First SEALs by Patrick K. O'Donnell Read Free Book Online Page A

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 stationsoverseas 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.

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    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 instructorsputting 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