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In his memoir subtitled "Death In The Dark: Vietnam 1968-1972" Master Chief Thomas Keith, a self-described "Navy brat," tells readers how he embarked on his chosen career as a SEAL. Evolving from the underwater demolition teams of World War II, the Navy SEALs were formally established in 1962 as a "small, elite maritime force to conduct ... clandestine, high-impact missions." The name comes from the fact that they are trained in all environments (sea, air and land), but Keith writes, "historically SEALs have always had 'one foot in the water.' " As involvement in the Vietnam War grew, the U.S....

There's an email whipping around the internet, supposedly written by a Navy SEAL who complains that President Obama delayed decisions to deploy the Navy SEALs because he wanted to resolve the hostage standoff with Captain Richard Phillips "peacefully." There's enough background detail in the email to suggest it was in fact written by a SEAL, but several senior military officials who were involved in the direct planning and execution of the mission -- including in consultations with the White House and President Obama -- tell NBC News the claims are bogus.

A harbour seal leapt from the water and dragged a five-year-old girl off a dock at a marina in West Vancouver ... "When she popped to the surface, she said, 'Daddy, Daddy, Daddy, the seal!' ... A neighbour on a nearby boat then told Cunning a seal had jumped out of the water and pulled Caleigh from the dock. "This thing must have taken a running start to be able to launch itself four feet out of the water, grab a 50-pound five-year-old and then drag her underneath the water with a life-jacket on," . He initially thought his daughter's...

VIRGINIA BEACH What started in J.C. "Tip" Tipton's garage 40 years ago has morphed into one of the best live-action shows in town. Trouble is, it's not open to the public. Tipton was the first president of the UDT-SEAL Association, a support group for members and veterans of the Navy's underwater demolition and sea-air-land commando teams. The group has been celebrating its 40th anniversary this weekend during its annual East Coast reunion at Little Creek Naval Amphibious Base, where 4,000 active and retired SEALs, their families and guests saw a dramatic display of the clandestine warriors' skills and equipment Saturday....

Kathmandu – The watchmaker Michael Kobold and the explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes reached the summit of Mt. Everest here early this morning. Mr. Kobold placed a telephone call from the summit in which he said “this has been the hardest thing I’ve ever done, and without the SEALs’ help I sure would not have made it to the top.” Mr. Kobold and his team raised a flag depicting the Navy SEAL trident atop the summit in honor of wounded and fallen SEALs. Kobold, who is leading the 2009 Everest Challenge Expedition in support of fallen and injured U.S. Navy SEALs,...

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — An environmental group says it will sue the federal government to force a decision on additional protections for Arctic seals. The Center for Biological Diversity says in a notice of intent to sue filed this week that the Obama administration missed a deadline required by law for an endangered species listing decision on ringed, bearded and spotted seals. A 60-day notification letter is required before a lawsuit can be filed. The group in May 2008 petitioned to protect the Arctic seals because of threats to their habitat — sea ice — from global warming and petroleum...

Brazilian students transit during training at the Naval Small Craft Instruction and Technical Training School. STENNIS SPACE CENTER — Twenty members of the Brazilian Federal Police have been training at the Naval Small Craft Instruction and Technical Training School in Hancock County for the past nine weeks. The school trains international security forces in high-level riverine and littoral-craft operations and small-craft maintenance. Officials said the school usually runs 10 courses simultaneously for international security forces of up to 20 countries but focused all of its attention on the waterborne instructor course for the Brazilians. “The reason NAVSCIATTS exists is...

With all the back-and-forth between Somali time and D.C. time, a lot of people let this slip through the cracks (including me). The "SEAL pals" email circulated by Rear Admiral Lou Sarosdy (USN ret.) claimed that Obama did not authorize SEAL teams to assist in the rescue of Captain Philips until 36 hours after these resources were requested by the captain on the scene. In their rebuttal campaign last week, anonymous Pentagon sources claimed that the USS Bainbridge did not arrive at the hijacking of the Maersk Alabama until Friday April 10th. It actually arrived on scene at 4:00 AM...

Stung by the widely circulated “SEAL pals” account of what really happened in Somalia (discussed here last Friday), the Obama administration had National Security Advisor James L. Jones and a number of anonymous Pentagon sources give their side two days ago in a Washington Times exclusive. Their mission, according to reporter Bill Gertz, was: ... to dispel Internet reports that the military was delayed from taking action by indecision inside the White House. Clintonesque parsing of words is evident throughout the Jones-Pentagon account, amounting on more than one occasion to outright dishonesty. Yet the actual information they provide (as opposed...

In Africa from Djibouti at the southern end of the Red Sea eastward through the Gulf of Aden to round Cape Guardafui at the easternmost tip of Africa (also known as "The Horn of Africa") is about a 600 nm transit before you stand out into the Indian Ocean. That transit is comparable in distance to that from the mouth of the Mississippi at New Orleans to the tip of Florida at Key West-- except that 600 nm over there is infested with Somalia pirates. Ships turning southward at the Horn of Africa transit the SLOC (Sea Lane of Commerce)...

Richard Phillips, captain of the US container ship the Maersk Alabama that was attacked by pirates off the Somali coast, has arrived back in the US. His home town of Underhill, Vermont, is preparing to give him a hero's welcome. After being reunited with his family, Capt Phillips thanked the military for rescuing him, saying there were the real heroes. During the attack, he offered himself as a prisoner to the pirates in return for them letting his crew go free. He was rescued after US snipers shot dead three of the pirates that were holding him captive on a...

With all that is going on especially today with Obama's latest attempt to keep news away from his failures and put issues back on Bush's plate with torture, I wanted to encourage all of you to read Lone Survivor. I read it over the weekend last week and it was engrossing and heart breaking. It is the true life experiences of Seal Team 10 of the Special Forces and their losses in Afghanistan. The author, a SEAL, also makes it plain that the liberals and especially the media, have an impact on the decisions , life threatening decisions, these brave...

What exactly are liberals crowing about today? They detest the military. The United States military successfully rescued Great American, Captain Richard Phillips on Easter Sunday. Our troops performed superbly, and the matter was finally ended, most decisively, by expertly trained, highly skilled Navy SEALS. To hear liberals tell it, Barack Obama was whispering into the SEAL teams’ earpieces throughout the entire ordeal.

The operation to rescue Capt. Richard Phillips involved dozens of Navy SEALs, who parachuted from an aircraft into the scene near dark Saturday, landing in the ocean. The SEALs were part of a group of Special Operations forces involved in the effort, according to military officials. The SEALs set up operations on the USS Bainbridge, which had been communicating with the four pirates via radio and had used smaller boats to make deliveries of food and water to their lifeboat. Yet the pirates were growing increasingly agitated, the officials said. At one point Saturday, the pirates opened fire on one...

US Navy snipers killed three Somali pirates who had been holding an American merchant skipper on a lifeboat last night, rescuing the hostage unharmed. The US Navy Seals opened fire from about 25 metres away under standing orders from President Obama when they saw one of the pirates pointing an AK47 at Captain Richard Phillips’s back, putting his life in imminent danger. All three pirates were killed. A fourth, who had come aboard a nearby US warship to negotiate, was taken into custody. He was reported to be as young as 16. Captain Phillips, a former Boston taxi driver who...

The US Navy, despite our dithering government, has shown the world how its done, just like the brave crew of the Maersk Alabama showed the world how brave men stand up against criminal cockroaches. (CNN) -- The American cargo ship captain held hostage by pirates jumped overboard Sunday from the lifeboat where he was being held, and U.S. Navy SEALs shot and killed three of his four captors, according to a senior U.S. official with knowledge of the situation.Our president, after five days of mulling and pondering, finally unleashed the power of the US Navy, then had this to say:...

Great news on Easter Sunday: U.S. Naval Forces have killed three pirates and captured one other in freeing American Captain Phillips who has been held hostage for five days! There are conflicting reports as to the details. The NBC News report above says Navy Seals freed Phillips in an assault against the lifeboat. I'm sure we will learn more as the day wears on. . . . . . (Watch Video)

U.S. ship captain held by pirates off Somalia, has been freed, senior U.S. official says. Three of four pirates killed.

Fox just interviewed off screen a former SEAL regarding why the Somali pirates are being allowed to take the kidnapped US merchant captain to Somalia. In his words, 'this is not an operational issue.' In other words, Obama is ordering that no action be taken until he can get permission from the 'international community.' The SEAL noted that they have been training for just this situation since 1981. Meanwhile, the French rescue their people.

“On 29 September (2006), Monsoor was part of a sniper overwatch security position in eastern Ramadi, Iraq, with three other SEALs and eight Iraqi soldiers. They were providing overwatch security while joint and combined forces were conducting missions in the area. Ramadi had been a violent and intense area for a very strong and aggressive insurgency for some time. All morning long the overwatch position received harassment fire that had become a typical part of the day for the security team. Around midday, the exterior of the building was struck by a single rocket propelled grenade (RPG), but no injuries...

(IsraelNN.com) The Israel Antiquities Authority has announced the discovery of royal seal impressions from the times of the First and Second Temples. The finds were made at a site in the southern Jerusalem hills. The seal impressions are believed to date back to the time of King Hezekiah, who ruled over Judea in the late eighth century BCE. Four “LMLK”-type seals were found, as were seals from high-ranking administrators Ahimelech ben Amadyahu and Yehokhil ben Shahar. One seal impression combined the LMLK-type seal and the seal of Yehokhil, an occurrence that archaeologists confirmed is highly unusual. A later inscription, estimated...

An American engineer held hostage by Islamic militants in Afghanistan was freed in a daring nighttime raid by a Special Operations team last month, a rare move in a country where hostages often pay ransoms — or don't come home at all. A team of about 30 special operators composed mostly of Navy SEALs flew into the mountains outside Kabul on October 14 to retrieve the 61-year-old American businessman, killing his captors and returning him to safety after nearly two months in captivity, according to an account in the Army Times. -snip-

The nobody-does-this-better-than-we-do part. From the ORP [Objective Rally Point], an assault force of seven operators — all or almost all SEALs, according to the special operations officer — crept toward the objective. Swift and sure. One of the commandos tossed a pebble against the hut’s tin door — a traditional way visitors announce their arrival in rural Afghanistan. The rattle of the stone against the door failed to rouse the guards. “They were both zipped up inside their sleeping bags, sleeping,” one behind the hostage on the floor of the darkened hut and the other outside, the engineer said. But...

CORONADO, Calif., Nov. 4, 2008 – As Navy Secretary Donald C. Winter last week praised Navy SEALS as “the ultimate warriors,” officials at the Naval Special Warfare Center here said they’re holding fiercely to stringent training standards as they strive to produce more of the elite special operators. A Navy SEAL instructor watches as BUD/S students participate in surf drill training at the Naval Special Warfare Center in Coronado, Calif. U.S. Navy photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Eric S. Logsdon  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Winter, speaking at the Navy SEAL Warrior Fund dinner in New York,...

With just days left in the campaign, Democratic challenger Dan Seals is landing an assist from Barack Obama while U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk rallies supporters under the banner "independence matters." The Democratic presidential nominee has figured prominently in the hotly contested 10th District race, a battle that could play a role in determining the makeup of Congress under the next president. Seals, who is making his second run at Kirk in the North suburbs, made his TV debut this campaign season with a one-night broadcast ad that aired during Obama's historic nomination speech in Denver. With the ad that begins...

CORONADO, Calif., Oct. 17, 2008 – When the military looks for innovation, it typically turns to its special operators – those elite forces on the cutting edge of new equipment, tactics and techniques. So if a new program here proves as successful as expected in helping Navy SEALs and their families cope with multiple deployments, officials hope to expand it, not just throughout the special operations community, but military-wide. Several hundred SEALs and their support forces just back from deployments, as well as their family members, will take off next weekend for four days at a popular resort. The retreat...

DoD Identifies Navy Casualty The Department of Defense announced today the death of a sailor who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom. Senior Chief Petty Officer Wayne Marcum, 34, of Flushing, Mich., died Sept. 12 from injuries sustained while conducting combat operations in Afghanistan Sept. 11. Marcum was temporarily forward deployed from his assignment at Naval Special Warfare Development Group, Dam Neck, Va. For further information related to this release, contact Naval Special Warfare Command Public Affairs at 619-522-2824. BREAK DoD Identifies Navy Casualty The Department of Defense announced today the death of a sailor who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom....

Don't be put off that this is a home video. It's hard to believe this much patriotism still exists in the youth despite all the liberal indoctrination in our schools. These kids went through a lot of effort to honor SEAL team 10.

A years-long legal battle for a La Jolla cove may be ending – but for activists on both sides, the seal saga goes on. ___ The air is thick with the stench of seal poop – a scent as sour as the years-long battle for this tiny piece of shoreline. For over a decade, it’s been the pinnipeds vs. the people in a fight for control, with activists on both sides using everything from heckling and restraining orders to lawsuits and a stun gun to draw and redraw their respective lines in the sand. Seals have been gathering here since...

Secretary of the Navy, Donald C. Winter announced on May 7 at a ceremony in Lake Ronkonkoma, N.Y., the name of the newest Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer will be USS Michael Murphy. Designated as DDG 112, the name honors Lt. Michael Murphy who was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his heroic actions during Operation Red Wing, in Afghanistan on June 28, 2005. "Michael Murphy's name which will be forever synonymous with astonishing courage under fire will now be associated with one of the U.S. Navy's most technologically advanced, most powerful and most capable warships," Winter said. Michael Murphy's...

Several hundred years ago, the coral reefs of the Caribbean had up to six times more fish than they have today, according to a study published Wednesday. The estimate is made by US scientists poring over the fate of the Caribbean monk seal, a fish-loving mammal driven to extinction in 1952. Historical records from the 17th and 18th century show there were huge numbers of monk seals, distributed among 13 colonies across the Caribbean. They were so plentiful that some ships' maps of the West Indies even noted particularly dense locations of seals. Alas for Monachus tropicalis, colonisation of the...

Filling a Heroes Uniform By Debbie Lee Gold Star Mom

New US Submarines Trade Nukes for SEALs Published: 2/27/08, 8:25 AM EDT By ERIC TALMADGE ABOARD THE USS OHIO (AP) - Capt. Andy Hale has just worked out and is still in a sweaty T-shirt and shorts as he stands in the battle command center. He is watching a flat screen display that shows what's happening outside on the bow and the aft. His billion-dollar submarine - the U.S. Navy's newest twist on underwater warfare - is hovering just below the surface off the Pacific island of Guam as a submersible disappears into the dark waters, carrying a team of...

(Lake Comorant, MS 1/31/08) "We will take any and all appropriate actions as required and needed to limit this from ever happening again." Navy officials are investigating the death of 22 year-old Navy SEAL Petty Officer 2nd Class Alexander Ghane Jr. of Las Vegas, NV. At a private combat training facility in remote northern Mississippi. The joint investigation will include a criminal investigation by the Desoto County Sheriff's Office along with JAG and NCIS officials. Wednesday afternoon, the San Diego based SEAL was killed by a single bullet during close-quarter combat that used live rounds. By all accounts, a death...

October 10, 2007 The Seabob electric underwater propulsion device captured our imagination earlier in the year, acting like a 20kmh powered bodyboard and allowing users to dart along coral reefs and the ocean floor like they were born with fins. We’ve since discovered that the company has now produced a souped up version called the Cayago Magnum with 2½ times the available power or endurance. With the existing Seabob models already setting a pretty thrilling pace for leisure use, the high performance Magnum will be pitched as a military and special forces tool that will enable operatives to move exceptionally...

Bin Laden may have just escaped U.S. forces August mission in Tora Bora almost snared 'high value target' A little more than a month ago, with the anniversary of Sept. 11 approaching and fears of a new al Qaeda attack rising, some U.S. intelligence and military analysts thought they had found one of the world’s two most wanted men just where they last saw them six years ago. For three days and nights — between Aug. 14 and 16 — U.S. and Afghanistan forces pounded the mountain caves in Tora Bora, the same caves where Osama Bin Laden had hidden...

We are asking prayer for safety,well-being and release of the Korean hostages from Taliban terrorists. 2-3 of the hostages have been murdered! Negotiations for release are political, so the process is slow and painful. Please pray for families involved waiting for their loved ones. Thank You for your prayerful support. Hebrews 13:3..Remember the prisoners as if chained with them, and those who are mistreated, since you yourselves are in the body also.

Patriotic War Book Heats Up Hollywood lone-survivor.JPGI hear there's a frenzied Hollywood bidding war going on today over the No. 1 book on The New York Times non-fiction bestseller list: Lone Survivor: The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes Of SEAL Team 10 by Marcus Luttrell. Studio toppers are interrupting their vacations to try to get this book which was sold to Little Brown by superagent Ed Victor for a seven figure advance. What's even more interesting is that liberal Hollywood is hot for this patriotic tell-all by a proud conservative. According to The Washington Post review,...

WASHINGTON, May 25, 2007 – Two Navy SEALs who recently returned from Iraq shared some of their combat experiences and described the progress they witnessed in Anbar province, during a panel discussion yesterday at the Naval Heritage Center here. Petty Officer 2nd Class Brian, a heavy weapons operator and breacher, and Lt. Chris, SEAL Team Five Bravo Platoon’s commander -- who are identified only by their first names for security reasons. They spent seven months in Anbar province training Iraqi security forces to operate independently. The SEALs painted an unfiltered picture of their experience on Camp Corregidor in the...

FORT WORTH – Congresswoman Kay Granger Friday announced before a meeting of Downtown Rotary that she has launched a campaign to name one of the U.S. Navy’s new ships the USS Fort Worth in honor of the City of Fort Worth. Granger made her request in a letter to Secretary of Navy Donald Winter. The Secretary of Navy has personally selected the name of all new Navy ships since 1819 when Congress designated that responsibility to the secretary. “Fort Worth has a long history with the U.S. military as it protects America and defends freedom,” Granger said. “During the course...

TAMPA - With orders to add 500 SEALs to its special warfare ranks by 2010, the Navy has retooled its recruiting system to better identify candidates capable of passing the demanding training program, according to Rear Adm. Joe Maguire, the top officer at Naval Special Warfare Command in San Diego. "We're trying to be smarter about it," Maguire said during an interview Friday at MacDill Air Force Base. "In the past, we just cast the net out and just pulled the damn thing in." As part of the effort, the Navy has installed former SEALs as mentors in recruiting districts...

Navy SEAL from Little Creek is killed in combat in Iraq VIRGINIA BEACH -- When his high school football coach asked the players to lift weights three times a week, Clark Schwedler pumped iron five days a week. When his government teacher taught about public service, Schwedler spoke persuasively about the need to give back to the community. Schwedler's fitness and service were tested as a Navy SEAL during two deployments, the latest one to Iraq. On Thursday, Petty Officer 2nd Class Joseph Clark Schwedler was killed by enemy fire in Iraq's Anbar province. Two other East Coast-based SEALs were...

WASHINGTON - The United States played a crucial but almost "invisible" role in finding and killing Abu Sayyaf leader Abu Sabaya by using a tracking device sewn into his backpack's fabric and plotting his movements with unmanned Predators and high-flying surveillance aircraft, The Atlantic magazine reported.In an article in its March issue, the magazine said the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the US military targeted Sabaya, whose real name was Aldam Tilao, and his group after they kidnapped American missionaries Martin and Gracia Burnham and another American Guillermo Sobero in May 2001 holding them for ransom. “His removal by Philippine...

Environmental activists in Canada are saying that the Harp seal population is declining this year because “Global Warming” is melting the ice floes the seals live on, and the seal pups are drowning. The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) said unusually warm weather meant the ice cover south of the Magdalen Islands was almost completely missing, adding it feared thousands of harp seal pups had drowned.Now these environmental nut-jobs are using the “Global Warming” excuse as a catchall, to prevent the annual Canadian seal hunt. The hunt is a necessity, or else the population would grow out of control,...

Elite Terrorist Hunters in Iraq U.S. "black" special operations forces in Iraq have conducted as many as 300 "takedown" operations, an activity that an influential retired general calls "simply magic." McCaffrey's report is covered today in The Washington Post. "The US Tier One special operations capability is simply magic. They are deadly in getting their target--with normally zero collateral damage--and with minimal friendly losses or injuries. Some of these assault elements have done 200-300 takedown operations at platoon level. The comprehensive intelligence system is phenomenal. We need to re-think how we view these forces. They are a national strategic system...

"I had three of the four guys on the ground that died that day. I was so heartbroken after I passed out all the flags at the memorial service. I was just thinking about the bagpiper, who is also a retired SEAL captain, standing there literally crying the song out of the bagpipes. We were all so sad. When I came home my wife said I should write down some words. Tim called me and asked how I was doing. I told him I wrote this poem and he said well let me have it. We went back and forth...

Mike Fumento was a guest on the Mike Rosen show on 850am KOA here in Denver Wednesday (Nov. 23rd) to talk about his recent October 2006 trip to Ramadi, Iraq. Mike talks about the REAL story from the one of the most dangerous places in the country. Rosen Replay 11/22/06 10-11AM (about 45 minutes, MP3) Guest: Mike Fumento, journalist for "The Weekly Standard" talks about his latest article, "Return to Ramadi."Click here for part one of the interview Rosen Replay 11/22/06 11-11:45AM (about 30 minutes, MP3) Mike Fumento continued. Click here for part two of the interview --- Mike Fumento's...

CANADA's annual seal cull sees animals killed on an almost industrial scale, and attracts controversy to match.This year's cull is estimated to have killed 354,000 of the animals, above the Canadian government's own prediction of 325,000. The 2006 killing season was the third straight year where the death toll exceeded 300,000. More than a million seals have been killed since 2004. Some are shot, others are beaten with clubs or heavy spiked hakapiks. Around 16,000 hunters, the majority of them professional cullers, are licensed to carry out the slaughter that has become peaceful Canada's biggest single international PR problem. While...

A Navy SEAL sacrificed his life to save his comrades by throwing himself on top of a grenade Iraqi insurgents tossed into their sniper hideout, fellow members of the elite force said. Petty Officer 2nd Class Michael A. Monsoor had been near the only door to the rooftop structure Sept. 29 when the grenade hit him in the chest and bounced to the floor, said four SEALs who spoke to The Associated Press this week on condition of anonymity because their work requires their identities to remain secret. "He never took his eye off the grenade, his only movement was...

WASHINGTON, Sept. 13, 2006 -- Special operations forces personnel, so accustomed to operating in the shadows, stepped sadly into the light tonight as the Navy presented the widows of two SEALs killed in Afghanistan with the nation’s second-highest military award for valor. Navy Secretary Donald C. Winter presented the Navy Cross to Cindy Axelson, widow of Petty Officer 2nd Class Matthew G. Axelson, and to Patsy Dietz, widow of Petty Officer 2nd Class Danny P. Dietz. The ceremony was fittingly held here at the U.S. Navy Memorial. “These were our men,” said Rear Adm. Joseph Maguire, commander of the...