PROLOGUE

In early 1962, special operations teams to be known as SEAL teams were being formed, but little else was made public.  The SEAL teams would be comprised of  two teams, SEAL Team ONE would be home based on the west coast, at Coronado, California, and SEAL Team TWO would be home based on the east coast at Little Creek, Virginia.  SEAL Team ONE was established on January 1, 1962, and SEAL Team TWO was established January 6, 1962.  All members of the SEAL teams were to come from the ranks of Underwater Demolition Team (UDT) 11 & 12 on the west coast, and UDT 21 (with re-commissioning of UDT-22 later on) coming from the east coast teams.  There would be 50 enlisted and 10 officers in each SEAL team. 

     What we were to learn when fully briefed was that the acronym SEAL stood for Sea, Air, and Land teams capable of operating in any environment, including not only what our duties were as UDT members, which encompassed sea-based platform operations, combat swimmers, free floating submersibles, which we affectionately called mini-submarine operations, submarine operations,  beach reconnaissance, removal of beach obstacles ensuring safe beach landings, and securing beach areas 100 yards inward from the high water mark.  SEAL teams would have virtually no restrictions where they could operate on land or sea, with the additional qualification of air ops involving parachute insertions into foreign lands including high altitude opening, as well as high altitude jumping with low altitude opening, along with low altitude jumping and opening air operations. 

     UDT members were well versed in submarine operations including both locking out and locking in off a submarine underway for sneak attacks and demolition of designated targets, and additional duties as may be assigned such as beach intelligence and cartography.  A percentage of UDT team members carried the additional designation of Explosive Ordinance Disposal, who were not only involved with disarming weapon systems, but also were involved with training of the mammal program with dolphins and sea lions being trained for inshore warfare security operations. 

     Immediately upon entering a SEAL team, 18 months of rigorous training took place, from parachuting, jungle warfare training, basic infantry training with USMC, and counter insurgency/guerrilla warfare training,  hand-to-hand combat training for judo and karate, knife fighting, use of the garrote, amphibious high speed crafts experience, Fulton high speed pickup method, Escape, Evasion, and Survival training, Vietnamese language training with Berlitz School of Language, Nuclear Weapons Training Center, and various other specialized classified programs. The SEALs were one of the first military units to receive the  SADM (Special Atomic Demolition Munition) device, a man-portable nuclear weapon. 

     No sooner had SEAL Team ONE been formed, then SEAL Team ONE commanding officer David Del Giudice and Jon Stockholm were dispatched to Vietnam to lay the groundwork for specific SEAL operations.  Robert (Sully) Sullivan and Donald (Doc) Raymond followed, and were sent  to Vietnam to work with the CIA in transitioning  OP34A (commando raids against North Vietnamese) to a SEAL responsibility.  Special operations involved the training of South Vietnamese commandos and Chinese Nungs for waterborne attacks on North Vietnam targets;  other classified assignments north of the 17th parallel; and special operations elsewhere in South Vietnam.  SEAL Team TWO personnel, as well as USMC FORCE RECON personnel would later work with the SEALs from the west coast. 

     In 1962, the author was dispatched for an assignment with SEAL Team TWO with deployments to France for Army Special Forces intelligence briefings; Bergen, Norway for combined operations with the Norwegian Frogmen; and then parachuting into Greece for a combined operation with Greek commandos.  Briefings in France included specialized training for the author, a Radioman 2nd Class, designated as the cryptographer, in the use of Diana-One-Time-Pads, a highly secure form of communication, to provide SEAL operational status to a US carrier on patrol in the Mediterranean.  SEALs trained the commandos in oxygen re-breathing diving equipment for harbor sneak attacks, plastic explosives, and use of the AR-15 (Later to be named M16), a Colt rifle made of Armalite, which was highly resistant to rust), and hand-to-hand combat, using the knowledge gained for a training sneak attack on an Army Port facility in Greece. 

     Upon return to the United States, the author was involved with the Cuban Missile Crisis, a combined operation utilizing personnel from  SEAL Team ONE, SEAL Team TWO, Army Special Forces, Cuban exiles, and CIA agents, for both land and submarine special operations.  The SEALs never deployed during the Cuban Missile Crisis, but rather remained in a training status till cessation of hostilities by the Russian and Cuban government.  SEALs were more than prepared  to act upon command. 

     The author was deployed to Vietnam in 1964.  Initially briefed in Saigon, and after depositing all identification, medical records, etc., with Studies and Observation Group (SOG), and after receiving DoD false identification documentation cards, as well as khaki unmarked clothing, and civilian clothes, we were sent to DaNang and our camp just across the bay on the beach called My Khe.  Later on in the Vietnam war, the CIA turned over the Provincial Reconnaissance Unit (PRU) program to the SEALs, initially run by Robert Wagner, a casualty of the Vietnamese war, who distinguished himself time and time again in disrupting Vietcong operations, and setup what was to become an ongoing assignment for many of our SEAL special operation team members who likewise distinguished themselves again and again.  SEALs have in their ranks some of the most highly decorated Vietnam veterans, including the highest military award, the Medal of Honor.