SEAL Team Six’s Most Daring Operations of All Time

Between movies, stories, books, interviews, and social media, the exploits of the Navy SEALs are legendary. At the top of the Navy SEAL food chain is SEAL Team Six. Often referred to as DEVGRU or “US Naval Special Warfare Development Group,” SEAL Team Six is the best of the best. If Americans are ever in trouble overseas, there is a good chance members of SEAL Team Six will be called upon to add to the team’s exploits of some of its most daring raids.

Osama Bin Laden

• Date: May 1-2, 2011
• Operation: Neptune Spear
• Mission: Capture or kill Osama Bin Laden, the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks
• SEAL Losses: 0

As portrayed in various movies and documentaries, SEAL Team Six successfully flew into Pakistan and killed Osama Bin Laden, his adult son, a woman, and four couriers.

Maersk Alabama

• Date: April 12, 2009
• Operation: Unknown 
• Mission: Free Maersk Alabama Captain
• SEAL Losses: 0

Three SEAL Team Six snipers shot and killed three pirates holding Captain Richard Philips hostage on a lifeboat. Philips was rescued and freed and became a global hero. 

Jessica Lynch

• Date: April 1, 2003
• Operation: Unknown 
• Mission: Free Private Jessica Lynch
• SEAL Losses: 0

Sixty SEALs from Gold Squadron rescued Lynch from a hospital in Iraq after she was captured on a maintenance run in Iraq. It made headlines across the United States.

Rescue Mission

• Date: January 24, 2012
• Operation: Octave Fusion
• Mission: Free Jessica Buchanan and Poul Hagen Thisted
• SEAL Losses: 0

Members of SEAL Team Six rescued both Buchanan and Thisted after parachuting into Somali territory. Once inside Somalia, the commandoes eliminated all of the bandits who captured the aid workers. 

Abu Hamza Rabia

• Date: Fal 2005
• Operation: Cottonmouth
• Mission: Get intelligence on Al Qaeda’s third-in-command
• SEAL Losses: No losses, two injuries

SEAL Team Six’s Gold Squadron infiltrated Pakistan and gained intelligence to locate and target Abu Hamza Rabia, Al-Qaeda’s third in command, who was later killed by a drone strike. 

Haitian President

• Date: 1991
• Operation: Uphold Democracy
• Mission: Rescue overthrown Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide
• SEAL Losses: 1 killed, 1 wounded

As part of this SEAL action, DEVGRU rescued Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and his family and whisked them away to a Navy cruiser stationed off Haiti’s coast. 

Vigilant Harvest

• Date: March 2006
• Operation: Vigilant Harvest
• Mission: Assault an Al-Qaeda training camp
• SEAL Losses: 0

In March 2006, DEVGRU and Army Rangers infiltrated Pakistani territory and killed 30 terrorists as part of an assault on an Al-Qaeda training camp. 

Nigerian Hostage Rescue

• Date: October 26, 2020
• Operation: Juniper Shield
• Mission: Rescue American Philip Walton
• SEAL Losses: 0

On October 26, 2020, SEAL Team Six rescued U.S. citizen Philip Walton after armed kidnappers captured him on his farm and demanded money in exchange for his release. 

1998 Embassy Bombing

• Date: September 14, 2009
• Operation: Celestial Balance
• Mission: Eliminate those responsible for the 1998 United States embassy bombings in Africa 
• SEAL Losses: 0

Almost 10 years after the bombing, SEAL operators retrieved the body of the high-value target who was responsible for a 1998 US Embassy bombing. The SEALs arrived after the convoy was attacked by AH-6 helicopters that were part of the SEAL attack group.

Iraqi Operations

• Date: Unknown
• Operation: Unknown
• Mission: Assault an Al-Qaeda cell of IED makers north of Baghdad
• SEAL Losses: 0

On one particular raid, 17 Navy SEALs and two military dogs used their excellent training to silently eliminate 19 terrorists from an Al-Qaeda cell, all without harming a single woman or child. 

Chemical Weapons

• Date: March 26, 2003
• Operation: Iraqi Freedom / Objective Beaver
• Mission: Participate in heliborne raids against high-value targets to determine if chemical or biological weapons are present in Iraq 
• SEAL Losses: 0 Seals, 1 Ranger wounded

During the evening of March 26, 2003, SEAL Team Six, supported by Army Rangers, attacked the al Qadisiyah Research Centre to look for evidence of chemical and/or biological weapons. No evidence was discovered of any such weapons. 

Joint Operation

• Date: May 22, 2012
• Operation: Jubilee
• Mission: Rescue a British aid worker, Kenyan aid worker, and two Afghan translators
• SEAL Losses: 0

In May 2012, SEAL Team Six, in partnership with the British Army 22nd Special Air Service, hit two cave targets simultaneously looking for the hostages. The SEAL team target came up dry with hostages (though they killed seven gunmen), while the SAS assault team killed four gunmen and rescued all four hostages. 

Capture Ahmed Warsame

• Date: April 19, 2011
• Operation: 
• Mission: Capture Ahmed Abdulkadir Warsame, who coordinated terrorist activity between Al-Qaeda and Somali Al-Shabab.
• SEAL Losses: 0

On this mission, SEAL Team Six was tasked with capturing Warsame as he was in international waters on a fishing boat. The SEALs approached the boat, boarded it undetected, and captured Warsame without firing a single shot. 

Dr. Dilip Joseph

• Date: December 8, 2012
• Operation: Unknown
• Mission: Rescue Dr. Dilip Joseph, an American doctor held hostage by the Taliban
• SEAL Losses: 1 KIA

DEVGRU was sent in to rescue the doctor after being informed his life was in imminent danger. While the SEAL raid successfully rescued the doctor, one member of the team was injured during the attack and died from his wounds while returning to base. 

Taliban Ambush

• Date: Unknown
• Operation: Unknown
• Mission: Eliminate a Taliban force hiding out in the mountain regions of Afghanistan 
• SEAL Losses: 0

Members of SEAL Team Six learned the route a group of Taliban fighters took to avoid detection, which allowed the SEALs to set an ambush. On the day of the attack, the SEALs eliminated five enemy insurgents.

The image featured at the top of this post is ©Cheryl Casey/Shutterstock.com.