Mac Rating: 0.00 | Votes: | Date: 03/06/2026 14:31:00

On the Kettner Boulevard at the corner of Broadway in the heart of downtown San Diego, the National Navy UDT-SEAL Museum's West Coast Naval Special Warfare Museum is the West Coast outpost of the original Navy SEAL Museum founded in Fort Pierce, Florida in 1985. The 8,000-square-foot San Diego venue opened in April 2022 in a striking purpose-built building immediately adjacent to the famous Star of India and the Maritime Museum of San Diego, drawing on the city's long-standing role as the principal training base of the Navy SEAL community. The museum is dedicated to the history, training and operations of the United States Navy's Sea, Air and Land Teams, the elite special-operations force that traces its origins to the Underwater Demolition Teams of the Second World War and was formally established in its modern form in January 1962. The collection includes more than 4,000 artefacts spanning the eight decades of UDT and SEAL operations, with particular emphasis on the West Coast units of Naval Special Warfare Group 1 based at Coronado just across the bay. The permanent exhibits cover the major theatres of SEAL operations from the Korean War through Vietnam, the Cold War clandestine operations, the Persian Gulf War, the post-September 2001 operations in Afghanistan and Iraq and contemporary operations against the Islamic State and other terrorist organisations. The displays include original mission equipment, weapons, uniforms, personal artefacts and dramatic photographs of selected declassified operations. A particularly powerful Hall of Heroes pays tribute to the SEAL operators killed in action since the unit's founding in 1962, with detailed biographical exhibits on each fallen SEAL. Interactive exhibits include a recreated mini-submarine SDV (SEAL Delivery Vehicle), an HALO parachute jump simulator, a recreated underwater cave-diving experience and a comprehensive training-history gallery covering the legendary BUD/S (Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL) training programme at Coronado. Modestly priced, with proceeds supporting the Navy SEAL Foundation's programmes for active-duty SEALs and Gold Star families, the museum is an easy half-day visit easily combined with the surrounding Embarcadero attractions.