First Black Navy SEAL – Still Going Strong
NBCNews has reported that Navy Master Chief Bill Goines is still going strong, even in retirement.
Goines, 82, believes it was sheer grit and determination in the face of all obstacles that helped him become one of the first original U.S. Navy SEALs, a military team created by President John F. Kennedy in 1962. It wasn’t until later in his career that Goines realized he was the unit’s first African-American.
Goines retired as a master chief from the SEALs in 1987. He now spends his time traveling the country — mainly the East Coast — to recruit young men and women of color who could potentially become Navy SEALs. According to data provided by the U.S. Navy, of the more than 3,000 active duty SEALs, 1.3 percent are African-American and 8.8 percent are Hispanic.
While it’s hard to pin down the exact cause, Goines believes those low numbers are related to one thing: the unavailability of swimming pools in minority neighborhoods. Training to become a Navy SEAL exposes potential candidates to one of the toughest training programs any soldier can expect to endure, requiring strength in the sea, air and on land.
“In my travels around, I found that a lot of predominantly black schools don’t have swimming pools,” he said. “There are public swimming pools, but with very little instruction.”
Goines sees it as his mission to inspire other African-Americans to become a member of the SEALs.
After years traveling the world for the SEAL team and going on secret missions, Goines sees it as his life’s work to diversify the U.S. military’s most elite unit. And the new front line for that mission begins at schools with young people.
Hand salute, Master Chief.
Category: Diversity, Feel Good Stories, Military issues, Navy, The Warrior Code, Veterans in the news
Hoo-yah Master Chief!
I was fortunate to learn to swim at a YMCA pool in my small hometown. I progressed through various levels of instruction to reach “Porpoise” which I think was the most advanced. Each summer I did an open water mile swim at a Boy Scout camp and mastered lifesaving techniques, drownproofing, and surviving after a canoe or sail boat capsized.
I agree with the Master Chief regarding the unavailability of swimming pools in poor school districts. Now some YMCAs with pools in middle class neighborhoods are closing and the ones remaining open have expensive family membership plans which price poorer residents out.
I taught myself to swim at a public pool, but not very well. I really didn’t learn to swim properly until I took Intermediate Swimming in college. Our instructor was the swim team coach and made us perform each of the different strokes correctly. He swam our asses off for an hour two days a week. So, when I arrived at Ranger School, I really knew how to swim, as did my Ranger buddy, who happened to be Black. One quarter of our class flunked the swimming test; many were recycled to three weeks of PT and swimming. A student drowned in Florida in the class just before mine.
Granted swimming plays one of the major roles but there are many other factors that one also comes into, Much like WWII and Vietnam there are situations that tall people did not fit the roll of what was needed for the mission they were to do, WWII planes were not that big and crews were hardly ever over 6 feet as were Tunnel Rats in Vietnam. Of course the other end of the spectrum is that if they are too short, their ability to reach in some cases also becomes a negative. Weight and strength, well anyone who has gone through training of any kind knows what happens there (snide remarks that are here are kept unsaid). Good coordination is a given in all cases, any one who can’t walk across a basketball court without tripping over the canter line need not apply, applies to yard markers in football fields also.
It was evident to me as a young SAR swimmer, too. One of my duties was safety observer during aircrew water survival training, where the trainees would go through the various Disney Rides and practice drown proofing and use of survival equipment. It was a challenge even to strong swimmers, but most of the people I pulled to the side or off the bottom were African Americans and Hispanics. It wasn’t even mentioned, it just was. I wish the Master Chief well, and hope he’s successful in his calling.
I had the same observation when it came to swimming drills that we had in the water. Although not formally qualified, I served as a safety swimmer.
I’ve seen really tough Marines and sailors soften up quickly and become terrified when around water. A large percentage were African American, but not all inner city.
I asked each out of curiosity. I don’t think there was any one consensus – it did seem to split between not having a pool readily accessible combined with other opportunities that took priority.
For me it was always a matter of potential survival. Initially I wasn’t drawn to swimming out of enjoyment — I at least wanted to know I could tread water in an emergency. It took a lot to overcome the panic. I failed two swim courses but learned to swim on my own finally in 3-4 feet of water. Do what I could but stand up when I needed to.
What do you mean by Disney rides? I take it you don’t mean the rides at the Disney parks.
I can see his frustration. I’m whiter than white, but come from the inner city. I didn’t have access to pools growing up thus began my life long career of being an “Iron Duck” when I came in the Corps.
WOW what a story. A member of the Seal community came aboard the Okinawa around 1964 and members of each division from all depts. were seated in the hanger bay at different times and the “Recruiter” spoke about what kind of people that they were looking for and what kind of people that they were not looking for and if anyone was interested, they were to see him after he was done speaking to all dept. crew members. We had UDT members do a hull inspection once and a second time, they were brought out for a recovery of 3 Marines who drowned when the chopper went down just before landing on the flight deck returning from an excersize on one of the Carib. islands we used.
BZ Master Chief Bill Goines. The level playing field of the military gives everyone the same equal opportunity to attempt any skill available. It is better to try and fail than to never try at all.
Papa taught us to swim/dog paddle by throwing us in the creek pool. He’d watch to make sure we didn’t get in too much trouble. If we did, he’d pull us out, give us a minute to catch our breath, then throw us back in.
Spent a coupla years in the inner city and we had a Y. Noticed that most of the black kids would stay in the shallow area and just splash around. Never was any formal training instruction going on then either. Boy Scout summer camp had a good program, but again not too many of the black kids was into the swimming part. Some changed their minds when they were told they had to pass the swimming courses to do the canoeing.
Big push on here locally to provide swimming lessons at the inner city pools that have been built recently. Participation has been low for that, mainly cause there is a NBA Class basketball gym attached to all of the centers.
ps: was it my imagination or was there a Tuesday FGS post here a bit ago that just disappeared?
ps: was it my imagination or was there a Tuesday FGS post here a bit ago that just disappeared?
Is your name Clair as well? Clair Voyant?
She’s been showing up a lot lately.
I studied physical and cultural anthropology in college where I first learned about physical differences between races, the reasons for them and how they impact how cultures develop. For example blacks have wider, flaring nostrils because they evolved in warmer climates where the air breathed in is sufficiently warm to not harm the lungs. Caucasians, evolving in cooler latitudes, needed to warm the air they breathed into their lungs–so they developed longer, narrower nasal passages with smaller nostrils.
Relevant to blacks and swimming, blacks evolved with denser, heavier skeletal structures, shorter, heavily muscled, thigh bones and longer, slimmer but heavy-boned lower legs suitable to running down game on the African plains and savannahs. They also had much lower levels of body fat for similar need of speed. Caucasians gradually required less bone density but greater body fat to sustain them in the colder climes with less plentiful game they inhabited.
As you can imagine, heavier denser bones, particularly in the legs, combined with lower body fat levels results in reduced buoyancy making swimming more difficult for those so constructed. According to my texts and professors that was the primary reason few if any black African cultures developed strong aquatic or seafaring skills to any great extent.
Now for those of you who will jump to brand that as racist nonsense, those anthropology texts were not written by Southern Klansmen, but rather by some of the most notable anthropologists of their times, who also happened to be Jewish New Englanders. My professors were flaming, Jewish liberals as well, not inclined to spread racist nonsense.
All that said, I do agree with the Master Chief that the lack of swimming facilities and training programs certainly doesn’t help the issue. The combined effect of all these reasons, physical and cultural, explains why we have so few outstanding black aquatic athletes when they excel in so many other areas of competitive sports.
Not that many blacks in ice hockey – most are from Canada.
Thanks for posting that data. I posted something similar on a forum a few months back and had a snowflake get his ass all up in the air like riki tiki tavi and shoot his uterus out of his nostrils calling me a Nazi Rascist.
I did two tours on the drill field and numbers don’t fucking lie.
Blacks going into swim training have an alarmingly high initial fail rate and qualify at lower levels.
There is also in my opinion, a cultural issue among African Americans. While many join the military, it’s not out of desire to be at the tip of the spear, it’s to learn a trade and a head start on a outside career.
Careful there Poe, Jimmy the Greek got fired for saying pretty much what you just said! 😉
I’ve seen a lot of trainees performing “drown proofing” early in training. This involves survival floating with hands and feet tied. Other drills include long water treads and treading/swimming with a weighted brick or rubber M-16.
In support of Poe’s writing regarding anthropometrics. I’ve been the safety swimmer and/or the support corpsman at many times. Not every black trainee went in the water and sunk like a rock, but the vast majority of trainees that sunk like a rock and required intervention before drowning were black. 🙂
Seen plenty others of all flavors/colors panic beyond reason when they still had their whole head out of the water, but if it was easy I guess everybody would do it.
When I was a child in the real early 60’s, my Mom used to take us to the Pullman Park Pool on Chicago’s South Side. It was entirely integrated. Don’t believe for a second black kids can’t swim. We stopped going when we finally saved enough for a family pool in 67. Dad drove to Ft Wayne to get the best price, saving hundreds by using my cousin’s salesperson discount. Picked up a freezer too! Still have the freezer.
Black kids can swim–no one’s contesting that. However, through no fault of their own, they tend not to excel at it, which explains the low percentage in aquatic sports competitions and in swimming intense military MOS’s. Conversely, this physical disadvantage quickly reverses to an advantage when it comes to running and other activities requiring strength and agility.
In Vietnam some of the black troopers in my infantry unit were absolute hosses in every aspect of soldiering except for swimming. Some big, badass, black guys had to be ferried or carried in water crossings and it was inevitably by their white or Hispanic buddies because they were the stronger swimmers. However, the very best swimmer/diver in our rifle company was a Samoan.
What brand is that 50 year old freezer?
Pullman pool on 111th is still there and they have added water slides.
In Chicago, ALL the nicest parks with pools in them are located in black neighborhoods.
They got that lake too, which over 10 miles of the coastline is in black neighborhoods.
All of the YMCA’s in Chicago are in or really close to black neighborhoods
Swimming, just like baseball, is just something that black kids don’t seem to like to do.
It has absolutely nothing to do with available facilities. (at least in Chicago)
Master Chief Gones was UDT-22 recruiter in ‘75. Gave me the screening test at Little Creek.
Dye his hair black and you’re looking at MCPO Goines of 1975.
Sorry MC. Decided to go the EOD route.
HOO-YAH!!!
The pool is where we always lost the most Recon candidates and there were always just more white than other Marines volunteering that survived even the paperwork screening.
One reason is sickle cell/G6PD trait. That’s a no go for Diving and HALO, so no Recon/SEAL/EOD
So part of the reality is simply numbers volunteering and numbers physically qualified before the first hurdle is cleared in the process.
I don’t see how someone’s heritage would effect the ability to balance a ball on their nose, but what do I know? /k
Thanks for your continued service, Master Chief!
Congrats to Chief Goines!
Back in 67, I was stationed at the Coronado Amphib Base and at that time the BUD/S lead instructors were Vince Olivera and Dick Allen, both chiefs early in the year. Later in the year, Olivera was busted down to BM1 as his reward for singlehandedly clearing Marines out of an Imperial Beach bar. Chief Allen was an African American, and since he joined UDT in the mid 50’s, he too had to be among the first Blacks to serve in the teams.
I remember Chief Allen as being so big that he may not have been able to fit inside a Jeep when out chasing tadpoles up and down the strand. He usually rode shotgun with one leg out on the running board, and that leg must have been bigger around than me! He too made short work of Marines, but he went the legal route, in the boxing ring!
Both Allen and Olivera retired and in the 70’s opened a restaurant together, of all things.
Allen died at the young age of 46, and here is his photo and obituary…well worth the read: http://www.navyfrogmen.com/RichardAllen.html
And a photo of Olivera standing on some poor tadpole’s back: https://navysealmuseum.pastperfectonline.com/photo/659E57DC-90D1-4B0B-A339-198009548518
I’ll bet Chief Goines knew both of them!
I served with Bill Goines in the early ’70s and again in the ’80s; he’s one of the best. Although I don’t keep up with everyone, having preferred for many years to simply leave all of that behind (no SEAL reunions for me), I’m glad to hear that he’s still going strong. Regarding the fact that Blacks are under-represented in the Teams, there are both physiological and cultural factors in play. Generally speaking, they sink like a rock in water (as explained above); and most Blacks join the military to improve their economic/social situation (also mentioned above).