The Men with the Green Faces: The Birth of the Navy SEALs in Vietnam
Stavros Atlamazoglou | September 9, 2021
Although now a very-well known special operations unit, the Navy SEALs were born just before and came off age during the Vietnam War. Their forefathers, the Underwater Demolition Teams, had already established themselves as a fine special operations force during World War Two and grew closer to the SEALs we know today in Korea.
Editor’s Note: While intended as standalone articles, this is the third installment into a series delving into the history of the U.S. Navy SEALs. You can read the previous articles about the SEALs in World War II here and in the Korean War here.
The Vietnam War created the opportunity and conditions for the U.S. military to use special operations at an unprecedented level up to that point in time. Although the World Wars and Korea had seen special operations with increased frequency as the years passed, none of these conflicts had the special operations structure and mindset that existed in Vietnam. For example, Recon Marines, Army Green Berets, Air Commandos, and finally Navy SEALs all didn’t exist in the earlier conflicts.
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