Navy Seals

by Couch, Dick

  United States Special Operations Command History, 6th Edition, 2008; and United States Special Operations Command Fact Book 2014; USSOCOM, MacDill AFB, Tampa, Florida.

  PUBLICATIONS AND WEBSITES

  The Blast, Journal of Naval Special Warfare, currently published by UDT-SEAL Association, 1969–2013 archive courtesy of Tom Hawkins

  Ethos Magazine, published by Naval Special Warfare Command

  http://www.history.navy.mil Naval History and Heritage Command

  http://www.sealtwo.org SEAL history and reunion site maintained by Erasmo Riojas

  http://www.navyfrogmen.com Naval Special Warfare archive, non-governmental

  https://www.navysealmuseum.org National Navy UDT-SEAL Museum

  KEY SOURCE NOTES

  EPIGRAPHS

  “You are not alive unless you are living on the edge”: Patrick K. O’Donnell, Operatives, Spies, and Saboteurs: The Unknown Story of World War II’s OSS (Citadel Press, 2006), p. 141.

  “It’s just the way we were, the teams and the men”: Brian Biller, “Training, Teamwork Key to 45 Years of Navy SEALs,” U.S. Navy Press Release, January 11, 2007.

  “They just vanished. They came out of darkness”: Charlie Rose, May 15, 2013.

  “We must remember that one man is much the same”: Robert Debs Heinl, Dictionary of Military and Naval Quotations (Naval Institute Press, 1966), p. 328.

  Naval Special Warfare Command Organizations Chart: “NSW Command Brochure,” May 9, 2014: http://www.public.navy.mil/nsw/news/Documents/ETHOS/Brochure.pdf.

  CHAPTER 1

  Ken Reynolds on Omaha Beach, his biography and quotes in this chapter: interviews with Ken Reynolds and Carol Fleisher interview with Ken Reynolds. Additional D-Day detail: Combined Operations Headquarters, “Bulletin Y/35, Underwater Obstacles in Operation Overlord, November 1944,” Naval Special Warfare Command historical file; “Combat Demolition Units of the Atlantic Theatre of Operations,” (no date), World War II Command File, Shore Establishments, Operational Archives Branch, Naval Historical Center; Lt. (jg) H. L. Blackwell, Jr., “Report on Naval Combat Demolition Units (NCDUs) in Operation ‘Neptune’ as part of Task Force 122, July 5, 1944,” U.S. Navy World War II Action Reports, Modern Military Branch, National Archives and Records Administration; “OMAHA BEACHHEAD (6 June–13 June 1944),” American Forces in Action Series, Historical Division, War Department, Facsimile Reprint, 1984, Center of Military History, United States Army, Washington, D.C.

  “an epic human tragedy”: S.L.A. Marshall, “First Wave at Omaha Beach,” Atlantic, November 1, 1960.

  “There were bodies, body parts, and blood”: Seaman 1st Cl Robert Watson, 5th Engineer Special Brigade—6th Naval Beach Battalion, in Laurent Lefebvre, American D-Day, http://www.americandday.org/Veterans/Watson_Robert.html.

  “a guy beside me had his arm blown off”: Lou Mumford, “They were dying all around me,” South Bend Tribune, June 5, 2012.

  “The artillery and machine guns were generally sited”: United States Fleet, Headquarters of the Commander in Chief, Amphibious Operations: Invasion of Northern France, Western Task Force, June 1944, http://www.eisenhower.archives.gov/research/online_documents/d_day/Report_of_the_Amphibious_Operations.pdf.

  Bucklew on D-Day: Thomas B. Allen, “Untold Stories of D-Day,” National Geographic website, http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0206/feature1/.

  Starkweather and volunteers at Wadi Sebou: Francis D. Fane and Don Moore, The Naked Warriors (Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1956), p. 10.

  “Slit trenches were dug for defending riflemen”: Headquarters of the Commander in Chief, Navy Department, United States Fleet, Amphibious Operations, Invasion of Northern France, Western Task Force, June 1944, October 21, 1944, http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USN/rep/Normandy/Cominch/index.html#index.

  “To accomplish this, men shinnied up the stakes,” “was standing by to pull the fuses,” “enemy rifle fire set off the charges”: “Recollections of Lieutenant Commander Joseph H. Gibbons, USNR, Commanding Officer of U.S. Navy Combat Demolitions Units in Force ‘O’ during combat operations on Omaha Beach during and after the D-day landings”; adapted from Joseph H. Gibbons interview in box 11 of World War II Interviews, Operational Archives Branch, Naval Historical Center, http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq87-3p.htm.

  “Our craft hit a mine”: Seaman 1st Cl Robert Watson, 5th Engineer Special Brigade—6th Naval Beach Battalion, quoted in Laurent Lefebvre, American D-Day, http://www.americandday.org/Veterans/Watson_Robert.html.

  An exuberant “F—k!”: referred to as “the word that won the war,” in Michael Accordino, 299th Combat Engineer Battalion—First On Omaha/D-Day, http://www.299thcombatengineers.com/HistoryAccordino.htm.

  “I ordered all hands to inflate their life belts”: Fane, Naked Warriors, p. 63.

  SEAL historian Tom Hawkins told us his theory of why the NCDUs are relatively unknown: “There are a lot of reasons why I think the NCDU men are not known for what they did. It’s largely because they only really performed in two significant operations in Europe, and that was [the] Normandy invasion and the invasion of southern France. After the Americans got on the continent of Europe, the emphasis went immediately to the Pacific.”

  CHAPTER 2

  Background details of UDT operations in the Pacific described in this chapter: “History of Commander Underwater Demolition Teams and Underwater Demolition Flotilla, Amphibious Forces, Pacific Fleet” (undated), Naval Special Warfare Command historical file; Mack M. Boynton, “An Informal Look at Operation Crossroads/Kili Operation” (undated), Naval Special Warfare Command historical file; Robert R. Baird, “The Journeys of Underwater Demolition Team 6,” compilation of narrative, documents and maps (undated), courtesy Robert Baird; Phil H. Bucklew Oral History by John T. Mason Jr., 1980, Naval Institute, Naval Historical Center; microfilm collection of the UDTs, 1945, History of the Commander, Underwater Demolition teams and Underwater Demolition Flotilla, Amphibious Forces, Pacific, microfilm roll NRS II-490-511, Operational Archives, Naval Historical Center, Washington Navy Yard; and The History and Organization of UDT, 1943–1960, and the unit histories of UDTs 4, 5, 16, 18, and 21, all from the Naval Special Warfare Command Historical Files.

  “They looked fantastic”: Fane, Naked Warriors, p. 95.

  “Our mission was to capture several military installations”: John B. Dwyer, Scouts and Raiders: The Navy’s First Special Warfare Commandos (Praeger, 1993), p. 33.

  “Hell Week isn’t designed to kill you”: Rorke Denver and Ellis Henican, Damn Few: Making the Modern SEAL Warrior (Hyperion, 2013), p. 53.

  Kauffman details and quotes in this chapter on UDT operations: Elizabeth K. Bush, America’s First Frogman: The Draper Kauffman Story (Naval Institute Press, 2004), pp. 130–190.

  “We don’t want another blunder”: Wyatt Blessingame, Underwater Warriors (Random House, 1964), p. 4.

  “Not one plane appeared,” “Get that damned thing out of here!,” “Every single man”: Fane, Naked Warriors, pp. 95–98.

  OSS Maritime Unit operations: Tom Hawkins, with the assistance of Rima Magee, “Special Boat Legacy: History of the OSS Maritime Unit in the Arakan,” undated, unpublished paper prepared for archive of The Blast, an edited version of a report by Lieutenant John E. Babb, USNR, at the time Chief Maritime Unit, India-Burma Theater, addressed to Lt. Commander A.G. Atwater, USNR, Chief MU, Washington, D.C., dated July 21, 1945, courtesy of Tom Hawkins.

  Walter Mess biography and quotes: Stefanie Dazio, “Walter L. Mess, World War II spy, dies at 98,” Washington Post, June 12, 2013.

  UDT-10 frogman Robert Kenworthy comments: Patrick K. O’Donnell, Operatives, Spies, and Saboteurs: The Unknown Story of World War II’s OSS (Citadel Press, 2006), pp. 136–138.

  “The results achieved by these UDTs”: Bush, America’s First Frogman, p. 156.

  Edward Higgins quotes on Okinawa operation: Edward T. Higgins, Webfooted Warriors: The Story of a “Frogman” in the Navy During World War II (Exposition Press, 1955), pp. 58�
��89.

  August 28, 1945, Japanese surrender to Lieutenant Commander Clayton, of UDT-21: interview with Tom Hawkins; Naval Historical Center Photo NH 71599, http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/images/h71000/h71599c.htm.

  “The UDTs were always the despair”: Fane, Naked Warriors, p. 131.

  CHAPTER 3

  Dick Lyon’s biography, quotes, and details of antimine operation in this chapter: interview with Dick Lyon and Carol Fleisher interview with Dick Lyon. The operation is also described in slightly different detail in Francis Fane’s The Naked Warriors, p. 267.

  “We were ready to do what nobody else could do”: Michael E. Haas, In the Devil’s Shadow: UN Special Operations During the Korean War (Naval Institute Press, 2000), p. 142.

  Details and quotes of UDT operations in Korea described in this chapter are from interviews with Dick Lyon; Haas, In the Devil’s Shadow, pp. 140–168; Orr Kelly, Brave Men, Dark Waters (Presidio, 1992), pp. 66–73; Francis D. Fane and Don Moore, The Naked Warriors: The Elite Fighting Force That Became The Navy Seals (Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1956), pp. 236–269.

  “I was again assigned to a CIA clandestine program”: http://www.navyfrogmen.com/Atcheson.html.

  “It opened with a North Korean drive”: David Winkler, “The Hungman Redeployment,” Sea Power, December 2000.

  CHAPTER 4

  Bill Bruhmuller details, biography, quotes, account of Isle of Pines attack in this chapter: interview with Bill Bruhmuller and Carol Fleisher interview with Bill Bruhmuller. Also, interviews with three former SEALs then stationed in Florida with direct knowledge of the events and one former Cuban exile frogman with direct knowledge of the events.

  There may have been parallel exile attacks or attempted attacks on the Isle of Pines facilities in this time period by different Cuban exile teams, including a CIA-created team called Commandos Mambises. Further identification of specific dates and individuals who took part is difficult, as the available declassified documentary record is limited, many of the individuals involved used code names with each other, many of the Cubans and Americans involved are deceased, and little information on these operations was shared laterally across different teams.

  For accounts of the CIA’s Rex spy ship, CIA and exile attacks on Cuba in 1962–1963, the Isle of Pines attack, and activities of CIA-trained Cuban exile frogman teams, including the team known as Commandos Mambises, see: Ted Shackley, Spymaster: My Life in the CIA (Potomac Books, 2006), pp. 66–67, 75; Brian Latell, Castro’s Secrets: Cuban Intelligence, the CIA, and the Assassination of John F. Kennedy (Macmillan, 2013), pp. 86, 178; Warren Hinckle, William W. Turner, The Fish Is Red: The Story of the Secret War Against Castro (Harper & Row, 1981), pp. 138, 144, 145; Maurice Halperin, The Rise and Decline of Fidel Castro: An Essay in Contemporary History (University of California Press, 1972), pp. 285–286; John Prados, Safe for Democracy: The Secret Wars of the CIA (Ivan R. Dee, 2006), pp. 318–320; and Don Bohning, The Castro Obsession: U.S. Covert Operations Against Cuba, 1959–1965 (Potomac Books, 2005), pp. 162, 165, 241.

  Contemporaneous accounts of the Rex include Associated Press and UPI dispatches of October 31 and November 1, 1963. Fidel Castro publicly railed against the CIA, Rex and Cuban exile missions against Cuba in this period. A contemporaneous account of the Rex and the Isle of Pines limpet mine attack appeared in Jeanne S. Perry, “Red Base on Isle of Pines,” Palm Beach Post, June 6, 1964. In the 1st Quarter 2002 issue of The Blast, former Cuban exile frogman Jose Enrique Dausa wrote of an apparently separate, near-simultaneous attack on targets at the Isle of Pines using limpet mines.

  Background on the formation of the SEALs was provided by a number of former SEALs who served in the early, formative first years of the SEALs, including David Del Giudice, Rudy Boesch, Gordon Ablitt, Leonard Waugh, Dennis McCormack, Rick Woolard, Bill Bruhmuller, Tom Hawkins, Maynard Weyers, and Dante Stephensen. Del Giudice detailed the formation of the SEALs in a February 2011 article in Naval Institute: Proceedings titled “Setting the Record Straight: The Origin of the U.S. Navy SEALs.” In an e-mail to the authors, Del Giudice offered these additional notes on the origins of Naval Special Warfare: “If we are talking about genealogy, ADM [Draper] Kauffman begot NCDUs, ADM R.K. [Richmond Kelly] Turner begot UDTs and ADM Arleigh Burke begot SEALs.” He added, “In November 1943 (prior to Tarawa) ADM Nimitz tasked the Seabees based in Hawaii to set up training facilities for programs in underwater demolition and experimentation to defeat coral reefs and man-made obstacles that impede amphibious landings. ADM Nimitz followed up with a letter to ADM Turner, Commander 5th Amphibious Group, to use the lessons learned from Tarawa to get men trained on the real thing. This letter also created the ‘Reef Obstacle and Mine Committee’ to develop tactics and doctrine for combating underwater obstructions and anti-boat mines. Turner meeting his committee in December 1943 determined that a unit was needed to conduct such operations and that unit was to be designated UDT to distinguish it from the NCDU. During the same month ADM Turner recommended to the office of the CNO [Chief of Naval Operations] that UDTs be formed as a permanent part of the Navy. In the meantime UDT-1 (Provisional) under the command of CDR Edward Brewster and UDT-2 (Provisional) under Lt. Tom Crist as CO were formed apparently assuming CNO’s approval in advance. UDT-1 participated as an element of ADM Turner’s Task Force for the Kwajalein operation (Jan–Feb 1944). Turner was somewhat critical of the UDT’s performance in that operation as noted in his after action report. ADM Turner decreed at that time that henceforth, UDTs would be made up of Navy men only. Army and Marine personnel from UDT-1 and UDT-2 were returned to their original units. In March 1944 ADM Turner established a Naval Combat Demolition Training and Experimental (NCDT&E) base on Maui. Some reports indicate LCDR Kauffman may have been training officer of the NCDT&E for a short period of time prior to taking command of UDT-5 and participating in the Saipan operation in June 1944 along with UDT-5 and UDT-7.” Del Giudice added that the “SEALs were always direct action oriented,” and cited a June 5, 1961, letter by the Chief of Naval Operations that spelled out the missions: “a. To develop a specialized capability for sabotage, demolitions, and other clandestine activities conducted in and from restricted waters rivers and canals. b. Conduct training for selected U.S. and indigenous personnel in a variety of skills for use in clandestine operations. c. Develop doctrine and tactics for such operations. d. Develop support equipment, including special craft for use in the immediate objective area.” In a June 6, 1962, speech at West Point, President Kennedy elaborated on his vision of non-conventional war: “This is another type of war, new in intensity, ancient in origins—wars by guerrillas, subversion, insurgents, assassins; wars by ambush instead of by conventional combat. . . . It requires a whole new kind of strategy, a wholly different kind of force, and therefore a new and wholly different kind of military training.”

  “My idea is to stir things up on the island”: “Documents: JFK Snubbed Cuba Offer From Revolutionary Leader, Associated Press, April 29, 1996.

  Background on CIA’s Operation Mongoose, University of Miami, Zenith Technical Enterprises, CIA/exile attacks on Cuban targets: Evan Thomas, The Very Best Men: The Daring Early Years of the CIA (Simon & Schuster, 1995), pp. 270–309.

  Also see, for example, “Memorandum for the Special Group (Augmented), July 25, 1962, Department of Defense document: http://www2.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/nsa/cuba_mis_cri/620725%20Review%20of%20Op.%20Mongoose.pdf.

  “another attempt will be made against the major target”: “Minutes of Meeting of the Special Group (Augmented),” October 4, 1962, White House document: http://www2.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/nsa/cuba_mis_cri/621004%20Minutes%20of%20Meeting%20of%20Special.pdf.

  “the whole Mongoose thing was insane”: The Nation, March 26, 2001.

  “[Arleigh Burke] was a very forward-looking person”: Carol Fleisher interview with David Del Giudice.

  In an interview with Carol Fleisher, Tom Hawkins said this about SEAL secrecy: “The SEALs have never been ‘secret.’ The fact that SEAL Teams we
re formed and operating in Vietnam was kept classified at the secret level, but the SEALs were never secret within the Navy or within the military. The low visibility was intended to keep it out of the media, but they found us. What we do, even today, is secret but we are not secret, obviously, with all these damn movies and books.”

  “We were only ten officers”: Carol Fleisher interview with David Del Giudice.

  “The Company—the CIA—had been using men from the UDTs”: Kevin Dockery and Bill Fawcett, The Teams: An Oral History of the U.S. Navy SEALs (William Morrow, 1998), pp. 12–16.

  Conclusion and aftermath of the Isle of Pines limpet-mine attack: interview with Bill Bruhmuller.

  Isle of Pines limpet-mine attack authorized as Operation 3117 by White House in declassified White House document: “Proposed infiltration/exfiltration operations into Cuba during November 1963,” Cuban affairs coordinator to the “Special Group,” November 8, 1963; Assassination Records Review Board, National Archives.

  Account of former Cuban frogman: interview with veteran of Cuban exile frogman force based in Florida in 1961–1964.

  CHAPTER 5

  “exposure to almost impenetrable mangrove swamps”: Kevin Dockery, Navy SEALs: A History Part II: the Vietnam Years (Berkley Books, 2002), p. 35.

  “I don’t know a single SEAL who operated in Vietnam”: Robert A. Gormly, Combat Swimmer: Memoirs of a Navy SEAL (Dutton, 1998), p. 130.

  “The SEALs and the Seawolves became a natural component”: Carol Fleisher interview with Tom Hawkins.

  SEAL POW rescues in Vietnam: George J. Veith, Code-Name Bright Light: The Untold Story of U.S. POW Rescue Efforts During the Vietnam War (Free Press, 1998), pp. 261–265. Details on prisoners freed by Couch’s SEALs: p. 263.

  Hawkins on SEAL formation: Carol Fleisher interview with Tom Hawkins.

  “For two hours, the SEALs”: T. L. Bosiljevac, SEALs” UDT/SEAL Operations in Vietnam (Random House, 1991), p. 145.

  “You SEALs are assassins”: Orr Kelly, Brave Men, Dark Waters (Simon & Schuster, 1993), p. 145.