"Rift Among Navy SEALs Over Members Who Cash In on Brand"

"In recent months, the Naval Special Warfare Command in Coronado, Calif., which oversees the elite force, has told its men to lower their profile and tried to rein in public appearances by active-duty members. The Pentagon imposed a rule last September restricting the appearance of service members in video games, movies and television shows. Current and former members have widely circulated a pointed critique — titled “Navy SEALs Gone Wild: Publicity, Fame, and the Loss of the Quiet Professional” — that laments the commercialization and warns that it is doing harm...

Ever since SEAL Team 6 killed Osama bin Laden, the SEALs — who make up less than 5 percent of the nation’s active-duty Special Operations forces — have been catapulted into the spotlight, becoming the closest thing the nation has to living action figures, featured in numerous video games and movies. Far more SEALs have gone public than their more reticent Army counterparts in Delta Force and the Rangers...

In 2005, the Department of Defense told the SEAL command to increase the number of enlisted SEALs by 500 within five years, according to an internal memo. The average increase in the force over the previous decade was just five annually. The United States was fighting simultaneous wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and SEALs were getting killed, wounded or just burned out and leaving the service.

The command decided that a movie aimed at high-school athletes would be the best way to draw more recruits. The film project, though, took years. “Act of Valor” was released in 2012, grossing $81 million at theaters around the world.

The film sent “a confusing message” to SEALs, who questioned why the command “could take advantage of the public interest and adulation but individual SEALs could not,” Lieutenant Crowell wrote in his paper."

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/04/03/us/navy-seals-split-over-members-benefiting-from-hard-earned-brand.html?utm_source=nextdraft&utm_medium=email&referer=