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Navy Seals

Page 34

by Couch, Dick


  State Department, U.S., 75

  States, Louis A., 47–48

  Stockholm, Jon, 90, 91

  Stoner 63A machine gun, 80, 87

  Stoner, Eugene, 231

  Strategic Plans Division, U.S. Navy, 66

  Stubblefield, Gary, 158–59

  submarines, UDT divers and, 30, 33

  submerged explosives, 29

  submersible craft, swimmer, 32

  Sullivan, Bob, 90

  Swepston, Carl, 120

  “swim buddies,” 24–25

  swimmer delivery vehicles (SDVs), 114

  swimming requirements, 24

  Sword Beach (D-Day, 1944), 13

  Tadic, Miroslav, 168

  Takur Ghar, Battle of (Afghanistan),205

  “Tal Afar” battle plan, 221

  Taladega, Lou, 194–95, 196, 198, 199–200

  Taliban, 187, 188, 190, 191, 195, 200, 204–6, 248

  Tarawa: UDT operations on, 19–20, 23

  Task Force K-Bar (Afghanistan), 189. See also Harward, Bob

  “Task Unit Whiskey” (Panama assault), 159

  technology

  and evolution of UDTs, 56–57

  and post-9/11 deployments, 185

  Tenth Army, U.S., 38

  terrorism

  beginning of war on, 169–70

  and personnel recovery, 187–88

  pro-Palestinian, 149–50

  See also specific person, organization, or mission

  Tet Offensive (Vietnam War), 95, 97–98

  Thames, Jim, 102

  Thanksgiving Day: in Grenada, 147

  3rd Infantry Division, U.S. Army, 207

  Thisted, Poul, 252, 253

  Thornton, Frank, 96

  Thornton, Michael E., 110–13

  352nd Infantry Division, German: on Omaha Beach, 6

  Tipton, James, 71–72

  Tojo, Hideki, 27

  Toohey, Pat, 156

  Tora Bora, 203

  train incident (Korean War): UDT operations and, 54

  training, Navy SEALs

  basic, 125, 139

  BUD/S, 67–69, 77, 130, 131, 132, 135, 137, 176, 266

  “cadre,” 80, 89

  at Camp Billy Machen, 195

  and characteristics of Navy SEALs, 266

  CQD and, 174–75

  and Cuban operations, 70

  and Curtis incident in Panama, 153, 154

  Fort Rosecrans ceremony and, 255–56

  and Grenada missions, 141, 142

  Hell Week and, 22, 68, 137

  importance of, 97, 248

  influence of Korean War on, 56

  for junior officers, 104

  and Lyons lectures about history of Naval Special Warfare, 58

  NCDU training compared with, 3

  predeployment, 173, 181

  rigor of, 237

  sniper/overwatch, 226, 229, 230–31

  VBSS, 173

  for Vietnam War, 116

  See also Coronado Amphibious Base (San Diego, California); Little Creek Amphibious Base (Norfolk, Virginia)

  trawler incident (Vietnam War), 100–105

  Trident, 260–61, 266–67

  Tufts University: International Security Studies Program at, 169

  Turner, Richmond Kelly, 23–24, 44–45

  26th Field Hospital, 106

  27th Division, U.S. Army, 38

  237th Engineer Combat Battalion, U.S. Army, 4

  299th Engineer Combat Battalion, U.S. Army, 4

  UDT-1, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54

  UDT-2, 20, 50

  UDT-3, 27, 50–51, 52, 55

  UDT-4, 27, 28, 50

  UDT-5, 16–17, 27, 46–49, 53, 55, 57

  UDT-6, 16–17, 27

  UDT-7, 16–17, 27

  UDT-10, 33–35

  UDT-11, 38, 40, 41, 42, 47, 66, 113–16

  UDT-12, 66, 124

  UDT-13, 18

  UDT-14, 37

  UDT-15, 37

  UDT-16, 40, 41–42

  UDT-21, 43

  UDT-22, 69, 78, 117

  UDT-Navy SEALs Museum (Fort Pierce, Florida), 14, 15

  Underwater Demolition Teams (UDT), U.S. Navy

  accomplishments of, 35

  as ancestors of Navy SEALs, 20n, 45, 256

  appearance of, 18–19

  awards and honors for, 44

  characteristics of, 28–29, 50, 258

  CIA and, 50, 53, 54–55

  commissioning of new, 116–17

  Cuban operations and, 62, 63, 70, 71–72, 75

  culture of, 29–30, 43–44

  decrease in number of, 116–17

  equipment for, 51–52

  evolution of, 56

  and founding of Navy SEALs, 64–65

  funding for, 116–17

  Hollywood films about, 139–40

  importance of, 19

  as instructors for SEALs, 69–70

  and Korean War, 48

  land migration of, 56

  “naked warriors” in, 18–19, 93

  number in World War II of, 44

  at Okinawa, 39–42

  OSS Maritime Units and, 20n, 31–32, 33

  “over the beach” operations of, 50

  post–World War II combat strength of, 49–50

  recovery of, 30–31

  as reservists, 44

  role of, 19–20

  on Saipan, 16–19, 23–24, 25–27, 44

  secrecy about, 44–45

  selection of men for, 29

  and selection of men for SEALs, 67

  and shift to small-scale warfare, 65–66

  small team approach of, 162

  and staffing for SEAL teams, 123

  submarines and, 30, 33

  “swim buddies” as core unit of, 24–25

  technological evolution of, 56–57

  toolkits of, 31–32

  training for, 20, 28–29, 43, 64–65, 67, 68

  transition to SEALs from, 64–65

  unconventionality of, 43–44, 53

  in Vietnam War, 94–95, 103, 104, 113–16

  World War II casualties in Pacificof, 44

  See also specific person or team

  United Nations

  and First Gulf War, 161

  Korean War and, 52–53, 55

  and oil embargo on Saddam Hussein, 171–74

  oil-for-food program of, 210

  and Somalia attack, 165

  University of Miami: as Operation Mongoose headquarters, 61

  University of Texas: McRaven speech at, 125

  Urgent Fury (Adkin), 138n

  U.S. News & World Report magazine, 168

  Utah Beach (June 6, 1944), 4, 13

  VBSS activity (visit, board, search and seizure), 171–74

  Vessey, John, 146

  Vieques Island (Puerto Rico): as UDT training facility, 70

  Vietnam Veterans Memorial, 119

  Vietnam War

  appearance of SEALs in, 79–80, 93

  and bounties for killing SEALs, 120

  casualties in, 31, 100, 101, 107, 113, 117, 119

  Chau Doc operations during, 95–97

  CIA and, 90, 99

  Da Nang Harbor command compound during, 264–65

  DMZ in, 107

  Easter Offensive in, 108, 111

  end of, 119

  equipment for SEALs in, 80, 93

  impact on SEALs of, 186

  intelligence in, 81, 94, 105, 106, 111, 119

  Kit Carson Scouts in, 82, 84, 87, 88

  and lessons learned in Grenada, 148

  looting during, 88

  Medal of Honor awards for actions during, 105, 106, 110, 113

  Vietnam War (cont.)

  Nha Trang Bay operations during, 105–6

  and Norris-Thornton mission, 110–13

  and North Vietnam invasion of South Vietnam, 119

  POWs in, 77, 78–90, 107, 113–16, 117, 119

  PRUs in, 95, 99–100

  rescue of downed aircrew during,
106–10

  and Rung Sat operations, 92–93

  Russia and, 107

  SEAL force in, 93, 117, 207

  SEAL legacy from, 148

  SEAL performance during, 117–20

  Tet Offensive in, 95, 97–98

  and training for SEALs, 68, 70

  trawler incident during, 100–105

  UDTs in, 95, 103, 113–16

  U.S. drawdown in, 265

  Vietnamese Navy (VNN), 111

  Wall Street Journal, 140

  Walter, Ray G., 22

  Wantuck, USS: in Korean War, 51, 54

  Watson, Robert, 4, 11

  Weinberger, Caspar, 146

  West, Bing, 118

  Westmoreland, William, 118

  Weyers, Marnard, 138

  Whiskey Platoon, 78–90, 95, 98

  Widmark, Richard, 140

  Williams, Jack, 222, 238–39

  Winkler, David, 55

  wives: of Navy SEALs, 267–68

  Wonsan Harbor (Korean War), 46–49, 57, 58

  Woodward, Calvin, 166

  World Trade Center attack (1993), 165, 169

  World War II

  demobilization after, 49–50

  Japanese surrender in, 43

  Navy’s worst losses in, 42–43

  OSS Maritime Unit in, 31–32

  Pacific Theater in, 16–45

  See also D-Day; Omaha Beach

  Yap (Caroline Islands), 33

  Yarrow, Sean, 176–81

  Yarrow/Yatch Entry, 174, 176, 181

  Yokosuka Naval Base (Japan), 51

  Zenith Technical Enterprises, 61

  Zhawar Kili cave complex (Afghanistan), 190–204

  ABOUT THE AUTHORS

  DICK COUCH graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1967 and served as a Special Warfare Officer with the SEALs. While a platoon leader with SEAL Team One in 1970, he led one of the only successful POW rescue operations of the Vietnam War. In 1972 he entered the Central Intelligence Agency, where he served as a maritime operations case officer. Couch has spent five of the last fifteen years embedded with American special operations components. His nonfiction books include The Warrior Elite: The Forging of SEAL Class 228, The Finishing School, Down Range, Chosen Soldier, Sua Sponte, and Always Faithful. He has lectured at the Air Force Academy, West Point, Naval Academy, FBI Academy, and U.S. Marine War College.

  WILLIAM DOYLE is the coauthor, with former U.S. Navy SEAL Chris Kyle, of American Gun: A History of the U.S. in Ten Firearms. His other books include A Soldier’s Dream: Captain Travis Patriquin and the Awakening of Iraq, An American Insurrection, Inside the Oval Office, and A Mission from God (with James Meredith). He served as director of original programming for HBO, and he is coproducer of the PBS special Navy SEALs: Their Untold Story.

  DISCOVER GREAT AUTHORS, EXCLUSIVE OFFERS, AND MORE AT HC.COM.

  ALSO BY DICK COUCH

  NONFICTION

  The Warrior Elite: The Forging of SEAL Class 228

  The U.S. Armed Forces Nuclear-Chemical-Biological Survival Manual

  The Finishing School: Earning the Navy SEAL Trident

  Down Range: Navy SEALs in the War on Terror

  Chosen Soldier: The Making of a Special Forces Warrior

  The Sheriff of Ramadi: Navy SEALs and the Winning of al-Anbar

  A Tactical Ethic: Moral Conduct in the Insurgent Battlespace

  Sua Sponte: The Forging of a Modern American Ranger

  Always Faithful, Always Forward: The Forging of a Special Operations Marine

  FICTION

  SEAL Team One

  Pressure Point

  Silent Descent

  Rising Wind

  The Mercenary Option

  Covert Action

  Act of Valor (Novelization)

  OpCenter: Out of the Ashes

  Act of Revenge

  ALSO BY WILLIAM DOYLE

  Inside the Oval Office: The White House Tapes from FDR to Clinton

  An American Insurrection: James Meredith and the Battle of Oxford, Mississippi, 1962

  A Soldier’s Dream: Captain Travis Patriquin and the Awakening of Iraq

  A Mission From God (with James Meredith)

  American Gun: A History of the U.S. in Ten Firearms (with Chris Kyle)

  CREDITS

  Cover design by Richard L. Aquan

  Cover photograph © by Jim Suga/CORBIS

  COPYRIGHT

  Portions of chapters six and seven previously appeared in Dick Couch’s books Down Range and The Sheriff of Ramadi.

  NAVY SEALS. Copyright © 2014 by Dick Couch and William Doyle. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this ebook on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

  FIRST EDITION

  ISBN 978-0-06-233660-6

  EPub Edition NOVEMBER 2014 ISBN 9780062336620

  14 15 16 17 18 OV/RRD 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

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  FOOTNOTE

  1 A notable earlier naval combat operation occurred in September 1942, when a small team of handpicked Navy salvage divers led by Lieutenant Mark Starkweather was put through a cram course in demolition and commando-raiding techniques and then sent across the Atlantic to spearhead Operation TORCH, the Allied invasion of North Africa. The team disabled a massive cable-and-net barrier blocking the Wadi Sebou River in Morocco, enabling shipborne U.S. Army troops to capture the strategic Port Lyautey airdrome, and earning a Navy Cross for each of the demolition team members.

  2 According to SEAL historian Tom Hawkins, “The term ‘frogmen’ originates with the British, who were (except for the Italians) the first combat divers. They wore protective dress made from green rubber and were hence labeled ‘frogmen’ in the British press. Once the UDTs adopted the underwater capabilities of the OSS Maritime Units after the war . . . they too began exploring protective dress for thermal protection. They were not really called Frogmen until after Korea, and they hated the term initially, but soon learned that it made them very popular in books, magazines, and movies.” Also, see the end of this book for Hawkins’s detailed account of the World War II ancestor-legacy units of the U.S. Navy SEALs, including the Naval Combat Demolition Units (NCDUs), Underwater Demolition Teams (UDTs), Amphibious Scouts and Raiders (S&R), Special Mission Naval Demolition Unit, Naval Demolition Project, Special Services Unit One (SSU-1), Sino-American Cooperative Organization (SACO), and Office of Strategic Services Maritime Unit.

  3 Mark Adkin, author of a definitive history on the Grenada invasion, criticized this mission on pages 174–175 of his book Urgent Fury (1989), asserting that the SEALs’ target was a long-range transmitter use
d primarily by the Bishop government for broadcasts throughout the Caribbean, while the key Radio Free Grenada transmitter used to transmit inside the country itself was at another location on the island. In other words, incomplete intelligence led the SEALs to a target that was not critical to the success of the invasion.

  4 Publisher’s note: The DoD’s Office of Security Review requested the redaction of further references in this book to NSW’s Development Group, to which the authors have complied.

  5 Adapted from the NSW Command brochure: http://www.public.navy.mil/nsw/news/Documents/ETHOS/Brochure.pdf.

 

 

 


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