Valuetainment - September 12, 2025


“Delta Force Are Silent Professionals” - The Secrets Of U.S. Special Ops REVEALED By Robert O'Neill


Episode Stats


Length

8 minutes

Words per minute

239.48221

Word count

2,146

Sentence count

188

Harmful content

Misogyny

1

sentences flagged

Hate speech

2

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Former Navy SEAL Pat McRaven talks about his time with the elite Delta Force and how he became a SEAL Team Six member. He also talks about what it's like to be a member of SEAL Team 6 and how it compares to the rest of the elite teams.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 I remember when I'm talking to the same guy I'm talking to about, Delta,
00:00:05.180 I'm like, hey, why don't you tell this story?
00:00:07.880 I can't.
00:00:08.680 Why not?
00:00:09.740 I don't even want anybody to know I serve.
00:00:11.320 Why?
00:00:12.040 Well, because, you know, we made a pact.
00:00:13.760 Yes, they did.
00:00:14.500 So you don't want, it says, Pat, I'm telling you, nothing.
00:00:17.840 Write a book.
00:00:18.660 No.
00:00:19.580 What if you, you know, you can make some.
00:00:21.100 No, nothing.
00:00:22.560 He didn't want to do anything about it.
00:00:23.800 He didn't want to talk about it.
00:00:25.560 You know.
00:00:26.220 Delta's the best in the world about that.
00:00:28.360 I mean.
00:00:29.420 Why is that, though?
00:00:30.180 They are just really good.
00:00:32.140 They're very prideful about the secrets of their mission and what they do together.
00:00:38.840 They don't want anyone to know.
00:00:39.560 Why is that?
00:00:40.020 I don't know.
00:00:40.680 They just respect it.
00:00:41.520 Like, I've been to their compound, and they've got trophy cases and whatnot,
00:00:45.560 but there's curtains over them.
00:00:47.960 No one can see them unless you're a guest specifically, like, from another unit.
00:00:51.160 And then when everything's secure, they'll bring them up,
00:00:53.080 and you can see, like, Saddam's guns and shit like that, stuff they did in Colombia.
00:00:56.460 But then they put the curtains back.
00:00:57.840 Like, they don't tell anyone anything.
00:00:59.080 Get out of here.
00:00:59.560 You know, and people say to me, like, they're like, yeah, silent professional.
00:01:02.740 I'm like, Navy SEALs?
00:01:03.540 No, we're not.
00:01:04.060 Delta is the silent professional.
00:01:05.720 Not us.
00:01:06.360 We're, you know.
00:01:07.620 I mean, granted, there are stuff I don't say,
00:01:10.040 but SEALs are not exactly known for being the silent professional.
00:01:12.080 Delta is.
00:01:12.900 And they're really good about it.
00:01:14.620 And they're very professional.
00:01:17.120 Where does that come from, though?
00:01:18.360 That has to come from the top in training, right?
00:01:21.280 It's history.
00:01:22.740 Didn't the founder of Delta write a book about it?
00:01:25.780 Charlie Beckwith, is that his name?
00:01:27.140 Something like that.
00:01:28.120 Inside Delta Force?
00:01:28.540 Yeah, he did.
00:01:28.840 But he wrote a book about it, right?
00:01:30.240 So if the founder did that, then the rest of the guys don't.
00:01:35.300 Who at one point said, guys, I don't care if the founder.
00:01:37.780 Yeah.
00:01:38.020 I thought he wrote a book about it, if I'm not mistaken.
00:01:41.220 I think he wrote Inside Delta Force.
00:01:43.340 Didn't he live in Frisco, Texas, or somewhere in Texas?
00:01:45.900 I thought he moved to, like, Frisco.
00:01:47.280 Yep, he died in Austin.
00:01:48.740 But he used to.
00:01:49.500 Did he ever live in Frisco, Texas, or Dallas, Texas?
00:01:53.020 Can you see Dallas, Texas, or Frisco, nothing?
00:01:55.160 No.
00:01:55.840 Interesting.
00:01:56.880 Yeah, everybody would talk about how this guy wrote a book.
00:02:01.320 But to Delta guys, you can't get shit out of them.
00:02:03.720 They didn't like that.
00:02:04.700 And, I mean, to my friends who were at Delta or veterans from Delta, they were not happy with his book.
00:02:10.300 But we've seen it with Richard Marcinko.
00:02:11.800 He founded SEAL Team 6.
00:02:13.180 And he wrote a book.
00:02:14.320 He couldn't get it approved, so he wrote it based on fiction.
00:02:17.460 And he was like, they would say, well, people up top would say bad things about him, but shooters loved him because he got in trouble for doing the right thing for his guys.
00:02:24.800 Getting the guns you need, getting you the plane tickets you need, doing the job you need to do.
00:02:28.260 And he was loved.
00:02:29.400 I don't really know.
00:02:30.100 Well, Delta's so secretive, I don't really know what they think about him either.
00:02:33.540 I'd work with Delta.
00:02:35.080 And they're fantastic.
00:02:37.500 So what was the biggest thing that you sensed about them?
00:02:40.560 You got Air Force.
00:02:41.360 You got the paratrooper.
00:02:42.280 You got all these other guys.
00:02:43.840 What was about Delta that was different than everybody else?
00:02:46.020 My initial reaction to Delta, this is no bullshit.
00:02:49.180 The first time I worked with them was when I just checked into SEAL Team 6.
00:02:52.540 My initial reaction was, that's Delta.
00:02:54.540 I really hope I meet the guy who eventually kills Osama bin Laden. 0.85
00:02:57.880 That would be so cool.
00:02:58.660 Because you thought it would be a Delta.
00:03:00.020 Of course they're going to get it.
00:03:01.200 It's going to be in a landlocked country.
00:03:02.620 Why would SEAL Team 6 get it?
00:03:04.680 Delta's going to get it.
00:03:05.300 I think we got it because they concentrated on Iraq and we stayed in Afghanistan.
00:03:08.860 Does everybody know?
00:03:10.380 Like, is the consensus?
00:03:11.780 Like, you know how in the NBA, you ask the current players, who's the greatest player of all time?
00:03:16.460 Young kids will say LeBron, but a lot of guys will say Michael.
00:03:18.880 Does everybody know Tier 1 that Delta's the way to go?
00:03:21.580 I probably shouldn't say this, but you can tell Michael Jordan's the best because he's never said he is.
00:03:28.460 And I'm not saying Delta's the best because they don't say they are.
00:03:31.000 Because, I mean, if you ask me right now, we're better.
00:03:33.320 Our tactics are better.
00:03:34.200 We operated better.
00:03:35.140 But pull a Delta guy, if you can get him here, he'll tell you the same thing about them.
00:03:38.060 And they were just, I mean, they were awesome.
00:03:39.400 But if somebody watches this right now, the way you describe Delta is that Delta's better than SEAL Team 6.
00:03:43.700 No, I didn't say that.
00:03:44.540 No, we're better.
00:03:45.440 But I'm going to make that clear.
00:03:46.280 Our tactics were better.
00:03:47.520 I think we are.
00:03:50.080 Tactically.
00:03:50.740 Yes.
00:03:51.680 Tactically.
00:03:52.180 But they're going to pick us apart, too.
00:03:54.300 Because our tactics were different.
00:03:56.320 It's hard to say.
00:03:57.100 They were awesome.
00:03:58.800 And it could be jealousy for me because they had this mission called Vehicle Interdictions, the VIs in Iraq, on Little Birds.
00:04:04.800 And you're just sitting on a bench on the outside of a helicopter that's so small.
00:04:08.720 When you want to take off, you just put your thumb here and the pilot squeezes it.
00:04:11.220 And then you're hunting people.
00:04:12.360 That's cool.
00:04:12.920 I was jealous.
00:04:13.400 Why don't we get that?
00:04:14.400 Come on, man.
00:04:15.160 And that's where even some of the animosity, well, they're not that good.
00:04:18.840 Yeah, they are.
00:04:19.840 But, I mean, even working with him, it was such a good, even with Delta and with SEAL Team 6, what I loved about it was every single day I get to go to work with people who are better than me.
00:04:29.820 And there was no undermining.
00:04:31.060 Like, I'm going to take his position by fucking him.
00:04:32.600 I'm going to find out.
00:04:33.240 Like, even with guys that would out-shoot me, which is rare, I didn't want to try to screw with him.
00:04:39.500 I would find out, why did you move that pouch from here to here?
00:04:42.480 What time do you wake up and when do you work out?
00:04:44.040 Do you go to the range first or do you go to the gym?
00:04:45.580 What are you doing?
00:04:46.160 What do you eat?
00:04:46.680 When do you go to bed, what's making you shoot faster?
00:04:49.320 Are you concentrating on from here to here and that slow?
00:04:51.600 Because slow is smooth.
00:04:52.260 Smooth is fast.
00:04:52.740 Why are you so fast?
00:04:53.920 And everyone did that.
00:04:54.760 And so, I mean, so we'd work with Delta, have different styles of training, but then we'd cross it and find the better way.
00:05:00.840 And we were good at, because we're in eastern Afghanistan, they're in western Iraq, we would compare, well, here was the standard operating procedures.
00:05:09.180 Al-Qaeda knows what we're doing, sort of.
00:05:10.860 How did they adjust and how did you readjust?
00:05:12.520 And I got to tell my guys.
00:05:13.460 So what's, just to be prepared to get there.
00:05:15.400 What worked, what didn't.
00:05:16.960 Delta got hit really hard because one of our Vietnam tactics was when there's an open door, wide open, run in there.
00:05:22.280 We got to solve the problem.
00:05:23.400 Al-Qaeda knew that from whatever they read.
00:05:25.660 So they would have doors open.
00:05:28.200 Some guys would run in.
00:05:29.020 All of a sudden, there's two PKMs and they're shooting at them. 0.99
00:05:31.200 So that's when we all figured out, okay, we got to slow the fuck down.
00:05:34.340 Who was most impressive in that with speed?
00:05:36.040 Who did you see where you're like, holy shit?
00:05:38.020 Well, when I first checked into Red Squad, because we finished selection for SEAL Team 6, and close quarters battle was our bread and butter.
00:05:43.380 We're going to, for us, combat comes down to an entry point.
00:05:45.920 We're going to go here and we're fighting right there.
00:05:47.400 So we were just, when I, we finished selection all based on close quarters battle, six, nine months straight.
00:05:55.760 And I thought we were fast because the way you want to train someone with CQB is white lights, loud music, fast as you can, because I want to see how you handle stress.
00:06:03.580 You know, can you come to a situation, make a mistake, get over it, and we'll talk about it later?
00:06:06.780 Or do you dwell on that and make a bigger mistake?
00:06:08.340 So you do that with speed.
00:06:10.060 But then with speed, you get everyone on point.
00:06:13.200 And I checked into Red Squadron.
00:06:15.060 I'm in with the train now with my squadron, and they're gone.
00:06:19.400 And I missed, like, where did they, they're just going through the house fast.
00:06:22.120 So they were that fast.
00:06:23.000 And by the time I got to work with Delta, we were already that fast.
00:06:25.400 But then it wasn't a question of who can go faster, it's who can go slower.
00:06:28.920 Who can talk less?
00:06:30.300 Who can, who can effectively communicate without, without talking?
00:06:34.780 Because I would see guys in-house, like, even in, when I was training my guys, a Hollywood thing is you put a bomb on the door, fire in the hole, and you blast it.
00:06:44.660 I'm like, look, stop yelling fire in the hole.
00:06:47.220 If you see an operator put a bomb on the door, I need you to assume it's going to blow up in three seconds.
00:06:52.320 Stop yelling.
00:06:52.960 Why don't you just yell, here we are.
00:06:54.420 I had a guy in training one time, he turned a corner, pointed up, and yelled, stairwell!
00:06:57.520 And I said, look, I'm watching you, and you point it up.
00:07:00.760 I'm assuming you either ran into a stairwell, or there's a 15-foot Al-Qaeda guy, either way, we're going up.
00:07:05.780 Shut up. 0.95
00:07:06.460 And we, it's like a, when you're done saying what you're saying, stop saying it, get rid of the noise, and just read off each other.
00:07:13.260 Because all that adds to is a confusion, which is good initially, to see how you handle the confusion, then slow down.
00:07:18.640 And then we actually started backing off of bullshit.
00:07:22.060 Like, we literally made it easier, made it easier for us.
00:07:25.360 We're going to stop with the lights.
00:07:26.880 We're going to, we're going to go quiet.
00:07:28.460 We have night vision.
00:07:29.000 I would even bring my guys into our kill houses, when we had like a four-story kill house, brand new.
00:07:34.500 But they're through selection, so these are the best dudes the Navy has to offer us, and we're going to train them up.
00:07:38.380 And in order to show them why it's better to go with night vision and quiet instead of running,
00:07:42.460 because one of the attitudes was, well, we're going to get in a fight anyway, let's get it on.
00:07:45.960 It's like, all right, you're going to stand in the middle here, and here's your guy, like we have simunition, which is like paintball.
00:07:50.100 You guys stay in this room, two teams are going to come in and get you.
00:07:53.040 You can shoot them whenever you see them.
00:07:55.280 And then turn the lights off.
00:07:56.580 Now, my guys have night vision, and all of a sudden, ba-ba-ba-boom, they're all dead.
00:08:02.240 It's like, see, that's why we go quiet.
00:08:03.360 You knew they were coming.
00:08:04.860 Now, imagine if you're sleeping.
00:08:06.360 You don't know they're coming.
00:08:08.160 We're going to get you.
00:08:08.860 This is how we win, so that's your lesson right there.
00:08:10.460 You just got killed.
00:08:11.020 You're dead.
00:08:11.300 Now, go do an hour worth of tire drags and come back.
00:08:13.840 By the way, was the Maya girl our people?
00:08:17.280 Was she CIA or was she Mossad?
00:08:19.900 She was the CIA.
00:08:20.840 Hey, what is up?
00:08:21.620 This is Robert J. O'Neill, former SEAL Team 6 operators.
00:08:25.020 I was fortunate to be on some of the most high-profile missions in our very long war on terror.
00:08:29.720 But I am now on MNECT, and you can connect with me there, and we can literally talk about anything.
00:08:35.960 You can text.
00:08:37.140 We can do video calls.
00:08:38.260 I can give you messages.
00:08:39.760 And, you know, go to MNECT, find me.
00:08:42.020 Literally nothing is off limits.
00:08:43.560 Any crazy questions you have that you may or may not want the answers to, I am more than happy to do it.
00:08:48.080 So find me on MNECT.
00:08:49.060 Again, this is Robert J. O'Neill.
00:08:51.140 See you there.
00:08:51.980 If you enjoyed this video, you want to watch more videos like this, click here.
00:08:54.880 And if you want to watch the entire podcast, click here.