The mission is believed to have failed due to poor intelligence. Operation Pokeweed (1990)ĭevGru reportedly returned to Panama to take part in a secret operation intended to apprehend the Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar. Working with Delta Force and other elite units, DevGru members assisted in the capture of deposed dictator Manuel Noriega during the United States’ invasion of Panama in December 1989. Under heavy fire from Grenadian soldiers as they attempted to evacuate, the SEALs swam out to sea, where they waited for nearly six hours until the Navy located and retrieved them. The unit was responsible for the rescue of the country’s governor general, Paul Scoon, who had been placed under house arrest and was facing execution, as well as the securing of a radio transmitter. Four of its members were lost at sea during an offshore helicopter drop. SEAL Team Six participated in the U.S.-led invasion of Grenada, which quelled a communist takeover of the small Caribbean nation’s government in October 1983. While many of DevGru’s operations remain classified, some of its activities have been confirmed and publicized, including the unit’s most high-profile raid yet: the assault on Osama bin Laden’s compound in Pakistan that killed the elusive al-Qaeda leader. In October 2010, The Atlantic reported that defense officials had renamed DevGru once again, but the new moniker has not yet been made public. According to the security news website, the unit now counts an estimated 200 operators as well as 300 specialists charged with testing and developing special equipment and weapons. In addition to the grueling training program that all SEALs-the acronym refers to the settings in which they are deployed: sea, air and land-must complete, DevGru candidates receive advanced instruction in counterterrorism techniques before undergoing a rigorous selection process. While DevGru’s organization, like the details of its operations, is shrouded in secrecy, it is believed that most of its members are handpicked from other SEAL teams and from the Navy’s Explosive Ordnance Disposal units. In 1987 it was dissolved and rebranded as the United States Naval Special Warfare Development Group. (Others include the Army’s fabled Delta Force and the Air Force’s 24th Special Tactics Squadron.) Based at Pope Army Air Field and Fort Bragg in North Carolina, JSOC was established in 1980 after American special forces failed to rescue American hostages at the Iranian Embassy during Operation Eagle Claw.Ī JSOC unit responsible for counterterrorist operations in the maritime environment became operational the following year as SEAL Team Six, a name chosen to confuse Soviet intelligence since only three SEAL teams existed at the time. ![]() ![]() Originally known as SEAL Team Six, the United States Naval Special Warfare Development Group (DevGru) is one of several publicly disclosed units under the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), an elite and highly classified group that coordinates counterterrorism and other security-related missions around the world.
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