Navy SEAL museum opens in San Diego

SAN DIEGO (KSWB) – San Diego has opened a Navy SEAL museum, honoring the legacy of the elite commandos known for their operations on sea, air, and land.

The museum, located near downtown’s Embarcadero, features interactive exhibits and aims to capture 80 years of Navy SEAL history through stories of discipline, service, teamwork, and commitment.

Brian ‘Beef’ Drexler, a retired Navy captain and former commanding officer of SEAL Team 5, serves as the executive director of the museum. “We are trying to capture 80 years of rich, adaptive history told through the traits of discipline, service, teamwork, commitment of just an outstanding community,” Drexler said.

Mark Belong, who spent 27 years as a SEAL Team Operator and was once the commanding officer of SEAL Team 5, emphasized the importance of the museum for community understanding. “That’s what I really feel is important is to have this location and then for the community to understand what we do and how special this organization is,” Belong noted.

The museum offers visitors the chance to interact with former Navy SEALs and Special Warfare combat crewmen, who serve as docents. These veterans share personal insights into the dangerous missions carried out by SEAL teams.

Don Crawford, a Navy SEAL from the Vietnam era, highlighted the personal connection visitors can make. “When somebody walks away from the museum, other than seeing all of this, they’ve actually talked to people that were docents, that were in the teams, that have a background, and they can get a little bit more personal insight,” Crawford explained.

The museum experience includes numerous interactive touch screen kiosks that tell the stories of past SEAL team operations and concludes with a ‘call to action’ wall focused on service, encouraging visitors to serve something bigger than themselves.

The Navy SEAL Museum in San Diego is set to inspire visitors by showcasing the evolution of the SEAL teams and their contributions to national security. “I hope a guest comes here, they’re inspired, and we transport them back in time so they can see the evolution of this community,” Drexler expressed.

All facts in this report were gathered by journalists employed by Nexstar. Artificial intelligence tools were used to reformat from a broadcast script into a news article for our website. This report was edited and fact-checked by Nexstar staff before being published