Written with the cooperation of the Naval Special Warfare community, here is the definitive history of the U.S. Navy SEALs, a chronicle that reveals the inside story behind the greatest combat operations of our nation's most celebrated warriors. The authors draw on exclusive interviews with more than 100 special operators (including multiple Medal of Honor recipients), as well as thousands of pages of declassified documents, to create a vivid portrait of the SEALS in action. The book charts the evolution of the frogmen from their origins in World War II and the Korean War, when Navy commando teams cleared mines and scouted landing sites ahead of the main American forces. After their official founding in 1962 by order of President John F. Kennedy, and early covert operations in Cuba, the SEALS came of age in the jungles of Vietnam, where they specialized in the most daring missions. Couch and Doyle trace their transformation in the 1980s and 1990s--when special operations teams were centralized under the U.S. Special Operations Command--including untold accounts from Panama, Grenada, Somalia, and the first Gulf War. Finally, we follow their rise to preeminence in Iraq and Afghanistan after 9/11.