United States Navy SEALs

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United States Navy SEALs
Counter narcotic operations
  • Underwater demolition
  • Part of
    Garrison/HQNaval Amphibious Base Coronado
    Joint Expeditionary Base–Little Creek
    Nickname(s)"Frogmen", "The Teams", "Team Guys", "The Men with Green Faces"[1]
    Motto(s)"The Only Easy Day Was Yesterday"[2] "It Pays To Be A Winner". "Never Out Of The Fight".
    Engagements[4][5][6]

    The United States Navy Sea, Air, and Land (SEAL) Teams, commonly known as Navy SEALs, are the

    Naval Special Warfare Command. Among the SEALs' main functions are conducting small-unit special operation missions in maritime, jungle, urban, arctic, mountainous, and desert environments. SEALs are typically ordered to capture or kill high-level targets, or to gather intelligence behind enemy lines.[7] SEAL team personnel are hand selected, highly trained, and possess a high degree of proficiency in direct action (DA), and special reconnaissance (SR), among other tasks like sabotage, demolition, intelligence gathering, and hydro-graphic reconnaissance, training, and advising friendly militaries or other forces.[8]

    Depending on the availability of platforms, threat level, and environment, different methods can be used for the insertion and extraction of SEALs into a target location. This could include nuclear-powered cruise missile submarines equipped with dry deck shelters, SDV submarines, surface vessels, surface swimming, or other vehicles.

    All active SEALs are members of the U.S. Navy.

    MACV-SOG during the Vietnam War.[14] This cooperation still exists today, as evidenced by military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.[15][16]

    History

    Origins

    Although not formally founded until 1962, the modern-day U.S. Navy SEALs trace their roots to

    Amphibious Scout and Raider School was established in 1942 at Fort Pierce, Florida.[11] The Scouts and Raiders were formed in September of that year, just nine months after the attack on Pearl Harbor, from the Observer Group
    , a joint U.S. Army-Marine-Navy unit.

    Scouts and Raiders

    Recognizing the need for a beach reconnaissance force, a select group of Army and Navy personnel assembled at Amphibious Training Base (ATB) Little Creek, Virginia on 15 August 1942 to begin Amphibious Scouts and Raiders (Joint) training. The Scouts and Raiders' mission was to identify and reconnoiter the objective beach, maintain a position on the designated beach prior to a landing, and guide the assault waves to the landing beach.[7] The unit was led by U.S. Army 1st Lieutenant Lloyd Peddicord as commanding officer, and Navy Ensign John Bell as executive officer. Navy Chief Petty Officers and sailors came from the boat pool at U. S. Naval Amphibious Training Base, Solomons, Maryland, and Army Raider personnel came from the 3rd and 9th Infantry Divisions. They trained at Little Creek until embarking for the North Africa campaign the following November. Operation Torch was launched in November 1942 off the Atlantic coast of French Morocco in North Africa.[17]

    The first group included Phil H. Bucklew, the "Father of Naval Special Warfare," after whom the Naval Special Warfare Center building is named. Commissioned in October 1942, this group saw combat in November 1942 during Operation Torch on the North African Coast. Scouts and Raiders also supported landings in Sicily, Salerno, Anzio, Normandy, and southern France.[18]

    The second group of Scouts and Raiders, code-named Special Service Unit No. 1, was established on 7 July 1943, as a joint and combined operations force. The first mission, in September 1943, was at Finschhafen in Papua New Guinea. Later operations were at Gasmata, Arawe, Cape Gloucester, and the east and south coasts of New Britain, all without any loss of personnel. Conflicts arose over operational matters, and all non-Navy personnel were reassigned. The unit, renamed 7th Amphibious Scouts, received a new mission, to go ashore with the assault boats, buoy channels, erect markers for the incoming craft, handle casualties, take offshore soundings, clear beach obstacles, and maintain voice communications linking the troops ashore, incoming boats and nearby ships. The 7th Amphibious Scouts conducted operations in the Pacific for the duration of the conflict, participating in more than 40 landings.[7]

    The third and final Scouts and Raiders organization operated in China. Scouts and Raiders were deployed to fight with the

    Kitchioh Wan, near Hong Kong.[7]

    Naval Combat Demolition Units (NCDUs)

    NCDU 45, CEC Ensign Karnowski, Chief Carpenters Mate Conrad C. Millis, MM2 Equipment Operator Lester Meyers, and three sailors. The unit received a Presidential Unit Citation with ENS Karnowski earning the Navy Cross & French Croix de Guerre with Palm, while MM2 Meyers received a Silver Star.[19]

    In September 1942, 17 Navy salvage personnel arrived at ATB

    U.S. Rangers who captured the Port Lyautey
    airdrome.

    In early May 1943, a two-phase "Naval Demolition Project" was directed by the

    Draper L. Kauffman, "The Father of Naval Combat Demolition," was selected to set up a school for Naval Demolitions and direct the entire Project. The first six classes graduated from "Area E" at NTC Camp Peary.[21] LCDR Kauffman's needs quickly out-grew "Area E" and on 6 June 1943, he established NCDU training at Fort Pierce. Most of Kauffman's volunteers came from the navy's Civil Engineer Corps (CEC) and enlisted Seabees. Training commenced with a grueling week designed to filter out under-performing candidates. Eventually given the name "Hell Week" by NCDU recruits, this rigorous course was integrated into UDT training and remains a part of modern-day Navy Seal training today.[22]

    By April 1944, a total of 34 NCDUs were deployed to England in preparation for

    Pacific Theater.

    Thirty NCDUs

    Naval Special Warfare Command
    building is named for LTJG Frank Kaine CEC commander of NCDU 2.

    OSS Maritime Unit

    Much like their brethren in the

    combat diver units nearly a decade before the SEALs were created in 1962.[27]
    Some of the earliest World War II predecessors of the Green Berets and SEALs were the Operational Swimmers of OSS.

    The OSS executed special operations, dropping operatives behind enemy lines to engage in organized guerrilla warfare as well as to gather information on such things as enemy resources and troop movements.

    Camp Pendleton, California, moved to Santa Catalina Island, California in January 1944, and finally moved to the warmer waters of The Bahamas in March 1944. Within the U.S. military, they pioneered flexible swimfins and diving masks, closed-circuit diving equipment (under the direction of Dr. Christian J. Lambertsen),[28][29] the use of Swimmer Delivery Vehicles (a type of submersible), and combat swimming and limpet mine attacks.[16]

    The OSS MU mission was "to infiltrate agents and supply resistance groups by sea, conduct maritime sabotage, and develop specialized maritime surface and subsurface equipment and devices." The MU operated in several theaters. In the Mediterranean, a fleet of hired Greek wooden fishing vessels—called caiques—covertly supported OSS agents in Albania, Greece, and Yugoslavia. After Italy surrendered, the MU and Mariassalto, an elite Italian special operations naval unit, operated against the Germans. In the Far East, the MU operated in conjunction with an Operational Group to attack Japanese forces on the Arakan coast of Burma. They jointly conducted reconnaissance missions on the Japanese-held coast, sometimes penetrating several miles up enemy-controlled rivers.[30]

    The MU developed or used several innovative devices that would later allow for the creation of a special operations combat-diver capability, first in Army Special Forces (Green Berets) and later in US Navy SEAL units. Perhaps the most important invention in the realm of special operations diving was the

    Dr. Christian J. Lambertsen. The Lambertsen unit permitted a swimmer to remain underwater for several hours and to approach targets undetected because the LARU did not emit telltale air bubbles. The LARU was later refined, adapted, and the technology used by the U.S. Army, U.S. Navy, and NASA. The Army Special Forces Underwater Operations School at Key West, Florida, the home of Special Forces maritime operations, draws its roots from the Maritime Unit.[30]

    Lambertsen began his involvement with OSS as a medical student offering the use of his technology to the secretive organization in 1942. In 1944 he was commissioned as an Army Officer and later joined the OSS as an Operational Swimmer. Lambertsen himself led the OSS Maritime Unit on covert underwater missions to attach explosives to Japanese ships.[31] Dr. Christian Lambertsen is remembered today as the 'Father of Military Underwater Operations'. Along with all the members of the OSS Maritime Unit, he was made honorary Green Berets and recognized by organizations like the UDT Navy Seal Association for their heroic and critical work.[dead link][32]

    In May 1944, Colonel "Wild Bill"

    USS Burrfish in the Caroline Islands during August 1944. Three of the men failed to make the rendezvous point for extraction. They were reported captured in Japanese communications and identified as "BAKUHATAI" – explosive ordnance men.[35] They were never seen again and are listed as MIAs
    .

    Underwater Demolition Teams (UDTs)