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Special Ops
Four Accounts of the Military’s Elite Forces
Orr Kelly
CONTENTS
Brave Men, Dark Waters
Preface
Chapter 1 Who Are We?
Chapter 2 Bloody Waters—Tarawa and Normandy
Chapter 3 From Saipan to Tokyo Bay
Chapter 4 A Different Breed—Commandos from the Sea
Chapter 5 New Horizons—and War in Korea
Chapter 6 Birth of the SEALs
Chapter 7 A Pleasant Little War
Chapter 8 The Men with Green Faces
Chapter 9 The Super SEALs
Chapter 10 The Lieutenant (jg) Says No
Chapter 11 The March of the Jedi
Chapter 12 A Tiny Little Island
Chapter 13 Target: Manuel Noriega
Chapter 14 To the Persian Gulf—and Beyond
Image Gallery
Bibliography
Index
Never Fight Fair!
Preface
Introduction SEALs: What Makes Them Tick?
PART 1 THE EARLY DAYS
Chapter 1 MacArthur’s Frogmen
Chapter 2 UDT Sixteen—A Bum Rap?
Chapter 3 Fishnets in Korea
Chapter 4 The Iceberg Caper
Chapter 5 Big War in a Small Place
PART 2 THE GLORY DAYS
Chapter 6 Welcome Back for Gemini
Chapter 7 Alone in the Mid-Atlantic
Chapter 8 First Men from the Moon
Chapter 9 Unlucky Thirteen
PART 3 FROGMEN IN VIETNAM
Chapter 10 Good Fun in North Vietnam
Chapter 11 Operation Jackstay
Chapter 12 “Heaviest Load I’ve Ever Carried”
PART 4 THE SEALs’ WAR
Chapter 13 A Greek Tragedy
Chapter 14 A Narrow Escape
Chapter 15 First Blood for Squad 2-Bravo
Chapter 16 The Bullfrog
Chapter 17 More VC than You’ll Ever Want
Chapter 18 “My Worst Disaster”
Chapter 19 The Sting
Chapter 20 Like a Shooting Gallery
Chapter 21 “Everything Is Written Down”
Chapter 22 Blowing Bunkers
Chapter 23 “Something’s Happened to Mike”
Chapter 24 “I Don’t Want You Operating …”
Chapter 25 They Called It Bright Light
Chapter 26 A Taste for Ears
Chapter 27 “Vous les Américains Sont Pires que les Français”
PART 5 SEALs UNDER THE SEAS
Chapter 28 “Dead Before Sunrise”
Chapter 29 One of Our Dolphins (SDVs) Is Missing
Chapter 30 Blocking Haiphong Harbor
Chapter 31 Operation Thunderhead
Chapter 32 “An Electrical Shock …”
Chapter 33 Target: Libya
Chapter 34 Shadowing the Achille Lauro
Chapter 35 A World-Class Swim
PART 6 SEALs FROM THE SKIES
Chapter 36 A Shocking Takeoff
Chapter 37 “I Started to Black Out”
Chapter 38 “Your Adrenaline Pumps”
Chapter 39 “I’m Going to Jump”
Chapter 40 “I Hated Every One …”
Chapter 41 When Your Eyes Freeze Shut
PART 7 SEALs IN ACTION
Chapter 42 Jump into a Dark Sea
Chapter 43 A Beautiful Day to Go to War
PART 8 THE INNOVATORS
Chapter 44 Birth of the STAB
Chapter 45 Dogs on Patrol
Chapter 46 What Do You Wear to War?
Chapter 47 SEALs: A New Generation
Chapter 48 Letting Go
Image Gallery
Glossary
Index
Hornet
Preface
Chapter 1 The Battle of the Admirals
Chapter 2 Wings Over the Ocean
Chapter 3 “Holy Moly! We Are in Trouble!”
Chapter 4 One Plane, One Man
Chapter 5 “Excess Energy” To Fly and Fight
Chapter 6 When Weird Things Happen
Chapter 7 “A Tremendous Amount of Grief”
Chapter 8 “A Deep-Seated Drive to Kill”
Chapter 9 “It Starts Raining F/A-18s on You”
Appendices
I. F/A-18 Vital Statistics
II. The Author Learns to Fly Back Seat
Image Gallery
Bibliography
Index
From a Dark Sky
Preface
PART I: Birth of the Air Commandos
1 The Day Thursday Came on Sunday
2 The Reluctant Warriors
3 A “Grandiose Scheme”
4 Deep in Enemy Territory
5 Aerial Invasion of Germany
PART II: Behind the Lines in Europe
6 The Carpetbaggers Are Born
7 Enemy Territory—in the Dark
8 D-day and Beyond
9 Jack of All Trades
10 Action in the South
11 The Final Days
PART III: Korea and Beyond
12 Drawdown and Rebuilding
13 Rebirth and Decline
PART IV: The Longest War
14 They Called It Jungle Jim
15 Leading the Way
16 Death from the Sky
PART V: Through the Looking Glass
17 The Secret War
18 Butterflies and Ravens
19 The Third War
PART VI: Son Tay and the Mayaguez
20 Destination: Hanoi
21 “Utter Chaos” at Tang Island
PART VII: Hostage Rescue Efforts
22 Operation Rice Bowl
23 Back to Teheran
24 Not Quite Ready
25 Panama—Getting It Together
PART VIII: New Challenges
26 The Gulf War and Beyond
Image Gallery
Glossary
Sources
Index
About the Author
Brave Men, Dark Waters
For my parents
Charles Jhon and Edith Orr Kelly
Contents
Preface
Chapter 1 Who Are We?
Chapter 2 Bloody Waters—Tarawa and Normandy
Chapter 3 From Saipan to Tokyo Bay
Chapter 4 A Different Breed—Commandos from the Sea
Chapter 5 New Horizons—and War in Korea
Chapter 6 Birth of the SEALs
Chapter 7 A Pleasant Little War
Chapter 8 The Men with Green Faces
Chapter 9 The Super SEALs
Chapter 10 The Lieutenant (jg) Says No
Chapter 11 The March of the Jedi
Chapter 12 A Tiny Little Island
Chapter 13 Target: Manuel Noriega
Chapter 14 To the Persian Gulf—and Beyond
Image Gallery
Bibliography
Index
Preface
This book was written specifically to fill a gap in U.S. military history. Earlier books have described the feats of the Underwater Demolition Teams in World War II and the operations of the SEALs in Vietnam. But no single book has pulled together in one place the fascinating story of the navy’s frogmen and other members of the navy’s special warfare community, from the beaches of Normandy and Saipan to
the brilliant deception carried out by six SEALs as the allies began their ground assault on Saddam Hussein’s dug-in forces in February 1991.
One of the first stops in my research effort was the Navy Library, at the Washington Navy Yard. There, Gina Akers was especially helpful in guiding me to the unit histories of the UDT and SEAL teams and to the library’s extensive collection of oral histories, most of them acquired from the Naval Institute.
My search of the paper trail also took me to the office of Current News at the Pentagon. Denise Brown was, as usual, most helpful in making available everything in that office’s extensive collection of newspaper and magazine articles about naval special warfare.
William Arkin, of Greenpeace, also gave me access to a large selection of articles, congressional testimony, and official reports he had collected over a period of years. Although his primary interest had been in gathering information about the SEALs’ training in the use of small nuclear devices—an assignment they no longer have—the material he had pulled together contained a good deal of general information about the SEALs and their activities. Similarly, Jeffrey Richelson, of the National Security Archive, let me look through the news clippings, congressional testimony, and other information he had gathered about special operations forces.
I am especially indebted to Lt. Comdr. Sankey Blanton, of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, who has made a hobby of collecting books about naval special warfare. He provided me with a detailed bibliography and loaned me a number of books, such as those describing British and Italian underwater operations during World War II, that would simply have been unavailable from any other source.
The office of the navy’s chief of information, Rear Adm. Brent Baker, was, as usual, most cooperative in helping me arrange interviews with members of the naval special warfare community. Baker’s predecessor, retired Rear Adm. Jimmie Finkelstein, also put in a good word for me in key places. I was assisted first by Lt. Mark Walker, until he was sent off to the Persian Gulf, and then by Lt. Dane LaJoie. I also benefited from the assistance of Comdr. J. F. Zakem, special assistant for public affairs to the secretary of the navy.
Also especially helpful were Comdr. Robert Pritchard, public affairs officer for the Naval Special Warfare Command in Coronado, California, and Lt. Ed Balaban, public affairs officer for Naval Special Warfare Group Two at Little Creek, Virginia. Before Pritchard came on the scene at Coronado, Lt. Comdr. Robert Tillman, the flag secretary, had the added duty of dealing with the press. On my first visit to Coronado in the fall of 1990, Tillman not only helped me through the usual round of interviews, but also arranged for me to make an overnight visit to the SEALs’ training site at San Clemente Island. My escorts on that trip were Lt. Comdr. Richard Sisk and Chief Petty Officer Jeff Green. Green, a weapons expert, guided me in test firing all the weapons in the SEAL arsenal, with the exception of the special .50-caliber sniper rifle, and sent me away with a colorfully bruised right shoulder.
Three other public affairs officers who proved most helpful were Frank Gregory and Ken Hoffman at the Naval Coastal Systems Center in Panama City, Florida, and Gary Comerford of the Naval Investigative Service in Washington.
An important stop during my research was at the UDT/SEAL Museum near the site of the original World War II training center at Fort Pierce, Florida. James D. Watson, the director of the museum, showed me its extensive collection of weapons and equipment used by navy frogmen over the years and shared with me some reminiscences of his distinguished service as a SEAL in Vietnam.
While time spent in libraries, museums, and research centers was an essential part of preparing this history, by far the most valuable element was the insight given me by scores of navy men in many hours of interviews. Their personal stories gave me, an outsider, some insight into what it is like to be a SEAL.
Early in my research, I arranged a series of interviews with two of the most senior SEAL officers, Rear Adm. Cathal (“Irish”) Flynn, who has now retired, and Rear Adm. Irve C. (“Chuck”) LeMoyne; I later met with Rear Adm. George Worthington, commander of the Naval Special Warfare Command, in Coronado. All three were helpful in providing me with access to other SEALs.
Often there was initial reluctance to meet with a writer. Much, if not most, of what SEALs do is classified. And once classified, it seems never to become unclassified. The SEALs, and the UDTs before them, have also surrounded themselves with a shield of secrecy that goes beyond the question of whether something is officially classified. Many SEALs believe that their safety so often depends on stealth that they would be better off if no one knew they even existed. Many SEALs also complain that, when they do come into the public eye, they are falsely portrayed as assassins, throat-slitters, snake-eaters, and sex fiends.
When I first called one of the early SEAL team commanders, his reaction was probably like that of many other SEALs but a bit more candid. He said he wasn’t sure he wanted to talk to me and if he didn’t like my book, “I’ll rain on you.” Later, we met and he proved most helpful.
A number of SEALs may read this book and wonder why they are not quoted, after they gave me a lengthy interview. Many will also wonder that SEALs whose adventures were at least as vivid, and as relevant to the history of the SEALs, as those included in the book are not found here. What I tried to do was to interview as many navy men, with as many diverse experiences, as possible, knowing that it would be impossible to interview as many as I would have liked. And then I have tried to winnow from those interviews the telling anecdotes and observations that help me to relate the story of the navy’s frogmen.
In the course of my interviews, I developed a great admiration for these brave men. They struck me as a breed apart. They are stronger and smarter than other fighting men. They are egotistical and opinionated. They are bound together by shared experiences different from those of most people. They will do anything to help a member of the teams, or a former member, who is in trouble. And yet they also have their long-standing feuds, like members of a big but close knit family. One SEAL told me, “I don’t lie, cheat, or steal, but I backbite.” And he added, “If a member of the teams is down on his luck, I’ll take him into my home, give him a bed, feed him, let him drink my liquor. But I might not talk to him.”
For the many SEALs who agreed to interviews, talking with me was an act of trust. I have tried to return that trust by giving a true and accurate history of these special sailors although, of course, it is not the way any one individual, relying on his own background, would have told it. In several sections of the book, I have written in such a way as to give the reader as much information as possible without including data that might endanger the lives of men on operational missions.
Throughout the research and writing of this book, I benefited from the patient guidance of Robert Tate, my editor at Presidio Press, and the quiet encouragement of my wife, Mary.
Some of the conclusions I reach will be controversial within the SEAL community because the issues themselves are already controversial. Some of these conclusions may lean toward one side or the other of these contentious issues, but the conclusions are my own.
My hope is that, by bringing together in one place this account of the half century of service by the UDTs and SEALs, I will help today’s and tomorrow’s SEALs to know themselves better.
CHAPTER
1
Who Are We?
SHORTLY AFTER MIDNIGHT ON THE MORNING OF 20 DECEMBER 1989, Golf Platoon of SEAL Team Four, in a special tactical formation that bristled with guns, dashed up the runway of Paitilla Airfield, in a heavily populated section of Panama City, Panama. Within five minutes the SEALs, panting under as much as 110 pounds of rifles, machine guns, ammunition, radios, and other equipment, dropped to the ground about thirty yards in front of two hangars. One of them contained their target: the Lear jet belonging to Gen. Manuel Antonio Noriega.
With the city lights behind them, the seventeen SEALs made perfect targets for any ambushes hastily arranged by the small group of
Panamanians defending the airfield—and they knew it.
Hugging the earth so tightly that it felt as though their buttons were making dents in the runway, they peered into the darkness with their night-vision scopes. Inside the hangars they could make out the forms of armed men crouching behind oil barrels and metal doors. It was impossible to tell how many there were or where they all were.
The SEALs couldn’t hide and they couldn’t retreat. They opened fire.
The Panamanians responded with a hail of bullets from their automatic rifles. That first barrage may have come from as few as two men, hiding in the darkness behind cement-filled oil drums. But it was devastating. Using disciplined fire control, the Panamanians fired low so their bullets struck the tarmac, sending pieces of shrapnel and bits of asphalt bouncing up into the bodies of the nine men in the squad—code named Golf One—on the right of the SEAL formation.
The fire was so intense that eight of the nine men in Golf One fell wounded or dead. Lt. (jg) Thomas W. (“Tom”) Casey, the squad commander, shouted a frantic radio message—”We’ve got heavy wounded!”—as he continued to fire to protect his troops. Miraculously, he was not hit. But he did not immediately realize he was the only member of his squad alive and unwounded because several of the wounded men continued to fire until they were hit again or were unable to reload their weapons.
On the left, the eight men of Golf Two shifted their fire to cover the hard-hit men of Golf One, even though this left them exposed to fire from the hangar in front of them. Two men from Golf Two scampered over to help their comrades. Within moments, one of them fell dead with a bullet in the head.
In response to the radio calls from the platoon under fire, members of one squad of a second platoon—Bravo—dashed forward to fill in the gap between the two squads lying in front of the hangars. Their commander, Lt. (jg) John P. Connors, was hit but continued to advance. Then, as he exposed himself to fire a grenade into the hangar, he was hit again and killed.
In those few moments, SEAL Team Four lost three men dead. Another died of his wounds a short time later. Ironically, he might have been saved if there had not been a delay of an hour—the “Golden Hour”—in dispatching a medevac helicopter to evacuate the wounded SEALs. Nine more men fell to the hostile fire, some of them grievously wounded.
Special Ops: Four Accounts of the Military's Elite Forces