What Is Navy SEAL Team One?
Navy SEAL Team 1 is one of eight Navy SEAL teams that are part of the U.S. Naval Special Warfare Command. SEALs are the Navy’s main special operations force. SEAL Team 1 is based in Coronado, Calif.
SEAL Team 1 is part of Naval Special Warfare Group 1. NSWG-1 also oversees SEAL Teams 3, 5 and 7. A SEAL team is composed of six to eight platoons. Each platoon has two to four junior officers and 14 to 16 enlisted men. The SEAL team is always commanded by a Navy commander who oversees both the field operatives and the headquarters elements.
SEAL training is considered among the most difficult in the world, with some training classes experiencing a 90 percent dropout rate. The SEALs evolved from the Underwater Demolition Teams of World War II. The first Navy SEALs were all UDT personnel.
Team 1 was one of the two Navy SEAL teams founded in 1962 to engage in counter guerrilla warfare and special operations in maritime environments. According to founding SEAL member Roy Boehm, their first operations involved reconnaissance against communist Cuba. Since 1962, the SEALs have participated in the Vietnam War; the invasions of Grenada, Panama and Iraq; and the death of Osama bin Laden.
