The Dallas Express is launching a new content partnership with Forgotten History, a popular military and history-focused YouTube channel known for revisiting overlooked stories from America’s past.
Forgotten History’s latest episode, The U.S. Navy’s Secret Dolphin Program, examines one of the more unusual military efforts to emerge from the Cold War: the Navy’s use of dolphins and sea lions for underwater missions.
During the Cold War, the U.S. Navy began researching whether marine mammals could be trained for military purposes. By the 1960s, that work evolved into the U.S. Navy Marine Mammal Program in San Diego.
The episode explains how bottlenose dolphins became especially valuable because of their natural echolocation. Their biological sonar allowed them to scan underwater areas, detect possible mines, and mark suspicious objects for Navy recovery teams far faster than human divers could in many conditions.
Sea lions served a different role. Forgotten History details how the Navy trained them to attach recovery lines to underwater equipment or help identify enemy divers so Navy personnel could respond.
The program was not just experimental. According to Forgotten History, the Navy used marine mammals in real-world operations, including during the Vietnam War and the Iraq War. The animals became part of specialized naval units tied to harbor defense, mine countermeasures, and underwater recovery missions.
The episode also addresses the controversy surrounding the program. The Navy has maintained that the animals are not trained to harm humans, but critics have long questioned the ethics of using intelligent marine mammals in military operations.
Forgotten History uses the story to explore a broader question: how far militaries should go in adapting animals’ natural abilities for national defense.
The result is a look at a little-known program that sounds like Cold War fiction but remains part of U.S. naval history.
Watch the full Forgotten History episode HERE.
