As war rages on, there is a special breed of man who puts everything on the line for the safety and preservation of his country. These men operate behind the scenes without any conventional help available to them and with no need of meritorious recognition. These men are the most elite branch of the United States military: the Navy SEALs. As mentioned in their ethos, they are ready to bring the full spectrum of combat power to bear in order to achieve their missions and the goals established by their country. They are trained not to fail; this legacy has been fulfilled since their creation during the Vietnam War. This conflict tested both their strength and values as modern day conflicts do today. The United States Navy SEALs evolved their credibility throughout the Vietnam War into the elite warriors they are now in the modern day battlefield.
During the 1970s, tensions increased between the country of South Vietnam and the Vietcong rebels and eventually broke out into what is commonly referred to as the Vietnam War. The United States government decided to give aid to South Vietnam against those tunnel dwelling guerrillas. This agreement led to an influx of money given to the South Vietnamese Army and also the movement of United States advisors to the field. At the start of the conflict, the Vietcong used a series of submissive and guerrilla type tactics that were both confusing and abnormal to both the conventional Vietnamese Army and the United States military. The U.S had a unit of the military that specialized in this style warfare known as the Green Berets. However, the Vietnam War was fought both on jungle terrain and delta/marshy environments.
This water element presented a problem; thus, President Kenn...
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...erous and elite warriors into a well respected and highly decorated military unit. The SEALs involvement in the Vietnam War was highly based on clandestine and unconventional style missions which allowed them to be used for a variety of tactical and strategic uses. As time went on, the United States Navy SEALs played a role in a variety of conflicts all over the world. Present day conflicts in the Middle East are utilizing the SEALs more than they have ever been used. This is particularly true in the regions of Iraq and Afghanistan where the war on terror still occurs today. Since their creation and evolution during the Vietnam War, the SEALs have basically been completing missions and operating under the same style of warfare. The SEALs presently carry on the legacy that their brothers back in the Vietnam War forged for them with blood, sweat, and pure firepower.
I Am a SEAL Team Six Warrior is an emotional tale of how Howard Wasdin dealt with an abusive stepfather, a terrible unforgiving poor upbringing to overcome and to live his dream and enter the dangerous world of the United States Navy SEALS and Wasdin and Stephen Templin takes us through Wasdin’s childhood, military life and how he was Special Forces snipers. The book, I Am A Seal Team Six Warrior, written by Howard E Wasdin and Stephen Templin. given the honors of becoming a SEAL.
The Marine Raider Battalions developed an elite fighting force within an elite service. There still exist today the elite units of the Marine Corps, such as the Force Reconnaissance Battalions and the Special Operation Capable Units, but the Raider Battalions were the first specialist of the amphibious doctrines. Although the amphibious landing has been preformed throughout the ages since the invention of the water-bearing vessels, the Marine Raider Battalions tested and perfected this combat operation. Although the two Raider Commanders had very different views on how to prepare their marine...
As Marines, we have a well-known motto “One Team, One Fight” that creates an image of strong unity that everyone regardless of rank or size plays an important role. Everyone is necessary to complete the mission. In this book, one particular Marine, (then) Captain Bill Barber, has a story that since has become a crucial tool used as teaching material today for multi-level Marines everywhere. This book serves as a testimony to Captain Barber’s will in the midst of extreme opposition and sets the example of the for mentioned mindset
The Vietnam War, a counter-insurgency conflict waged between North Vietnamese Communist forces and their South Vietnamese opposition, was one that many of its participants are not like to forget.
This bastion of ethical conduct Mr. Couch advocates, has listed the names of these current and active duty SEALs, their units, and where they are located in a public document with no regard for operational security, the security of the warriors named, their wives, their kids, extended families, nor for the irrevocable damage done to their character. Duane Dieter has plastered their names all over a public document open for all to see, including those wishing to do them harm. In the current state of threat and public view that SEALs unfortunately find themselves, this is nothing short of unethical. Mr. Couch is not only a poor judge of character, but the way he denigrates entire units and an entire generation of warfighters, despite his insistence to the contrary, is both insulting and unfounded in fact.
“When the navy sends their elite, they send the SEALs. When SEALs send their elite, they send SEAL Team Six, the navy's equivalent to the army's Delta Force --- tasked with counterterrorism and counterinsurgency, occasionally working with the CIA. This is the first time a SEAL Team Six sniper's story has been exposed. My story” (3). This captivating quote starts off Seal Team Six, a timely memoir about former Navy SEAL Sniper Howard E. Wasdin. The first paragraph starts his story and how he grew up to be one of the top snipers in the world. Although this is an amazing memoir, nothing is perfect. The first half of the book has the reader glued to the pages learning about Wasdin's life, but towards the end of the memoir the stories tend to get repetitive.
Robert S. McNamara, appointed by John F. Kennedy to the position of U.S. Secretary of Defense in 1961, said about the Vietnam War, “It is important to recognize it’s a South Vietnamese war. It will be won or lost depending upon what they do. We can advise and help, but they are responsible for the final results, and it remains to be seen how they will continue to conduct that war,'; (McNamara 72). Despite these guidelines for assisting in the war, the U.S. would end up doing much more than just advising. The Vietnam War was supposed to be a demonstration of how willing the U.S. was to battle communism, but ended up a personal vendetta against the North Vietnamese as the U.S. escalated its commitment in Vietnam infinitely greater than it had ever intended. After World War II, France returned to Vietnam to reclaim their Indochinese colonies after the Ho Chi Minh had declared Vietnamese independence in 1945 (Goldstein 3). The U.S. had just ended a war started by German conquest in Europe, and now was being asked to help France conquer the colonies it lost control of during the war. The Vietnam Nationalists, the same ones who had supported the U.S. in the war against the Japanese not more than a year previous, sought only to peacefully gain their independence from France (Chant 25). In January of 1950, the Viet Minh gained recognition by the governments of the USSR and China, who supplied weapons and places to train (Chant 25). Because the two Communist superpowers recognized the Viet Minh, the Vietnam war became to the U.S. a struggle between capitalism and communism, especially since the Viet Minh were openly communist themselves. By aiding the French, the U.S. thought they were helping their free-trade ally France fight communism, the Communist Party was very strong in France (Goldstein 3). The U.S. feared that Vietnam would fall to communism, and set-off the “domino effect'; for other communist satellites in Indochina (McNamara 76). With weapons and training from Russia and China, the Viet Minh forced France to request help from the U.S. Fearing the spread of communism under Ho Chi Minh’s regime, the U.S. was glad to offer France assistance, but even after the French humiliation at Dien Bien Phu in 1954, the U.S. continued their involvement in Vietnam (Encarta “Vietnam War';). The Vietnam situation became a...
The Navy is very flexible having its own Special Forces team too. The U.S. Navy Seals are one of the most elite fighting forces in the world. They are able to operate in all environments, including sea, air, and land. Their training is some of the most advanced in the entire world taking some, thirty months of blood sweat and tears. Only around 25% of prospect Navy Seals will make it through the vigorous training (Luttrell). The Navy Seals normal missions consist usually of, recon, capture/kil...
The North Vietnamese Communist leadership's ability to reassess and adapt during the Vietnam War was reflected in how well they combined guerilla and conventional operations to achieve their strategic goal of unifying Vietnam under communist rule. Throughout the conflict, the Viet Cong (VC) were employed to conduct guerilla operations while North Vietnamese Army (NVA) and VC "main force" units were used to transition to conventional operations. Guerilla operations enabled Hanoi to inflict a steady flow of casualties on US forces which increased anti-war sentiment in America. NVA and VC main force conventional operations reinforced the US Army's conventional approach to the fight which caused the Americans to alienate the people of South Vietnam. By alienating the South Vietnamese people, the Americans enhanced the VC's ability to conduct guerilla operations and control rural population centers which weakened the credibility of the Government of South Vietnam (GVN). The combined effects of guerilla and conventional operations supported the North Vietnamese strategy of a protracted conflict that was sure to weaken the resolve of the United States and eventually defeat the GVN.
I think everyone has wanted to be a Navy SEAL in one point of their life, but as they get older their dream of being the best of the best fades away. Marcus Luttrell has had that dream of being a SEAL since the age of seven, and his determination and will to survive the hardest training in military history, gave Luttrell the title of a Navy SEAL.
The following was a submitted report for a U.S. History research paper assignment We fight our country's battles in the air, on land and sea. First to fight for right and freedom, and to keep our honor clean; We are proud to claim the title of United States Marine. Our flag's unfurled to every breeze from dawn to setting sun. We have fought in every clime and place, where we could take a gun. In the snow of far off northern lands and in sunny tropic scenes, You will find us always on the job, The United States Marines. Here's health to you and to our Corps which we are proud to serve. In many a strife we've fought for life and never lost our nerve. If the Army and the Navy ever look on heaven's scenes, they will find the streets are guarded by United States Marines." The Marine hymn is eternally etched in the mind's and soul of every recruit and officer who have served in the United States Marine Corps. Every Marine has gone through boot camp, each sacrificing blood, sweat, and tears. One thing that has never deteriorated in their years of existence is the fact that they have yet to lose a war they have put effort in. Is this exceptional record due to their extensive training? Is it because of their aggressive nature and mindset? What is to follow may shed some light on these questions and perhaps give some type of insight on how the Marine Corps was so prevailing and what conflicts had they had conquered. 1775, November 10th. This date is memorized and celebrated by every United States Marine as something of excellence, a date of honor. This date is non other than the "birthdate" of the Marine Corps. It was on this date that the Continental Congress passed a resolution to create two operational battalions of American Marines. These men would ultimately be headed by Captain Samuel Nicholas, of the United States Naval department. It was in Philadelphia that the first Marines were grouped and trained for their inaugural mission. The three hundred Marines that had been recruited, were placed aboard eight transport ships, all destined for the beaches of New Providence (the Bahamas). Upon their landing on March 3rd, 1776, they fought up the beach, sweeping through a barrage of bullets, and took command of two small stone forts and a number of military storage complexes.
The war in Vietnam began as a civil war which dated back long into Vietnamese history. Although it was a communist revolution, it was first and foremost a people’s war, in which the people of South Vietnam were revolting against the right-wing dictatorship of their government. The Vietnam War was the second of the two Indochina Wars, where the first was fought and lost by France. American intervention, because of the policy of containing communism, had already begun during the First Indochina War, under President Eisenhower. Although Eisenhower had refused to commit US troops to the war, he supplied military support to the French. And when they lost the war, he continued to supply aid to the anti-communist government in Saigon, the capital of the South Vietnam. The end of the First Indochina War resulted in the Geneva Conference of 1954 between France and the Viet Minh, who decided to split Vietnam in to the communist North and the pro-western South. This therefore recognised North Vietnam, known as the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV), as an independent state. However, an insurgency in the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam), led by the National Liberation Front (...
The Vietnam War was a lengthy and fairly costly armed conflict involving the communist North Vietnamese regime known as the Viet Cong, South Vietnam and the United States. The war began in 1954 although the area was in Conflict since the mid-1940s after North Vietnamese leader Ho Chi Minh and his political party; Viet Minh took power during the Cold War. During the escalating standoff between the democratic United States and the communist Soviet Union; and at the end of the Red Scare, the United States attempted to stop the spread of Communism. The Vietnam War was never officially declared a war by Congress, but rather deemed a “conflict.” The “Conflict” began as a “proxy war” under President Eisenhower and Kennedy, but fully escalated under Lyndon B. Johnson and Richard Nixon. Although the American people wanted end the spread of Communism, the Vietnam War received a vast amount of opposition in the States, along with tons of media coverage and journalists reporting on the war. Unfortunately the Vietnam War was perceived as a failure due to many contributing factors such as the numerous unnecessary casualties inflicted on both sides (History.com).
The Vietnam War has gone down in United Sates history as one of the longest conflicts the country has faced. This prolonged war was not only costly in economic standards but also in American lives. In a time when the cold war turned hot disputes erupted in the various areas in Vietnam. Along with its southern allies, otherwise known as the Viet Cong, Northern Vietnam raged war against South Vietnam. With its main ally, the United States continued to fight to “save” South Vietnam from turning into an entirely communist country. While the war continued it became increasingly unpopular in the United States. With media advancing and increasing, the people of the United States could comprehend the war in ways never seen before.
In conclusion, director Peter Berg does an excellent job at directing this film by implementing so many different and creative techniques to tell a story that might otherwise be incorrect. This real life memoir was presented to tell the tale of Four Navy SEALs that put their lives on the line to defend their country. The uniqueness of the elements and the way they are used brought out the realistic nature of morality, brotherhood, and honor. These elements showcase the mental and physical hardship that soldiers endure.