06/06/2026
Early morning on June 6, 1944, the eyes of the world were on a specially trained group of soldiers emerging from a stormy English Channel onto a heavily guarded N**i beachhead in Normandy, France.
Naval Combat Demolition Units (NCDU), nicknamed “frogmen,” were among the first to land on Omaha and Utah beaches at the start of the D-Day invasion during World War II. They were tasked with destroying obstacles ahead of the main allied force’s assault, including embankments, log piles, crisscrossed steel structures known as hedgehogs and anti-tank mines.
Frogmen faced the full force of Germany’s initial counter-invasion resistance. On Omaha Beach, NCDUs suffered a 52% casualty rate, with 31 killed and 60 wounded out of 175 total Navy seamen and officers. Still, they completed their mission.
Following World War II, military planners recognized the need for specialized, covert and unconventional warfare spanning sea, land and air and officially founded the U.S. Navy SEALs in 1962.
On the 82nd anniversary of D-Day, SEAL Family Foundation honors the bravery, valor and sacrifice of all soldiers who stormed beaches in defense of freedom, especially the frogmen NCDUs who cleared a path for an elite fighting force to continue that mission today.
