First SEALs (7 page)

A
S THE TRAINING PROGRESSED
,
the OSS developed a number of specialized and innovative pieces of equipment. Going back to the Ohio Chemical and Manufacturing Company, which had fabricated the rebreather, the OSS designed an inflatable surfboard that ran silently on a battery-powered motor. The board could plow through the waves and accommodate two men or a total of eighteen hundred pounds of equipment, grenades, and ammunition. The “boat” had a cruising speed of five knots and a maximum range of fifteen miles. But its low silhouette allowed men to approach ships at anchor covertly and to land operatives. Commander Woolley was extremely keen on the use of these devices, which could be rolled up into a small portable size when not inflated. “
I believe that great use can be made of surfboards,” he stated, “especially for landing through surf which cannot be crossed by any type of boat without serious danger.” Woolley further explained, “The inflatable surfboard . . . will roll into a small package and weigh very little.” At the conclusion of the trials the OSS contracted with the Ohio Chemical and Manufacturing Company to make two full-size prototype boards at a total cost of $500.

To protect the men's bodies from hypothermia in the cold waters of the Potomac, the OSS developed and enhanced a wetsuit. One of the first swimmers to wear the suit was John P. Spence, who fondly recalled how the term “
frogmen” may have come
about. He was climbing out of the water one day in his green waterproof suit when someone yelled, “Hey Frogman,” and the name “stuck for all of us.”

The OSS had also developed a number of kayaks, including two- and eight-man versions that could be broken down and quickly assembled on the deck of a submarine or small boat. In addition they began experimenting with underwater submersible craft, something today's SEALs often use when they exit submarines to conduct covert operations. The OSS first took a look at an invention known as “the Toy.” During the summer of 1943 a Frenchman named Jean de Valdène contacted the agency about a one-man submersible that he had designed. Both the British Navy and the Italians had constructed underwater submersibles that their combat swimmers utilized. Made of balsa wood in the “
shape of a large cigar,” Valdène's Toy was “steadied by horizontal and vertical fins.” Like the surfboard, it was powered by a silent electric motor, and it could achieve a speed of six knots underwater.

Commander Woolley immediately saw the possibilities that the Toy offered his swimmers: the ability to enter enemy ports covertly and attach limpet mines to ships. He convinced Donovan to earmark $1,000 for the project. But a string of unfortunate events plagued the development of the device. They trucked a mock-up of the Toy to Area D on July 20. There Duncan and the swimmers participated in tests with the submersible. The craft dipped a few feet beneath the murky Potomac, but once again the dirt and pollution got in the way of finalizing the test. So the Toy was “
transferred in great secrecy” to the David Taylor Model Basin at Glen Echo, Maryland, a large U.S. Navy facility used to test ships and smaller craft.

Ultimately, the Toy proved to be a flop. In final tests in January 1944, the electric motors broke down repeatedly and “
other flaws developed.” They abandoned the project and later replaced it with another submersible known as the “Sleeping Beauty.”

Over the spring and summer of 1943, development of underwater gear proceeded at a breakneck pace: wristwatches with luminous dials, depth gauges, a waterproof swimsuit, and swim fins (“
both hand and foot”). The Ohio Chemical and Manufacturing Company once again provided its expertise in manufacturing waterproof flashlights and underwater containers as well as other equipment that would allow swimmers to transport explosive devices without detection. The OSS accordingly created and tested limpet mines that the swimmers could affix magnetically to the metal hulls of enemy ships and then detonate.

But the polluted Potomac once again became a problem. At one LARU trial, Taylor swam for more than a mile in the river. Visibility was terrible, making the test difficult. Moreover, in combat, either in the Pacific or near Europe, the swimmers and equipment would be in saltwater, and it was unknown how well the unit would perform in the sea. They needed clear water—clear ocean water—to conduct realistic tests. Duncan proposed that they take the team to Florida.

T
HE SUMMER OF
1943
BROUGHT
great change to the “Maritime Activity,” as it was known. Some called it the “Marine Section,” leading to confusion that it was associated somehow with the Marine Corps. But General Order Number 9, issued by General Donovan, clarified and effectively led to the establishment of the Maritime Unit as a full branch within the OSS. Instead of training agents and operators for the special operations branch of the OSS, the Maritime Unit was gaining its own independence as an organization. “
The significance of the order was for the first time the Maritime Unit had authority to send its own personnel into the field,” recalled an officer within the unit. Prior to that, the Maritime Activity was relegated to just training OSS personnel from other branches. This would lead to a drastic enlargement of the unit's activities, including the establishment of field stations
overseas in far-flung outposts around the world, such as Burma and Egypt.

Lieutenant Taylor was by nature a patriot and a man of action. Eager to enter the war, he asked to be one of the first Maritime Unit officers to deploy overseas. Taylor, determined to obtain an assignment in the field, made it clear to the OSS that “
if he was not deployed overseas he would request a transfer back to the U.S. Navy.” Woolley and the OSS placed tremendous value on Taylor and approved his request. But before heading into the field, OSS's fledgling combat swimmers headed south to Florida for additional training.

5

SILVER SPRINGS

I
N THE FIRST WEEK OF
S
EPTEMBER
1943,
Lieutenant Duncan and the underwater swimmer group departed Washington, D.C., aboard the
Tamiami Champion
, a fast, full-service passenger train also known as “
The Champ.” The men were to undergo further amphibious warfare and diving training at a naval facility in Fort Pierce, Florida, where they would study demolition techniques, test the LARU in seawater, and make a demonstration film. A motion picture crew from the OSS would come down near the end of their time in Florida. Their film would demonstrate the Maritime Unit's capabilities to the theater commanders and serve as a training film for future OSS swimmer recruits.

Nearly twenty-four hours after leaving Union Station, the men arrived at Fort Pierce, where they proceeded to the Navy's amphibious training school on a small, secluded isle off the Atlantic coast. The training school had been up and running since June, but the facilities were Spartan. When the first groups of trainees arrived, the camp had no buildings. For shelter they pitched tents on the sand, right on top of the sand fleas, whose bites left itchy welts. Later recruits enjoyed the “luxury” of wooden floors and sides for the tents, but the conditions remained tough. The heat was oppressive, and mosquitoes and flies constantly swarmed the men. With no mess hall to prepare meals, the food was consistently subpar. To top it off, the training was extremely rigorous, with the instructors
putting the men through workouts and drills eight to twelve hours per day—the origins of what the SEALs now call Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL (BUD/S) training.

Duncan reported to Lieutenant Commander Draper Kauffman, who led the facility and training program. A pioneer of Navy demolitions, Kauffman later participated in numerous amphibious assaults in the Pacific. But Kauffman was an unusual choice to lead the school that would train the Navy's underwater demolitions team. He had graduated from the Naval Academy but hadn't received a commission because of his poor eyesight. Instead, he volunteered as a driver with France's American Volunteers Ambulance Corps. Captured by the Germans, he spent time in a prison camp. In 1940 he served on a mine disposal team with the British Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve during the London Blitz before finally receiving a commission in the U.S. Naval Reserve in 1941. Although his experience with demolitions made him extremely qualified as an explosives instructor, Kauffman allegedly wasn't particularly fond of the water. Many years later, OSS swimmer John Spence reportedly said, “
I remember showing him the fins and face plate. This ‘Father of the Navy SEALs' looked me square in the eye and said, ‘Swimming is not one of my favorite things!'”

Duncan and his OSS swimmers introduced Kauffman to their latest equipment, which was far ahead of anything he and his men possessed. They demonstrated the Lambertsen unit and “
exchanged ideas with Commander Kauffman as regards to the use of underwater equipment.” Duncan also trotted out the innovative surfboard the OSS developed. The groundbreaking OSS technology initially awed the Navy and Kauffman. “
Every man [present] was enthusiastic about its potential use,” recalled Duncan. At the time the Navy was using only face masks and no fins (they often swam in sneakers) and had nothing remotely comparable to the Lambertsen rebreather. The LARU signaled a new era in underwater diving technology that would render Kauffman's practices obsolete and potentially threaten his command authority.

The next couple of days started out cordially. On September 12, Duncan's group, along with Lieutenant Commander Kauffman and other Navy representatives, anchored off North Island and once again demonstrated their unique surfboard and the Lambertsen rebreathers. Even Kauffman tested the equipment underwater. The devices performed superbly, and afterward, the OSS men and Navy demolition trainees conducted a highly successful joint underwater exercise, with both groups using the rebreathers.

Buoyed by the powerful potential of an OSS collaboration with Kauffman's program, Lieutenant Duncan inadvertently ignited a political firestorm by foolishly engaging in “
a discussion with Lieutenant Commander Kauffman regarding the possibility of using men who were trained by the demolition unit,” without first consulting OSS leadership. Duncan pointed out to Kauffman that “
the training of these men is closely parallel to that proposed for our [Maritime] Unit, and to open up another training camp seemed to be at the time duplicating effort.” Duncan believed the Underwater Demolition Team's (UDT) training would qualify Kauffman's men for recruitment into the OSS's underwater swimming groups.

As Duncan and the MU swimmers were leaving Fort Pierce, one of Kauffman's officers relayed to them just exactly what the Navy really thought of the OSS. “
I received one of the most severe criticisms expressed in the vernacular, all because the lieutenant in charge, Lieutenant Kirby, had allowed us to proceed to the [UDT training school] on what the commanding officer considered useless orders,” said Duncan. Kauffman's sound rejection of Duncan's emboldened overture and the OSS's rebreather doomed the UDT to lesser technology for years. It would be long after World War II before the Navy would finally utilize the groundbreaking LARU device.

Stunned by the tongue lashing, Duncan and his men proceeded to
Silver Springs, Florida, where they holed up in a group of cottages. There they conducted additional tests with one of Stanley Lovell's Research and Development (R&D) scientists, Lieutenant Alexander. Seemingly in an attempt to keep the overly ambitious
lieutenant in line, OSS headquarters had dispatched a hulking, taciturn, combat-hardened Marine captain by the name of Alfred Lichtman to supervise the team and keep the top-secret equipment secure. A Jewish company commander from the 1
^st
Marine Division, Lichtman had earned a Silver Star repelling a Japanese tank attack on Guadalcanal's Matanikau River. In a letter to Lichtman, OSS leadership emphasized the importance of this mission: “
As I have discussed with you, security [of the devices] may have to be achieved by whatever means are at your disposal, for it will undoubtedly be impossible to maintain a 500 yard isolation area around the equipment area where it is stored. Nevertheless, when it is not in use, it should, of course, be kept in one place under guard.”