In the spring of 1943, a group of volunteers was selected from the Naval Construction Battalions . These units were tasked with reconnoitering and clearing beach obstacles for marines going ashore during amphibious landings. Today, the Navy SEALs can trace there beginnings to these underwaterfrogmen.? SEAL us actually an acronym for sea, land, and air, because members of the elite team are experts in all three of the fields. It was during the 1960's that the Navy utilized personnel from Underwater Demolition Teams (UDT) to form separate units called SEAL teams. Although SEALs did not become famous until the Vietnam War, two teams were commissioned in 1962 by President Kennedy: SEAL Team One in the Pacific Fleet of the United States Navy, and SEAL Team Two in the Atlantic Fleet (Simmons 1). In 1983 the UDTs were decommissioned and recommissioned as SEALs. .
In the Korean War, SEALs began to broaden their horizon of skills from just clearing beach obstacles to destroying railroad bridges and tunnels behind enemy lines. This was some of the first guerilla warfare SEALs were involved in. In 1966, SEALs arrived in Vietnam, but it wasn't until 1968 that they reached a peak strength of about one hundred men (Gendzel 941). The SEALs were a very valuable resource in the environment of Vietnam. Enemy troops feared the SEALs who they referred to as the men with green faces and the green devil. SEALs earned this nickname due to their heavy camouflage. In Vietnam, most SEALs were attached to Task Force 116, the River Patrol Force stationed in the Mekong Delta and the Rung Sat Special Area (Gendzel 491). They also took part in operation GAME WARDEN, which ran from 1965 through 1968, and operation SEALORDS, which ran from 1968 through 1969. Both of these operations were designed to cut Viet Cong river supply line that were coming from Cambodia. In Vietnam, the SEALs lost 43 men killed in action.
