Richard Marcinko: Seal Team Six founder dies at 81

Also: Richard Marcinko, Founding Commander of SEAL Team 6, Dies at 81 (New York Times)

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Source: BBC

Richard Marcinko: Seal Team Six founder dies at 81

28 December 2021

Richard Marcinko, who has died at the age of 81, made his mark on the US military as founding commander of Seal Team Six, one of America's elite special forces units which would later carry out a deadly raid against Osama Bin Laden.

A Vietnam War veteran, he led the group for its first three years, and was awarded more than 30 medals and citations during his career with the US Navy.

His direct and abrasive leadership style brought great success but often caused conflict with superiors. Some accused him of encouraging a reckless, "bad boy" culture at Seal Team Six.

Off the battlefield, Marcinko faced legal battles and was briefly jailed for defrauding the US government.

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Read more: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-59812251


Richard Marcinko was awarded more than 30 medals and citations during his career with the US Navy (Getty Images)

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Source: New York Times

Richard Marcinko, Founding Commander of SEAL Team 6, Dies at 81

The Navy asked Commander Marcinko, a larger-than-life sailor who often flouted rules, to build a SEAL unit that could respond quickly to terrorist crises.

By Vimal Patel and Azi Paybarah
Published Dec. 27, 2021
Updated Dec. 28, 2021, 11:37 a.m. ET
Richard Marcinko, the hard-charging founding commander of Navy SEAL Team 6, the storied and feared unit within an elite commando force that later carried out the raid that killed Osama bin Laden, died Saturday at his home in Fauquier County, Va. He was 81.

The cause was believed to be a heart attack, a son, Matthew Marcinko, said.

Commander Marcinko climbed the ranks to command Team 6 and wrote a tell-all best seller that cemented the SEALs in pop culture as heroes and bad boys. Though the highly decorated Vietnam veteran led Team 6 for only three years, from 1980 to 1983, he had an outsize influence on the group’s place in military lore.

After a failed 1980 mission to rescue 53 American hostages seized in the takeover of the United States Embassy in Tehran, the Navy asked Commander Marcinko to build a SEAL unit that could respond quickly to terrorist crises. The name itself was an attempt at Cold War disinformation: Only two SEAL teams existed at the time, but Commander Marcinko called the new unit SEAL Team 6, hoping that Soviet analysts would overestimate the size of the force.

He flouted rules and fostered a maverick image for the unit. ...

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Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/27/us/richard-marcinko-dead.html