Over the centuries, such men -- though often unknown and unheralded -- have been key to the successes of their navies' blue-water and amphibious operations.

In his book, Sea Ghost of the Confederacy, author Royce Gordon Shingleton describes Confederate Naval officer John Taylor Wood as "leading a naval 'commando' mission, although that word was not part of the Civil War soldier's or sailor's vocabulary. The detachments that Wood took on his expeditions ... had no special designations; they were described simply as 'picked men.'"

It is a fact that has been part of the culture of even the U.S. Navy until World War II. Then America 's huge amphibious operations created a need for "picked men" who could be organized into teams of veritable seaborne pathfinders. Those teams included the old Scouts and Raiders, the Naval Combat Demolition Units and Underwater Demolition Teams, and operational swimmers with the Office of Strategic Services (the predecessor organization to the modern CIA).

Under the wartime leadership of men like Captain Phil H. Bucklew, "the father of Naval Special Warfare," and Lt. Commander Draper L. Kauffman (a future rear admiral), "the father of Naval combat demolition;" the Navy's first organized teams of scouts and frogmen began a 20-year evolutionary trek that would lead to the creation of the first Navy SEALs -- an acronym for the U.S. Navy's SEa, Air, Land commandos -- in 1962.

Over the next quarter century, SEALs distinguished themselves in battle, and refined their operational art through what has become perhaps the most legendary commando training in the world.

Birth of Naval Special Warfare

On April 16, 1987, the birthday of the U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM), the Naval Special Warfare Command or NAVSPECWAR was also born (for our purposes here, we will refer to NAVSPECWAR as simply NSW).

The establishment of SOCOM brought together Army, Navy, and Air Force special operations assets under one roof. The establishment of NSW created a "special command" for SEALs, and would eventually pair them up with their Special Boat counterparts -- the Special Warfare Combatant-craft Crewmen (SWCC, pronounced "swick").

The Navy, justifiably proud of its SEALs, was initially resistant to turning over its special warriors to SOCOM (The Marin e Corps flatly refused to become part of the new joint Command). In fact, it wasn't until October of 1987 that all NSW assets were basically chopped-over from the Navy to SOCOM. It was a decision made by then-Secretary of Defense Casper Weinberger. And despite the fact that SEALs would continue to be "sailors" -- recruited, uniformed, basically trained and paid by the Navy, and always supporting Naval operations -- both the Navy and its SEAL community were less than thrilled with the transfer to SOCOM.

But the move has since proven to be smooth and effective, and the Navy knows SEALs will always be sailors.

Today, NSW is composed of some 5,400 active-duty sailors -- including some 2,450 SEALs and 600 SWCC sailors -- organized under four main elements:

· The Naval Special Warfare Center

· The NSW Development Group

· The NSW Command Combat Service Support Teams (CSST)

· The NSW Groups

The NSW Center , located at the Naval Amphibious Base Coronado, California, is a component command within NSW and the headquarters for all NSW training and its training detachments throughout North America .

The NSW Development Group is officially the testing and evaluating element of NSW. Unofficially it is the evolutionary descendent of super-secret SEAL Team Six, the counterterrorism unit made famous by founding commander Richard "Rogue Warrior" Marcinko.

The Command Combat Service Support Teams or CSST element is exactly as it sounds: logistics and support for NSW.

Of the four main elements, the primary element is the NSW Groups component. This element is generally composed of two SEAL Groups (each sub-divided into four SEAL Teams and supporting elements) and small NSW Units, which provide overseas command-and-control for special warfare; a Group composed of SWCC crews and their boats; and a Group composed of SEAL Delivery Vehicle Teams or SDVs.

To break it all down in another -- perhaps easier to digest -- way, the Naval Special Warfare Command is made up SEAL, SWCC, and SDV Teams, and supporting sailors within NSW.

The 'Unique' Factor

Though U.S. forces today are coordinating efforts and working closer than they ever have, longstanding inter-service rivalries continue to exist -- with all branches and sub-branches looking to get as big a piece of the operational pie as possible. That has carried over into the special operations community where there is some overlap in efforts and objectives.

Nevertheless, NSW brings several unique elements to the table, primarily the obvious: A well-trained, super-high tech seaborne (surface and subsurface) special operations capability with a just-hours-away global reach.

"NSW is unique, because it is the only one that does maritime sabotage-in addition to all the other missions: direct action, special reconnaissance, foreign internal development, and counterterrorism among the foremost," Rear Admiral George Worthington (U.S. Navy, ret.), a former SEAL commander tells NavySEALs.com. " What NSW brings to the table is the ability to operate underwater. Rangers don't. Special Forces is limited. Marin e Corps Force Recon the same. SEALs run SEAL Delivery Vehicles [SDV], which are capable of transiting into and out of harbors underwater, undetected. They are more capable than simple 'maritime,' in the sense that they travel to the objective, like Marines, and run across-the-beach ops. They can do riverine missions, too, as can the Marines."

Beyond that, SEALs (the primary element of NSW) "have created a culture, like aviators and submariners," Worthington adds. "It always happens in 'regiments' over time. The training starts this process. BUDS is the great equalizer. Then, too, all the other specialized training creates a mindset to successful operations."

Outsiders often view SEALs as supermen. Perhaps they are in the sense of infused commitment to both achieving the objective and never quitting. But ordinary, according to insiders, in the sense that they are just highly trained men doing extraordinary things.

"Definitely not Supermen, my classmates particularly," says Worthington . "One guy, however, could hold his breath five minutes. Another was a two-pack-a-day smoker who still survived BUDS.

"BUDS, incidentally, is between your ears. Sure, you have to make times on the O-Course [obstacle course], the four-mile run, etc., but the kid who sticks in there, survives. It's a mindset of not quitting. So, ordinary in the sense they have all the limbs, but extra-ordinary when it comes to determination, tenacity, perseverance, and, OK, courage."

Navy Commander James H. Flatley IV, a retired Naval aviator and former commanding officer of Fighter Squadron 154 and now deputy director of domestic operations for Blackwater USA , recalls flying a classified mission in direct support of NSW forces in Iraq .

"Though SEALs pride themselves on being an organization that works somewhat independently to maintain their anonymity, my interaction with them during Iraqi Freedom demonstrated to me their ability to integrate a robust air support element of fixed wing aircraft in support of covert operations," says Flatley, who contends that what sets SEALs apart from other soldiers and sailors is training.

"They are pushed to levels of mental and physical pain that very few others have or ever will experience in their lifetimes," he tells NavySEALs.com. 

SEAL training is tough, and the five-and-a-half day immersion into the life of a SEAL -- known as Hell Week -- is a short slice into what is arguably the most rigorous training in the world.

As I described in "Welcome to Hell, Gentlemen" (NavySEALs.com, October 23, 2005):

"Hell Week is a sleepless, bitter cold, gritty, soaking wet, hell on earth where exhausted candidates -- pumped full of antibiotics to ward off a variety of infections -- survive on sheer heart, tenacity, seemingly incomprehensible physical courage, and about 5,000-7,000 calories per day (given they can muster enough strength to consume them). Hell Week is a short span of eternity at Coronado , California where the SEAL hopeful comes to a reckoning of the soul."

Soul-reckoning indeed. Approximately half of those who successfully pass the rigorous physical and mental screening to enter SEAL training fail to complete Hell Week , and a full 75 percent of day-one candidates will ultimately be eliminated from BUD/SEAL training over the next six months.

Then there is SWCC, the lesser-known but wholly unique special boat units and crews that operate a variety of multi-million dollar speedboats in support of SEALs and other special operations from river patrols to hunting terrorists and occasionally, pirates.

SWCC traces its unofficial lineage to a cold Christmas night in 1776, when America 's first special boat crews ferried General George Washington and his men across the icy Delaware River en route to their raid on Trenton . Officially, SWCC is descended from the PT boat crews of World War II and the Swift Boats and River Rats of the Vietnam War.

Today, SWCC is a key component in maritime special operations, and SWCC sailors have to be able to swim, shoot, navigate, and repair everything from inboard motors to satellite communications gear.

Like SEALs, selection and training is tough for SWCC. Nine challenging weeks -- about a third of the time it takes to train a SEAL -- that prepare the very best sailors to drive fast boats and fight shoulder-to-shoulder with SEALs.

The final component is the SDV Team. SDVs are "midget submersibles," basically 22-foot miniature submarines that can transport SEALs to-and-from a given objective. Much of the SDV program is classified, but what is known is that SDVs are super high-tech and super stealthy, and a single SDV is capable of delivering "several" SEALs on target. SEALs are often launched from larger submarines, but SDVs, which can be launched from Submarine-mounted Dry Deck Shelters, giving them much greater range.

SEALs also have a brand new submersible platform in the 65-foot, SEAL-driven submarine known as the Advanced SEAL Delivery System (ASDS). At $230 million a copy, ASDSs are 'dry inside' submarines designed specifically to carry more SEALs and more equipment than an SDV, and extend their subsurface reach without detection and without their dependence on larger conventional or nuclear submarines.

Following the attacks of September 11, 2001, NSW forces were among the first on the ground in Afghanistan .

According to the Naval Special Warfare Command's official Missions & History: "The first military flag officer to set foot in Afghanistan was a Navy SEAL in charge of all special operations for Central Command. Additionally, a Navy SEAL captain commanded Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force South. Commonly referred to as Task Force K-BAR, the task force included U.S. Navy, Army, Air Force and Coalition SOF forces."

NSW has since conducted countless special operations in that country, gathering intelligence, capturing and killing terrorists, and seizing and destroying enormous numbers of enemy weapons and explosives.

In Iraq , more SEALs and SWCC units have been deployed than at any time in NSW history.

There, according to the official history, "NSW forces [have been] instrumental in numerous special reconnaissance and direct action missions including the securing of the southern oil infrastructures of the Al Faw peninsula and the off-shore gas and oil terminals; the clearing of the Khawr Abd Allah and Khawr Az Zubayr waterways that enabled humanitarian aid to be delivered to the vital port city of Umm Qasr; reconnaissance of the Shat Al Arab waterway; capture of high value targets, raids on suspected chemical, biological and radiological sites; and the first POW rescue since WWII."

Additionally, NSW played a key role in the standing-up of the new U.S. Marin e Corps special operations that would ultimately become Marin e Forces Special Operations Command (under SOCOM).

Beyond Afghanistan and Iraq , NSW forces are currently fighting terrorists in unseen, unreported, covert operations from the Middle East to the Philippines and the Horn of Africa. Basically, wherever terrorists are plotting, planning, or snaking along toward some dark objective, there you will find the "picked men" of Naval Special Warfare moving in for the kill.

This article first appeared in NavySEALs.com