by Orr Kelly
Henry S. Thrift described his early experiences with UDT Twenty-one and SEAL Team Two in an interview at his home in Lake Wales, Florida. William N. Bruhmuller was interviewed at his home in Panama City, Florida.
Pierre Ponson, a veteran member of the Chuting Stars, told me of his experience as a SEAL and parachute expert in an interview in Little Creek, Virginia.
My description of SEAL training is based on a visit to the training center at Coronado and the SEAL base on San Clemente Island. Lt. Scott Flinn, who monitors the health of the men in training, was interviewed at Coronado.
Warrant Officer George Hudak was interviewed during my visit to San Clemente.
My description of the way SEALs use explosives is based on a visit to Little Creek, where I accompanied a group of SEALs going through requalification in this skill.
Capt. Theodore Grabowsky told me the anecdote about the possible shark-sighting off San Clemente during an interview in his Washington office.
Albert W. Winter, a retired SEAL, told me of his brush with death from hypothermia during an interview at his home in San Diego.
The death of Hospital Corpsman Third Class John Joseph Tomlinson from hypothermia is described in the official accident report obtained from the Office of the Navy Judge Advocate General.
Winter, cited above, described to me the development of the large SEAL “Budweiser” badge.
I interviewed Dr. Thomas J. Doubt of the Hyperbaric Medicine Program Center at the Naval Medical Research Institute, at his office in Bethesda, Maryland.
The outline of the basic underwater demolition/SEAL (BUDS) training in Coronado is contained in “A Guide to Naval Special Warfare,” a navy brochure provided to prospective trainees.
The tests that showed changes in SEALs as a result of their training are described in D. G. McDonald, J. P. Norton, and J. A. Hodgdon, “Determinants and Effects of Training Success in U.S. Navy Special Forces,” Naval Health Research Center, report No. 88-34, 8 August 1988.
Other studies of SEALs consulted were: Lt. Comdr. Richard H. Rahe and Comdr. Ransom J. Arthur, “Stressful Underwater Demolition Training: Serum Urate and Cholesterol Viability,” The Journal of the American Medical Association, 11 December 1967; James A. Hodgdon, Harold W. Goforth, Jr., and Richard L. Hilderbrand, “Carbohydrate Loading as a Means of Extending Endurance Performance,” Proceedings, 21st Annual Conference of the Military Testing Association, San Diego, 15-19 October 1979; M. B. Beckett, H. W. Goforth and J. A. Hodgdon, “Physical Fitness of U.S. Navy Special Forces Team Members and Trainees,” Naval Health Research Center, report No. 89-29, 7 July 1989; J. A. Hodgdon and M. B. Beckett, “Prediction of Percent Body Fat for U.S. Navy Men From Body Circumferences and Height,” Naval Health Research Center, report No. 84-11, March 1984; Eric Gunderson, R. H. Rahe and R. J. Arthur, “Prediction of Performance in Stressful Underwater Demolition Training,” Journal of Applied Psychology, Vol. 56, No. 5, 1972; Lt. Comdr. Robert J. Biersner, David H. Ryman, and Capt. Richard H. Rahe, “Physical, Psychological, Blood Serum, and Mood Predictors of Success in Preliminary Underwater Demolition Team Training,” Military Medicine, March 1977; and Lindsay Carter and Richard H. Rahe, “Effects of Stressful Underwater Demolition Training on Body Structure,” Medicine and Science in Sports, August 1975.
The account of the involvement of the early SEAL teams in operations on the Cuban shore and during the Cuban missile crisis of 1962 is drawn from interviews with Roy Boehm, William T. Cannon, George Walsh, and David Del Giudice and the oral history of Frank Kaine, cited above.
The dates for the harrowing survey of the Havana harbor are fixed by unclassified citations issued to those who participated by Adm. Alfred G. Ward, then commander, Amphibious Force, Atlantic Fleet.
The citations do not mention the nature of the “special operations” involved. But an article in the Norfolk Ledger-Star, written by Jack Kestner, the newspaper’s military writer, shortly after the missile crisis, speculated accurately that the navy’s frogmen “undoubtedly know more about the beaches and off-shore waters of Cuba than Castro does himself.” The article was based, at least in part, on an interview with the skipper of one of the submarines that took part in those operations.
I also consulted Robert F. Kennedy, Thirteen Days, A Memoir of the Cuban Missile Crisis, New York: W. W. Norton, 1968.
Details of the voyage of the Mekong boat flotilla were drawn from Marolda, cited above, and an interview with Del Giudice.
7. A PLEASANT LITTLE WAR
The early involvement of the SEALs in Vietnam is described by Marolda and Fitzgerald, cited above. The situation there was also described to me by Flynn and Weyers, cited above, who served in Da Nang in those early days.
The Gulf of Tonkin incident is described in detail by Marolda and Fitzgerald and in the twelve-volume Pentagon Papers, more formally known as the Department of Defense’s United States-Vietnam Relations: 1945-1967, Washington: GPO, 1971.
William Colby’s doubts about the effectiveness of the raids against the north are contained in an oral history interview available at the Navy Library.
Although others told me of Del Giudice’s involvement in the operations out of Da Nang, he declined to discuss that part of his career with me.
Capt Michael L. Mulford’s account of the delivery of the first Nasty class boats to Vietnam is contained in an oral history interview conducted with him by Marolda and available at the Navy Library.
Grabowsky told me, in an interview in his Washington office, of the incident in which he almost went along on a raid against North Vietnam. Although Flynn and Weyers say neither they nor any Americans working under them, to their knowledge, went on such raids, several retired enlisted men told me they did accompany the Vietnamese frogmen but did not go ashore. Later in the war, I was told, Americans participated in such operations and actually went ashore in the north.
Both Boehm and Weyers told me of their experiences during the early involvement of the SEALs in the southern area of South Vietnam, and Weyers described the firefight in which Billy Machen became the first SEAL killed in combat in Vietnam.
8. THE MEN WITH GREEN FACES
James D. Watson told me of his experiences in Vietnam when I visited the SEAL/UDT Museum in Fort Pierce, where he is the director.
Bill Bruhmuller told me of his experiences in Vietnam when I visited him at his home in Panama City, Florida.
Rodney Pastore was interviewed at Little Creek, where he was command master chief of Naval Special Warfare Group Two.
Ronald K. Bell, a retired captain, was interviewed at his home in Coronado.
The sign reporting that SEALs kill for fun and money was described in Craig R. Whitney, “Navy’s ‘Seals,’ SuperSecret Commandos, Are Quitting Vietnam,” New York Times, 29 November 1971.
Larry W. Bailey, also a retired captain, was interviewed at his home near Mount Vernon, Virginia.
Casualties suffered by the SEALs in Vietnam are described in T. L. Bosiljevac, SEALs, UDT/SEAL Operations in Vietnam, Boulder, Colorado: Paladin Press, 1990, also available in paperback, with an index, New York: Ivy Books, 1991. Bosiljevac, a SEAL officer, wrote his manuscript as part of his work toward an advanced academic degree. It provides the best detailed, overall account, from unclassified sources, of the SEALs’ involvement in the Vietnam War.
Personal experiences of individual SEALs who served in Vietnam are described in Ian Padden, U.S. Navy SEALs: From Boot Camp to the Battle Zones, New York: Bantam, 1985; Darryl Young, The Element of Surprise: Navy SEALs in Vietnam, New York: Ivy Books, 1990; and Kevin Dockery, SEALs in Action, New York: Avon Books, 1991.
The incident in which Warrant Officer Eugene Tinnin was killed is described by Bosiljevac and by the official history of SEAL Team One for 1968, available at the Navy Library.
Command histories for SEAL Teams One and Two, parts one and two, NRS 1988-4, are available on microfilm at the Operational Archives, Naval Historical Center, Washington Navy Yard.
Bailey, cited above,
told me in an interview of the similar incident in which he shot one of his own men.
The accidental deaths of members of Team One in a helicopter crash and in the explosion of a mortar shell are included in the team’s official histories for 1968 and 1970.
The boats used by the SEALs in Vietnam are described by Bosiljevac.
Thomas L. Hawkins, a retired commander, and Grabowsky, cited above, told me in interviews of the feelings toward them by others in the American military.
Vice Adm. Robert S. Salzer discussed his experiences with the SEALs in an oral history interview available at the Navy Library.
The arrival of Vice Adm. Elmo R. Zumwalt and his influence on the war in the delta are described in Lt. Comdr. Thomas J. Cutler, Brown Water, Black Berets, New York: Pocket Books, 1989.
Charles Watson, who became a lawyer and a state prosecutor, described his experiences during the Tet offensive in an interview at his office in Colonial Heights, Virginia.
Bucklew’s report on his survey trip to Vietnam is contained in “JUSMAG, Vietnam. Infiltration into South Vietnam” (Bucklew Report), NRS 397, available on microfilm at the Operational Archives, Naval Historical Center, Washington Navy Yard. Del Giudice, who accompanied Bucklew, also discussed that trip with me in an interview.
Thrift, cited above, described his experiences in the Ca Mau area in an interview.
William Cowan, who as a marine officer often worked with the SEALs in Vietnam, told me of his experiences during an interview in his office in Fredericksburg, Virginia.
The operation in which Lt. Joseph R. Kerrey won the Medal of Honor is described by Bosiljevac and by the official citation awarding the medal.
Boehm told me of his disillusionment with the war in Vietnam in an interview.
LeMoyne, cited above, and John Wilbur, now an attorney in Palm Beach, Florida, who was his predecessor as overseer of the PRU program in the delta, told me of the SEALs’ participation with the PRU.
Bosiljevac describes the incident in which Tom Norris won his Medal of Honor and the action a few months later when Engineman Second Class Michael Thornton won the medal for his rescue of Norris. Both Capts. Mike Jukoski and Douglas Huth told me, in interviews, of their association with Norris. The two actions are also described in the citations accompanying award of the medals.
9. THE SUPER SEALs
The operation in which Lt. Melvin (“Spence”) Dry became the last SEAL to lose his life in the Vietnam War is described in Edwin L. Towers, Operation Thunderhead: Hope for Freedom, La Jolla, California: Lane & Associates, 1981. According to Towers’s account, he was responsible for planning the attempted rescue of the escaping American prisoners and was in the helicopter from which Dry jumped to his death. Despite the passage of some twenty years, details of the operation are still considered classified, so it was not possible to compare Towers’s account with official records of the operation.
However, several SEALs, who were not present but were familiar with the incident, were able to confirm a number of details recounted by Towers.
Dry’s death was reported in an official accidental injury/death report on 9 July 1972. Although the location and names of the units involved were withheld because of the classified nature of the operation, the official report of Dry’s death corresponds with Towers’s account, and Towers is listed as one of three witnesses interviewed. A copy of the report was obtained under the Freedom of Information Act through the navy judge advocate general.
A good summary of the history of combat swimming is contained in Howard E. Larson, A History of Self-Contained Diving and Underwater Swimming, Washington, D.C.: National Academy of Sciences National Research Council, 1959, which was provided to me by Dr. Lambertsen. Another overview is contained in Richard Compton-Hall, “Re-emergence of the Midgets,” Military Technology, October 1987.
Larson’s history describes the Italian interest in human torpedo riders. Further information about the Italian use of this unusual form of warfare is contained in Raymond De Belot, Rear Admiral, French Navy (Ret.), The Struggle for the Mediterranean, 1939-1945, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1951; William Schofield and P. J. Carisella, Frogmen: First Battles, Boston: Branden Publishing Co., 1987; and David Zinman, “Wartime Adventures of a Human Torpedo,” Washington Star from Associated Press, 17 December 1961. Zinman’s account is based on an interview with Lt. Luigi Durand de la Penne, who led the Italian attack on the British fleet at Alexandria.
A detailed and fascinating account of the British efforts to sink the German battleship Tirpitz is contained in Leonce Peillard, Sink the Tirpitz!, New York: Putman’s, 1968.
The U.S. Navy’s efforts, during the 1950s and afterward, to develop its own small submersibles were described to me by W. T. (“Tom”) Odum, head of the ocean engineering department of the Naval Coastal Systems Center in Panama City, Florida, and by Parks, cited above. Current efforts in the development of submersibles and underwater breathing apparatus were described to me by Odum and Parks, as well as Walter W. Howard, head, naval special warfare systems development branch, and Robert H. Banks, director of the diving and salvage division, in Panama City.
Hawkins, cited above, is one of the navy’s most enthusiastic supporters of the SDV concept. He described their development and use in an interview, even though what he could discuss was restricted by the classified nature of much of the information about SDVs. He also described the use of SDVs in an article, “SDVs: Underwater Transit for a Chosen Few,” Faceplate, Spring 1975.
In testimony before the House Armed Services Committee in the spring of 1983, a navy witness told how the Mark 37 torpedo had been adapted so that two of them could be carried by the Mark 9 SDV. “And with that,” he told the committee, “the special warfare people can get in close to the beach and take under attack shipping that might be in the harbor from some reasonable range so that they don’t hazard themselves in close.” He described the system as operational in both fleets.
I toured the SDV hangar at Coronado with Chief Quartermaster Nick North and the similar facility at Little Creek with Comdr. Doug Lowe, executive officer of SDV Team Two, and Command Master Chief Herbert Haskin. Haskin later described, in an interview, his long experience in SDV operations.
Submarine operations by frogmen are described in detail in John Dwyer, “Surface Action: Submarine Support Special Ops,” Soldier of Fortune, May 1987.
These operations are also described in the command histories for UDTs Eleven and Thirteen for 1970.
The physiological challenges faced by SDV operators were described to me in interviews by Dr. Doubt, cited above, and Capt. Edward Thalman, of the Navy Diving Center in Bethesda.
10. THE LIEUTENANT (JG) SAYS NO
Comdr. D. T. (“Tom”) Coulter told me of his part in the Mayaguez affair during an interview in Little Creek, where he is executive officer of Naval Special Warfare Group Two.
I consulted files of the New York Times for details of the capture of the Mayaguez and her crew and the subsequent rescue attempts, as well as for official statements issued in Washington at that time.
The involvement of the SEALs in the U.S. intervention in the Dominican Republic was described to me by Bailey, cited above.
The special obligation of SEAL officers to protect their men was described by Steve Elson in an interview.
11. THE MARCH OF THE JEDI
The creation of special military hostage-rescue units after the failure at Desert One has been described in a number of newspaper and magazine articles. Among those consulted were: Jeff Gerth and Philip Taubman, “U.S. Military Creates Secret Units for Use in Sensitive Tasks Abroad,” New York Times, 8 June 1984; David C. Morrison, “The ‘Shadow War,’” National Journal, 10 May 1986; Norman Black, from Associated Press, “Navy Aiming to Expand Commandos,” Washington Post, 21 February 1987; Norman Polmar, “SOF—The Navy’s Perspective,” U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings, August 1987.
The navy’s 1986 “Special Warfare Master Plan” details plans for g
rowth of the SEALs and refers to a special atomic demolition munition and to SEAL Team Six.
The role of SEAL Team Six is also mentioned in Jim Stewart, “U.S. Special Forces Play Large but Little Known Role in Persian Gulf,” Atlanta Journal & Constitution, 1 November 1987; and John Collins, “United States and Soviet Special Operations,” a study by the Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress, 1987.
Richard Marcinko, who was in prison at the time, responded to my questions with a lengthy letter. Quotations attributed to him are from that letter.
The anecdote about Marcinko and Lon Non was related to me by Rear Adm. George Worthington.
Comdr. Norman J. Carley, now retired, told me in an interview of the period in the late 1970s when the foundations were laid for the creation of SEAL Team Six, and Lt. Theodore Macklin, also now retired, told me of his recruitment into the team.
Comdr. Thomas Mountz, who spent five years as clinical psychologist with SEAL Team Six, told me in an interview at his office at the Naval Investigative Service in Washington of his service with the team.
The involvement of the SEALs in the Achille Lauro affair was confirmed in a press conference by Adm. James D. Watkins, then chief of naval operations, in Norfolk, Virginia, on 11 October 1985. His remarks were reported in “If F-14s Failed, Special Forces Were Ready,” Army Times, 21 October 1985.
The quotation from Bell is from an interview with him, cited above. The quotation from Hawkins, cited above, is from an interview with him at his office in northern Virginia.
The troubles with Team Six were the subject of a number of newspaper articles. Among those consulted were: Charles R. Babcock, “Finances of Secret Navy Team Probed,” Washington Post, undated 1987; Ted Bush, “September Federal Trial Set for Former SEAL,” Navy Times, 10 August 1987; Ted Bush, “SEALs Lawyer: Creative Financing Got Supplies,” Navy Times, 11 September 1987; Charles R. Babcock, “Ex-Member of Elite Navy Team Pleads Guilty,” Washington Post, 17 September 1987 (refers to guilty plea by John Mason); Charles R. Babcock, “U.S. Widens Corruption Probe of Navy Hostage Rescue Team,” Washington Post, 18 December 1987; David Martin, “Navy Anti-Terrorism Team,” CBS “Evening News,” 14 April 1988; Robert F. Howe, “Grenade Maker Guilty in Kickback,” Washington Post, 22 October 1989.