MEN WITH GREEN FACES

organized at the suggestion of President John Kennedy who realized that it would take Special Operations to win special kinds of War for years the existence of these teams was a defense department secret now parts of their story can be told in an age when most military engagements have become distant and impersonal seals operate in the midst of the enemy their purpos is to disrupt his supply lines choke his Communications learn his Secrets if you really want some exciting work come to silty and you'll be involved in it we're more or less of an unsung soldier in a lot of respects because they can't write up a lot of the things we do but I say within yourself you'll know you'll have this personal Pride that know you as there and you did the job after the war they they'll probably right about it but uh if you're in here for just getting the bronze star and your name on the front page no you won't because they don't put our name on the front page you'll know within yourself you'll know what your buddies have done you'll know our record and you'll know what a great unit we are you'll be there all our volunteers from the fame Frogman of the Navy's underwater demolition team but once out of water most similar ity with frog men in we are basically an intelligence gathering unit We Gather every bit of information that's possible whether it be a small piece of paper with some Vietnamese writing on it or Trails uh boat traffic anything that might be of real significant value to your intelligence officer when you get back and every man's got to have the physical strength to get through the mission and the mental strength not to waiver when the going gets rough and it gets pretty rough pretty regularly you've got a want it inside of here gentlemen I told you that we throw things at you rather fast you've got to react immediately cuz later on if you don't react IM immediately you will be a casualty and you're doing us no good we have to put you in an Old Pine Box because you didn't use your noodles you'll be exposed to pain and Punishment and other little devices that we'll think of for one reason and one reason only to make you the type of person we need to get the job done no matter what the job is these men are preparing for the Grim reality of a personal War counter gorilla jungle fighting and rugged hand toand combat lies ahead for this they must stay in Prime physical condition those who can't take it would be a liability in combat in UDT training they very definitely push you to your limits in fact beyond what you thought was your Li it's an eye opener it was an eye opener for me and I'm sure it was for most people stomach can what training does for us is it gives us a stamina teaches us to know ourselves to know that we could if we had to run for 3 hours 18 miles no we could move across 600 M of mud on our stomachs and be ready to fight when we get there it's not a breeze but I think it's more of a mental problem than it is physically I mean if it's a normal average athletic type person that has nothing physically wrong with him then it's all up to him if he wants UDT bad enough he can endure the runs they don't punish you to where you can't walk again or you don't have to swim so far that you're going to a cramp up and drown get up straighten your legs Adams lock your knees you can get a great deal of confidence out of some of those obstacles over there physical training certainly you work different parts of the body on different obstacles you work coordination as a matter of fact and a great deal of confidence in [Music] yourself best ever came over across the sea a high frog and a l frog it's just that well I want UDT and I can do all these things and then you get a positive attitude about the training and there's nothing they can do to make you quit you can endure all the extra push-ups and the instructors hollering at you and just take it with a grain of salt and just say well that's part of the program always think ahead well in another hour this problem's going to be over and I'll be back in the bags in a hot shower and a hot meal the temperature in the shade 193 there isn't and is all there is Cactus and it glor glor for of us sing Glory [Music] [Music] seals are specialists in being where they are least expected getting to the job May mean jumping out of a boat a helicopter or an airplane you have to want this type Duty in order to to survive this training some people I suppose want to prove something to themselves some people maybe they want to prove something to somebody else I think it's a psychological aspect the hardship while you're doing all this in other words uh you think about things a little bit differently you start realizing that uh probably one of the greatest things you ever ever had with just sitting in a warm room with a cup of coffee you just don't know how much you can appreciate something like that It prepares you well for when you go in combat you learn that a little rain's not going to hurt you a little mud's not going to hurt you you don't like it but you learn that you can live with it okay this morning gentlemen we're going to take up what was known in the teams as an Emerson scuba rig this means that is a self-contained underwater breathing apparatus this rig is used any type of candescent or sneak attack operations it is desirable for this use because of the fact that there are no bubbles coming out of this rig when it is submerged and we can have you step up here sir we'll slip you into [Music] it seals must be able to turn off physical discomfort but their minds must be in top working order few jobs in the Navy require more mature judgments to be made almost instantaneously in a combat zone these decisions can mean the difference between the success and failure of a mission between life and death our type of training now of course it includes diving and demol work and parachuting and uh very extensive weapon training and tactics training so our people are well qualified or maybe even the most qualified troop there is in you close it up tight close it up tight go get up and out get up and out get up and out get up and [Music] out you put that shoot on your stomach starts getting hard your first jump especially they say hook up check staty Cline check your equipment the word comes to stand on the door and I was I was scared it was a thrill it was challenging if not everybody that'll get up and jump out of a perfectly good plane why I don't know every seal is trained in parachuting floating down from the sky is a good way of getting to a patrol area unannounced seals learn jump techniques with army paratroops at Fort Benning Georgia pull it deep one he's coming down he's coming down like a feather what is he all right get on your feet jump on arm four prepare for a normal slip to your front to your front four your other front four drop four jump on arm three prepare for normal slip to your you get to the door and you leave it's it's one motion as opposed to being there for a couple of minutes you exit you you can feel the Chute coming out the bag off my back the pack then as the prop blast hits the Shute you can really feel the tug you look up if your risers aren't crossed if they're crossed you've got to uncross them by pulling them apart the harness which is uncomfortable as anything can be when you're wearing it on the ground is uh like a chair in the sky and you just float down Che copy CH canopy CH canopy CH once you leave the door and you're out in the air then it's the greatest thing in the world because you know you've done it you know that you didn't have to be pushed out the door you did this thing on your own you're still apprehensive every jump because those thoughts always run through my mind what am I doing up in this airplane why do I want to jump out of this airplane when I know it's going to land but then once it's time to hook up and go then it's just hell I love it as you approach the ground there's a man in a bullhorn saying take prepare to land attitude grab your risers take a a slip into the wind so you're trying to stand still it says now bend your knees Point your toes chin up eyes and Horizon after your first one you're ready to jump the next four [Music] the seals call this Halo high altitude low opening for seals a means of Silent entry to the enemy's territory [Music] before deployment to a combat zone seal squads practice together the way it will be over there you never say anything on patrol from the time you leave that boat or the helicopter or however you're getting inserted to the time you get back you don't even open your mouth uh we teach them hand and arm signals in in Cadre training it doesn't make any difference what type of signal you do use as long as everybody knows it to bring back information that will help reveal the enemy's story seals must be alert every minute an intelligence officer can do so much more with little facts than you have any idea of if he can find out for instance that there is large amounts of rice being moved down a river then he knows there are either people down there needing food or that there will be people down there soon when he adds this to other bits of information he's found out well a pattern of enemy activity begins to develop all the techniques they have learned are brought to bear in this realistic training as individuals they learn to function together they they become a team well a certain amount of romance to it certain amount of Glamour to being a member of what we consider without question the best best troops in the country has I think we're such a highly specialized group of people that we're in great demand there's just not enough of us to go around I think our record speaks for itself 70 80 bronze stars and numerous purple hearts and silver stars a couple of those and Legion of merits and uh the awards have been just numerous as far as I'm concerned each and every one of them are are highly deserved and uh I think it comes some teamwork uh togetherness thing that motivates a lot of people is that again it is a challenge to a young man it is uh we feel and we are proud of the fact that we're one of the most highly trained efficient small units that there is in any service and I think it's the pride factor that uh motivates kids to volunteer for steel te is just knowing that they're going to be in one of the most elite specialized tra units there is this is my own personal feeling that's the reason why I stay in it I have another 8 years do in the Navy and I'm going to spend it in salon [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] working on the land in other lands means using another language for men who go to Southeast Asia the Vietnamese language is a necessity well our primary job is to gather intelligence we don't go in to kill Charlie we go in to capture him and uh well we always tell him in his own language with the few words that we know in vietnames things like stop surrender come here get your hands up you're surrounded it's this type of thing see the three short phrases that we use are uh dong Li which means stop li day which means come here and uh DD which is sort of a slang Vietnamese phrase that means uh you know get the hell out of here move out as often as possible foray on the ground are planned with a look from above the war in Southeast Asia is an unusual kind of War there are no front lines here The elusive enemy can appear as villagers or Farmers to find out what is going on in unfriendly territory it takes men on the ground okay man this is a warning order for tonight's Mission uh the mission tonight is going to be an ambush of careful consideration of every eventuality has led to a specific plan for this Patrol every phase of the mission has been fought through that platoon leader has a tremendous amount of load on its back uh a lot of people think well the squad leader he's just a man that gives it orders but why everybody else is sitting around uh shooting the bull and that man's getting the mission order he's got four or five hours of work to do he's got to coordinate everything his artillery his air strikes uh uh what is what kind of support is he going to have available he gets it all set up uh he works four or five hours before the people even get the word on it just done as a warning letter the uh one primary danger area which we know about is this bridge you can see what it looks like here it's just a wooden bridge hard top and our actions at this danger area will be as follows we will come to this point we'll be patrolling down here in our file we will stop short of the bridge we have the capabilities of being inserted from everything from submarines to fixing aircraft but essentially the terrain is going to tell you whether or not you're going to use a copter or a cbrr most of the men feel that name Seal team is what carries you real reward you could give a medal out for 50 60% of the missions we go on since you can't have that many metals and the value of being a seal I think is what they're really concerned with the actual metal they present to you at the end of a tour is a more of a token value I think if you don't have the element of surprise you're lost you won't come out of the mission you have to have the element of surprise all the time as soon as you're compromised as soon as they know you're there you're in trouble and you have to be on the way out you've got a long way to go and in a particular hostile area you won't make it out you're swimming across streams uh very frequently on Long Patrol you might swim 15 streams or more Is Not Unusual at all and these will range anywhere from a few feet to uh maybe 50 yards this is carrying your all of your weapons and ammunition and uh it can become somewhat of a trouble especially for radiomen or machine gunner but there's quite a few guys that like the element of I think people just want to be with the best group they've already made it to UDT and they know that if they have the mental attitude they can be seals and be right with the top doing the most exciting things and be treated as the elite I think a lot of people join the Seal team to be with a with a group that can fight well and still be part of the Navy what it is is I guess is a Prestige of of being the top man you know all the time you're going to be get call to do the hardest job a job that nobody else will take we insist on very physically fit people also a person that is mentally stable to be able to do the things we do because everything we do has a certain amount of risk involved in it and it has to be a person that accepts this not a thrill seeker not just a young kid that wants a bunch of Thrills of jumping out of an airplane or this type of thing but one that expects danger and and knows how to handle it and how to live with it because in s team you do live with Danger is part of your life in Vietnam seals have learned that prisoners are a good source of information on the enemy's situation and intentions one prisoner can provide information that may lead to the capture of many more [Music] [Music] [Music] now after many hours ashore mud soaked seals relax new information will be pieced together with existing intelligence the pattern of enemy activity brought up to date often a seal Patrol returns with word of unsuspected enemy activity the location of new campsites or knowledge of enemy movement on an infiltration route troops are alerted boatloads move up the river to strike [Music] back armed Navy Patrol boats and gunship helicopters answer the challenge [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] many military engagements are based on information the seals have brought back continuing the tradition of bold men who go behind the enemy's lines seals work as they say in Charlie's backyard their success depends on their being where they are not [Music] expected for their dedication to duty seals have become some of the most decorated fighting men in history the award citations retell some of their exploits on one occasion while conducting a clandestine combat Patrol through hostile terrain the mission was to capture Viet Kong in order to gain Intelligence on enemy Supply movements in the area the patrol stopped while the forward security element was sent out to reconnoiter a bridge the patrol would cross a Viet Kong Ambush team had moved in to set an ambush at the Crossing point the point man sensed it and charged their position repeatedly moving without cover leaving himself vulnerable to enemy fire his aggressiveness and quick thinking saved his Patrol from suffering heavy casualties [Music] ribbons and metals represent the accomplishment of exceptional Deeds but awards are not the reason for performance in combat what these men are and what they represent has sustained them and given them their purpose [Music] [Music]