Back in 2017, SOFREP founder and CEO Brandon Webb sat down with Navy SEAL legend “Demo” Dick Marcinko for an in-depth series of interviews. In this latest interview, number four of the series, Marcinko describes how he was stationed at the Pentagon during the time of Operation Eagle Claw, the mission to free our hostages from Iran.

As you might recall, Eagle Claw turned out to be an embarrassing failure, resulting in multiple aircraft crashing in the Desert and the death of eight servicemen.

In 1980, the U.S. Navy entrusted Marcinko with the task of creating a specialized counterterrorism squad. Admiral Thomas B. Hayward, the Chief of Naval Operations, appointed him as the inaugural leader of this unit. At the time, there were only two SEAL teams in existence, but Marcinko cleverly named the new team “SEAL Team Six” to mislead foreign intelligence services into thinking there were more active SEAL teams. He meticulously selected members from the existing SEAL teams and Underwater Demolition Teams to establish this new group. For three years, Marcinko was at the helm of SEAL Team Six, shaping it into the highly esteemed force it is recognized as today. He quickly put together the initial cadre of SEAL Team 6 by choosing SEALs from ST-2 (SEAL Team TWO) who had counterterrorism training.

Listen to him tell how it was done in this engaging video.