First SEALs (39 page)

  
10
      
“
specialized trained research . . . and psychological scholars
.” Ibid., 7.

  
10
      
“
that he should . . . securing of information
.” Ibid., 8.

  
11
      
“
modern counterparts of . . . of former days
.”
OSS Morale Operations Branch Propaganda Branch, 1943–1945
, NARA.

  
11
      
“
big league professionals . . . bush league club
.” Patrick K. O'Donnell,
Operatives, Spies, and Saboteurs: The Unknown Story of the Men and Women of World War II's OSS
(New York: Free Press, 2004), xvi.

  
11
      
“
they were making . . . of faith and hope
.”
War Report
, 6.

  
11
      
“
kill the umpire and steal the ball
.” O'Donnell,
Operatives, Spies, and Saboteurs
, xvi.

  
12
      
“
Ph.D. who could win a bar fight
.” From author's discussions with various OSS veterans and the president of the OSS society.

  
12
      
“
The OSS undertook . . . history of our country
.” Richard Harris Smith,
OSS: The Secret History of America's First Central Intelligence Agency
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1972), 3.

  
12
      
“
All the services . . . turned semi-guerrillas
.” Sterling Hayden,
Wanderer
(Dobbs Ferry, Sheridan House Inc., 1998), 310.

  
12
      
“
To get from . . . disguised fishing vessels
.” Dennis J. Roberts, “History of the Maritime Unit,” NARA.

  
14
      
“
a daredevil, bent . . . his own show
.” Joseph E. Persico,
Piercing the Reich: The Penetration of Nazi Germany by American Secret Agents During World War II
(New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1997), 124.

  
14
      
“
[He was] perpetually tense . . . over dry lips
.” Ibid.

CHAPTER 2: AREA D

  
15
      
“
She is, of . . . condition reflects this
.” NARA.

  
16
      
“
General appearance and . . . port side amidships
.” NARA.

  
16
      
“
blacked out . . . submarines
.” “History of the Maritime Unit,” NARA.

  
16
      
“
It was necessary . . . and almost steal
.” Ibid.

  
17
      
“
Area D
.” Ibid.

  
17
      
“
The barracks were . . . they sit outdoors
.” Lt. JH Glenn to McDonnell, letter dated July 3, 1943, NARA.

  
17
      
“
There is an . . . are fighting for
.” Ibid.

  
17
      
“
[f]our elderly and . . . out mess duties
.” “History of the Maritime Unit.”

  
19
      
“
I can't recall . . . for the
Maribel
.” Handwritten note by Lt. Jack Taylor, NARA.

  
19
      
“
average Joe
.” OSS Evaluation for Ward Ellen, NARA.

  
19
      
“
picturesque language
.” Ibid.

  
19
      
“
Considerably disgruntled by . . . inactivity too frequent
.” Ibid.

  
20
      
“
to teach each . . . territory by sea
.” Lt. Jack Taylor,
Report on Maritime School Training
, NARA.

  
20
      
“
Under the direction . . . half mile inland
.” “History of the Maritime Unit.”

  
20
      
“
killing the enemy . . . raised the alarm
.” Ibid.

  
20
      
“
The students got . . . were poor shots
.” Ibid.

  
21
      
“
1) You are . . . your boat effectively
” Ibid.

  
21
      
“
the instructors encouraged students to take risks
.” Ibid.

  
21
      
“
of a daring type
.” Ibid.

  
21
      
“
rendezvous at an . . . bearing 152°
.” “Training Problem No. 4,” NARA.

  
21
      
“
POSITION OF . . . east of beach
.” Ibid.

CHAPTER 3: THE RACE TO DESIGN A REBREATHER

  
23
      
“
Almost weekly reports . . . Maritime Unit
.” “History of the Maritime Unit.”

  
23
      
“
With the possibilities . . . the harbor
.” Woolley memo, dated 1942, NARA.

  
25
      
“
Soon after I . . . mock-up unit
.” Commander H. Woolley to Colonel M. Preston Goodfellow, “Underwater Swimming Units,” November 23, 1942, NARA.

  
25
      
“
for thirty minutes . . . ten feet
.” Commander H. Woolley, “Using Self-Contained Breathing Apparatus,” October 25, 1942, NARA. The memo is significant because it is one of the first times a near version of the term “SCUBA” is used.

  
26
      
“
might possibly be . . . apparatus
.” Ibid.

  
26
      
“
appeared to have . . . underwater swimming
.” Ibid.

  
27
      
“
To learn about . . . hypercapnia
.” R. D. Vann “Lambertsen and O
₂
: Beginnings of operational physiology,” UHM 2004, Vol. 31, No. 1—Lambertsen and O
₂
. Also from author interviews.

  
27
      
“
Chris was impressed . . . of ventilation
.” Ibid.

  
27
      
“
The demonstration was . . . done that
.” Ibid.

  
28
      
“
My pressure tests went . . . a goner
.” Ibid.

  
28
      
“
As one of my professors . . . my education
.” Ibid.

  
28
      
“
tests were carried out . . . with it
.” Woolley memo, NARA.

  
29
      
“
apparatus in a proper . . . by the diver
.” “History of the Maritime Unit;” also various OSS technical memos by Woolley, Taylor, and Duncan, dated 1942, NARA.

  
29
      
“
The Diving Unit . . . with respiration
.” Ibid.

  
29
      
“
[When Frank] had heard about this . . . as possible
.” Woolley memo, 1942, NARA.

  
29
      
“
that cash would be paid for them
.” Ibid.

  
30
      
Early
OSS
documents referred to the LARU as the Browne-Lambertsen rebreather.

CHAPTER 4: COMBAT SWIMMERS

  
31
      
“
made it impossible to stay in longer
.” Jack Taylor, “Report on Ocean Trials of Browne Lung,” 1943, NARA.

  
32
      
“
the regulator in the oxygen . . . to burst
.” Ibid.

  
34
      
“
coach and advisor . . . Navy Dep
,” Lt. Robert Duncan to Commander Woolley, letter, May 19, 1943, NARA.

  
34
      
“
We will need . . . that time
.” Ibid.

  
34
      
“
specially trained force . . . trench mortars
,” Lt. Robert Duncan to Commander H. Woolley, interoffice memo, May 8, 1943, NARA.

  
35
      
“
the boards can . . . chambers
.” Ibid.

  
35
      
“
there is no question . . . at sea
.” Ibid.

  
35
      
“
In general, I . . . the beach
.” Lt. Jack Taylor, “Comments on Aqua-Marines,” May 13, 1943, NARA.

  
36
      
“
With reference to . . . one assignment
.” Lt. J. H. Duncan to Taylor via Commander Woolley, memo, July 1, 1943, NARA.

  
36
      
“
a good man . . . the game
.” Maritime Unit Assessments, Area D, 1943, NARA.

  
36
      
“
A very good . . . the average
.” Ibid.

  
37
      
“
enough wind to . . . folbots
.” Area D training memos, 1943, NARA.

  
37
      
“
I believe that . . . very little
.” Commander H. Woolley, memo, “OSS Surfboards,” 1943, NARA.

  
38
      
John P. Spence's description of the origin of the term “
frogman
” comes from Patrick Kiger, “John Spence: Fighting Frogman,”
AARP blog, posted November 5, 2013,
http://blog.aarp.org/2013/11/05/john-spence-fighting-frogman/
. The author also interviewed Spence in 2003. (Over the course of twenty-two years, he has conducted more than four thousand interviews with World War II veterans, including interviews with five hundred operational members of the OSS. The interviews were cross-checked with the documents in the National Archives. He has spent more than a decade researching hundreds of thousands of records for the OSS and has written four books on the subject. Thousands of documents were used to write this book.)

  
38
      
“
shape . . . vertical fins
.” “History of the Maritime Unit.”

  
38
      
“
transferred in great secrecy
.” Ibid.

  
38
      
“
other flaws developed
.” Ibid.; also from other OSS internal documents at NARA.

  
39
      
“
both hand and foot
.” Ibid.

  
39
      
“
The significance of the order . . . the field
.” Ibid.

  
40
      
“
if he was not . . . the U.S. Navy
.” Taylor to Woolley, 1943, NARA.

CHAPTER 5: SILVER SPRINGS

  
41
      
“
The Champ
.” The opening scene comes from an interoffice memo from Duncan to Sexton, “Trips to Florida,” September 7, 1943,” NARA.

  
42
      
“
I remember showing him . . . favorite things
!”
KTVZ.com
news sources, “‘America's first frogman' dies in Bend at 95,”
KTVZ.com
, October 30, 2013,
www.ktvz.com/news/americas-first-frogman-dies-in-bend-at-95/22721664
.

  
42
      
“
exchanged ideas with . . . underwater equipment
.” Lt. Duncan to Lt. Com. Sexton, letter, October 2, 1943, NARA; also, “COMBAT DEMOLITION UNIT (U.S. NAVY) Proposed Joint Action with MARITIME UNIT,” September 2, 1943, NARA.

  
42
      
“
Every man . . . potential use
.” Ibid.

  
43
      
“
a discussion with . . . demolition unit
.” Ibid.