Project Quick Find
Page 1
Published by The History Press
Charleston, SC
www.arcadiapublishing.com
Copyright © 2014 Michael P. Wood The History Press edition © 2016
Front cover: Author’s photograph for Skin Diver magazine, showing a sea lion diving and implanting a D5 grabber onto the training ASROC target.
The majority of the photographs used in this book were taken by the author or are from the author’s collection. There are some photographs from the collections of Rick Hetzell and Dan Peterson, as well as official U.S. Navy photos.
First published 2016
e-book edition 2016
ISBN 978.1.43966.006.5
Library of Congress Control Number: 2016948306
print edition ISBN 978.0.73850.354.7
Notice: These are memoirs of a U.S. Navy SEAL training sea lions, and, as such, are based on the author’s experiences with Project Quick Find. This is not a comprehensive history of Project Quick Find. The information in this book is true and complete to the best of our knowledge. It is offered without guarantee on the part of the author or Arcadia Publishing. The author and Arcadia Publishing disclaim all liability in connection with the use of this book.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form whatsoever without prior written permission from the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
In Memory of Chief Gordon Sybrant
DEDICATION
I would like to dedicate this book to all my fellow SEAL, EOD, and NUC marine mammal trainers and veterinarians, and our sea lion partners that made Project Quick Find possible. The NUC visionary development of the program, combined with the steadfast and hardworking military and civilian trainers and animals, made Project Quick Find a quick and long-lasting success story within the U.S. Navy for the recovery of objects on the sea floor. There are many civilian and military names that were instrumental, but the one that stands out the most during my time period in Quick Find was that of Chief Gordon Sybrant. Those of us Quick Find plank owners—John Busch, Tom McHugh, Rick Hetzell, Dan Peterson, and I—were all part of the Gordy Team that took Project Quick Find from beginning to final recognition and certification within the U.S. Navy.
CONTENTS
1. History
2. Indoctrination
3. ASROC Recovery
4. Gordy’s Task: Training and Readiness
5. QAST Shots
6. Change of Command
7. SEALs Capture Sea Lions
8. Mission Expansion
9. Dog and Pony Shows
10. Photojournalism and Project Quick Find
About the Author
1
HISTORY
Naval Undersea Research and Development Center (NUC) Hawaii Laboratory initiated Project Quick Find, which was considered a marine mammal system for object recovery. The first shipment of sea lions for the program was delivered in September 1969, and the program development took from September 1969 until December 1970, when NUC conducted extensive sea lion behavioral conditioning in order to prepare the sea lions for all the projected tasks they would need to recover a designated object.
The NUC trainers needed to adapt the sea lions to captivity and use operant conditioning to teach twenty total tasks, including hand tame, harness, muzzle, recall strobe, cage conditioning, target hit, hear-tell 37 kHz, D3 target mark, open-water release, D4 target mark, center hit, D5 target mark, hear-tell 9 kHz, end hit, recall buzzers, depth to 250 feet, recovery exercises, depth 250–350 feet, depth 350–450 feet, and depth 450–500 feet.
In June 1972, the official NUC report on Project Quick Find was released, titled “A Marine Mammal System for Object Recovery.” Martin E. Conboy from Ocean Sciences Department submitted the report, which stated: “Project Quick Find is a recovery system that consists of two men, a rubber boat, a reel of nylon line, a pinger receiver, a grabber device, and a California sea lion. It was developed to provide the Navy with an effective alternative to the use of divers and submersibles for the underwater recovery of small objects.”
John Busch and Bill Rosecrans walk their sea lions at the facility in Hawaii.
Official NUC report on Project Quick Find.
This diagram from the NUC report shows the ten sea lions that were brought into the Quick Find selection process determining adaptability, suitability, and ability to learn the desired behaviors.
The report also stated that during training sessions, four California sea lions demonstrated the ability to locate and recover objects with pingers from a depth of 500 feet. In an actual system demonstration, they recovered an inert depth charge from 180 feet of water. The depth charge was 6 feet long and weighed approximately five hundred pounds, but the breakout force required to pull it out of the ocean bottom was greater than five hundred pounds. Recovery hardware was designed and fabricated that could be used by the sea lion to recover objects weighing approximately two thousand pounds.
The sea lions were selected, trained, and determined ready for a demonstration. There were two demonstrations planned for Maui, Hawaii, and San Nicholas Island (SNI), California. The Maui demonstration suffered several delays and was eventually canceled. That left one demonstration to be conducted at SNI by Naval Ammunition Depot (NAD) and Pacific Missile Range (PMR), Point Mugu using the U.S. Navy ship USS Orleck. The sea lions were trained to recover the ASROC MK 17 Depth Charge from 250 feet, with the ship firing the ASROC and the depth charge landing in 180 feet of water. The sea lions were shipped from Hawaii to California on October 26, 1971. There were some weather delays and some technical difficulties, but the sea lions attached the grabber devices to the ASROC, and it was successfully recovered on November 6, 1971.
The sea lion training schedule and behaviors.
This diagram from the NUC report shows the sea lion training times in preparation for the project demonstration.
Sam Ridgeway, Naval Undersea Center head veterinarian, was also known as the “Dolphin Doctor.”
The deep submergence vehicle “Alvin” was used to retrieve a nuclear weapon that had been lost in the sea due to an aircraft crash. The time and expense of this recovery mission inspired Sam Ridgeway to investigate other methods of retrieval.
There is a story that Sam Ridgeway, then head veterinarian at NUC, also known as the “Dolphin Doctor,” was surprised by the extensive time delay and expense it took to find a lost U.S. nuclear weapon in Spanish waters. The 1966 Palomares B-52 crash, or Palomares incident, occurred on January 17, 1966, when a B-52G bomber of the United States Air Force’s Strategic Air Command collided with a KC-135 tanker during midair refueling at thirty-one thousand feet over the Mediterranean Sea, off the coast of Spain. The B52G carried four Mk28-type 1.45 megaton hydrogen bombs, of which three were found on land near the small fishing village of Palomares. The fourth, which fell into the Mediterranean Sea, was recovered intact after a two-and-a-half-month-long search. Apparently, it took the U.S. Navy an extraordinary amount of time and expense to transport the appropriate deep submergence vehicle (DSV) Alvin from the United States to Spain to search for the fourth nuclear weapon.
Sam, with his background in marine mammals, thought there had to be a better way to search for underwater objects. In fact, he had demonstrated use of a dolphin named Tuffy for carrying tools and messages between the surface and the SEALAB II habitat two hundred feet below off La Jolla, California. Tuffy was also trained to locate and guide lost divers to safety and later, with another dolphin named Peg, was used in an ASROC recovery in 1967. So marine mammals had definitely demonstrated the capability.
Four nuclear bombs were recovered, three from land and one from sea, after a mid-air collision o
ver the Mediterranean.
The report ultimately recommended that “the sea lion recovery system should be used to augment existing recovery forces presently being used to recover experimental and test items.”
Project Quick Find was born, and the program was moved from the Hawaii Laboratory to the Naval Amphibious Base (NAB) Coronado under the leadership of Torpedoman Chief (TNC) Gordon Sybrant. Chief Sybrant and more junior ranking marine mammal trainers EM2 John Busch and John Lemoyne were all Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) qualified. Chief Sybrant was initially marine mammal trained in Kaneohe, Hawaii, by Don McSheehy, Mike Schultz, Milo McManus, and Jim Corey, all NUC civilian employees. Once they moved the program to California, they were first stationed in Point Magu, where they trained and demonstrated the sea lions’ capabilities during a QAST (Quality Assurance Service Test) demonstration at San Nicholas Island. Once they successfully completed that demonstration, they moved to Pier 13 at NAB Coronado.
Gordy’s Quick Find Team and Plank Owners. Top row, from left: John Busch, Tom McHugh, Rick Hetzell. Bottom row, from left: Dan Peterson, Michael Wood.
It was unclear why more EOD personnel were not inducted into the project, but soon the call went out to recruit Navy SEAL personnel, many of whom were returning from operations in Vietnam. First amongst the SEALs to arrive was Bill Rosecrans, who served as a trainer and the only Navy SEAL for a while, but he needed to leave, and he recruited RM2 Richard Hetzell, who had just returned from deployment with SEAL Team One BRAVO Platoon. Next followed RM1 Thomas McHugh, and soon to follow him were PH2 Michael Wood and EN2 Dan Peterson, all of whom came from SEAL Team One. Although, Torpedoman Chief Sybrant ran the day-to-day operations, the recruiting process was under the guidance of LCDR Patterson, commander, Naval Inshore Warfare Command, Pacific.
Initially, there were five sea lions—Juneau, Turk, Sniffer, Fatman, and Akahi—that came from Hawaii, but by the time of my arrival there were only four, including Fatman, Akahi, Snitch, and the only female sea lion, Gump. Gordy Sybrant trained the most dominant animal, Fatman, and John Busch trained the next in line, Akahi. Both Akahi and Fatman were approximately the same size and weight, but Fatman had more of an attitude. Rick Hetzell initially trained Gump, the female, but soon inherited Snitch, the younger and smaller male sea lion. It was later determined through extensive training and testing that Gump would not ever measure up to be able to work during a missile recovery, so she was assigned to support any and all demonstrations for VIPs and news reporters. Gump’s amiability with people and lack of ability to work on a missile recovery soon led to the decision to recruit or capture only male sea lions in the near future.
2
INDOCTRINATION
Upon my return from Vietnam, I was quickly assigned to another SEAL platoon. My new SEAL platoon was to deploy on a Western Pacific deployment traveling to several countries in the region to help train various foreign special forces instead of deploying back to Vietnam for real combat. What also made this platoon a bit strange was that SEAL Team One (ST1) assigned an Australian Special Air Service (SAS) officer as our platoon commander in an exchange program between Australia and the United States.
Our new platoon commander had not deployed to Vietnam, and he had a regimented leadership style. I started out training with the platoon as a point man, but I quickly learned that I was not interested at all in the new regimented training style, nor was I interested in training other foreign military. It was difficult to make the shift from the adrenaline-pumping combat missions in Vietnam back to a training environment to which I referred as “pretend operations.”
I heard about a briefing that was taking place in the ST1 conference room having something to do with training sea lions. I did not know much about the program, but I wanted to find out. I have always had a strong interest in wild animals and nature, as well as nature photography. What I learned was that this group was called Project Quick Find and was looking for SEALs to transfer over to Naval Inshore Warfare Command (NIWC) to learn how to train California sea lions to recover inert anti-submarine rockets (ASROC). I did not know the first thing about training marine mammals, but I was highly intrigued and willing to learn. A couple of ST1 friends had already transferred over to Quick Find to work with Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) Chief Petty Officer (CPO) Gordy Sybrant and Second Class Petty Officer John Busch. The ST1 friends who had previously transferred were Rick Hetzell and Tom McHugh. Both Dan Peterson and I attended the brief and signed up to transfer to Quick Find together. There were four of us SEALs working for an EOD CPO who ran the program and had actually brought Quick Find from Hawaii to Coronado, California. Chief Sybrant was already a seasoned veteran in the Quick Find project.
Me in my point man war fighting gear, in front of the Victor Platoon barracks in Dong Tam, Vietnam, before transferring to Project Quick Find.
Sea lion training was only one small part of the program that we had to learn, and Chief Sybrant expected quick learning and mastery of the required skills. He did not tolerate any foolishness or lack of 100 percent effort. There was one tradition that might be considered foolishness that the chief did allow, and that was indoctrinating new trainers.
One of the most basic behaviors that the new trainer needed to learn was to “call” the selected sea lion to mount the dressing stand, where he would “harness the animal,” or dress the animal by placing the harness over the sea lion’s neck and connect the straps under and around his front pectoral flippers. This action forces the trainer to take his eyes off the sea lion while he is bending over to put the straps under and around the front flippers. It makes the trainer feel a bit exposed, with his neck right next to the animal’s mouth and big teeth. This caused new trainers’ sweat glands to exude a little fear!
If you have never seen the canines on a 70- to 120-pound male sea lion, they are very large, probably larger than any dog’s, and sea lions are not afraid to show them. This, of course, sets up the “new guy” indoctrination by the older trainers. They, of course, call the sea lion to the stand and easily dress it in front of the new guy, showing the simple procedure.
Then they tell the new guy to call Fatman to the stand to dress him. It is unclear whether Fatman was in on the prank, but he sure played his role to perfection. The first thing the new trainer discovers is that Fatman does not respond immediately or at all to the signal of hand slapping the dressing stand. When the new guy saw the experienced trainers do that signal, the animal jumped right up on the dressing stand.
Trainer Dan Peterson places the harness neck loop over the head of his sea lion.
Trainer Bud Dennehy inspects Fatman’s teeth while harnessing him on the dressing stand, with the sun setting over San Diego Bay in the background.
A Project Quick Find trainer begins the process of harnessing a very large sea lion at the Naval Undersea Center.
Fatman would just curl up his body and remain stationary on the deck and wasn’t about to go anywhere. The new guy training did not cover what to do in case the sea lion didn’t cooperate. In this instance, a newbie might think, “Well, I will just walk around Fatman and use my legs to nudge him to the dressing stand.” In my case, I am only five feet, four inches tall, and Fatman’s head is about the same height as the top of my thighs and other important organs. So, as I tried to nudge Fatman with my leg to get him moving, his lightning speed head twisted, turned, and bent backward to strike and bite me right at my upper thigh, with his canines sinking fully into the meat just below other important parts. The strike was so quick I did not know it even happened until the delayed pain set in. Of course, the group of guys, including John Busch, Tom McHugh, and Rick Hetzell, were laughing their asses off. I wonder if they sold tickets for this scene.
Fatman rests against the portable pen fencing on a navy ship during a QAST mission.
Once you commit to a command with an animal, you have to see it through, so while bleeding from my thigh, I again slapped the dressing stand to call Fatman. He surprisingly jumped
on the stand right away. Now, Fatman is equal to my eye level when he is on the stand, and he looked right into my eyes. He seemed to say, “Now you know who is the boss, and I will let you put the harness on me now!” With shaking hands, I placed the harness over Fatman’s head and ran the straps around his flippers. I hooked up his walking strap to the harness, brought him down from the dressing stand, and handed him off to McHugh, who was waiting outside the pen to load Fatman into the barge cages. As I walked out of the pen and past the laughter, a slight amount of shock was setting in, and I went right to the medical dispensary to get my tetanus shot and stitches. I learned a good lesson that day. Don’t trust your SEAL buddies, and don’t try to nudge the dominant animal with your legs.
Trainer Bud Dennehy gives Fatman a reward of fish for getting harnessed on the dressing stand at the Quick Find pen in San Diego Bay.
Interestingly, I spent nine months operating as a SEAL point man in Vietnam without being wounded or earning a Purple Heart. A couple weeks of working with sea lions, and I get a sea lion bite wound. A tradition in the team is “payback is hell,” and memories can last a long time.
3
ASROC RECOVERY
Project Quick Find was a new program and actually not fully accepted by the U.S. Navy. As a result, all the trainer and sea lion training occurred on the job, with no formal curriculum available. There were many skills to learn during this program, with very few people to do them all. This situation caused a need to learn quickly, which meant long working hours and lots of at-sea time. To understand what a new Quick Find trainer and sea lion needed to learn, one must first understand the ASROC locating and recovery process.