Team Six was created in 1980 in the wake of the failed U.S. effort to rescue American diplomats held hostage in Iran. That effort, under then U.S. President Jimmy Carter, also intended to use helicopter-borne commandos in a covert operation but had to be aborted due to equipment failure in the rescue helicopters.
The first commander of Team Six, Richard Marcinko, says no expenses were spared in forming the elite unit.
"With 75 shooters when I started, the training allowance for SEAL Team Six for training ammunition was more than the whole Marine Corps," he told Reuters.
Marcinko, who has recounted his experiences in a book titled "Rogue Warrior," says the name Team Six was chosen as a ruse to fool the then Soviet Union into believing there were more elite commando squads than actually existed at the time.
Five Years Of Training
According to varying media estimates, the number of Team Six members is around 200 to 300. They are selected from among the most capable of the larger SEAL force, which numbers some 2,300.
The SEAL force itself is composed of commandos who have trained for about five years before earning the right to go on missions. Among their skills are parachuting from high altitudes, submarine operations, and underwater demolition.
Most of those who volunteer for the SEAL force fail at some time during the grueling training process. Captain Kenneth Klothe, a SEAL and director of the irregular warfare course at National Defense University in Washington, D.C., told the French news agency AFP that psychological stress even more than physical duress is the deciding factor.
"A lot of the guys mentally can't stand it," he says. Only about one-third of recruits reportedly finish the training process.
As many former members told American media this week, the commandos do not only carry out missions as needed, they perform training simulations every day in between. The challenge is to constantly be at peak performance in what, in fact, is a lifestyle as much as a profession.