Amid the aircraft carriers and other military vessels in the northern gulf, it would be easy to miss the 36-foot composite fiberglass boats, and that is how the SEALs prefer it. Painted dark gray to blend into the nighttime sea, each of these boats is designed to deliver eight commandos ashore and extract them after a mission.

The last time the United States and its allies confronted Iraq, Navy SEALs and other Special Operations forces were largely left out of the main attack. This time, after a decade of reinventing themselves and receiving generally good reviews on the testing ground of Afghanistan, the SEALs and their Army and Air Force counterparts hope to play a more vital part.

"We didn't have a major role," in the Persian Gulf War of 1991, said Capt. Walter S. Pullar III, a SEAL and commander of Naval Special Warfare Group Three operating in the region. "We weren't part of the strategic picture. We were part of the tactical picture -- a small one. We've looked for the reason why we didn't get deployed as much as we thought we should. You learn and adjust."

Among other things, the SEALs have tried to forge a better command system that would integrate with top generals running any new war. While Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf favored conventional Army power 12 years ago, the current leadership of the U.S. Central Command, under Army Gen. Tommy R. Franks, saw what commandos, including SEALs, could do when they helped in the fight against Taliban and al Qaeda guerrillas in Afghanistan.

SEALs were involved in the biggest U.S. ground battle of the Afghan war, Operation Anaconda, during which U.S. forces pursued Taliban and al Qaeda remnants in the Shahikot Valley in March. Attempts to rescue a SEAL team that came under attack during the operation led to a gun battle in which seven U.S. soldiers were killed.

"Coming out of Afghanistan, whatever the next conflict is, people will remember that SEALs and Special Forces played an important role," said Pullar. "All these things have changed. Who knows what we'll do or when we'll do it? But we've learned from all that, and whatever comes, it will not be the kinds of things we did in Desert Storm."

In that war, SEAL commandos searched for mines and potential landing sites on Kuwaiti beaches. As the ground war approached, SEAL teams swam to the Kuwaiti shore and simulated an amphibious attack by detonating bombs and blasting coastal bunkers with machine-gun fire. Other Special Operations forces established contact with the Kuwaiti resistance while Green Berets searched for mobile Scud launchers in Iraq's western desert.

Most proposals for "direct action" by Special Operations forces behind enemy lines, however, were turned down. Pullar said this time SEALs and other special units hope that changes: They could, for instance, carry out reconnaissance missions to find chemical or biological weapons, seize oil wells and dams or even be inserted into Baghdad before conventional forces to take out key installations or military figures in a bid to avert urban combat.

Already, according to military sources quoted in reports from Washington, two Special Operations Task Forces are inside Iraq recruiting defectors and hunting for arms caches.

In the meantime, SEALs have been assigned to chase smugglers trying to get around U.N. sanctions against Iraq, particularly those shipping out oil illegally. About once a week or so, Naval Special Warfare operators stop a ship in the Persian Gulf. Vessels that resist can be boarded forcibly, with the help of helicopter raids or small jet-powered boats like those racing around the gulf this week.

Sometimes Naval operators pursue a vessel identified by intelligence as acting suspiciously -- lowering one nation's flag and raising that of another, for instance. They also lie in wait along particular routes after determining transit patterns.

The "tempo is very high," said Jake, a lieutenant junior grade who commands his own small boat and, like other Naval Special Warfare operators, can be identified only by rank and first name. "We're busy."

"The one pattern that has changed is that the amount of oil that has been smuggled out has dropped," said Johnny, a petty officer first class.

Beyond maritime interdiction, the SEALs and their boat crews spend time here training for beach landings, extractions from hot zones and search-and-rescue missions for downed pilots. They refuse to discuss pending or future operations and remain especially mum when it comes to their clandestine side.

The Navy's elite warriors trace their history to World War II, when combat swimmers went ahead of amphibious invasion forces to clear beaches of obstacles. By Korea, Navy underwater demolition teams blew up bridges, tunnels and other targets. By 1962, as Vietnam was beginning to heat up, the Pentagon commissioned the modern Sea Air Land teams, or SEALs, which defined themselves as a counterinsurgency force in the Mekong Delta.

Among the SEALs' chief assets are small, highly maneuverable boats. In the Persian Gulf, Jake commands his 82-foot-long Mark V boat three to five times a week for training or missions.

On a particularly clear, calm day this week, Jake's vessel cruised several miles out into the gulf flanked by two of the smaller, 36-foot speedboats known as rigid inflatable boats, or RIBs, for a live-fire training exercise. A reporter went along under condition that certain information such as locations and full names be withheld.

Neither the Mark V nor the RIBs were in service during the Gulf War. Like the RIBs, the Mark V powers through the water using a jet-propulsion system, rather than propellers, and can reach 47 knots. A 30-year-old petty officer first class named Gary maneuvered the boat using a joystick that could have come from a video game console. The RIBs, made of resin covered by sheets of synthetic fabric and surrounded by inflatable rubber tubes, top out at 53 mph and, like their larger cousin, come equipped with satellite communications, high-resolution radar and global positioning system.

Jake, a 26-year-old Harvard graduate who serves as deck commander or officer in charge, ran this week's exercise with practiced precision after five months in the gulf. To test their weapons, he and his crew first had to find a patch of water three miles away from any other vessels. The gulf is a small and relatively crowded waterway, filled with commercial vessels, oil tankers and wooden dhows.

Once they found a clear area, Jake checked his binoculars and grabbed the radio to warn any nearby ships to stay away, then sought permission from shore to begin the exercise. "Okay guys," he said, "we're clear to go hot."

With that, one after the other, the crewmen began firing the two twin-barrel 50-caliber machine guns on the Mark V and the single-barrel versions on each of the two RIBs, aiming into the water not as target practice but to keep the weapons in proper working order. Scores of spent shells spilled out onto the deck in just minutes. The barrels were steaming hot as the crewmen released the triggers.

© 2003 The Washington Post Company