developed. After BUDS back then SEALS didnt have any
official advanced training courses like other sf units did and they still peformed extremely well. Now SEALS have the one of the best training
programs. They have an extremely hard screening/training program- BUDS. (For some reason people think after one graduates BUDS they become Navy
SEALS.) Afterwards they must attend jump school and then Special Qualifications Training.(SQT) Where they spend many months learning and practicing
advanced techniques day in and day out in; Marksmanhip with a wide variety of weapons, Over the beach operations, leadership, diving, underwater
demolition and reconissance,(duh!) Close quarters combat, self defense, Hostage Rescue, Survival in Extreme environments(Kodiak phase in Alaska where
they frequently are told to bathe in the freezing alaskan waters.) Rock climbing, Tracking, Patrolling(including the use of simunitions rather then
MILES laser system,) Immediate Action Drills, and Basic life saving techniques, walking point, and etc. During early SQT they talk in the classroom
to former seals who fought in battles from Vietnam to Afghanistan about their experiences things they learned in combat and how things work in the
teams and thier theaters in which they performed their missions. It is only after SQT that they receive the Trident pin and are official Navy SEALS.
Guess what? After all that training they still dont go operational. After SQT they go into PRODEV(Proffesional Development Skills) in which Newbies
to the SEAL teams or Experienced Operators who havent gone operational in a while and need to have a quick refresher spend a few months going to other
schools around the world and learning things that would benefit their teams such as Sniper Schools, Advanced Communications Equipment, Army Special
Forces 18-D school(medic school), and the Aussie Tracking School, Leadership, etc. Or for the more experienced SEAL operators they often use some of
the time of PRODEV to spend time with their families. After PRODEV they move on to Plattoon Training, in which they are attached to a plattoon and
perform training specified to the Plattoons tailoring, such as languages are learned depending on where the platoon is stationed, how the platoon
fights in their theater they are stationed in, such as jungle warfare or desert warfare. All the training in Plattoon Training is beefed up
considerably, all the training is to be performed much more faster with a zero tolerance for error, team members should know exactly how their swim
buddy and teammates behave and where they are with out much use of communication. Then after Plattoon Training they move on to Unit Deployment
Training in which they perform mock excerises at the the large unit (SEAL Team Level) level and learn how to communicate and perform with all other
elements, larger elements, and higher ranks of Naval Special Warfare, also joint excercises and cross training with other world spec ops units. Then
finally after Unit Deployment Training they go operational for a while and then after their operational status they go back to the training cycle
starting with PRODEV. Even after a SEAL member goes through all this training and goes operational they are still considered rookies and one tour
wonders by other SEALS. Now if you want the ultimate Warriors u get DEVGRU(formerly called SEAL TEAM SIX.) These guys are hardcore the navy's
equivalent of SOFD-DELTA. They are hand picked from a pool of the best and most experienced SEALS and then are attached to green cell(training for
new DEVGRU members), and from their to other cells such as logistic cells, Sniper Cells, VIP detail Cells, Assault Cells, and Gold Cell which is the
premier Assault cell. Recently DEVGRU members were detached to Bosnia to hunt war criminals and you know how they were transported? They didnt want
anyone to know of the presence of DEVGRU members they didnt even want allies at bases in Bosnia to know DEVGRU members where there so they put several
man sized containers with a DEVGRU member in each container on board a cargo plane, and when the plane landed they shiped the containers to secret
parts of the base where they could stage with out others knowing of their presence. I know sounds like complete BS but its true you can go to the
this link for proof if it still works-
www.specialoperations.com... Anyways i know that was alot of stuff i posted and
honestly most special forces can peform each others missions well enough to accomplish them. But on all these message boards i have seen everyone
post about almost every other Spec Op unit besides the SEALs and i figured not much people know that much about them or post much about them, so i
might as well post something on them. As for the comment of why are there two Maritime special wafare units in the U.S(excluding Navy SWCCS)- Marine
Force Recon and the Navy SEALS, well they both perform different missions. Force Recon are trained to go deep inland and perform reconissance for
usually an MEU or Marine Battalion and then slip out unnoticed. While Navy SEALS are used primarilly for going inland without being noticed, perform
a direct action mission such as a snatch and grab or destroy a target and then slip out unnoticed.