William Goines, first Black member of elite Navy SEALs, dies at 87

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.During a 32-year Navy career — and scores of classified missions with SEAL teams and their precursor unit — Mr.

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 beingMr. 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.

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. 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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