XBradTC

We don’t show a lot of love for the Coast Guard here. We feel kinda bad about that, because if we hadn’t joined the Army, we would have joined the Coasties. They may not be the most gung-ho uniformed service around, but they sure are among the hardest working.

Back in 2008, the Coasties and the Navy signed an agreement to allow small numbers of Coast Guardsmen to attend the Navy’s SEAL training, and integrate with the active SEAL teams. After a period of time, they would return to the Coast Guard and share their knowledge and skills.

Today, that agreement has begun to bear fruit.

Two Coast Guard officers became the first in their service to earn SEAL tridents Friday, according to Navy and Coast Guard officials. Another three are in the pipeline.

They will be the first uniformed personnel ever assigned to an operational SEAL team while a member of another branch of the U.S. Armed Forces.

Why is this important? In today’s COIN world, we’ve seen a lot of military operations move to a more law-enforcement orientation in terms of their operations overseas. And the Coast Guard is the nation’s primary maritime law-enforcement agency. This partnership can potentially give the SEALs greater flexibility in countering piracy and terrorism, and allow  them to learn from the Coasties some of the less kinetic skills they have in their repertoire. And it will give the Coasties a better understanding of the challenges facing special operators as well as learning tactics, techniques and procedures used on the special warfare side.

H/T: War News Updates, whose incredible output make being a blogger much, much easier.