The United States Naval Special Warfare Development Group (NSWDG), commonly known as DEVGRU or SEAL Team Six ( ST6 ), is the United States Navy's secretive tier-one Counter-Terrorism and Special Mission Unit (SMU). DEVGRU are the former SEAL Team Six. The vast majority of information surrounding DEVGRU is highly classified and details of its activities are not commented on by either the White House or the Department of Defense.
History
The origins of ST6 can be traced to the aftermath of Operation Eagle Claw, the failed 1980 attempt to rescue American hostages at the U.S. Embassy in Iran. During the Iran Hostage Crisis in 1979, Richard Marcinko was one of two Navy representatives for a Joint Chiefs of Staff task force known as the TAT (Terrorist Action Team). The purpose of the TAT was to develop a plan to free the American hostages held in Iran which culminated in Operation Eagle Claw. In the wake of the operation's disaster at Desert One, the Navy saw the need for a full-time dedicated Counter-Terrorist Team and tasked Marcinko with its design and development.
Marcinko was the first commanding officer of this new unit which he named SEAL Team Six (at the time, the US Navy had only two SEAL teams. Marcinko purportedly named the unit Team Six in order to confuse the Soviet intelligence as to the number of SEAL Teams in operation). It became officially operational in 1981. The men in the unit were handpicked by Marcinko himself from across the US Navy's Special Operations personnel. SEAL Team Six would be known as the US Navy's premier counter-terrorist unit. It has also been compared favorably to the US Army's Delta Force. Marcinko held the command of SEAL Team Six for three years from 1980-1983 instead of what was typically a two-year command in the Navy at the time. SEAL Team Six was formally created in October 1980, and an intense, progressive work-up training program made the unit mission-ready six months later. Prior to this, the existing SEAL teams had already begun counter-terrorism training, including 12 platoons in SEAL Team One on the West Coast. On the East Coast, however, elements of the SEAL Team Two had taken the issue one step farther. They formed a dedicated two platoon group known as "MOB Six" (Mobility Six) in anticipation of a maritime scenario requiring a counter-terrorism response and had begun training to that end.
In 1987, a new unit was formed, given the official title of 'Naval Special Warfare Development Group' (NAVSPECWARDEVGRU, or DEVGRU) after SEAL Team Six was dissolved. Reasons for the disbanding are varied, ranging from operational security that Marcinko divulged in his Autobiography, the team's reputation surrounding the mis-appropriation of unit funds by unit members that resulted in charges leveled at Marcinko and other members of the unit. Whatever the truth behind these, the name "SEAL Team Six" is often used in reference to DEVGRU because of their similarities as a maritime counter-terrorism unit.
Recruitment, Selection & Training
In the early stages of creating SEAL Team Six, Marcinko had been given only six months to get ST6 up and running. This meant that there was a timing issue and Marcinko had little time to create a proper selection course, similar to that of Delta Force and as a result hand-picked the first plankowners of the unit himself after assessing their Navy records and personally interviewing each man. It has been said that Marcinko regretted not having enough time to set up a proper selection process/course. All applicants came from the UDTs and east and west coast SEAL teams. Marcinko's criteria for recruiting applicants was combat experience due to the fact that he would know they could perform under fire, Language skills were vital as the unit would have a world-wide mandate to be able to communicate with the local population if needed, union skills in order to be able to blend in as civilians during an operation and finally SEAL skills. Each member of SEAL Team Six was selected in part because of the different specialty skills each man brought with him to the unit.
The training schedule was intense. The SEAL Team Six ammunition allowance was more than the entire US Marine Corps. The emphasis was on shooting skills, range firing, CQB and stress shooting in a variety of conditions.
As with most aspects of the unit being highly classified, information regarding the process of recruitment and selection for the NSWDG is also scarce but what is speculated and is known is that the selection and training for the unit hasn't changed dramatically since its creation. All applicants come from the regular SEAL teams and the Navy's Explosive Ordnance Disposal units, unless applying for support positions (in which there have been open advertisements on the web for support personnel).
It can be inferred from the quality of their pool of applicants that those considered are in peak physical condition, maintain an excellent reputation as an operator within the Naval Special Warfare community, and have done two operational deployments with a SEAL Team (approximately six to eight years) where an operator will have picked up invaluable experience. As a result the candidate will usually be in his 30s. As ST6 was recruiting the best and brightest SEALs/UDTs from the regular teams, this created animosity between the unit and the "regular" teams that their best SEALs were being poached for the unit.
Those who pass the stringent recruitment process will be selected to attend a seven month Operators Training Course. Candidates will join the units training wing known as “Green Team”. The training course attrition rate is extremely high; at least half the class will fail the course. During one selection course, out of the original 20 candidates, only 12 completed the course. Like all Special Operations Forces units that have an extremely intensive and high-risk training schedule, serious injuries or death among operators can result. SEAL Team Six/DevGRU have lost several operators during training, including parachute accidents and CQB training accidents, but this is necessary in order to make training realistic. It is said that an extremely good SEAL operator in a regular SEAL team can fail to get into the Development Group. It is presumed that the unit's assessment process for potential new recruits will be completely different than what a SEAL operator has come across in his career and will test the candidate's mental capacity rather than his physical condition, as he will have already completed Basic Underwater Demolitions/SEAL training.
Candidates will be put through a variety of advanced training courses, that can include courses led by civilian instructors. These can include Free-climbing, Advanced Unarmed Combat techniques, defensive and offensive driving, Advanced Diving, and Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape. All candidates must perform at the top level during selection and the unit instructors evaluate the candidate during the training process. Any candidate not performing to the highest level will be returned to his previous unit.
The CIA's highly secretive Special Activities Division (SAD) and more specifically its elite Special Operations Group (SOG) recruits operators from SEAL Team Six. Joint Navy SEALs and CIA operations go back to the famed MACV-SOG group during the Vietnam War. This cooperation still exists today and is seen in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Roles & Responsibilities
When SEAL Team Six was first created it would be devoted exclusively to counter-terrorism with a worldwide maritime responsibility. Its objectives would include targets such as ships, oil-rigs, naval bases or other civilian or military bases that were accessible from the sea or inland waterways. SEAL Team Six would also be tasked in covertly infiltrating a hot spot somewhere in the world to carry out out reconnaissance or security assessments on US military bases and US Embassies. Although the unit was created as a maritime counter-terrorism unit, it has become a multi-functional Special Operations unit with multiple roles. After SEAL Team Six was disbanded and renamed, the official mission of the NSWDG is to test, evaluate and develop technology and maritime, ground and airborne tactics applicable to Naval Special Warfare forces such as Navy SEALs.
DEVGRU and the Army's Delta Force train together and deploy together on counter-terrorist missions usually a part of a joint special operations task force (JSOTF).Operational Deployments
The majority of the operations assigned to the NSWDG are classified and may never be known to the public. However, there are some operations in which the unit has been involved where certain details have been made public.
Operation Urgent Fury
Main article : Operation Urgent Fury
On October 13, 1983, the Grenadian Army, controlled by former Deputy Prime Minister Bernard Coard, overthrew the government of Grenada in a bloody coup d'état, creating a Communist regime. The severity of the violence, coupled with Coard's hard-line Marxism, caused deep concern among neighboring Caribbean nations, as well as in Washington, D.C. Adding to the US's concern was the presence of nearly 1,000 American medical students in Grenada.
The new leader of the Grenadian government, Maurice Bishop, aligned Grenada with Cubans, Soviets, and communist organizations. The Reagan administration reviled the l
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