Day 21 Black History Month 2021 - William Goines

Williams Goines (1936 – present)

For day 21 of Black History Month, we’d like to highlight William Goines, an American soldier and the first African American to become a Navy Seal.

William Goines was born in Dayton, Ohio. In reflecting on his childhood and when he first learned to swim, he recounted that he did not know that his local school even had a swimming pool because African American’s where not allowed to swim there at the time. He also recalled that when the pool was forced to integrate, it was instead filled up with rocks, so no one could use it. He would eventually learn to swim in a nearby neighborhood that allowed African American’s to swim on Saturday’s between 8 to 12. At noon, the pool was drained and then refilled.

He enlisted in the Navy right after graduating from high school. He was sent overseas to Malta and began underwater demolition training but he would eventually begin training as a “frogman” instead. At the start of the program, there where 103 soldiers. At the end, Goines was one of thirteen men who had not quit. In 1962, he would join one of the first official Navy SEAL teams (Team Two), and he would be the only African American in the Navy SEALs. He was deployed during the Cuban missile crisis and also served three tours during the Vietnam war.

Throughout his career and in his retirement, he has worked to help to recruit young men for SEAL training and increase diversity in the teams. When the African American History Museum opened in 2016, he was honored as a special guest.