The humble beginnings of the US Navy SEAL may be traced from its participation in the Korean and Vietnam Wars. Due to the efforts of then President John F. Kennedy, this special training group was formed. Primarily, the goal of the troop was to check on the spread of communism in the Asian continent.
The US Navy SEAL participation in the Korean War was made possible by the Underwater Demolition Teams or UDT’s. In this particular instance, the UDTs were responsible in scouting the Korean coastline, locating mines for minesweepers and in acting as waveguides. With these efforts, the US Forces attained success in its Korean operations.
As for the US Navy SEAL participation in the Vietnam War, the team was tasked to perform anti-guerilla tactics. Moreover, the troop was also there to advise military tactics to the Provisional Reconnaissance Units and their Vietnamese counterparts – the Vietnamese SEALs. With all these efforts, the US Navy SEALs continues to impart lessons in Navy SEAL formation in any country.
For full version of this article, please visit “The Special Role of the Navy SEALs in the Korean and Vietnam Wars“.
October 20th, 2009 - 3:53 pm
[...] participation in armed conflict has been the subject of debates for decades. Back in the day, the Vietnam War also sparked protests. There were those who were in favor of sending troops overseas to protect [...]
November 23rd, 2009 - 9:23 am
[...] a speech before Congress in May 1961, then President Kennedy talked about the government’s plans of sending man to the moon and of allocating over a hundred [...]
January 13th, 2010 - 5:14 am
[...] Constance who joined in 1966. Within four years Harry Constance had completed 300 missions during combat in Vietnam and also captured nearly 200 enemy prisoners. Harry Constance is in fact considered to be one of [...]
June 5th, 2011 - 7:08 pm
My dad was a UDT member in the Korean war. He is 85 now and I’m finally able to start getting some stories about the stuff they did over there. These guys were animals. I am very proud of what he stood for and what he accomplished.
August 3rd, 2011 - 10:48 am
A cousin claims to have beena UDT diver in Vietnam during 1969-1971. However there is no mention of any type of training to be a diver stated in his dd214. I believe he may have worked with divers but was not a diver himself.
In order to be earn the right to be called a UDT diver what training was required during the Vietnam war? He served on some sort of river boat and only for three months time.
Any information would be grealty apprciated as this has been a family sore spot as I don’t believe my cousin deserves the right to call himself a diver and dishonors those who earned the right.
Thanks
John Mitchell Knous (AE2- VP6 73-76)