This is my second blog about the Navy Seals so if you have not read the first one then i definitely recommend that you go and read the first one because it is about the history of the Seals, how they were formed. As well it talks about how BUD/S training is like and what a person has to do to enter training. Finally it talks about advanced training you can take after BUD/S and the different things you can be. This blog I’ll be talking about the Navy Seal teams, the equipment they use like weapons, gear, vehicles, etc….
THE TEAMS
There are 8 regular SEAL Teams within Naval Special Warfare Command plus SEAL Team 6, aka DEVGRU. Each standard SEAL Team includes 3 Task Units, themselves including 2 SEAL Platoons each. The Seals are an elite special operations force of the United States Navy. Seals specialize in direct action, special reconnaissance, hostage rescue and counter terrorism. They have played, and continue to play a key role in the global war on terror. Each team has six platoons and a headquarters element. SEAL platoons consist of 16 Seals — two officers, one chief, and 13 enlisted men. A platoon is generally the largest operational element assigned to a mission. The platoon may also be divided into two squads or four elements. Every member of a SEAL platoon is qualified in diving, parachuting, and demolitions. The teams are split between the East Coast and West Coast of the United States. The odd-numbered teams fall under the command of Naval Special Warfare Group One and are based on the West Coast in Coronada, CA. The even numbered teams are under the command of Naval Special Warfare Group One and are based on the East Coast in Little Creek, VA.
EQUIPMENT
Weapons-
Navy Seals use a huge variety in weaponry and vehicles and there are plenty of weapons to list so here are the most common weapons that navy seals use.
Assault Rifles-M4A1, MK13 CQBR, MK16 SCAR-L, MK17 SCAR-H, M14 EBR,
LMGS- MK46 MOD 0/ MK48 MOD 0, M240, M2
HANDGUNS-SIG SAUCER P226R, HK45CT
SNIPER RIFLES-MK12 MOD 1, MK 11, M91A2, MK 13, TAC 338, MK 15, M82
Vehicles-
SEAL Delivery Vehicle- These are vehicles that operate below the surface of the water to deliver Navy Seals and their equipment to their mission area. The crew uses underwater breathing apparatus for life support while navigating the submerged SDV to the destination.
NSW Rigid-hull Inflatable Boat- An 11 meter, very high speed, high buoyancy vehicle that is used for moving Seal tactical equipment to and from a ship and is able to hold an entire Seal squad and to transport the Seals
Combat Rubber Raiding Craft- A 15 foot, highly reinforced, inflatable boat. This is the one trainees carry overhead during BUD/S training. It’s often called a Zodiac.
Desert Patrol Vehicle- This is a vehicle that has been used since the Gulf War and has an attached machine gun and a grenade launcher and can fit three men in one vehicle and hit 60 mph very quickly even while carrying 1,500 pounds of gear, and supplies and other needed things.
Gear-
Boots are your first line of gear. If your boots are crap then your not going to go very far on the mission. Special Forces guys have been described as a team wearing all different uniforms.So what works for one guy – another may pick something different. Many SEALs go with the Salomon Quest 4D GTX Boot in mountain terrain like Afghanistan. Others pick the BlackHawk, Danner or Bates.
All Team members will carry a tactical assault pack on land missions. Sometimes the pack is small and light while longer missions require a larger pack. During the infamous Bin-Laden raid, Team Six DEVGRU wore Vasque Juxt Multisport Shoe with a mid calf high gaiter to keep out debris and sand. These shoes are light weight and are great for climbing walls, running quickly in back alleys and moving a medium weight ruck fast if needed. The Teams navigator will use a small GPS unit – usually the Garmin Foretrex 401 Waterproof GPS.
The Garmin Foretrex is also used at the Turning Steel training course in Montana.Body armor plates are good to stop one AK-47 round but some say they can stop three .Would not want to test it and find out. At least it can stop some shrapnel which is good to know.
The Rangers who rescued the Seals on Roberts Ridge took out the rear back plates to lighten up their load when hiking up the mountain. Not every team guy wears a tactical vest on every mission. Distance, terrain and heat are factors.Other brands of body armor you will see private contractors wear are Rothco and BlackHawk. Assault pack on land missions. Sometimes the pack is small and light while longer missions require a larger pack. During the infamous Bin-Laden raid, Team Six DEVGRU wore Vasque Juxt Multisport shoe with a mid calf high gaiter to keep out debris and sand.
These shoes are light weight and are great for climbing walls, running quickly in back alleys and moving a medium weight ruck fast if needed. These are also used by Army Rangers and most recently on the DEVGRU raid in Somalia. The Garmin Foretrex is also used at the Turning Steel training course in Montana.
During the raid on Bin-Laden the DEVGRU guys wore helmets. These brain buckets have been known to stop shrapnel and even sniper rounds
QUOTES THE NAVY SEALS USE
Navy Seals use many quotes to help them get through something that is tough or just to say to inspire them or their buddies. One very well known one is “The only easy day was yesterday”
“Feeling good, looking good, ought to be in Hollywood!”
“Day by day, in every way, I’m getting better and better.”
“Remember why you’re here.”
“Stay in the moment. Stay relaxed.”
“Feed your courage. You can do this. It’s easy.”
“Quit now and you’ll quit everything for the rest of your life.”
“I’m doing what I want and know what I’m doing.”
“Not dead, can’t quit.”
DAY TO DAY AS A NAVY SEAL
No two days in the teams are alike. Every day and every week of every year varies according to the current world situation, and the cycle a particular team is in – for example, deployed on a mission, pre-deployment, post deployment, Team training, Special Skills training or leave. When you’re in the team compound, the focus of everyone there is on the mission the team is preparing for next. Seals are always keenly aware of how much time they have to prepare and rehearse for a mission before deployment.
Seals (Sea Air and Land) are experts in inserting and extracting from sea, air or land. Before planning for a mission, Seals have to answer many important questions. Is it a water insert/extraction, or will the team conduct a night water parachute into the target area? Will they skydive into the target, or will they conduct an over-the beach (OTB) landing? Will they land/ exfil via small rubber craft or larger boats? Or is the mission a ship take down on the high seas, which will require the Seals to chase down a ship in their own high-speed boats and board the ship at night? Or, will it be an airborne operation? Will the team enter the target area by helicopter, fast rope in, rappel in or land the helos? Maybe the insertion is going to be a HAHO (high altitude high opening) mission, where the team has to jump at night at altitudes up to 30,000 feet with supplemental oxygen.
When Seals are preparing for a mission, their days are filled with physical training. These might include soft sand beach runs, two-mile ocean swims, weight workouts, obstacle course runs, PT, or skills training — which means parachute, dive or weapons training.
Seals do a lot of shooting as part of their training. They practice shooting, shooting and moving, shooting in buildings and from vehicles and boats. In the early days of ST 6, when we had just over 125 shooters, we shot more live ammo in a year than the entire U.S. Marine Corps.
All Seals have specialties and every Seal has the responsibility to keep “his tools sharp”. On those weeks when Seals complete their training early, they compete in what we call “Monster Mashes”. These events usually occur on Friday afternoons and are extremely grueling, and whole a lot of fun. They encompass gut-wrenching physical training (PT) but also involve skills training. A SEAL Monster Mash might involve teams of four competing against one another in the following activities:
· Start with a two-mile open ocean swim
· Run down the beach for six miles in the soft sand
· Run through all of the obstacles on the obstacle course, wearing gas masks, carrying a 200 lb dummy
· Perform emergency medical care on a simulated casualty who has been wounded by a roadside bomb
· Assemble a radio and make communications with HQ requesting back-up support
· Assemble a sniper rifle and take a 2000 meter shot
· Finally, run to the shooting area and conduct a four-person counter terrorist raid, free the hostage and exfil out on sea, air or land.
I hope you(the reader was able to learn some new information about the Seals and will come back and read my two other blogs That i will be posting after these on the same week. The next topic will be about How Seals deal with coming back into civilian life from military life and how us civilians work to help these men and women transfer back into civilian life and how it can go good or bad. The final blog will be about PTSD, and the effects it has on the soldier and what ti can do and i will have facts and hopefully a few graphs showing the suicide poll in Soldiers and as well as how many soldiers have PTSD.
U.S. Military Information 