All language subtitles for Historys.Greatest.Warriors.S01E01.The.Navy.SEALs.1080p.HULU.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-RAWR_track3_[eng]

An elite
special forces operator,

forged to fight anywhere.

The SEALs are free to
do whatever works

to get the mission done.

Improvise, innovate.

Whatever it takes to win.

Built through
trials that push the

boundaries of
human endurance.

When you want to quit,
when you want to give up...

you know that you
got to keep going.

Discipline,
skill, and violence...

transform him into the
ultimate modern warrior.

SEAL Team Six trains on
a 1-to-1 scale model

of bin Laden's compound.

A man who's killed
3000 Americans.

And then there he is.

Warriors aren't born...

They're built.

Understanding how reveals the

true nature of
their greatness.

From the cradle
to the grave,

these are the steps
to creating...

History's Greatest Warriors.

A paragon
of modern warfare,

an amphibious special forces
operative built to strike

with sudden and
deadly force...

The Navy SEAL.

The SEALs are
the US Navy's

most highly trained
special forces teams.

The combination of
tactical skills they possess

can't be found anywhere
else on the planet.

SEAL stands for
"Sea, Air, Land".

And so, as a combat unit,
they will always operate

in and around those
environments,

which makes them immediately
have to be adaptable,

have to be flexible.

Whether it's on skis
in the mountains,

whether it's tactical ground
mobility operations

in the desert,

or it's operating in or
around the water,

the Navy SEALs are
your force of choice.

They stand apart
from Delta Force,

the army's top tier
special forces unit.

It's their ability to get
to the target from anywhere.

They're amphibious,
they're elite skydivers...

and their stealth attacks by
land can be just as shocking.

A Navy SEAL earns
his reputation as

an expert in all manner of
modern warfare.

It's not traditional combat.

It's behind the lines,
it's strategic.

SEALS are
masters of uncertainty.

They are individuals and
teams that can drop into

deeply complex environment,

and start to figure out
and perform.

Built for speed,
stealth,

and sudden violence,

the Navy SEALs
carry out operations

where no other modern
warrior can strike.

Orders come from Naval
Special Warfare Command.

You know,
the numbers fluctuate,

but generally speaking,
each SEAL team is

made up of 8,
16-man platoons.

You have east coast
teams in Virginia.

You have west coast
teams in San Diego.

The east coast teams are all
the even numbered teams.

The west coast teams are
the odd number teams.

But perhaps the
most exceptional team...

is SEAL Team Six.

SEAL Team Six,
A.K.A, "DEVGRU",

is a top tier strike squad...

elite, even among the
special forces in

the United States military.

Its mission is
counterterrorist operations,

capturing or eliminating
high value targets,

and even preventing
the spread of

weapons of mass destruction.

On the path
to becoming a Navy SEAL,

the warrior will need to
endure brutal training...

Master high-tech weaponry...

And complete high-stakes
missions using tactics

refined during
decades of combat.

It's an elite unit that
traces its origins to a time

when a new kind of
warrior was needed.

It all started
really in World War II,

when the Allied forces
realize that to win the war,

they had to get boots
on the ground in Europe,

and to do so would require
massive amphibious invasion.

The Allies must
find a way through

a wall of enemy ramparts,
mines, men and

weaponry dug in along the
coastline of France.

What this will require is a
very specific kind of soldier.

Someone who's a
good swimmer,

someone who's resilient,
who's well trained.

The United States
Navy creates elite teams of

explosives experts,
recruited for one purpose...

smash Nazi defenses,

and pave the way for a
massive Allied assault.

The NCDUs- Naval Combat
Demolition Units-

these were created for a
very, very specific reason:

destroy the obstacles on
Hitler's Atlantic wall.

Before dawn on D-day,

they deploy to the
beaches of Normandy.

They perform this
impossibly heroic mission.

They have some of the
highest casualties

in the entire invasion.

The World War
gives way to the Cold War,

and the persistent threat of
nuclear conflict demands

a warrior unlike any
other in history.

When Kennedy
comes into office,

he invigorates
special operations.

Kennedy's background
is a PT boat skipper.

President Kennedy
understands that

you're going to need a
special operations force.

You're going to need to
enhance what he saw

in World War II as
a Navy veteran.

President Kennedy
promotes the Navy's

heroic underwater
demolition teams.

They'll now be called
the 'SEALs' -

two teams of
modern warriors

who fight on sea,
air, and land.

Newly created SEALs
test their skills in the

ultimate proving ground:
the jungles of Vietnam.

They're born
in World War II,

but they're forged
in Vietnam.

The US is up against a
guerrilla fighters

that are giving them
all kinds of trouble,

and they're
really tough to beat.

Viet Cong guerrillas are
some of the

best jungle
fighters in history.

The United States'
conventional forces

hit the enemy with
all of their might,

but are losing
crucial battles.

The Navy SEALs are called
upon to try a new approach:

extreme guerilla tactics to

knock the enemy off balance.

In 1966, the Navy's
newest commandos

deploy to an area
southeast of Saigon,

known as the Rung Sat
Special Zone.

This dangerous
mangrove swamp is

crisscrossed with
enemy supply lines,

and a haven for
Viet Cong forces.

The Rung Sat Special
Zone, loosely translated,

is the
'Forest of Assassins'.

You don't want to be there.

Yet, the SEALS are
there all the time.

It's a mangrove swamp in the
south part of the country,

and it's filled
with Viet Cong.

The SEALSs are built for
the 'Forest of Assassins'.

And a lot of the
conventional units,

they're out there,
they're in the open.

They're really, in many
cases, being hunted.

The SEALs show up,

and their primary mission
is to hunt bad guys.

This is a real difference in
mentality between

the hunter and the hunted.

The amphibious
warrior evolves

in the
'Forest of Assassins'.

Night after night, the SEALs
hone their skills

as covert and
deadly fighters.

The SEALs become
known to the Viet Cong

as the 'men with
green faces'.

That's if they're lucky to
actually see them

before they're neutralized.

The SEALs become
what we know them as today,

for this deep,
deep penetration,

well behind enemy lines.

Missions that
seem improbable,

against a
tenacious enemy.

Being that
aggressor allows

a mythos to build around the
Navy SEALs that was

unlike anything
we'd ever seen.

In Vietnam,
the SEALs demonstrate the

tactical advantages of
having such elite forces.

Stateside, the US Navy
refines the selection process

into one of the toughest
in military history.

Each year,
hundreds of candidates

enter a selection process
designed to identify

the best of the best.

It begins with BUD/S:

Basic Underwater Demolition
SEAL training.

It's six months of misery...

A three-phase program
of extreme

physical and mental tests.

BUD/S is
assessment and selection.

There's some narcissism
involved in wanting to be a

Navy SEAL, because of the
fact that you want to

stand out, you want
to be special.

You want to looked at and
recognized for doing

something that very
few people can do.

As soon as you hit the
beaches of BUD/S, day one,

all narcissism goes away,
and humility takes its place.

The candidate
meets 'The Cadre'.

Get down!
In the mud!

And start crawling!

These battle-hardened SEALs

serve as merciless trainers.

They inflict pain and
stress to weed out

those who are struggling.

The Cadre is going
to tease out these

critical attributes,
these qualities as to

whether or not you
have inside of you

what it takes to be
a Navy SEAL.

You know, it's what's
written in the SEAL code.

It's part of the ethos.

I'm gonna keep
on getting hit,

but I'm gonna
keep on coming.

It's this kind of
knocked down seven times,

get up eight philosophy.

First phase.

The Cadre deploy tried and
true techniques designed to

push each candidate's body
and mind to its limit.

For hundreds of hours,
you're running around

with big, heavy boats
on your head,

you're exercising with 300
- pound telephone poles.

They wet you down,
they make you lay down

until you're nice and cold,

then they make you jump into
the cold water again.

It makes you miserable.

It screws with your
ability to think.

Can you get pushed
down to zero

and still perform?

You know,
this is brutal training,

this is sadistic training.

They're gonna
find a way

to find your weaknesses.

They're gonna find a
way to break you down.

So you feel that
mental stress

and that physical stress.

The grind of
the selection process

builds day after day.

But there is a simple
way to drop out.

You have to
go ring the bell.

But what's really
interesting is

what hearing that
bell does for...

someone who's
actually in training.

I remember being in training
and, when I heard that bell,

it made me feel better.

I was still going,
I hadn't quit yet.

If the candidate
survives the first

three weeks of brutal
conditioning,

he earns an even more
daunting challenge:

Hell Week.

The determined
candidate faces

his toughest trial yet.
To become a Navy SEAL,

he must survive
a week of tests

designed to push his body
and mind past their limits.

Hell Week is
the crucible.

You're put in these tents,
and just after sunset,

all hell breaks loose.

Instructors run in,
they have machine guns,

they have simulated grenades.

They hustle you
out into 'The Grinder'

where they're
spraying you with hoses.

They're making you
do push ups.

They're yelling at you.

It is absolute
mayhem and chaos.

From there,

Hell Week only gets
more demanding.

The grueling gauntlet
batters candidates with

icy ocean waves
and hypothermia.

On the beach, hours of
calisthenics and timed runs

provide their own
kind of agony.

It's the ultimate test of
a candidate's commitment.

You're not only determining
who can survive in an

environment like this, but
you're teaching these guys

how to overcome
the impossible.

The Cadre use
sleep deprivation

to add to the stress.

That whole time, you're only
gonna sleep for about

2 and a half hours,
3 hours, the whole time.

Believe it or not,
they stop thinking.

Alpha males who have never
failed at anything

break down and quit.

Once Hell Week starts,

that's when you get a
ton of quitters.

It is every bit
as physically exhausting,

as mentally exhausting.

Yet somehow, I build it up
in my mind,

and I say to myself,
"I can get through this."

Over five
and a half days,

the candidate proves
himself to The Cadre.

When Hell Week
finally ends,

he's reached a
warrior milestone.

Day One,
you wear a white shirt,

and you're known as
a White Shirt.

And you wear that white
shirt through Hell Week.

It's only when you graduate
Hell Week successfully

that you get to
wear a brown shirt.

When you
complete Hell Week,

there's a certain amount
of feeling like

you have accomplished
something,

that you are going to
be a Navy SEAL.

Until you realize it just
continues to be

as hard as it was before.

And in fact,
it gets harder.

That's a low moment.

Week 8.

The candidate moves
on to second phase.

Now, he must prove
himself in the water.

Second phase
is the diving phase.

You have this training so
you can figure out who can

handle combat in a
maritime environment.

Think about everything that
the soldier on dry land

has to accomplish.

And now think about the
frogmen being responsible for

doing those same things
under 40 feet of surf.

In punishing
dive competency tests,

the candidate squares
off against

an aggressive
underwater attacker.

You're sitting on the
bottom of this 15 foot pool.

An instructor
dives down and...

attacks you,
rips off your mask,

rips your regulator
out of your mouth,

turns you around,
spins you,

maybe jabs you a
couple times,

ties your regulator
into knots,

and then leaves you.

The candidate
survives combat diving

and graduates
to third phase.

He's tested on dry land...

with everything from
bullets to bombs.

Third phase is where
you learn all of

your land navigation,
your patrolling,

your weapons,
your demolition.

The instructors are
watching you like a hawk to

ensure that you can be
trusted to safely handle

explosives, that you can
be trusted to handle

your weapons during
live fire maneuver,

immediate action drills.

And so you will see
guys get dropped.

By now,
most candidates have

arrived at a painful
realization...

They don't have
what it takes

to become a Navy SEAL.

It has about an 85,
90% attrition rate.

So only about 10 or 15% of
the guys who start BUD/S

actually make it through.

Fundamentally,
you got to know that the

men to the left and right of
you can be completely,

fully relied upon to keep
pushing, through injury,

through discomfort,
through exhaustion.

You need them to be trusted,
to be able to do the job,

to get your back.

I've just finished
what's arguably the hardest

physical and mental selection
process in the world,

and I feel on
top of the world.

And I realize, oh, wait,
this is not over.

We have a long way to go.

Throughout the selection process,

The Cadre tests the
candidate's mind and body.

For the few SEAL
candidates still standing,

they now enter more
formal training.

They take
BUD/S graduates,

and they immediately start
SEAL Qualification Training,

SQT,
a 26-week course.

You are no longer being
assessed on

your attributes, necessarily.

You are now being
trained in skills.

On land,
in the water, and in the air,

the SEAL candidate constantly
practices the best ways of

getting to the fight,
quickly and quietly.

Combat's hard.

But so is getting
to combat.

Most of SEAL training is just
training how to get there.

You do fast roping,
which is when you

come out of a helicopter,
you're sliding down a rope

with your hands
as your brakes.

You also learn rappelling,
which is a different way

to come out of
a helicopter.

You do freefall, where you
jump out of the aircraft

at 12,000, 12,500 feet
or higher.

Candidates train
for every possibility,

drawing lessons
from past missions.

You learn things like
close quarter combat, CQC.

You learn more advanced
land warfare techniques,

you learn some mobility
driving techniques,

all in this course so that
when you show up to

your SEAL team, you are
better prepared

in terms of training.

They're able to make
entry, and clear corners,

and all the rest.

That is the product of
thousands of repetitions,

and from having
developed a choreography

on how to clear a room,
and then honing that,

and refining it,

and then taking lessons
learned and adapting it.

Just as important
as getting into combat

is getting out of it.

SEALs undergo
SERE training.

Search, Evasion,
Resistance, and Escape.

You first go through
some drills on doing evasion,

escaping, but then also
you get captured.

And, you are put in a
mock prisoner of war camp,

and you are interrogated.

So you start to learn
how that might feel.

SERE training is
essential to the SEALs

because the mind
controls the body.

The body's gonna give out
long before the mind does.

The mind has to keep
pushing itself to say,

"You're not out. You're not out.
You're not done."

The Navy SEAL,
built to strike from the

depths of the sea, is also
trained to survive

at the highest altitudes...

And in 2005, the mountains
of Afghanistan

push the SEALs
past their limits.

During the
War on Terror,

the SEALS are deployed
abroad to track down

Al Qaeda and the Taliban.

Afghanistan provides a very
unique cold, high level,

high altitude- environments
that are tough.

Marcus Luttrell is part of
a four-man reconnaissance

operation being inserted into
the mountains of Afghanistan.

They are overtaken by
an overwhelming

enemy Taliban force, and...

a gunfight ensues,
and at the end of it,

Marcus Luttrell is
the only one left.

He's wounded by shrapnel
from an RPG.

His back is broken.

He's able to survive
for five days in

hostile territory before
he's finally extracted

by US forces.

He evades capture.
He fights off the Taliban.

All of this in
punishing terrain.

This is what SERE training
has taught him to do.

This is an example
of why Navy SEAL training is

as hard as it is, because
when you want to quit,

when you want to give up,
when you want to lie down,

you know that you
got to keep going.

Only a select
few complete the year-long

journey through SEAL
selection and training.

It is then that the
candidate officially joins

this brotherhood
of elite warriors.

When you think about how
SEAL are prepared for combat,

and you compare that to the
training of other people that

have gone before, I don't
know of anyone

who's been better prepared
than a modern SEAL.

Upon completion of
SEAL Qualification Training,

you are then
awarded the Trident.

I'm given my Trident,
thrown in a SEAL platoon.

Nobody cares that
I have my Trident.

"Get to work."

Selected,
conditioned, and trained-

a new Navy SEAL
reports to his unit.

Now, he needs the weapons
that will make him

a formidable force
on the battlefield.

The Navy SEAL
has been forged through a

grueling selection and
training process-

on land, in the air,
and in the water.

Now,
he must be armed.

The weapons that we
carry are always going to be

designed for the mission
that's actually involved.

You might be doing a combat
swimmer underwater mission.

You're not carrying a gun.
You're carrying explosives.

You go into close
quarter combat,

you're carrying a rifle
that can actually

shoot inside buildings.

You're using a level of
ammunition that doesn't

necessarily shoot through
walls because you might have

friendlies on the other
side of those walls.

With lives at stake,

a SEAL's weaponry
must function...

everywhere.

A rifle in a
special forces context

has to perform in all
different environments.

It can't be a weapon that
can only be used in

clean,
dry environments.

It has to perform well in
snow, in dirt, mud, sand.

Unlike other warrior
cultures in history where

they would really maintain or
develop mastery in sometimes

a singular weapon, the Navy
SEALs try to look at

all weapons as fair game.

At times,
the SEAL will

enter combat by
land or by air...

but his specialty is
to strike from the sea.

And he'll need a weapon
designed for such an assault.

With the M4 carbine, it can
be very dangerous

to fire that rifle and water
still being in the barrel

or inside the gas tube.

So much so that it could
actually blow the system up.

When H&K develops the 416,
they incorporate certain

draining features into the
system that allows water

to rapidly drain
out of the rifle.

This allows a Navy SEAL or
operator to come out of surf,

without having to care that
much about how much water

is in the system,
to safely fire it.

A SEAL also selects
a reliable backup weapon,

tailored to his personal
preferences

and shooting style.

Pistol choices
are thought through

very carefully.

A .45 caliber hitting
anywhere on an opponent

or enemy will knock that
opponent down.

But it's a very
powerful round.

The 9 millimeter is a
less powerful round,

which means you have to
be much more accurate.

Every SEAL will choose which
caliber of weapon they carry.

It just depends on what
you're looking for

and what you need.

Just as important
as the type of weapon,

is the ability to
use it effectively

in every combat scenario.

We're now
going to teach you

how to shoot and move.

Or, not just going to,
you know,

set up an ambush.

Now we're going to
teach you how to actually

infiltrate an enemy
strong point safely.

The SEAL must
even be prepared to use his

weapons in the wind and
the waves of the open sea.

Somali pirates
capture a container ship

off the coast of Somalia.

And they take the captain
of that ship hostage,

for ransom.

Any hostage rescue
mission in

a maritime environment
is automatically going to

go to SEAL Team Six.

Navy destroyers
track the hijacked cargo ship.

The SEALs' most
skilled marksmen

are summoned to rescue
its captain.

A C-17 transports the SEALs,

their weapons
and their gear.

Their kit is all loaded into
high speed assault craft,

and dropped in the ocean
before the SEALS jump in.

They have
to get their fast,

so they parachute in.

It's gonna be a
low altitude jump

because they have
boats and gear,

and the drop zone is
in the open ocean.

It's gonna be over the
horizon so the enemy

cannot spot their arrival.

This lifeboat is already
attached to a US vessel,

and just being towed.

The hijackers hold Captain
Phillips in the lifeboat.

Hostage negotiations
are going nowhere.

The SEALs have
little time to pull off

the rescue of a
fellow sailor.

They're all on that fantail...

in the open water.

The complexity of the
task that SEALs face

in this moment
is enormous.

They are looking at
a target which is...

roughly the size of
maybe a button or,

at most,
a coffee mug.

That's, the size
of space they have,

with inside of which they
can take a shot.

Three snipers
on a shifting platform,

three moving targets...

And no margin for error.

The boat that
they're looking at,

the target is bobbing
up and down on the seas.

Even though bullets
travel fast,

the sea still moves.

So this is an element of
understanding exactly

how and when you
need to take a shot,

timing your shots in a way
that the bullet gets to

exactly where it needs to
be in the moment.

The crazy thing is that
they all have to take

a perfect shot
simultaneously.

All three at once.

They drop the pirates.

They took action and
they did what they had to do,

and they did it precisely.

You can just fathom
the difficulty of that shot.

The adrenaline,
the intensity.

It's an incredible feat.

The mission to
rescue Captain Phillips

is incredibly remarkable.

To be able to project
that power at sea,

to have them connect
with a Navy ship,

to jump out of an airplane
and, all the rest,

and to conduct three
simultaneous sniper shots.

It's incredible.

We marvel
at Captain Phillips,

and what the
SEALs do there.

But for them,
it's just another day.

The skills
demonstrated by the snipers

who rescued Captain Phillips
are enhanced

when paired with other
state-of-the-art gear,

chief among them,
night vision.

The enemy that
you cannot see is

far more damaging than
the enemy you can see.

In
special operations,

it's always an advantage
to fight your enemy

in the darkness.

With the invention
of night vision,

and laser aiming modules
on weapons systems,

fighting your
enemy in the dark,

where they don't have access
to night vision is gonna be

always better for you
in the end.

Night vision goggles
affords the SEAL assaulter

increased capability
in movement

in detecting the enemy.

However, in order for
it to be of real value,

it has to be paired with
a weapon system.

And so, that's when we use
our infrared lasers,

infrared floodlights.

Instead of
a visible red laser,

imagine an infrared laser,
that the naked eye can't see.

So an operator would be
looking over the top of

a rifle, not using the scope
that could be mounted on it,

but using that
laser instead.

A great warrior
has been built through

an exacting selection
and training process.

But his ultimate capabilities
will only be revealed

when he squares off
against the enemy.

Years of training
to master combat

in any environment,
prepare the Navy SEAL

for his ultimate purpose:

Meeting the enemy,
face to face.

You know, with any
soldier that goes to war,

you always wonder, well,
how are you gonna show up?

How are you gonna perform the
first time that you're tested?

For me, a testament to the
effectiveness of the training

is, my first time in combat,
I did feel a level...

somehow, that I'd
been there before.

America's most
elite special forces

operators neutralize
the enemy...

through a well-tested
combination of

weapons and tactics.

SEALs train to
be specialists in CQB.

It's close quarters battle in
a building with the enemy.

This is all about
your footwork.

It's all about
your line of sight.

It's a very difficult,
complex dance,

so that you can recognize
threats rapidly,

and then bring your
situational awareness

back out so you can
notice and address

new and emerging
threats.

It's a very difficult and
very complex way of

moving through
a building.

98% of what you do
as a Navy SEAL

is figure out how you
can get into a position

so that you might
take action.

While a Navy SEAL
prefers to unleash

a quick and
devastating attack,

he will sometimes face more
drawn-out encounters.

He will need
resilience, stamina,

and high-level
hand-to-hand combat skills.

Sometimes you need to be
able to capture people,

get a hold of them.
I don't want to kill them,

but I want to be
able to disable them,

get them under control
and take them off target.

As Navy SEALs, we do
train combatives

or hand-to-hand combat.

It is possible for somebody,
an enemy combatant,

to get their hands
on your weapon,

and you have to be able to
deliver effective strikes.

If you are down
to a point where you are

hand-to-hand,
or mano-a-mano,

something's probably
gone really bad.

The presence of
hostages changes

the approach to an
enemy stronghold...

the teams train and prepare
for all manner of

chaos and confusion.

In 2012, that
preparation pays off.

A SEAL troop is
given a very challenging

and difficult hostage
rescue mission.

They have to infill down a
steep mountain face

to close on a
remote target area

in the mountains
of Afghanistan.

When an enemy
guard reveals his position,

Edward Byers and a
fellow SEAL follow him,

infiltrating the compound.

Ed Byers is making
entry behind the point man.

Sadly, the point man is

fatally wounded
in that doorway.

Ed Byers steps through.

Immediately, he's confronted
with an enemy about

20 feet away, who's leveling
a weapon at him.

He drops him, and then
sees somebody else

on the ground crawling
towards a pile of weapons.

He tackles the guy
and straddles him.

He can't tell if it's a
hostage or a terrorist.

A hostage, though,
calls out to Byers,

so Byers knows the
guy he's straddling

is a bad guy.

At that point,
he kills the enemy

he's on top of,
and he immediately

leaps onto the hostage,
Dr. Joseph,

as bullets are whipping
around the room.

There's also another enemy
fighter within arm's reach,

and fortunately, while he's
covering Dr. Joseph,

he's able to pin
this guy up,

grabbing him by the
throat before...

fellow teammates come in
and help him out there.

Byers' bravery
earns him the

Medal of Honor,

and illustrates the
warrior mindset

instilled in each SEAL.

They're being taught as a
soldier or a fighter

to go into full
combatant mode.

The aggressive state you
have to sort of

bring out from yourself.

He's out to kill you.

The prime directive
is warfare.

The ultimate goal is
to come back a victor.

SEALs are trained to end a
fight quickly and effectively.

It's how warriors
have trained

through the centuries.

Every warrior culture
in some way

use fear as a weapon.

For the SEALs,
the mythos helps...

seed uncertainty and
seed fear into an enemy.

And this is no different
than the Spartans,

and the Vikings,

than the Mongols,
or the Samurai,

or any other
warrior culture.

Fear gives you
the advantage.

A frightened
enemy makes mistakes

that the SEAL,

with countless hours of
experience in

hand-to-hand combat,
can exploit.

It's finishing
moves, choke outs...

where they can handcuff
them or zip tie them,

capture them and
take them away.

Sometimes that
could be a rear naked choke

to grab a hold and
control the head.

Control the person.

You can tighten down, you
can clamp down on those

carotid arteries and make
that person pass out.

You get them in cuffs,

and now you've subdued
that person.

You've got them
under control,

and they've suffered
no physical harm.

A Navy SEAL
is effective in

one-on-one encounters.

But he's built to fight
as part of a team.

Now, he must deploy
alongside other SEALs,

in a squad that will
go after

America's biggest enemies,

including Osama bin Laden.

A Navy SEAL spends
years acquiring skills and

tactics that prepare him
for complex battlefield.

And when he's deployed,
he will join a team built to

go after America's most
elusive enemies.

None is more skilled
than the legendary

SEAL Team Six.

The SEAL Team Six mandate is
a lot like the Delta Force

mandate, the army's premier
special forces unit.

Until the War on Terror,
the Navy SEALs distinguished

themselves from Delta as
primarily a naval

special warfare unit,
attacking from the sea.

But the SEALs are needed
in the Middle East and

Afghanistan, so they adapt
to become as effective

a land warfare unit
as Delta.

When the world's
most wanted terrorist

eludes capture,
SEAL Team Six

is among those tasked
with finding him.

On 9/11, our towers
went down,

the Pentagon is hit,
and suddenly

the whole world knows who
Osama bin Laden is.

He becomes the number one
most wanted man in the world.

And the US military are in
constant search for him,

It looks to all of us
around the world,

we're not gonna
find bin Laden.

But then we get
this lead...

that he's in
Abbottabad.

He is pinpointed
and located in Pakistan,

at this compound that no one
would have ever expected.

He's right next to a
Pakistani military academy.

But knowing
where bin Laden is,

isn't the same as knowing
how to get him.

SEAL Team Six,
along with the

Pentagon's joint special
operations command,

devise a plan
of attack.

What the real
trick has to be is,

how can the operators
prepare in the best,

most effective
way possible?

So they build a
mock compound,

and the operators begin
to practice in

that mock compound.

Surveillance photos reveal the target

to be a 38,000 square
foot compound

protected by steel
security gates.

12 to 18-foot tall
concrete walls

are topped by razor-wire.

Its main building is a
three-story fortress

with an elaborate
security system.

SEAL Team Six
trains on a one-to-one

scale model of
bin Laden's compound.

That's the kind of
training that you need.

All of this is
designed to generate

as much certainty as
possible, so that they are

even more prepared for
uncertainty when it hits.

For 3 weeks,
24 SEALs

train to make entry
into the complex.

They practice clearing
every corner,

courtyard, and gate
of the exterior.

But opaque glass and high
walls prompt questions

about what awaits
them inside.

Who is actually
going to be on that target?

What the actual
threat's gonna be-

Is they're gonna be
suicide bombers?

What kind of armaments
are they gonna have?

No amount
of training or intel

can provide total certainty.

The operation plan is locked.

Now it's time to execute.

The order to capture or kill
the world's most

notorious terrorist
comes from the top.

The stakes
are immensely high...

and they know that.

Navy SEALs
approach by air

in two stealth
Blackhawk helicopters,

an aircraft whose
existence isn't

even acknowledged
prior to this mission.

You're deep
in Pakistan,

who doesn't know
you're there.

And you need to be there
as fast as possible.

The guys are
flying in territory for

a couple hours, undetected.

The plan calls for
12 men to fast rope

from one helicopter
to the courtyard.

The second helicopter
will drop one team

outside the compound to
guard the perimeter,

and another team
onto the roof of

the main building.

Everything is
speed, speed, speed.

Then,
disaster strikes.

The plan doesn't
go as expected because a

helicopter, which is supposed
to land in the courtyard,

in fact, crashes in
the courtyard.

And now,
the plan changes.

The second helicopter,
which is supposed to

put guys on the top
of the building,

now decides to land
outside the building.

The operators are immediately
dropped into uncertainty.

Infiltration tactics rehearsed and

practiced to perfection...

are abandoned.

This helicopter
crash changes everything.

This kind of catastrophe can
cause the whole operation

to spin out of control.

The SEALs are
forced to fall back

on contingency plans.

3 SEALs from the
downed helicopter

enter through a garage.

They're greeted with
fire from an AK 47.

The SEALS fired back
with silenced weapons,

killing the threat
with two shots.

SEALS on the second chopper
hit the ground and

link up with the rest
of the team.

Near the back
of the main house,

there's a stairwell.

Blocking their way to the
upper two floors

is a locked metal gate.

The SEALs blast
their way through

with breaching materials.

They've got this down.

They sweep the rooms,
going floor by floor.

It's like clockwork.

They clear
the first floor.

Bin Laden's not there.

Then the SEALs encounter
another gunman

on the staircase.

He's shot dead
before he can fire.

It's bin Laden's son.

They clear the second floor.

Bin Laden's not there.

Is he gonna be on
the third floor?

Infiltrating deep into the compound,

the SEALs seek out their
target: Osama bin Laden.

And then,
there he is.

A man who's killed
3000 Americans,

and there he finally is.

And, it's done.

'Geronimo' is the
codename given to bin Laden.

So the call goes out:
"For God and country.

Geronimo, Geronimo,
Geronimo."

That's heard across
the team's radios.

It means one thing:
the SEALs got him.

The uniqueness
of that operation,

you're talking about killing
the mastermind of 9/11,

the most wanted
terrorist in the world.

The weight and
pressure on SEAL Team Six...

for that strike must
have been huge, and yet,

with the training,
it just becomes habit.

An elite special
forces unit built and

designed to
attack from water,

executes a
high-profile mission,

hundreds of miles
from the sea.

There was no
water around Abbottabad.

But, the SEALs are
the ones who go in

and conduct the mission.

This just speaks to
the adaptability of

Naval Special Warfare.

The SEALs have
been in continuous combat

for decades, but this
modern warrior

must now look to the future.

Enemies are planning
their attacks,

and the SEAL
must be prepared.

For decades,
a Navy SEAL has had

an advantage over the enemy,
thanks to his superior

training,
weapons, and gear.

Now, some of that
technological advantage,

that gap is closing,
as the enemy starts to

become recipients of
better equipment.

There's information
and even footage of

our tactics and operations
that can be found

all over the Internet.

Now our enemies can see
exactly how we operate.

A unit that had hid in plain
sight for almost 50 years,

is now literally the most
widely known, popular

spec ops unit
on the planet

Some of our
advantage is lost.

The bin Laden raid,
I mean, it's,

it's the Iwo Jima
flag raising moment.

The impulse in special
operations is to maintain,

you know,
operational security.

And yet at the same time,
the country had

a right to know, you know,
what happened.

SEAL teams have
been incredible in the

development of their
tactics and procedures

in the global
War on Terror.

But now,
the equipment,

the tactics that we
used in the past,

well, that's not
gonna be good enough.

In the
coming years,

the SEAL knows he will need
to get creative to succeed

against a well-armed,
well-prepared enemy.

One of the challenges
for Naval Special Warfare

moving forward is, how can
we maintain our level of

training, so that we
can continue to

conduct operations
around the world?

You're trying to understand,

what's the next war
going to be like?

What sorts of missions are
we going to be going on,

and what are the
challenges that will be

associated with
those missions?

To answer such
questions requires a SEAL to

embrace innovative training,
to build more than

just strength
and endurance.

In the early 2000s,

I was in charge of
assessment selection

for one of our
specialized SEAL commands.

And one of the things my
leaders asked me to do

was to look at how we could
become better as warriors.

But instead of just
focusing on

how can we get
physically better,

how could we also get
mentally better?

So we began to explore and
experiment with a bunch of

different technologies in
what we were at that time

calling a "Mind Gym."

Things like
HRV breathing,

cold plunges,
float tanks,

so that we could
actually start training

this gray matter between
our ears to be better

as warriors moving into
the future of combat.

And so we're going
to have to continue to be

creative, continue to
develop better equipment,

different technology,
different tactics and

procedures to be relevant
on the battlefield tomorrow.

The SEALs see
this as continuing the

decades-long practice of
embracing whatever works.

From the first days,
the SEALs have always

adapted to what they needed
to do to actually execute

the best type of
warfare they can.

Use what environment
they can.

And this is just the
example of the

Navy SEAL mantra and ethos.

Always adapt, always
be ready, never quit.

The SEALs are free
to do whatever works

to get the mission done.
Improvise, innovate.

Whatever it takes to win.

The evolution
of an exclusively

maritime focused unit,
into a land focused,

go anywhere
capture kill unit is

one of the greatest
underdog stories

in American
military history.

Full stop.

We will always be
tasked with doing

difficult things in very
harsh environments,

and so we cannot allow
those standards

to drop in any way.

The standards are maintained
not from the top down.

They're not because the
boss says that

you need to do this.
It's from within.

At the very lowest levels
of that SEAL squad,

that SEAL platoon,
that SEAL troop,

those standards are
enforced with one another.

We hold each other
accountable to

showing up well-trained,
well-prepared,

and able to perform at
that highest level.

Their relentless
drive for constant

improvement,
to make "the teams"

the best fighting
force possible...

Their adaptability and
innovative tactics...

And their dominance on land,
in the air, and at sea...

earn the Navy SEALs
their rightful place...

among History's
Greatest Warriors.