Blackwater USA was formed in 1997, by Al Clark and Erik Prince in North Carolina, to provide training support to military and law enforcement organizations. In explaining Blackwater's purpose, Prince stated: "We are trying to do for the national security apparatus what FedEx did for the Postal Service". After working with SEAL and SWAT teams, Blackwater USA received its first government contract after the bombing of the USS Cole off of the coast of Yemen in October 2000. After winning the bid on the contract, Jamie Smith ran the program at Blackwater that trained over 100,000 sailors.