The Navy handed him a blank check: build a team that can hit anyone, anywhere, with no warning. He named it SEAL Team Six so the Soviets would think we already had Teams 3, 4, and 5. After that they told him to test America’s own bases.

x.com ^ | September 19, 2026 | Never Forget Dailey @teamreal321

[ransomnote]

Never Forget Dailey

@teamreal321

·
4h

The NVA put a price on his head.
He never cashed it in for them.
Richard “Demo Dick” Marcinko didn’t just fight in the Mekong. He owned it. Ilo Ilo Island, 1967 — most successful SEAL raid in the Delta. Six enemy boats blown to splinters. A body count the Viet Cong didn’t forget. They offered 50,000 piasters to whoever brought him in. Nobody collected.
That same man started as a 17-year-old high-school dropout the Marines already rejected.
68 years ago today — September 19, 1958 — he walked into a Navy recruiter and signed up as a radioman. Coal-town kid from Lansford, Pennsylvania. Nobody’s first pick.
He didn’t stay a radioman.
Frogman. SEAL Team Two. Two tours. Silver Star. Four Bronze Stars with V. Then the Navy handed him a blank check: build a team that can hit anyone, anywhere, with no warning. He named it SEAL Team Six so the Soviets would think we already had Teams 3, 4, and 5.
After that they told him to test America’s own bases. He built Red Cell and started breaking in. They hated him for it. That’s how you know it worked.
He wrote it all down. He died Christmas Day 2021. The unit he stood up went to Abbottabad.
Today isn’t a raid anniversary.
It’s the day a rejected kid signed the paper that changed special operations forever.
Demo Dick didn’t ask permission.
He just enlisted.

#NavySEAL #ThisDayInHistory #RogueWarrior #SEALTeamSix

 September 19, 2026

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TOPICS: Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: bobstillthetroll; dollypartoneatskids; qanon

[Theophilus]

U read his book!

[ridesthemiles]

WOULD HAVE HONORED TO HAVE KNOWN HIM.....

[ridesthemiles]

WOULD HAVE BEEN HONORED TO HAVE KNOWN HIM.....

[ansel12]

He is rightfully controversial, I think the SEALs were hurt by him and that they have been recovering for years from his influence on their culture and that they have improved because of their learning from Army Special Operations culture and experience in recent decades.

[GOPJ]

Every now and then a person quietly comes along and changes our nation for the better ... forever. Cool story - thanks for sharing.

[DPMD]

Hurt in what way and by what actions?

[wbarmy]

I joined at 17, had to find my father in a bar on Industrial Avenue in Dallas to get the signature. Greatest thing that ever happened to me. The Army taught me discipline, and taught me two languages I have used in the service of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

The United States military is the world’s greatest leveller of men, and the greatest proof of the idea of reaching all you can be. Those who are willing, those who will put forth the effort, those who have a desire to be more, can find that opportunity.

[ansel12]

If you remember the SEALs have had a long history of impulsive operations lacking adequate planning, Marcinko didn’t help that and he seemed to have some sort of alcoholic flakiness that while he got seal team 6 going, still contributed to a sort of vain superman attitude in the seals rather than the thoroughness that was more common during the same decades as seals, in army Special Forces.

[Bob Wills is still the king]

“If you remember the SEALs have had a long history of impulsive operations lacking adequate planning, Marcinko didn’t help that and he seemed to have some sort of alcoholic flakiness that while he got seal team 6 going, still contributed to a sort of vain superman attitude in the seals rather than the thoroughness that was more common during the same decades as seals, in army Special Forces.”
____________________________________________________________

Marcinko institutionalized the attitude of “the rules don’t apply to us” which may have had some positive impacts on unit effectiveness, but hollowed out the “duty, honor, country” and “ship, shipmates, self” ethic of the service. The worst examples of this have been SEAL team members using and selling major drugs - far beyond marijuana - and stealing military equipment and weapons for sale.

[Colonialman]

I met Commander Marcinko in Denver. Talked about his operations/books. Yes, I have read all of them including his leadership book. I do not agree with his Gin partying but do appreciate his required loyalty. When Red Cell started making admirals look bad, they used his own requisition of equipment/ammo to frame him (my opinion). He and his private security company were successful. He is missed because of his wisdom and experience. After that,the mold was broken. Remember Extortion 17. Hooyah!

[Paal Gulli]

Marcinko burned the old SpecWar rule book.

He built DevGru on a business model that couldn’t be sustained, but even after he was flushed down the toilet and less “roguish” men took his place, the abilities of America’s SpecWar community were significantly more advanced than before Demo Dick.

[Widget Jr]

Being polite, there are a lot in the military who do not hold Marcinko in as high regard as he held himself.

Lt. Cmdr. Michael J. Walsh, Seal and Vietnam vet, wrote about his run in with Marcinko in his autobiography, "SEAL!: From Vietnam's PHOENIX Program to Central America's Drug Wars". TLDR, he thought Marcinko was unprofessional, more than a little crazy, power mad, and wanted nothing to do with him.

Dale Andrade wrote a series of articles in "Soldier of Fortune" about Marcinko and Red Cell. While the U.S. military and Navy have issues with security during the 1980s, when the Navy let Marcinko create Red Cell to test security went out of his way to take the mission too far. During one Red Cell exercise, Marcinko took a civilian contractor named Ronald D. Sheridan off base, gave him a "mock interrogation" for 30 hours and hospitalized him. He deliberately beat up a civilian to get back at him. To Red Cell, humiliating people and getting away with it was more important then testing and fixing security issues. (1), (2).

After Sheridan sued Marcinko and the Navy, Marcinko was willing to sell out everyone around him to save himself. (3)

Naturally, when Marcinko got out of prison and reinvented himself as the ultimate soldier, a management and leadership guru, he left all the damage he caused in his wake out of it.

[Mathews]

I met him several times at Dam Neck. Him and Gunny Hathcock. Not bad. Cocky, but I wouldn’t have described him as arrogant or an azzhole. I was trained by one of his original picks (Ninjas) at DevGru. That guy was scary. Met several of these folks and can tell you these are THE dangerous men who do an an unbelievably dangerous job, on a government paycheck, so if a rule gets bent or broken, I couldn’t give a chit.

[fastrock]

Fair Winds n Following Seas Sailor

[Organic Panic]

No one but a democrat president could defeat them.

[doorgunner69]

“You don’t have to like it, you just have to do it!”

His book left a lasting impression on me.

[j_guru]

Another great book is Teammates - Seals at War, written by Barry Enoch, a founding member of Seal Team 1. An amazing first hand account, of the first SEAL team.

[Albion Wilde]

Ping!

[cyclotic]

I know a guy who was a tier one SEAL. Judging by his age and the one story he’s ever told me, he was one of the originals on Six.