Silence: SEAL Team Six vs. Delta Force

Some people ask, "Why do we always hear about Navy SEALs and never about Delta Force?" A difficulty in answering is that this question compares apples to oranges. SEAL Team Six and Delta Force serve under the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), but the other SEAL Teams do not. While it's tough to become a SEAL, it's even tougher to earn a spot under JSOC.

If people want to compare Navy SEALs to Army units, it would be more appropriate to compare SEALs with Special Forces or Rangers--the first major special ops book on these units was Robin Moore's 1965 The Green Berets, which became a #1 bestseller in the US. In 1976, Benjamin Schemmer wrote The Raid, a Green Berets attempt to rescue 61 US POWs north of Hanoi, Vietnam.

If one were to compare SEAL Team Six with Delta Force, the first biography came from Delta Force's founder Charlie Beckwith, entitled Delta Force. In 1986, Chuck Norris starred in an action movie with the same name. And the first hit TV show was also about Delta Force (2006-2009), called The Unit. It wasn't until 2017 that a TV series was made about SEAL Team Six, called Six.

Of course there have been books like Richard Marcinko's Rogue Warrior and the movie Navy SEALs starring Charlie Sheen, but these came after the Delta Force book and movie. The 1999 book, Blackhawk Down, told much about Delta Force and the Rangers' role in the Battle of Mogadishu, but little was said about SEAL Team Six's role. Although in 2007, Navy SEAL Marcus Luttrell published his autobiography, Lone Survivor, in 2008, Delta Force's Dalton Fury published Kill bin Laden, about the Battle of Tora Bora.

In 2011, after SEAL Team Six took down bin Laden, Americans wanted to know more. This knowing provided closure for many regarding the tragic September 11 attacks. Books like SEAL Team Six: Memoirs of an Elite Navy SEAL Sniper (2011) and American Sniper (2012) became bestsellers.

Even so, too much information can endanger current operators, their missions and tactics. The Department of Defense (DOD) cracked down on Mark Owen, the author of No Easy Day (2012), for not clearing his manuscript with them. Although these men are heroes, it has become increasingly important for them to clear their stories with the DOD. In short answer to the original question, although recently much media attention has been given to Navy special operators, Army special operators have a history of receiving media attention, too.