CHAPTER 11

The Teams: Why the Unique Culture of the SEALs Matters

For the SEALs, triumph’s locomotive often drags tragedy’s caboose. The teams know that in a crackle of radio static or a flash of text, teammates they have known for years—sweated with, bled with, partied with—could suddenly be gone. It is an essential reality that defines their unique culture; they know that death stalks them just as they bring it to our nation’s enemies.

Nothing underlines that reality than the events of the spring and summer of 2011. Perhaps the best known of the SEALs’ triumphs (the bin Laden raid) occurred within weeks of their greatest loss of their brothers in their history (“Extortion 17”).

Their triumph immediately became world famous—the president saw to that. Shortly before midnight, President Obama appeared on television screens to announce Operation Neptune Spear and the death of archterrorist Osama bin Laden.

After weeks of rehearsals in secret locations in the Virginia wilderness and the Nevada desert, waiting days and nights in an Afghan staging area, SEAL Team Six was ordered to load out and stand by for the helicopters. After ten long years of waiting, and so many sure things that never materialized from the head shed [headquarters], they were chosen to go after not just a High Value Target… but HVT number one: bin Laden himself.

The day of reckoning had come for both Osama bin Laden and the U.S. Navy SEAL teams. The story of the raid has been endlessly told, and yet, as sources in the teams tell us, the real story has never been told. No one who knows the reality is yet in a position to give a full account of what actually happened on the ground at bin Laden’s concrete castle in Abottabad, Pakistan.

Certainly the public record is full of official contradictions and corrections. The White House, in a series of confusing press conferences, changed the official timeline a number of times. The changes are too numerous to list here. But one example will serve to illustrate how the Obama administration dramatically altered its story. First, senior officials told reporters in the White House briefing room that there was a “forty-five-minute firefight” involving “hundreds of shots.” Days later, other officials admitted that only six or seven shots were fired, and all of those occurred in a two-minute period. (The latter sounds more like a well-executed SEAL mission, while the former sounds like a Hollywood finale.) In the months that followed, two different SEALs claimed to have fired the fatal shot into bin Laden. Later a third name surfaced. It may be years before any of these details can be sorted out.

For our purposes, the most important part of the mission was that the SEALs were sent in to bin Laden’s lair at all—instead of the U.S. Army’s elite “Delta Force” (now known as “CAGG”) or the Marine Special Operations force, or another “black” elite unit whose name is unknown outside of Special Operations Command. Why were the SEALs selected? That question has been endlessly debated among special operators. Yet one thing is certain: if confidence in the SEALs had been an issue, as it had been in the 1980s, then it had been restored to the point where they were handpicked to visit America’s number one enemy. The days of question marks and competition to get missions were largely over.

Nor did anyone object that the SEALs would be operating hundreds of miles from any shoreline controlled by the U.S. Navy. The frogmen would be going far from the sea… and no one thought that strange. This emphasizes how much the SEALs have evolved from pirates to professionals in eyes of top military commanders. The cultural changes made in the 1980s and 1990s (as we saw in chapters 2 and 3) transformed the SEALs. Also, their decade of fighting in Afghanistan, Iraq, East Africa, and elsewhere made them the go-to force for this most important of missions.

Adm. Eric Olson, now in charge of Special Operations Command, chose the SEALs, a force that he remade through vision and will. Olson had personally commanded, trained, refined, redirected, and wrenched this group kicking and screaming from their days as pirates to become the professional force they were that day. Olson did not choose them because he was a SEAL, but because they enjoyed his confidence and the confidence of the White House. That signals a profound cultural change.

* * *

The SEAL credo provided a constant reminder to those in command of Special Operations Command:

Brave men have fought and died building the proud tradition and feared reputation that I am bound to uphold. In the worst of conditions, the legacy of my teammates steadies my resolve and silently guides my every deed. I will not fail.

* * *

Every man in the Red Squad of Seal Team Six had been tested by years of combat. They had all worked together through hundreds of missions, thousands of hours of training, and dozens of firefights. There were no rejects or “turds” among the group. No second-tier operators who could compromise this mission. They had been weeded out by the selection process, by the years, the deaths, and the training. This was the culmination of fifty years of history of the SEAL teams, which had begun with their formation by President John F. Kennedy. While they would not be forced to use every skill they each possessed (Sea, Air, and Land), they would need those skills that had been honed in the thousands of direct-action missions that had preceded this one. They were building on their history.

* * *

My Trident is a symbol of honor and heritage. Bestowed upon me by the heroes that have gone before, it embodies the trust of those I have sworn to protect. By wearing the Trident I accept the responsibility of my chosen profession and way of life. It is a privilege that I must earn every day.

The officers were calling the shots, but the chiefs still controlled the battlefield as they always had. It is the SEAL way. The thinking and plan, taught by their former teammates, was now to be executed by those on the ground.

The most highly skilled and underpaid professional athletes on Earth were about to show what they were made of, in a real-time satellite feed in the White House’s Situation Room and in the secure rooms of the Pentagon. Their immediate viewing audience ranged from their officers in charge to the commander in chief himself.

It was life or death, and every SEAL knew it. Their wills had been written years before, or not, depending on whether they had someone to leave “it” to. Every SEAL had long accepted the fact that he could die on this day, or on any day, with the teams. Years ago they all had written and signed the ultimate blank check to the United States, for any amount up to and including their lives. Most of this group had already cashed the check several times, only to have some twist of fate pull them back from the abyss.

Their ranks had been thinned by deaths and injuries on many occasions. Each man on this mission had fought with, trained with, drank with, or knew of dozens of teammates who had died over the last ten years of war. Funerals had become so frequent that they had replaced reunions.

* * *

I will never quit. I persevere and thrive on adversity. My Nation expects me to be physically harder and mentally stronger than my enemies. If knocked down, I will get back up, every time. I will draw on every remaining ounce of strength to protect my teammates and to accomplish our mission. I am never out of the fight.

* * *

Many different versions of the bin Laden raid have been written. What remains undisputed is that almost immediately upon arrival over the target, one of the SEALs’ helicopters crash-landed over the compound in Abottabad, Pakistan. Unforeseen mechanical failure. For any other group of commandos, this malfunction would have been mission ending.

The SEALs were determined that this operation was not going to be Operation Eagle Claw, the failed mission to rescue the hostages in Iran (described in chapter 2). The crews of the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, a special U.S. Army unit that transports the SEALs, knew well the risks of crash or capture. They, too, had lost many in their battles, arm in arm with the SEALs. They, too, had been infected by the SEAL mantra and unwillingness to accept defeat.

Backup plans for loss of a chopper were put in place immediately. There would be no scrapping of the mission, as the world saw in the sands of Iran. They would fight on, somehow.

* * *

We demand discipline. We expect innovation. The lives of my teammates and the success of our mission depend on me—my technical skill, tactical proficiency, and attention to detail. My training is never complete.

* * *

The helicopter crash into the dung heap used by bin Laden’s farm animals eliminated the element of surprise. The compound came to life, and men with AK-47s emerged from the compound’s darkened buildings.

As the team piled out of the downed helicopter, they knew they had to move quickly and efficiently to clear the compound and find their target.

Speech was unnecessary; it was likely lethal. A kind of SEAL telepathy took over. This group had long abandoned the need to speak to one another while in the midst of battle. Eye movements and hand gestures took the place of words. The pirates-turned-professionals were on the hunt, and they knew the prey was at hand.

They cleared the outlying buildings in the compound surrounding the main house, and killed the sole male occupant of the smaller structure, who had opened fire on them with an AK-47. His wife, standing behind her gun-wielding husband, died from the same bullet that felled her mate. She was the only civilian casualty. The SEALs had secured the women and children safely.

The SEALs were searching for a man whom intelligence reports called “the pacer,” a man the CIA believed was bin Laden himself.

Entering the residence, they expected fire at every corner, door, and hiding place—a 360-degree shooting game that the SEALs had become adept at playing through constant practice.

Their laser sights swept the area constantly, with their trigger fingers resting lightly on the trigger guards. SEAL fingers are trained not to move onto the trigger until a target is clearly in view and clearly hostile. Every SEAL weapon covered a different direction, as the counterattack could come from anywhere and everywhere at the same time.

Their minds struggled to process the thousands of stimuli invading their senses through sight, sound, smell, and intuition. But there was only a single thought in each of their minds, a thought beaten into their conscious and unconscious minds over the thousands of hours of training.

So simple, yet so vital it had been programmed into their muscle memory.

Threat/no threat. Identify and classify every human and do it instantly.

After thousands of hours of training, it all came down to such a simple analysis: does the human in front of my weapon represent an immediate threat to me or my teammates?

* * *

Accounts differ about bin Laden’s final movements. Moving through the concrete structure, the SEALs instantly identified and killed threats as they emerged. “Threat/no threat” ran through their heads.

Eliminate the threat, and move on to the next threat until the objective is achieved. Speed and precision. The people shooting at them were killed, almost as if they had not been there. The SEALs’ minds were on automatic, according to one of the SEALs who trained them.

Finally, a bearded face appeared from behind a door to a dark room above them. All they can see is that he is a tall male. They cannot see his hands or body, but they assume he is armed and very dangerous.

Threat.

Two controlled shots are taken by the lead man in the train within milliseconds of recognition.

Both bullets hit the target within inches of one another.

Bin Laden is gone.

* * *

We train for war and fight to win. I stand ready to bring the full spectrum of combat power to bear in order to achieve my mission and the goals established by my country. The execution of my duties will be swift and violent when required yet guided by the very principles that I serve to defend.

* * *

With bin Laden vanquished, the deeds of SEAL Team Six are trumpeted in the headlines of every major news organization on earth. They instantly became heroes, legends, and targets at the same time. Credit for their accomplishments were instantly taken by an administration desperately seeking some victory for its reelection.

Books are printed, movies are screened. Beyond the triumph, the SEALs knew, sneered the waiting face of tragedy.

* * *

The aftermath of the bin Laden raid was written in the blood of the SEALs and still raises their blood in anger.

The mission was the biggest single loss of life during a SEAL operation since World War II. It was August 6, 2011, less than three months after the bin Laden raid.

A Chinook CH-47 (code-named “Extortion 17”) was shot down by a rocket-propelled grenade in Afghanistan. Thirty-eight men vanished in the fiery blast, including 15 members of SEAL Team Six, Gold Squad.

Many of the victims’ families told us that they fault the Obama administration for “outing” SEAL Team Six some three months prior as the team responsible for bin Laden’s death. The families, parents, and widows simply could not imagine that the attack was anything other than enemy retaliation for bin Laden’s death. And al Qaeda had said as much in its propaganda videos.

This catastrophic loss by SEAL Team Six happened some ninety days after SEAL Team Six gunned down bin Laden as he reached for a Soviet-made firearm. Only two days after Bin Laden was killed, Vice President Joe Biden appeared at a Ritz-Carlton podium in Washington, D.C., and recklessly told the world press: “Let me briefly acknowledge tonight’s distinguished honorees. Adm. Jim Stavridis is a—is the real deal; he can tell you more about and understands the incredible, the phenomenal, the just almost unbelievable capacity of his Navy SEALs and what they did last Sunday.”

Through these comments, and others that would follow, the Obama administration had violated the operational security needed for covert missions by pointing the finger at SEAL Team Six as the team that had accomplished the bin Laden mission. Even then Secretary Robert Gates was critical. Many special operations personnel, including former SEAL Team Six Commander Ryan Zinke, were publicly unhappy with the politicians’ casual use of the SEAL teams.

Karen and Billy Vaughn, whose SEAL son, Aaron, was killed in the chopper crash, were interviewed by television reporters. Karen Vaughn was direct: “As soon as Joe Biden announced that it was a SEAL Team who took out bin Laden, within twenty-four hours, my son called me and I rarely ever heard him sound afraid in his adult life.… He said, ‘Mom, you need to wipe your social media clean… your life is in danger, our lives are in danger, so clean it up right now,’ ” she said.

Her husband, Billy Vaughn, had no tolerance for the media’s tolerance of the vice president’s inexcusable breach of national security: “The media has let this man get away with saying ‘Uncle Joe’s gaffes,’ ” he fumed. “This is not Uncle Joe and he’s not some senile old grandfather. He is the second in command of the most powerful country in the world, and he needs to take responsibility for the comments he makes and quit being given a pass.”¹

Essentially, the families want to know why their sons were flown into a combat zone in a helicopter that was older than they were. Why was such a large group of SEALs put on a single aircraft? Why wasn’t additional air support available, which is standard military procedure when special forces are involved?

Karen Vaughn still suffers from a searing and searching kind of grief. Her pain led her to ask some powerful questions that deserve answers: “Why was there no pre-assault fire? We were told as families that pre-assault fire damages our effort to win the hearts and minds of our enemy,” she told reporters. “So in other words, the hearts and minds of our enemy are more valuable to this government than my son’s blood.”

Usually, air assaults open with artillery or missile strikes to disperse and confuse enemy fighters. This “pre-assault fire” often saves American lives, but it can produce civilian deaths and be used in al Qaeda propaganda videos. In the Obama years, commanders have been told to be more careful of providing fodder for enemy videos. That decision may turn out to be war-winning (or not), but the new Rules of Engagement put Americans at risk.

Karen Vaughn was simply asking if the trade-off was worth it.

No one had an answer for her.

* * *

It is impossible to say with certainty that naming SEAL Team Six as bin Laden’s executioners led to the loss of a SEAL team six helicopter a few months later. We may never know, and the enemy has more-than-sufficient reasons to fire on any American aircraft in a war zone. But it is a dark suspicion that we have heard from a number of SEALs and their widows. The Obama administration’s actions certainly broke the bond of trust between the SEALs and the president.

Other political changes are also making the SEALs question the administration—and these changes are seen as threatening to the culture of the teams. Pressure is building to graduate more recruits from BUD/S. Yes, training costs are high, and increasing graduation rates will make BUD/S more efficient from a bean-counter perspective. But it will change the SEALs. It would require formally lower standards for those who are admitted and, even worse, be seen to lower those standards.

Battle-tested SEALs are already telling us that they will not be comfortable going to war alongside the seemingly second-rate SEALs. This could mean a wave of retirements and a lack of trust among those who remain.

Outsiders forget that a vital part of SEAL culture is the right to refuse a mission. At any time, for any reason. Why would lower BUD/S standards mean more refused missions? This is closely held information, and the public will never know. But presidents and policy makers will be told. What happens when Americans are in trouble and SEALs who could save them refuse to go—because they do not want to risk their lives alongside weaker men?

The SEALs survive because they train like they fight: to win. They surround themselves with others who they know have met the same standards. It is a brutally objective set of standards. It qualifies men to stand among the select few. Reduce those standards, and the Navy will do a disservice to all of those who have come before and all of those who will have to rely on their fellow teammates in the future.

* * *

We have attempted to provide the reader with a glimpse in the world of some of the operators, with both active-duty missions and missions that took place after they had left the ranks. While each of these missions may have required different tactics to get the job done, the actions of the SEALs who accomplished these missions were guided by the same principles hammered into them through fifty years of discipline and thousands of man-hours of training. Their overriding principle remains: SEALs do not quit until their mission is accomplished or they are dead.

In describing the tragic events leading to the deaths of Glen Doherty and Ty Woods in Benghazi, we attempted to give you an idea of what we felt was an outrageous and unacceptable injustice visited upon two heroic former Navy SEALs. In the finest tradition of the teams, they bravely battled an overwhelming number of enemies and saved American lives. They were not given the help they should have been given. The complete story, and the motivations behind the players involved, may not be known for years. Once again, though, the actions of the warriors involved were consistent with the finest traditions of the Navy SEALs.

We have also attempted to describe that the actions of the teams have not been without critics and courts-martial, as was the case with those charged with allegedly beating a known terrorist prisoner.

Here we have tried to explain some of the trials and tribulations in the storied history of the SEAL teams to give the reader an idea of how they got to where they are today. They may have matured from pirates to professionals, but they have not lost the will to fight that made them pirates in the first place.

Big Navy has had its issues with the teams, and it has severely thinned their ranks at times during their existence. The “great bloodletting” described in chapter 3 remains a hotly debated point in the history of the SEALs, but it made them who they are today.

While the growth of any person or team is never complete, the SEALs as a small but highly specialized group of warriors have suffered more than their share. Their losses have been great and the funerals too frequent.

* * *

The war on terror cannot be ended unilaterally. Since before the Benghazi attacks, the Obama administration has been claiming that the war on terror is “over.” This is a cruel fantasy. If America tires of the fight, it cannot simply call back its drones and its SEALs. The terrorists will keep coming. Surrender only increases their thirst for victory.

The war can end only with the enemy’s utter defeat. As long as al Qaeda and its affiliates retain the will to fight, their bombings and shootings will continue. The only way to keep those attacks from America’s shores is to send the SEALs and other commandos far from home to hunt and kill them.

The SEALs must be a constant threat to those that would do harm to this nation and to civilization itself.

If not, the razor edge of the threat will point the other way—at the hearts of civilians going about their daily lives. A mother pushing a stroller in a crowded mall. A secretary sitting in an office cubicle. A passenger on a plane, thinking only of a Thanksgiving dinner. A commuter lost in his iPad or a teen lost in her iPhone. The music of these innocents’ lives would suddenly stop if the SEALs stayed home.

* * *

We must, as a society, keep a group of warriors free of politics and bureaucracy, free of the distractions that keep them from doing their vital work.

That means that we have to protect the teams from political prosecutions for operations that are perfectly run but ruined in the custody phase, as we detailed in the chapter about Carl Higbie’s sad saga. In the abstract, it may seem to make sense to show the world that we punish wrongdoers even when they wear our uniform. In the real world, the enemy has learned to use our legal procedures against us. They know that even false charges can effectively take SEALs out of combat, sometimes permanently. What the enemy cannot accomplish on the battlefield, it should not be able to do in the courtroom.

Politics must be banished from special operations. Vice President Joseph Biden’s careless remarks that named SEAL Team Six have caused real and lasting harm to the teams. The warriors of the teams cannot do their lifesaving work if they are nagged by the worry that their families may be vulnerable to enemy retaliation. Special operations require special security, and that includes elected officials, who will always be tempted to advance themselves at the expense of the SEAL teams.

Politics is vital to democratic deliberation and deadly to the elite culture of the SEALs. Our elected leaders should give them targets but not make them targets. Politicians need to know that they are not a wayward fraternity that needs to be corralled or cowed, but a delicate instrument to be unsheathed carefully and used surgically.

Without these heroes, the Navy SEALs, horror and terror will come to our shores. With them comes honor and security. We forget this at our peril.