I enjoy reading. While I read scriptural and spiritual books, I also read for my own entertainment, enlightenment, or just because that looks interesting. I just finished a book by Benjamin H. Milligan entitled, “By Water Beneath the Walls: The Rise of the Navy Seals.”  It is not a collection of SEAL war stories, although such accounts are present in the book to the extent they serve a larger question. The author is addressing a question of history, policy and “the way things turn out.” Here’s the question:

How did the US Navy – the branch of the US military tasked with patrolling the oceans – ever manage to produce a unit of raiders trained to operate on land? And how, against all odds, did that unit become one the world’s most elite commando forces, routinely striking thousands of miles from the water on the battlefields of Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, and even Central Africa.  Behind the SEAL’s improbable rise lies the most remarkable underdog story in American military history.

Mr. Milligan served with the SEALs for 8 years and it was a question that was in his mind as he operated. “So, how did this happen? How did the US Navy create a unit whose operational center of gravity is not only directed at a mission performed on 29% of the earth’s surface that its ships cannot touch, but on so fraught with difficulties that most units of the Army and Marine Corp – the US military’s tradition tenants of its land operations – are not able to perform it with any where near the same proficiency?”

You might be thinking “didn’t the Underwater Demolition Teams (UTD) just become the SEALs?” Hardly. The history is fascinating, convoluted, and even involves the CIA. It was a fascinating account, well researched and written. It is not a story that unfolds in a straight line, but runs through Little Creek VA, Ft. Pierce FL, Coronado CA, North Africa, Saipan, Korea, Vietnam, mainland China, and an itinerary that covers the globe.

And as it happens, 50 years ago Naval Special Warfare Group ONE was formed with its headquarters on Coronado Island, California. NSWG consists of Navy Sea, Air, and Land (SEAL) and Special Warfare Combatant-craft Crewmen (SWCC). NSWG-1’s legacy builds on a rich history of naval special operations dating back to 1942, when the Amphibious Scouts and Raiders and the Naval Demolition Unit were formed to conduct critical missions during Operation Torch, the Allied invasion of North Africa. These units laid the foundation for the modern SEAL teams. 

If you enjoy military history, it is well worth the read.