by Orr Kelly
Details of the charges against Marcinko and Charles M. Byers are taken from the indictment issued by a grand jury in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia in the July 1989 term.
Further details revealed by the Naval Investigative Service investigation are contained in a series of fact sheets issued by the NIS and the U.S. attorney’s office between July 1989 and 9 March 1990, when Marcinko was sentenced.
Quotations from Hamilton, Mason, and Captain Robert Gormly are taken from the transcript of the trial of Marcinko and Byers.
The investigation was also described to me in an interview by Clifford R. Simmen, who headed the probe.
Comdr. Jack Schropp, who is retired, described his concern about SEAL Team Six in a telephone interview from his home in Petaluma, California.
Weyers, cited above, told me during an interview of his problems with Team Six.
Vice Adm. J. A. Lyons, now retired, was interviewed at his home in northern Virginia.
Capt. George Vercessi, now retired, told me of his involvement with Red Cell and Marcinko during an interview in his Washington office.
The officer whose call to the office of the inspector general that apparently kicked off the probe of Marcinko and SEAL Team Six requested that his name not be used because he feared that if his name were printed, it would create needless turmoil in the SEAL community.
John Mason acknowledged, while being questioned during the trial of Marcinko and Byers, that he had been removed from the rifle team because he had falsified his score.
The catalogue describing the various types of grenades made by Byers’s Accuracy Systems was included in the evidence obtained during the investigation and was found stored in the federal courthouse in Alexandria, Virginia.
12. A TINY LITTLE ISLAND
The best overall account of the Grenada operation is contained in Maj. Mark Adkins, Urgent Fury: The Battle for Grenada, Lexington, Massachusetts: D. C. Heath, Lexington Books, 1989. Despite the secrecy surrounding the use of SEALs and other special operations forces in Grenada, Adkins provides a remarkably detailed description of the battle.
I have relied on his account of the operation but supplemented that with interviews with SEALs who were either on the ground in Grenada or were familiar with the conflict from their conversations with SEALs who were involved. For many years, even most SEALs were kept in the dark about their organization’s involvement. Finally, in 1989, six years later, a briefing for SEAL officers was conducted at Coronado by three officers who had participated as members of SEAL Team Six.
Beginning at the time of the battle, and continuing for a number of years, there were newspaper and magazine articles and broadcast news reports about various aspects of the operation. Among those consulted were: John G. Fialka, “In Battle for Grenada, Commando Missions Didn’t Go as Planned,” Wall Street Journal, 15 November 1983; Anon., “New Barracks at Norfolk Named in Memory of SEAL Schamberger,” Navy Times, 3 September 1984; Frank Greve, “A Report of U.S. Military Ineptness in Grenada,” Philadelphia Inquirer, 21 October 1984; Charles Mohr, “U.S. Concealed Grenada Losses, Report Charges,” New York Times, 22 October 1984; Tom Brokaw and Fred Francis, “U.S. Casualties in Grenada,” NBC “Nightly News,” 22 October 1984; Walter Andrews, “Weinberger Refutes Claim of Unreported Deaths in Grenada,” Washington Times, 24 October 1984; Robert C. Toth, “U.S. Elite Troops Lack a Mission, Experts Charge,” Los Angeles Times, 18 November 1984; Richard Whitmire, “Elite Force’s Grenada Role at Issue,” USA Today, 26 October 1984; Deborah G. Meyer and Benjamin F. Schemmer, Interview with Noel C. Koch, Armed Forces Journal International, March 1985; Charles Mohr, “Commando Squad Is Trained to Kill With Full ‘Surprise, Speed, Success,’” New York Times, 21 June 1985; Tom Diaz, “Parachutes Blamed in Divers’ Drowning,” Washington Times, 11 July 1985; Lt. Col. Gary L. Bounds and Maj. Scott R. McMichael, “Elite Forces,” ARMY, November 1985; Sen. William S. Cohen (R-Me), “Fix for an SOF Capability That Is Most Assuredly Broken,” Armed Forces Journal International, January 1986; John Dancy, “Move to Streamline Special Operations Forces,” NBC’s “Today” show, 15 May 1986; David C. Morrison, “The ‘Shadow War,’” National Journal, 10 May 1986; “Navy Seals: Special Warriors,” All Hands, December 1987; Christopher K. Mellon, “The Low Frontier: Congress and Unconventional Warfare,” remarks at the National War College, 11 January 1988; James M. Perry and John J. Fialka, “As Panama Outcome Is Praised, Details Emerge of Bungling During the 1983 Grenada Invasion,” Wall Street Journal, 15 January 1990; Bill Salisbury, “War Beneath the Waves—You Know Ken,” San Diego’s Weekly Reader, 5 October 1990.
13. TARGET: MANUEL NORIEGA
This chapter, an expansion of chapter 1 describing the attack on the Paitilla Airfield in Panama, relies on the same basic sources and additional information.
A number of newspaper and magazine articles reported on the involvement of the SEALs in the Panama operation. Because of the secrecy surrounding much of what occurred during Operation Just Cause, many of these reports lack important details or, in some cases, are simply wrong.
In this account I have relied primarily on interviews with SEALs who were either involved in the Panama operations or are familiar with them from sources within the SEAL community. This basic information was backed up, in a number of instances, by the citations for the many medals issued after the attack.
Carley, cited above, gave me a good description, in an interview, of the sinking of the Presidente Porras by four combat swimmers under his command.
Among the articles consulted were: Charles W. Corddry, “SEALs Reportedly Hunted Noriega,” Baltimore Sun, 21 December 1989; Bill Gertz, “Assault on Paitilla Airport Costs Elite Navy Unit 4 Dead,” Washington Times, 22 December 1989; Douglas Jehl and Bob Secter, “Invasion Was Coup for No One,” Los Angeles Times, 27 December 1989; David Evans, “Military Experts See Flaws in Attack Plan,” Chicago Tribune, 24 December 1989; Bernard E. Trainor, “Flaws in Panama Attack,” New York Times, 31 December 1989; Barbara Amouyal, “F-117A Stealth Fighter Draws Fire Despite Success in Panama,” Defense News, 1 January 1990; Bill Gertz, “Pentagon Investigates Possible Security Leak by Troops in Panama,” Washington Times, 5 January 1990; William Branigin, “U.S. Agent Rescued from Panama Cell Minutes Before Anti-Noriega Offensive,” Washington Post, 1 January 1990; Douglas Waller, John Barry, Christopher Dickey, and Spencer Reiss, “Inside the Invasion,” Newsweek, 25 June 1990; James Bennet, “Mission Improbable: Why—10 years after Desert One—the U.S. Still Isn’t Ready to Fight the War Against Terrorism,” Washington Monthly, June 1990; Larry Bonko, “‘Just Cause’ Lives: SEALs Honored for Heroism in Panama,” Virginian Pilot and Ledger Star, 5 January 1991.
Other information about the Panama invasion was provided by Maj. Gen. Hugh L. Cox, deputy commander in chief of the Special Operations Command, before a subcommittee of the House Armed Services Committee on 7 March 1990.
Gen. James J. Lindsay, then commander of USSCOM, discussed the operation in congressional testimony and in a meeting with the Defense Writers’ Group in Washington on 31 January 1990. His description of the purpose of the SEALs’ involvement at Paitilla is drawn from a transcript of that meeting with reporters.
LeMoyne and Worthington, cited above, provided their comments on the Paitilla operation in interviews.
Stubblefield’s letter, as noted above, was not provided by Stubblefield, but a number of copies were circulated within the SEAL community, and one of them was made available to me by another source. Stubblefield, in an interview, confirmed the thrust of the letter. Capt. Raymond C. Smith, Jr., confirmed in a telephone interview that he had forwarded Stubblefield’s letter with a favorable endorsement.
14. TO THE PERSIAN GULF—AND BEYOND
The buildup of SEAL forces and their operations in the Gulf War were described to me in an interview at Coronado by Lt. Tom Deitz and Chief Warrant Officer Roger Hayden.
Captain Smith, commander of the Naval Special Warfare Task Group, Central
, in Saudi Arabia, discussed the Gulf War in a telephone interview and outlined the operations carried out under his command in a twenty-six-page summary of operations. Biographical information on Smith is contained in a biography made available during the ceremony when he left his post as commodore of Naval Special Warfare Group One in July 1991.
In an address at the change-of-command ceremony, Smith referred to the presence of a SEAL delivery vehicle unit in the Gulf but neither he nor other officials in Coronado would provide any details of its use.
Capt. Thomas N. Lawson, deputy commander of the Naval Special Warfare Command, shared his thoughts on the future role of the SEALs during an interview in Coronado.
The shortage of language specialists was pinpointed in Conduct of the Persian Gulf Conflict: An Interim Report to Congress, released by the Pentagon in July 1991. The report includes a seven-page section on the participation of special operations forces in Desert Storm and briefly describes the role played by naval special warfare forces.
The new 170-foot PC ship now coming into use and other new equipment were described to me by Lt. Comdr. Walter S. Pullar III, assistant chief of staff for program objectives memoranda for the Naval Special Warfare Command, in the course of two interviews in Coronado.
A number of SEALs shared with me their thoughts on whether SEALs in the future should plan for multiplatoon operations. Admiral Flynn, in an interview, raised the other question described in this chapter of whether the eight-man squad is too small a unit to operate effectively in the conflicts in which the SEALs might find themselves involved in the future.
I used the quote from Stubblefield expressing his concern about the “gunfighting mentality” because it was a colorful description of the problem. But I heard the same concern expressed by a number of other SEALs from different generations. Doug Fane, cited above, had much the same thing to say concerning his experiences in the Korean War, as did Warrant Officer George Hudak, a Vietnam veteran involved in training would-be SEALs.
Index
Abalone, 103
Abrams, Gen. Creighton W., 146
AC-130 gunship, 265
Accuracy Systems, 232, 311
Acheson, Chief Bill, 31
Achille Lauro, 216, 310
Advanced SEAL Delivery System (ASDS), 199, 289
Aerojet General, 187
Afrika Korps, 8
AK-47 assault rifle, 136–37
Alexander the Great, 49
Alexandria, 182, 183
Alligator, 133
Amoy, 58
Amphibious landing, 279–80
Amtracs, 5
Anderson, Adm. George, 88
Andrews, J. H. (“Hoot”), 90, 301
Anzac Cove, 9
Aqua Ho motor, 69
Aqua-lung, 65, 66
AR-15 rifles, 89–90
Arabian Sea, 209, 212
Army, 7th Division, 29
Army Airborne School, 108
Arthur, in attack on Tirpitz, 184
ASDS. See Advanced SEAL Delivery System
Assassination, 287
Baghdad, 278
Bailey, Larry W., 141, 142, 206, 305
Banks, Robert H., 308
Barn-dance cards, 132
Barnes, James, 132
Battle of the Central Highlands, 121
Bay of Pigs, 85, 111, 118
Beach Jumpers, 76, 279
Beausejour, 238, 240, 241
Beausoleil, Chief Electronics Technician Randy L., 260
Beirut, 221; marines and sailors killed in, 221
Belgian gates, 23
Bell, Ronald K. (“Ron”), 139, 216, 304
Bethesda Naval Hospital, 229
Betio, 5
Bianchi, Emile, 182–83
Bird Island, 103
Birkey, Petty Officer, 179
Black Ponies, 144
Blessman, USS, 43
Blincoe, Ralph R., 230
Blue Spoon, 252, 255
Board for the Correction of Naval Records, 229
Boehm, Roy, 89, 111, 112, 130, 301, 303, 306; sets up SEAL Team Two on East Coast, 89
Boesch, Master Chief Boatswain’s Mate Rudolph E., 291
Bomb disposal, 18–19;; school, 19, 40
Bosiljevac, T. L., 305
Briarpatch tango, 176
Bridge of the Americas, 261
British frogmen, 52
British Royal Navy, 180
Bruhmuller, William (“Bill”), 91–92, 137–38, 145, 153–54, 168, 301, 304
Bucklew, Phil H., 11, 13–14, 22, 55, 60, 76, 132, 150, 296–97; model for Big Stoop in Terry and the Pirates, 57
Bucklew Report, 306
BUDS (Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL) course, 291–92
Budweiser badge, 302
Burke, Adm. Arleigh A., 87
Butcher, Machinist Mate First Class Kenneth, 244
Byers, Charles, 232, 234, 311
Ca Mau Peninsula, 152
Callahan, John, first commander of SEAL Team Two, 89, 111
Cambodia, 115, 150, 151, 211; as sanctuary, 158; U.S. crosses border in force, 159
Camp A. P. Hill, 215
Can Tho, 148, 164
Cannon, William T. (“Red”), 114, 139, 303
Canton, 57
Caribbean, 237
Carley, Norman J. (“Norm”), 212, 218, 252, 254, 258, 259, 260, 270, 281, 310, 313
Caron, USS, 241, 242
Carrier Task Force, 83, 202
Carter, President Jimmy, 208, 209, 238
Casey, Thomas W., 2, 263
Castro, Fidel, 85
Caustic cocktail, 63, 66
Central Intelligence Agency, 71, 82, 118, 270
Chariot, 51, 184
Charleston Navy Base, 222
Chesapeake Bay, 190
China, 47, 55–56
China Beach, 119, 122
China Lake, 189
Chitturn, James R., 38, 297
Cholon, 130
Churchill, Winston, 181, 183
Chuting Stars, 94, 301
Clark, A. D., 90
Claymore mines, 100
Clifton Sprague, USS, 244
Cohen, Senator William, 247, 313
Colby, William, 121, 304
Combined Operations Pilotage Parties (COPP), 13, 33; in landing on Sicily, 13–14
Conger, Lt. (jg), 179
Connors, John P., 2, 264, 266, 295
Conrad, Gunner’s Mate First Class S.C., 46
Convair (division of General Dynamics), 188
Coogan, Rear Adm. R. T., 202, 204
Coral Sea, USS, 202, 203, 204, 205
Coronado, 73, 74, 88, 90, 95, 108, 132, 141, 169, 269, 284, 290, 301
Coronado, Hotel del, 96, 105
Coughlin, Edward, 260
Coulter, D. T. (“Tom”), 201, 202, 204, 205, 253, 309
Cowan, William, 152–53, 248
Cox, Maj. Gen. Hugh L., 314
Cozart, Boatswain’s Mate Second Class Jerome D., 74
Crabb, Lionel, 50
Cua Viet River, 169
Cuba, 85, 139, 148, 192, 206
Cuban missile crisis, 111, 114, 303
Da Nang, 117, 121, 131, 279
Dalai Lama, 71
Davis, Bill, 239
Davis submarine escape apparatus, 51
DDS. See Dry-deck shelter
De la Penne, Lt. Luigi Durand, 182–83
Defense Intelligence Agency, 153
Defense Writers’ Group, 314
Deitz, Lt. Tom, 272, 279, 282
Del Giudice, David, 90, 114, 115, 117, 301, 303
Delta Force, 208, 209, 216, 220, 247, 270
Department of State, 267
Desert One, 209
Desert Shield, 272, 284, 287
Desert Storm, 285, 287, 315
Desoto Patrol, 126
Detachment Bravo (Det Bravo), 161, 293
Dhahran, 272, 275
Dien Bien Phu, 121
DMZ (demilitarized zone between North a
nd South Vietnam), 169
Doheny, Hull Maintenance Technician Third Class Richard, 95
Dominican Republic, 205, 206
DOR (Drop on Request), 98, 292
Doubt, Dr. Thomas J., 110, 198, 302, 309
Draeger rebreathing units, 260
Dry, Lt. Melvin S. (“Spence”), 173, 175–76, 178, 179, 180, 284, 306
Dry-deck shelters, 194, 289
Dye, Photographer’s Mate Second Class Christopher, 260
Earl Mountbatten of Burma, 53
Edwards, Fireman Tom, 175, 178
Eglin Air Force Base, 191
Elson, Steve, 207, 309
Embolism, 108
Eniwetok, 34, 53
Eppley, Engineman Third Class Timothy K., 260
Erskine, Donald K. (“Kim”), 240, 241–42
Ethiopia, 181, 182
Explosives: primacord, 26; brisance, 102; C-4, 102, 254, 280; C-5, 102; det cord, 102; hell box, 102
F-117 Stealth fighter-bomber, 285
Fallon, Mark, 228
Fane, Francis Douglas (“Red”), 60–62, 65, 66, 74, 86, 296, 316, 299; introduces commando training, 60; criticizes attacks on tunnels in Korea, 81
Fast-attack vehicle (FAV), 283
Fay, Comdr. Robert J., 134
Fifth Amphibious Force, 28
Flinn, Lt. Scott, 96–97, 105, 301
Flynn, Cathal L. (“Irish”), 117, 119, 127, 227, 245, 248, 291, 297, 303, 304, 315
Ford, President Gerald R., 168, 201
Fort Benning, 108
Fort Bragg, 219, 264
Fort Frederick, 239
Fort Pierce, 20, 24, 30, 31, 32, 40, 52, 61, 95
Fort Snelling, USS, 246
Fountain class high-speed patrol boats, 279
Fox, Photographer’s Mate Third Class James Earl, killed in Sky Hook accident, 72–73, 300
Frankfort Arsenal, 136
Fulton, Robert E., Jr., 70, 73, 300
Fulton sea sled, 75
Gallipoli, 8
Gap-assault teams, 22
General Dynamics, 188
General Electric, 187
Gibraltar, 50–51, 182
Goldberg, Yale, 234–35
Gormly, Robert, 220, 223, 234