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by Couch, Dick


  “We had no status, no standing,” “They were in small detachments”: ibid., p. 146.

  “harassment of the enemy, hit-and-run raids”: Kevin Dockery, from interviews by Bud Brutsman, Navy SEALs: A Complete History (Berkley Books, 2004), p. 282.

  “The first SEALs in combat”: Carol Fleisher interview with Tom Hawkins.

  “three SEAL [Team Two] Platoons handled themselves”: Kevin Dockery, Navy SEALs: A History Part II: the Vietnam Years, p. 180.

  Chau Doc operation details and quotes: Drew Dix and Maggie O’Brien, in Oral History for Medal of Honor: Portraits of Valor Beyond the Call of Duty: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_nA8e0YDfI; Dockery, Navy SEALs: A Complete History, pp. 404–421.

  Kuykendall operation: Carol Fleisher interview with Hal Kuykendall.

  “We like to grab people”, “Both SEALs and PRUs killed many VCI”: Dale Andradé, Ashes to Ashes: The Phoenix Program and the Vietnam War (Lexington Books, 1990), p. 193.

  “where principle is involved, be deaf”: Karel Montor, Naval Leadership: Voices of Experience (Naval Institute Press, 1998), p. 523.

  Kerrey operation: Kerrey Oral History for Medal of Honor: Portraits of Valor Beyond the Call of Duty, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHAFZUOo8pY.

  In April 2001, the New York Times and 60 Minutes ran stories about a raid Kerrey and his SEALs conducted on February 25, 1969, to capture a Viet Cong leader, an operation that occurred three weeks before his Nha Trang operation, during which up to twenty civilians were reportedly killed. Eventually, the story receded into the historical mist of countless other tragedies of the Vietnam War.

  Norris and Thornton operations details and quotes: Carol Fleisher interviews with Tom Norris and Michael Thornton. Thornton also recalled later being the inspiration for an iconic SEAL expression when he was a SEAL training instructor in 1983: “I was leading PT [physical training] and somebody yelled, ‘Instructor Thornton, when are we gonna have an easy day?’ And I said, ‘The only easy day would be yesterday.’ ” In Thornton’s honor, the class inscribed a PT platform with the words, “The only easy day was yesterday,” which became a widely used SEAL axiom. “Yeah, there’s no easy days,” Thornton noted to Fleisher. “No use looking in the rear view mirror because that’s gone. You better be looking forward.”

  Spence Dry and Operation Thunderhead: Carol Fleisher interview with Moki Martin; Michael G. Slattery and Gordon I. Peterson, “Spence Dry: A SEAL’s Story,” The Naval Institute: Proceedings, July 2005; Kevin Dockery, Operation Thunderhead: The True Story of Vietnam’s Final POW Rescue Mission—and the Last Navy Seal Killed in Country (Penguin, 2008), passim.

  SEALs freed some 152 Vietnamese captives, counting for 48 percent of POWs freed during the war: ibid., p. 226.

  “By the end of 1970 SEALs,” “I would like to have a thousand more like them”: Dale Andradé, Ashes to Ashes, p. 199.

  “Some people have said that if there were more SEALs”: Carol Fleisher interview with Tom Hawkins.

  “tactic in search of a strategy”: Gormly, Combat Swimmer, p. 153.

  “Although they were highly successful in their own districts”: Bosiljevac, SEALs: UDT/SEAL Operations in Vietnam, p. 179.

  “For the most part, we were relegated to the Navy river patrol”: Gormly, Combat Swimmer, p. 153.

  At least one SEAL proposed coordinated program of POW hunts: Veith, Code-Name Bright Light, p. 264.

  Note on SEAL training from SEAL historian Tom Hawkins: “It was not known as BUD/S training until 1972, when all training was moved to Coronado. Little Creek training was called UDTR or UDT Replacement training. Coronado training was called UDTB or UDT Basic training. SEAL qualification training was accomplished at the unit level until 1972. When combined at the school in Coronado 1972 the name BUD/S was adopted. SEAL qualification continued at the unit level for several years after the school was established. Today, SEAL Qualification Training (SQT) is accomplished after BUD/S and only then can you go to a SEAL or SDV Team. SDV personnel receive yet another course of instruction before going to the team.”

  CHAPTER 6

  Events, details, and quotes of operation at Grenada radio tower and escape to the ocean in this chapter: interview with SEAL veteran of Grenada, and “Naval Special Warfare Lessons Learned Case Study: Operation Urgent Fury (Grenada)” [unclassified, undated, c. 1995], Naval Special Warfare Command Historical File. Jason Kendall is a pseudonym.

  William McRaven comments: commencement address at the University of Texas, May 17, 2014.

  “It seemed like half the tough guys”: Rorke Denver and Ellis Henican, Damn Few: Making the Modern SEAL Warrior (Hyperion, 2013), p. 106.

  “one screw-up after another”: interview with SEAL veteran of Grenada.

  “Our Intel had been atrocious”: Dockery, Navy SEALs: A Complete History, p. 603.

  “We were like slow-moving turtles”: Gary Ward, “Fury on Grenada,” VFW Magazine, November 2013.

  “A lot of our tactics, techniques, and procedures”: interview with SEAL veteran of Grenada.

  Gormly details and quotes on Grenada operation: Robert A. Gormly, Combat Swimmer: Memoirs of a Navy SEAL (Dutton, 1998), pp. 180–199; Dockery, Navy SEALs: A Complete History, pp. 590–596.

  Details and quotes of Sir Paul Scoon’s experiences at Governor-General’s mansion during Grenada invasion: Paul Scoon, Survival for Service: My Experiences as Governor General of Grenada (Macmillan Caribbean, 2003), pp. 139–153.

  “We achieved our mission, but took heavy casualties”: John T. Carney Jr., Benjamin F. Schemmer, No Room for Error: The Covert Operations of America’s Special Tactics Units from Iran to Afghanistan (Random House, 2007), pp. 110–111.

  “I think we learned a lot about ourselves”: interview with SEAL veteran of Grenada.

  Achille Lauro operation: Gormly, Combat Swimmer, pp. 208–218.

  Quotes and details of SEAL operations in Panama: interviews with Adam Curtis and four SEAL veterans of the operation; Orr Kelly, Brave Men, Dark Waters (Presidio, 1992), pp. 1–4 and 216–234; Kevin Dockery, Navy SEALs: A Complete History (Berkley Books, 2004), 644–667; Malcolm McConnell, Just Cause: The Real Story of America’s High-Tech Invasion of Panama (St. Martin’s Press, 1991), passim.

  “If the mission was to take and hold the airfield”: David Evans, “A Miscalculation Of Mission For The Seals In Panama?” Chicago Tribune, February 9, 1990.

  “In Panama we violated our own doctrine,” “They over-planned this operation”: interviews with two SEALs who were on active duty in 1989.

  Stubblefield letter: Orr Kelly, Brave Men, Dark Waters, pp. 231, 232. Kelly wrote of what he saw as a historical inability of the SEALs to learn from failure. “In the past,” he argued, “the SEALs have not been very good at learning from their experiences, especially when things went wrong, and applying those lessons to plans for the future. The failure of UDT Sixteen during World War II at Okinawa is never spoken of. Neither is the SDV operation in 1972 in which Spence Dry lost his life. The SEALs took part in Urgent Fury in Grenada in 1983, but it was not until 1989, six years later, that three officers who served in that operation met with SEALs, other than their colleagues in Team Six, and shared their experiences. A meeting devoted to the SEAL participation in Just Cause, the invasion of Panama, was held shortly after the operation. But most of the SEALs present found the briefing unsatisfactory, and a few were so disturbed that they walked out.” (Brave Men, Dark Waters, p. 245.)

  “ass-end destroyed”: Mir Bahmanyar, SEALs: The U.S. Navy’s Elite Fighting Force (Osprey, 2011), p. 80.

  Mina Saud operation details and quotes: interview with Tom Dietz. During the first Gulf War, the SEALs also seized an Iraqi oil platform and took twenty-three prisoners; captured Qarah Island, the first Kuwaiti territory to be liberated by the allied forces; and rescued a USAF F-16 pilot who was shot down and bailed out into the Gulf.

  Mogadishu details: Carol Fleisher interview with Rick Kaiser.

  “never used even once to track down t
errorists”: Newsweek, May 5, 2014.

  SEAL Gulf operations during oil embargo: interviews and reporting by Dick Couch for Down Range. Sean Yarrow and Don Latham pseudonyms. On February 2, 2000, a highly dramatic SEAL operation occurred near the Persian Gulf when the Russian tanker Volgoneft-147, suspected of smuggling Iraqi oil in violation of United Nations (UN) Security Council Resolutions, was intercepted by a U.S. Navy cruiser. The Russian ship refused to obey orders to stop, so a heavily armed team of ten Navy SEALs fast-roped to the deck from helicopters and seized the vessel at gunpoint.

  CHAPTER 7

  Details and quotes of SEAL operations in Afghanistan and Iraq in this chapter, unless otherwise sourced: interviews and reporting by Dick Couch for his books Downrange and The Sheriff of Ramadi. In 2005–2007 Couch embedded with the SEAL platoon stationed in Ramadi, Iraq. In this chapter, the names Randy Lowery, John Seville, Jack Williams, Sean Smith, Lars Beamon, Chuck Forbes, Lou Taladega and Jim Collins are pseudonyms.

  Development Group missions publicly described by U.S. Navy: “NSW Command Brochure,” dated May 9, 2014: http://www.public.navy.mil/nsw/news/Documents/ETHOS/Brochure.pdf.

  “In the SEAL teams, you train and train”: Carol Fleisher interview with SEAL.

  Phillips rescue detail is from contemporaneous press accounts.

  “We think we found Osama bin Laden”: Mike Allen, “Osama bin Laden Raid Yields Trove of Computer Data,” Politico, May 2, 2011.

  “What SEALs are good at”: CBS 60 Minutes, September 24, 2012.

  Details of bin Laden raid are from contemporaneous press accounts and two books on the operation: Peter L. Bergen, Manhunt: The Ten-Year Search for Bin Laden from 9/11 to Abbottabad (Random House, 2012); and Mark Bowden, The Finish: The Killing of Osama Bin Laden (Atlantic Press, 2012).

  Jessica Buchanan quotes and rescue details: Jessica Buchanan, Erik Landemalm, and Anthony Flacco, Impossible Odds: The Kidnapping of Jessica Buchanan and Her Dramatic Rescue by SEAL Team Six (Simon & Schuster, 2013), pp. 242–267; Charlie Rose, May 15, 2013; CBS 60 Minutes, May 12, 2013.

  EPILOGUE

  Detail on knife ceremony, “On clear days, visitors to Rosecrans can often see”: Ethos, Issue 22, 2013.

  McRaven’s apology is from contemporaneous press accounts, the accuracy of which McRaven confirmed to us by e-mail.

  “There are a lot of mission areas out there”: “Calland: SEALs Focus Is On Terrorism, Core Missions, Interoperability,” Defense Daily, July 10, 2003.

  Daniel Murphy comments: NBC Nightly News, May 3, 2011; CBS News, The Early Show, October 22, 2007.

  APPENDIX A

  http://www.public.navy.mil/nsw/Documents/USSOCOM_OrgChart.pdf.

  APPENDIX B

  http://www.public.navy.mil/nsw/news/Documents/ETHOS/Brochure.pdf.

  APPENDIX C

  Hawkins’s sources include:

  Sue Ann Dunford and James Douglas O’Dell, More Than Scuttlebutt—The U.S. Navy Demolition Men in WWII (2009) (http://ncdu-udt-ww2.com/).

  “Hidden Heroes: Amphibious Scouts of Special Services Unit #1,” June 2007, by Teresa “Pat” Staudt and Hank Staudt. A self-published research project provided to the Navy Historical Society.

  Commander in Chief, United States Fleet, to Vice Chief of Naval Operations: Subject: Naval Demolition Units Project, May 6, 1943, Serial 01398 (National Archives, Textual Reference Division, Military Reference Branch, Suitland, Md.).

  Vice Chief of Naval Operations to Chief of the Bureau of Yards and Docks: Subject: Personnel for Naval Demolition Units, May 15, 1943, Serial 01911223 (National Archives, Textual Reference Division, Military Reference Branch, Suitland, Md.).

  Officer in Charge of Naval Demolition Unit to COMAMPHIBFORLANT: Subject: Recommendations for Naval Demolition Units, organization, training, and equipping of permanent units, May 27, 1943 (National Archives, Textual Reference Division, Military Reference Branch, Suitland, Md.).

  Commander in Chief, U.S. Pacific Fleet, History of the Amphibious Forces, U.S. Pacific Fleet, “History of Naval Combat Demolition Training and Experimental Base, Kihei, Maui, T.H.,” Section 150C, 166 (The Naval History and Historical Command, Washington, D.C.).

  APPENDIX D

  http://www.public.navy.mil/nsw/pages/ethoscreed.aspx

  INDEX

  The pagination of this electronic edition does not match the edition from which it was created. To locate a specific entry, please use your e-book reader’s search tools.

  Abbas, Abu, 149

  Abrams, Creighton W., 92

  Acheson, Bill, 24

  Achille Lauro (ship), 148–49

  “actionable intelligence,” 81

  Adkin, Mark, 137n

  Afghanistan

  al-Qaeda in, 185, 186, 188–202

  casualties in, 202, 207, 235

  CIA in, 186, 187, 188

  civilians in, 127, 257

  combat leaders’ responsibilities in, 116

  FBI in, 193, 195, 201

  as focus of SEAL operations, 185

  as ground campaign, 187

  helicopter crash in, 248

  impact on individual SEALs of missions in, 258

  intelligence in, 94, 186, 190

  Norgrove mission in, 248

  Northern Alliance fighters in, 187–88, 189

  Operation Anaconda in, 204–6

  Operation Red Wings in, 127, 238, 239

  and Russia, 190–91

  SEALs as mountain fighters in, 185

  Zhawar Kili cave complex in, 190–204

  Africa

  al-Qaeda bombing of U.S. embassies in, 169, 184, 191

  See also specific nation

  Agat (Guam), 28

  Aidid, Mohamed Farrah, 165–66, 167

  Air Force, U.S.

  in Afghanistan, 187, 189, 195, 200, 201, 202

  “best practices” of, 165

  Combat Control Team of, 155, 195

  in Grenada, 139, 140

  in Iraq, 214, 220, 226

  Kennedy’s orders to, 256

  and Omaha Beach, 5

  in Panama, 155, 156

  SOCOM and, 154

  in Vietnam, 91

  al-Qaeda

  in Afghanistan, 187, 188, 190–206

  in Iraq, 219–34, 239, 245, 247

  as new threat, 165

  and Qala-i-Jangi prisoner revolt, 188

  role of SEALs in dealing with, 186

  and Somalia attack, 164–68

  training camp for, 190–204

  and World Trade Center bombing (1993), 165, 169

  al-Qaeda (cont.)

  Zhawar Kili cave stronghold of, 190–204

  See also bin Laden, Osama; specific attack

  Alpha 117 (ship) mission, 184

  Amorelli, Joe, 4

  Amphibious Ready Groups: SEALs deployment with, 185

  Anbar Province (Iraq). See Ramadi, Battle of

  Andrade, Dale, 100, 117

  Angaur Island: UDT operations on, 33–34, 44

  anti-amphibious assault mine: at Wonsan Harbor (Korea), 46–47, 48–49, 57

  antiterrorism missions, 261. See also specific mission

  APD (Amphibious Personnel Destroyer), 50–51

  Apocalypse Now (movie), 33

  aqualung, 56

  Arlington National Cemetery, 69

  Army Corps of Engineers: on Omaha Beach, 7

  Army, North Vietnamese (NVA), 79, 99

  Army, People’s Revolutionary (Grenada), 143, 145, 146

  Army Rangers, U.S., 138, 157, 166–67, 248

  Army, U.S.

  in Afghanistan, 187, 188, 189, 195, 248

  “best practices” of, 165

  and Grenada invasion, 139, 142, 144,

  in Iraq, 207, 220, 222, 223, 224–25, 227–30, 233, 236, 237, 238

  on Iwo Jima, 37–38

  Kennedy’s orders to, 64, 256

  on Okinawa, 38

  on Omaha Beach, 1–15

  in Panama, 157

  on Saipan, 27

  SEALs rela
tionship with, 224, 227–30, 238

  SOCOM and, 154

  and SOCOM as SEAL-centric, 257

  in Somalia, 166–67

  in Vietnam, 91, 94, 95–96, 99, 118, 265

  See also specific unit

  Ashby, Edwin R., 39, 43–44

  Associated Press, 166

  Atcheson, George, 50–51, 53

  atomic bomb, 43

  Bahrain: SEALs in, 182–83

  Bainbridge, USS, and Phillips rescue, 249

  Bajema, Mike, 224, 225, 227–28, 238

  Barbey, Daniel, 35

  Basham, Jack, 37

  Bass, Stephen, 188

  Bay of Pigs (Cuba), 63, 70

  Beamon, Lars, 224–25, 226, 227, 236, 237, 238

  Beausoleil, Randy Lee, 159

  Begor, USS: in Korean War, 51, 52, 53

  “behind-the-gun” technique, 175–76. See also CQD

  Belgian Gates (Omaha Beach), 9, 10

  Biden, Joe, 252

  bin Laden, Osama

  and Alpha 117 mission, 184

  killing of, 187, 246, 247, 249–52, 257, 260

  and Shawar Kili cave complex, 190

  and Somalia attack on U.S. soldiers, 165

  Binder, David, 168

  Bishop, Maurice, 123, 137n

  Black Hawk Down (book/movie), 167

  Black, Robert A., 33

  Blessman, USS: at Iwo Jima, 37

  Boat Support Unit One: in Vietnam War, 98, 208

  Boat Support Unit Two: in VietnamWar, 98, 208

  Boat Team 5 (NCDU): on Omaha Beach, 4, 13

  Boat Team 11 (NCDU): on Omaha Beach, 2

  Boat Team 14 (NCDU): on Omaha Beach, 2

  Boat Team 15 (NCDU): on Omaha Beach, 2

  Bobby (SEAL in Iraq), 243, 244

  Boeing 737 flight, Egypt Air: terrorists and, 148–50

  Boink, Louis, 85

  Bonelli, Garry, 262–68

  Bosiljevac, T.L., 85, 118–19

  Bosnia, 168–69

  Boswell, QM2, 54

  Bridges, Lloyd, 138

  British

  in Afghanistan, 188

  in Bosnia, 168–69

  See also Marines, British Royal; Navy, British Royal

  Bronze Star awards, 44, 116

  Brown Water Navy, 110, 118

  Bruhmuller, Bill

  and Cuban operations, 59–60, 61, 62, 71, 72–75

  and founding of Navy SEALs, 67

  military career of, 69

  as “plank-owner,” 67

 

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