After an 11 year absence, Naval Special Warfare will reactivate its East Coast SEAL delivery vehicle team in a ceremony slated for March 8 at Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek-Fort Story.
SEAL delivery teams operate from small submerged vehicles launched from special platforms mounted on submarines called dry deck shelters. Navy divers help deploy and recover the vehicles from the subs.
SEAL Delivery Vehicle Team Two will be helmed by Cmdr. Grady McDonald, according to a statement released by the Navy.
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Created in 1983 through a reorganization of Underwater Demolition Teams 12 and 22, Little Creek hosted SDVT-2 for more than a quarter century.
On the other side of the country, SEAL Delivery Vehicle Team One operated out of Coronado in California before it was relocated to Hawaii in 1994.
In 2008, SDVT-2 was disestablished, part of a consolidation of most of the Navy’s SEAL delivery operations under Pearl Harbor-based SDVT-1.
The Navy continued to rely on a small dry deck shelter detachment at Little Creek to support East Coast special operations, but it remained under the command of Hawaii-based SDVT-1.
By splitting off SDVT-2, the SEALs will beef up their delivery capabilities on the East Coast and in Europe.
Both teams, however, will fall under the control of Naval Special Warfare Group Three in Hawaii.
Mark D. Faram is a former reporter for Navy Times. He was a senior writer covering personnel, cultural and historical issues. A nine-year active duty Navy veteran, Faram served from 1978 to 1987 as a Navy Diver and photographer.
