William Goines, the first Black Navy SEAL, is dead at 87.
Goines became the first Black man added to the U.S. Navy’s elite special forces unit shortly after joining the armed forces in 1955, according to military site Task & Purpose. A year in, he became one of only 14 trainees to graduate with the Navy’s Underwater Demolition Team (UDT).
In 1962, Goines joined a 40-person unit that reported to the Naval Amphibious Base Little Creek in Virginia Beach, Va. That led to him helping form SEAL Team 2 on the East Coast while SEAL Team 1 came together out west.
Goines served three tours in Vietnam and retired from the Navy in 1987 after earning a Bronze Star, Navy Commendation Medal, Combat Action Ribbon and the Presidential Unit Citation. He also reportedly spoke three languages.
Goines was born on Sept. 10, 1936 in Dayton, Ohio, and later moved with his family to the Cincinnati suburb of Lockland. He told the Cincinnati Enquirer in 2016 that he learned to swim in a nearby creek and the Little Miami River, as we was unable to use Lockland’s only public pool due to segregation.
After watching a film about Navy frogmen during his junior year in high school, Goines was determined to become a sailor.
“My fate was sealed right there,” he realized. “That’s exactly what I wanted to do.”
After leaving the service in ’87, Goines worked as a school police chief and volunteered to help recruit minorities into the SEALs, according to The Virginia-Pilot.
Goines died June 10 in Virginia. His obituary didn’t specify a cause of death. He’s survived by Marie Goines, his wife of 58 years. Two brother and two sisters died before him.
A Friday funeral service was scheduled at Bank Street Memorial Baptist Church in Norfolk.
While the U.S. Navy recognizes fellow UDT graduate Fred “Tiz” Morrison as the first Black sailor to serve the Navy as a special forces frogman, Task & Purpose said Morrison retired in 1962 before the SEALS went into action.
