William Goines, who as a child learned to swim in a creek near Cincinnati after being blocked from the local Whites-only public pool and later passed a grueling Navy training regime to become the first Black member of the modern-era SEALs in the early 1960s, died June 10 at a hospital in Virginia Beach. He was 87.
The cause was a heart attack, said his wife, Marie Goines.
During a 32-year Navy career — and scores of classified missions with SEAL teams and their precursor unit — Mr. Goines saw combat during three tours in Vietnam and was deployed for a possible invasion of Cuba in October 1962 during the Cuban missile crisis, one of the Cold War’s most dramatic showdowns.
With Cuba blockaded by U.S. warships, Mr. Goines and others were on a boat ready to mount amphibious attacks if the Soviet Union did not back down on plans to keep nuclear missiles on the island. In the end, Washington and Moscow pulled back to avert a potential superpower clash.
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“It was so secret back then,” he said of his early missions, “they wouldn’t even tell us what we were going to do.” Mr. Goines retired from the Navy in 1987 as a master chief petty officer.
The U.S. military started to desegregate its forces after World War II, but the ranks of leadership and elite teams remained nearly all White in 1955 when Mr. Goines enlisted after graduating from high school. At the time, the path for many Black newcomers in the Navy was often steward roles such as cooking and serving in the officers’ mess.
Someone in Mr. Goines’s hometown of Lockland, Ohio, advised him to avoid that route if he wanted to advance in the Navy. “Whatever you do don’t accept a school for stewards,” he recalled being told, “because all you’re going to be is a servant for officers.”
Mr. Goines had already faced segregation while growing up. Authorities in Lockland enforced a strict segregation code at the public swimming pool. “When integration came to the area, the way I understand it, they filled the pool in with rocks and gravel so nobody could swim in it,” he said.
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He taught himself to swim in a creek near his home. Sometimes, he went to nearby Hartwell, where the town pool allowed Blacks from 8 a.m. to noon on Saturdays. “They would blow a whistle and we’d have to get out,” Mr. Goines told The Washington Post. “They would drain the pool to get it ready for the Whites.”
In the Navy, Mr. Goines insisted he wanted to be part of active operations. Eventually, he was accepted in a training program for the Navy’s underwater demolition team, then known as frogmen, whose missions in World War II included valuable reconnaissance of Normandy beaches and German defenses before the D-Day landings in 1944. (Mr. Goines said he was inspired to join the Navy by the 1951 movie “The Frogmen.”)
He was sent to Malta. There, he began nearly a year of drills and rigorous instruction such as close-hand combat, martial arts, parachute drops and survival skills. In Mr. Goines’s class were Navy officers, enlisted personnel, Army Rangers and naval officers from various countries. Only 14 men, including Mr. Goines, successfully completed the training in 1957.
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Mr. Goines was not the first Black member of the underwater demolition team. During the Korean War, a Black frogman, Fred Morrison, was part of missions that including helping rescue five Marines on a beach under heavy gunfire. Morrison was awarded a Bronze Star and Navy Unit Commendation. In early 1962, President John F. Kennedy formed the original two Navy SEAL teams — standing for Sea, Air and Land — to boost American special forces capabilities.
Mr. Goines was among 40 personnel, and the only Black frogman, picked for SEAL Team Two based near Virginia Beach. Team One was set up on the West Coast.
Even with his SEAL status, Mr. Goines said racism remained a fact of life in the South. At a bar in Norfolk, he was initially refused entrance. He was eventually allowed in — but only after other SEALs threatened to leave and bad-mouth the bar.
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Once, during a trip with Navy personnel, Mr. Goines was denied service at a restaurant. “Our officer told everybody to just stop what they were doing and to get back on the bus,” he recalled. He drove down the road and got take out sandwiches.
“I helped integrate a lot of places — not on purpose,” Mr. Goines told the Virginian-Pilot in 2018.
Parachute team
William Harvey Goines was born in Dayton, Ohio, on Sept. 10, 1936, and moved to Lockland as a child with his family. His father, who passed for White, worked in an automotive plant and was co-owner of a gas station; his mother was a homemaker.
His father lost a few jobs, however, when employers discovered his background. “Not because they thought he was Black,” Mr. Goines recalled, “but because he was married to a Black woman.”
After the Vietnam War, Mr. Goines joined the Navy’s parachute exhibition team, the Chuting Stars, and performed more than 600 precision jumps over five years. His only serious injury was tearing cartilage in his knees when he landed hard during an event in Pennsylvania.
He later served as a recruiter, encouraging Black personnel to consider SEAL training. He also headed security for the school system in Portsmouth, Va.
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His awards include a Bronze Star and a Navy Commendation Medal. In 2023, the U.S. Navy Memorial presented him with the Lone Sailor Award, given to veterans for distinction in their naval careers or after their service.
When curators of the National Museum of African American History and Culture were looking to build their collection, Mr. Goines donated his retirement memento. Under SEAL tradition, those stepping down from service get a display with a host of weapons including a knife, bullets and a deactivated grenade. The array is called “Tools of the Trade.”
Survivors include his wife of 58 years, the former Marie Davis.
Mr. Goines trailblazing service came close to never even beginning. He had lost the tip of his right index finger in a wood shop accident in high school. The officers evaluating candidates for underwater demolition team training questioned whether he was fit because of damage to his trigger finger.
“I said, ‘No, I’m left-handed,” he recalled in an interview with NBC News.
“Were you?” the interviewer asked
“Not really,” he said, smiling.
