Wednesday, May 04, 2011

Operation Neptune´s Spear and Swedish SEALs


To find an active US Navy SEAL willing to talk about operation Neptune´s Spear is no easy thing, but an American relative managed to find Mike Smith, a former SEAL. I like his last comments.

US Navy SEALs have been of particular interest to Swedes long before the bin Laden raid. This is because Sweden´s most famous elite officer, Carl Hamilton, is a fully qualified SEAL.

Carl Hamilton, however, is a James Bondesque character in novels by Swedish author Jan Guillou, and movies based on these books. But there has been a Rolf Hamilton and a Jan T. Sundlöf, two Swedish naval officers/attack divers that I have written about in my previous Swedish book, Elitförband i Norden ("Nordic Elite Units") and a long article. These officers received UDT/SEAL training in the 1950s to 1970s. Hopefully I will have time to translate and adapt that book into English next year.

Nice SEAL-interview, Randy!
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4 comments:

  1. Mario Mirarchi5 May 2011 at 05:04

    Hi Lars,

    Don't forget the outgoing Commander of the Special Operations Command, Eric Thor Olson.

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  2. Jonas9 November 2012 at 21:15

    Tjena,
    Jag noterade att du skriver att Jan T:son Sundlöf fått ett SEAL märke, citat: "Sundlöf är den ende svensk som med hundraprocentig säkerhet har fått ett SEAL-märke" jag är bara nyfiken på vad du menar med "SEAL märke"?
    "Budweisern" eller annat?

    *nyfiken* :)
    /Jonas

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Henry Norman28 July 2019 at 10:49

      This links to a photo of the "SEAL märke" that Lieutenant Sundlöf did receive from the U.S. Navy:

      https://app.box.com/s/ntlm1ypg0wzdiyhj5afe13ialeu6z50r

      I do believe that RSN Lieutenant Rolf Hamilton did also receive the U.S. Navy SEAL medallion. (Both in the mid-1950s).

      See also my PowerPoint presentation "Midget Sub HMS Spiggen (nee HMS Stickleback)":

      https://app.box.com/s/u937maehgp0aadtee5fl8ikm2q0xjlax

      Delete
  3. Lars Gyllenhaal10 November 2012 at 11:30

    Jan erhöll av US Navy SEALs en SEAL-medaljong med SEAL-örnen och "Jan" ingraverat under örnen - se bild av den i min bok "Elitförband i Norden" liksom en plakett för väggen. Han fick också själva utbildningstecknet men så vitt känt bar han det aldrig och det är oklart om han fick det bara som en souvenir eller just som utbildningstecken.

    ReplyDelete