Former Navy SEALs and Navy SEALs 6 founder and retired commander Richard "Dick" Malsinko recently died at Christmas, marking the loss of one of the most famous (and infamous) and command figures in the Navy SEAL community. Marcinko's best-known photograph is perhaps on the cover of his 1992 bestseller Rogue Warrior.
Flint eyes, beard, muscular Marcinko look straight into the camera and look directly at your soul. His trident-adorned black shirt—unbuttoned to reveal a piece of steel-lined chest hair—was dark charcoal and almost disappeared into the background, matched only by Malcinco's ruthlessly deep black eyebrows. If this photo makes the hardened Marcinko look like she has just been released from prison, it is because it was taken after Marcinko was actually released from prison.
This is the paradoxical essence of "Demo Dick" Marcinko: a ferocious, dedicated American commando who is one of America's premier counterterrorism and special mission units, and a convicted felon who runs the same unit, in the times, like an illegal motorcycle gang.
I'm not going to completely repeat the formation of the SEAL Six here, as the official account can be found in many books and other documents. However, I'll share some knowledge of the Navy SEALs that built ST-6 around Marcinko and its early 1980s. In any case, don't take it as gospel truth, but more as the oral history of Mahinko's contemporaries in the first few decades of the Navy SEALs.
After the 1979 Iranian hostage crisis, Commander Dick Malsinko was given the responsibility of forming Navy SEAL Team 6, a staff officer position at the Pentagon, having previously served as commander of Navy SEAL 2. He knew he needed to quickly form a command, get it off the ground and start functioning, if it was seen as a success.
In 1978, Marcinko painted a cleaner and cleaner portrait of his Navy official portrait
With that in mind, Marcinko picked a Navy SEAL core from st-2 who was part of a dedicated counterterrorism training unit within the team and made them the initial core of ST-6. The core members of team 2 included then-Lieutenant Colonel Norman Carly, who was elected the team's first executive officer (XO) and was therefore Mahinko's second-in-command. According to legend, Mahinco then selected his various "drinking buddies" and closest friends from the Navy SEALs on the East and West Coasts to fill the rest of the SEALs.
According to some Navy SEALs of that era, as the first XO of the ST-6, Carly valued his job so much that he saved Dick Malcinco from jail. Not only did Mahinko encourage disregard for naval regulations in terms of decorum, uniform use, military manners, and decorum, but he also neglected his duties, believing that he and his new unit were somehow exempt from the rules governing the Navy. The rest of the mortals. Of course, this attitude later led him to jail for being convicted in 1990 of conspiring to defraud the government. After his release from prison, he will continue to work on Rogue Warrior with co-author John Weisman (the photo on the cover above is Mahinko in prison).
Marcinko is known as a charismatic storyteller, and, as we all know, he is an charismatic person. Even later in his life, this was still true, as he often used his colorful and mundane stories to please those who attended the Navy SEALs reunion. He both encouraged and demanded a strong sense of loyalty and dedication from his men. During his tenure as ST-6 CO, this even led Marcinko to suddenly perform "training operations" against his men — ostensibly to test their response time to being asked to take urgent action — which quickly turned into a beer drinker. Brush your teeth through bar fights and laws. In Marcinko's view, it was all about building unit cohesion and camaraderie, testing the resilience and determination of his men.
While a polarizing and controversial figure in Navy SEALs history, there is no doubt that Mahinko made a significant impact (rogue warrior Dick Mahinko - Facebook)
Not surprisingly, some people inside the early ST-6 didn't see it that way. Specifically, the few officers who served with Malcinko were shocked by his actions and the way he managed his troops. Robert Gormly, the second commander of Navy SEAL Team 6, reportedly described what Mahinko had left behind him as "a mess." Allegedly, a later ST-6 commander even banned Marcinko from entering the ST-6 compound because his influence and attitude became so passive and widespread.
Suffice it to say that the Navy SEALs 6 continue to surpass many of Marcinko's worst impulses, while some would say that other aspects of its creator's influence will shift across the command to the modern era. In any case, the influence this man had on the SEALs— especially the SEAL Six— was undoubtedly far-reaching. Figures like Dick Malcinco rarely appear or make a lasting impression. Some of them are good, many are bad, and won't be forgotten in that community for a long time.
rest.