MILNET: U.S. Navy Seals
An Historical Perspective
The U.S. Navy Seals began as the Underwater Demollitions Teams (UDT) in World War II. In his book, Seals at War 1, Edwin P. Hoyt has done an admirable job of documenting the history of these elite of waterborne commandos. We highly recommend reading this book as it is both entertaining as well as quite factual according to our sources in the Special Forces community.
SEALs today are a mysterious and somewhat glorified lot, however, they really do hate publicity as the authors cited have found out. Like other warriors engaged in classified missions, it is easier and safer just to keep quiet then take a chance on exposing classified information in interviews or even a conversation over drinks.
One area always of interest for special forces fans is the types of weapons used, and in the case of the SEALs and their UDT forebearers, the mix has been rather dramatic.
The reader should note that much of what exists today is an amalgamation of
Below is a very foreshortened history of events related to the UDT/SEAL teams beginning in World War II. The material is a collection of dates and operational descriptions gleaned from three excellent authors on the topic, Hoyt 1, Dockery 2, and Waller 3 :
11/8/42: French Morrocco - Navy Lt. Mark Starkweather led the first underwater demolitions team into combat at Wadi Sefou River, near Casablanca, French Morroco. This mission was repulsed by gunfire from shore, however Lt. Starkweather and his team reinserted on 11/11/42 and completed their mission to destroy a long horizontal boom holding underwater nets, thus making way for an invasion force into the mouth of the river.
6/43: Ft. Pierce, Florida - Lt. Cmdr Draper L. Kaufman given the assigment to organize the first UDT unit called CDU (Combat Demolitions Unit) number 1.
7/43: Invasion of Sicily: The Navy Combat Demolition Unit goes in with the invasion force doing miscellaneous demolition work rather than underwater demolitions (as there was no need). One unit was onshore at the time of a German breakthrough and assisted in the defense and later counterattack.
1/31/43 Kwajelin Islands, (as well as Roi and Namur): Invasion of the islands was successful in no small part to NCDU teams recon of a barrier reef which disclosed fortifications and log obstacles. The team was later sent back to clear a channel for the invasion force. The teams also were damage assessment spotters after invasion force shelling and earmarked pill boxes not caught in the previous shelling attack.
11/43: England: Lt J.G. Hiederman moves his team to Plymouth, later moving to join other such teams at Appledore. Their mission was to train for the invasion of Normady, clearing the "Belgian Gate" underwater defenses as well as clearing mines. A crueling all day task on D-Day, but one of the most successful UDT missions ever, as a huge gap was blown in the defenses. The cost was high, with over half the UDT team members being killed.
12/1/43: Waimanalo, HI: UDT teams began training with units made up of soldiers from all services. Lt. Kochler ordered rebase the group and begin the swimmer program, adding the final major speciality to the UDT teams. 100 man teams formed. Training began for the invasion of Saipan. Teams number 5, 6 and 7accompanied the Marine invasion force.
6/14/43: Saipan: UDT team 5 began its part of the invasion. Shortly after UDT 7 joined the battle, then followd by UDT Team 6.
7/14/44: Tinin: UDT Team does night recon prior to amphibious assault. On July 23, the night before the assault, UDT team 5 under Lt. Cmdr. Kauffman attempted a mine clearing but the weather and sea conditions forced abandonment of explosives and abort of mission..UDT 7 did a diversionary recon off a barrier reef to fool Japanese into believing the fake site was the intended landing point.
7/14/44: Agana Beach, on Guam - UDT Team 3, under Lt. Thomas Crist, attempts diversionary recon with similar intent as UDT 7's at Tinin. 3 other recons (the last being a diversionary) were conducted. UDT Team 4 arrived and its first mission was on July 17. During actual invasion on July 21, the UDT teams acted as pilots for LCTs but did no demolition work (none needed).
8/17/44: Cavlaire Bay, Southern France - UDT team launched explosive "drones" into the beaches, and then followed up the mayhem by manual placement of charges to clear obstacles. Drones were abandoned a short time later, leaving all demolition to man placed charges.
Summer of 1944: Maui, HI - OSS (21 soldiers and 5 officers) join the UDT teams in training, adding fins to their equipment as well as hand to hand fighting in their available skills.
8/44: Palau Islands: UDT team delivered by submarine and on 8/14/44 a pair of men were captured after missing their rendevous and never heard of again. Later operations the night before the invasion were also unsuccesful, but no men were lost. During the day of the invsion, 9/14/44, the teams did general on beach demolition.
10/14/44: Leyte Gulf - UDT Teams perform typical demolition and recon duties prior to the invasion.Team 8 lost six men in a recon mission due to heavy fire from the shore.
11/44: Captain B. Hall Hanlon made commander of the first UDT Teams under the new Amphibious Command
11/26/44: Bougainville Bay 20 miles south of Hollandia - Extremely routine recon and clearing mission only two shots fired for UDT Team 8, while UDT5 went into to shore only to fine no business and were back on board in two hours. At 2:00pm 1/7/45, UDT 15 went in the water to recon Lingayen sadly leaving behind 4 men to fend for themselves on shore.
2/17/45: Iwo Jima - UDT 12 performed recon on four beaches with one seriously wounded and one killed. UDT 13 put up a navigation light on a nearby island and then repeated the mission sometime later when the Japanese took out the light. After putting up another light and two more beach recons, the unit left for Guam. On the way home UDT 15 lost 15 team members when a Japanese Betty bomber attacked their transport ship with a 500 lb bomb.
3/25/45: Okinawa - UDT 13 assigned recon at Kerama Retto, a group of islands near Okinawa, finding nothing more dangerous than wooden posts in the water near the beach. UDT 16 lost a man on the beaches as the teams joined the invasion forces with nothing better to do. UDT 4 worked on the beaches and UDT 17 stayed with the invasion forces. Team 21 worked the Hagushi landings on 3/29/45. On 4/16/45, UDT Team 21 controlled the landings at Ie Shima, helped capture Iheya Island on 5/16/45, and the underwater work at Kume Shima on 6/26/45 ON 6/25/45, the teams moved on Klandesan Beach at Balikpapan. By 7/3/45 the last remaining UDT teams were on their way home.
8/29/45: Japan - UDT 21 landed in Japan and their commander, Lt.Cmdr. Clayton took the surrender of the fort guarding Toyko Harbor..
On 9/45: Coronado (near San Diego, California) - UDT 25 and Commander Kaufman forming decommisioning teams as the UDTs were taken out of service.
1946: Coronado - UDT 3 recommissioned and sent to Bikini for recon prior to nuclear tests.
1947: Point Barrow, Alaska - UDT 3 took part in training exercise.
1949: Hawaii - Participated in Army-Navy war games.
1950 Point Barrow - Participated in a training exercise to resupply sites on the DEW line.
6/25/50, Korea. UDT Team detached in Japan, were shipped off to train to blow up a railway bridge at Yosu, Korea, with mission occurring on 8/5/50. One man was lost in the mission. Later a raid was made on Tanchon, inside North Korea where they blew up a railroad tunnel. Several bridges and tunnels later they attacked a bridge at Chongjin
8/20/50: Ichon - UDT teams made several recon missions near The island of Kunsan. UDT teams acted as guides through the beach defenses for Marines attacking at Ichon.
10/7/50: Kyongsong/Songjin - UDT Team 1 was joined with British commandos.
10/11/50: Wanson Harbor - UDT teams helped mark underwater mines (given to the North Koreans by the Soviets).On 10/12/50, - the teams helped Rei-To Island, aiding in the rescue when the minesweeper U.S.S. Pledge was hit and sunk. On October 27, the teams made a rubber boat operation recce at Iwon to prepare the way for an invasion on 10/29/50. Through December 1. 1950, the teams cleared some 200 miles of beach.
11/50: Korea - The sudden addition of Chinese mainline troops into the Korean war changed the UDT team mission to training South Koreans in guerilla warfare and rescue of downed U.S. Airmen. In all Lt. Acheson, the UDT team leader, trained some six or so guerillas every four weeks. . Also, many teams got involved in covert action with CIA teams similar to that with Donovan's crews in World War II. MIssions became land and sea operations, setting the stage for a new name.
12/61: Pentagon, Washington, D.C. - Following a Presidential Directive (JFK), the UDT teams were renamed to U.S. Navy Seals, and their mission became to develop naval guerilla and counter-guerilla warfare capabilities. Officially the teams were tasked with "...conducting Naval Special Warfare."
12/63: Pentagon, Washington D.C. - Additional missions were written to be "...To develop a specialized capability for sabatoge, demolition, and other clandestine activities conducted in and from restricted waters, rivers, and canals. Specificially to be able to destroy enemy shipping, harbor facilities, bridges, railway lines, and other installations in maritime areas riverine environments." 1 The teams now became units under the Navy Special Warfare Command. SEAL advisors trained South Vietnamese in demolitions and accompanied them on riverine activities, as well as participated in classified CIA sponsored covert action missions "in country".
4/64: Dominican Republic - Carried aboard the U.S.S. <i>La Salle</i>, to help in settling problems in the small country in Latin America. and later a team was sent to discover if rebels were operating in the Samona Bay area. Several firefights did break out in the streets of Santo Domingo, between rebel factions and SEAL team members.
1964: Vietnam - 4 Amphibious assaults staged by U.S. Marines and SEAL team members,
3/65: Vietnam Detachments of the SEAL teams are assigned to Subic Bay, Phillipines, and all around Southeast Asia, and in Vietnam (for instance Camp Tien Shea near DaNang. Missions with riverine forces now were active combat for the SEALs.
1/21/66: Vietnam - Teams lead in U.S. amphibous landing while being towed by periscope of U.S. submarine U.S.S. <i>Perch</i>.
3/26/66: Long Thanh Penninula, Vietnam - SEAL Team with 5th U.S. Marines and their Force Recon put together 24 teams to seek and destroy Viet Cong in Rung Sat jungles, as part of Operation Jackstay,.Soon the SEAL teams began to specialize in ambushes of moving Viet Cong.
8/5/66: Long Thanh Penninusula - SEAL ambush nets three sampans filled with six thousand pounds of rice thought to be supplies for Viet Cong in the area.
8/20/66: Qui Nhon, North Vietnam: In conjuction with the U.S.S. <I>Perch</i> SEAL teams conduct clandestine recon missions and beach and leading Marine forces in landings. The success of this mission and many like it led to SEAL: teams making up their own similar missions, seeking out the enemy and killing as many as possible, while attempting to capture intelligence windfalls.
10/7/66: Mekong Delta, Vietnam - SEAL team encountred an entire Viet Cong battallion,. With sixteen wounded SEALs the unit still managed to rout the battallion killing over 40 Viet Cong before the enemy fled. SEALS carried out 153 combat operations killing 86 VIet Cong, 21 sampans, 2 junks, 33 huts and bunkers used by the Viet Cong. Most importantly they destroyed some 500,000 pounds of rice destined for VC mouths.
1 Seals At War, Edwin P. Hoyt, Copyright 1993, published by Dell Publishing a division of Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Groups, Inc., 1540 Broadway, New York, N.Y., 10036, ISBN: 0-0440-21497-1.
2 Seals In Action, Kevin Dockery, Copyright 1991, published by Avon Books, a division of The Hearst Corporation, 1350 The Avenue of the Americas, New York, N.Y., 10019, ISBN: 0-380-75886-5.
3 COMMANDOS, Douglas C. Waller, Copyright 1994, Dell Publishing division of Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc., 1540 Broadway, New Yo rk, N.Y., 10036, ISBN 0-0440-22046-7.