The DEVGRU Files: SEAL Team 6 Founding Officer Dick Marcinko on Joining the Navy

I had a chance to sit down for an interview with Richard “Demo Dick” Marcinko for SOFREP when he was in town for our book club event in New York (photo gallery here) this month. It was great to get his candid take on why he joined the navy, UDT/SEAL training, combat in Vietnam, how SEAL Team started, women in the SEALs and much more. Lunch was even better…

Photo: Dick Marcinko talks to SOFREP Book Club Members at a private event in Manhattan

I can’t tell you what an honor it was to have such a candid interview with a legend in the community, the same man who influenced a generation of SEALs (myself included) with his book, Rogue Warrior. His book also paved the way for a whole generation of SEAL experiences as told from a personal lens through many books post 9/11, including my own memoir, The Red Circle. 

Afterwards I grabbed lunch with Eric Davis (a BUD/S classmate of mine), Jack Murphy (Editor of SOFREP), and Dick at the ACE hotel in NYC. We talked about women, war stories, beer, and SEAL community drama. Part of me wished we had filmed lunch but hell, the point was to catch up off camera.

Dick and I spoke about the current divide in the community over SEALs in the media, and the unprofessional attacks against fellow teammates in the media, mostly fueled by professional jealousy. We talked about similar comparisons in professional sports, and how some guys go on to other successes and some do not. It was a great lunch and a piece of living history for us all.

Later that evening, when I was prepping for the book club event, it struck me, that if it weren’t for Dick, the Navy may have never developed the same counter-terrorism unit that would decades later take down the World’s most wanted terrorist, Osama Bin Laden.

Photo: Right to left. Brandon Webb, Dick Marcinko, Eric Davis, and Jack Murphy. 

So enjoy Episode 1 of my interview with Dick Marcinko. The full uncut series will run in October of this year during Special Operations Appreciation Month.

Brandon Webb

UDT/SEAL Class 215

Episode 1