My experience with SEALs was mixed: I was a Marine officer and was put off by some of the odd culture I saw when I worked with them. There seemed to be a childish/undisciplined aspect and not a lot of adult leadership in evidence.
I was responsible for their Atlantic Fleet weapons and ammunition support when I was on the SURFLANT staff and their stuff was cruddy and often unserviceable when I looked at it.
To me, a professional keeps their weapons ready for reliable use at all times.
“My experience with SEALs was mixed...” I’m with you and I’ll leave it at that. I have a couple of good friends who are former SEALs and they epitomize the “quiet professionals” theme, but I know the guys in a certain Tier 1 Army unit consider SEALs “The Hollywood version of special operations” or some variation on that theme.
The wars and the millenial culture change haven’t been good for them. They are a very different organization than back in the 80s.
Individuals in that bunch have murdered a SF guy for knowing about their dope ring. There have been drug arrests among them. They have an openly homo one. One that turned tranny.
All of that would have been pretty unheard of in the old days.
They do have a problem, but it is the leadership and the overall American culture now.
And truly unthinkable, the Marines have a problem too. The Commanding General just wrote a division wide letter about the poor state of discipline. He said he personally saw a Marine in the Exchange in his pajamas. Then he said he approached two Marines on bus stop bench, and they did not stand up and did not salute. When he called them out on it, one said he didn’t because was on the phone!
Incredibly, the General is the one in trouble now.
The SEAL seem to be a dirty private club, protecting each other like a brotherhood, as opposed to the green berrets who have a consciousness for the work they do in gaining trust,
My experience with them was that when Seals failed and got kidnapped, it was not SEALs that came to get them back but the adults of the bunch, the green Berrets, that is. Also when standing guard at a camp they attempted to walz through without giving me their ID, getting angry at me for not recognizing that they were “ NAVY”. It was damn rude and arrogant of them to use awe of rank and what not on someone on duty like this. The green berrets never ever gave me sht like this, and they stood head and shoulders above these pricks, imo.
They always seemed above the rules, with Apache pilots giving them cover always stunned at how rules of engagement did not apply to them, bewildered that one time they shot a shepherd carrying a rifle without asking questions, dubbing it “this guy straight up murdered the dude”.
I hate to say it, but something is rotten in Navy. It is like a state with the state.
The same thing used to worry me, a non-professional, whenever I was stopped by the Mexican military at one of their rural roadblocks. What does it tell me when these teen-aged soldiers are holding machine guns that are all dirty and dinged to hell, I would ask myself.