Adventures of a Tennessean

CHAPTER 4 UNDERWATER DEMOLITION TEAM I was a member of the first Underwater Demolition Team (UDT), which existed in the United States Navy. During the past 65 years, the UDT changed and evolved. Today, members of the UDT would be known as members of the United States Navy's Sea Air, Land (SEAL) Teams, commonly referred to as the United States Navy SEALs. Little did I know that the UDT would morph into the United States Navy's principal special operations force and would become a part of Naval Special Warfare Command. How I came to be a part of that first UDT unit is unclear even to me. Neither Fisher nor I volunteered, and as to how the other sailors in our class were selected, I have no idea. I attribute my selection to being in the wrong place at the wrong time. The following common traits seemed to apply to all the sailors in our UDT class: physical fitness, mental sharpness, maturity, and resilience. I always felt that someone in the United States Navy secretly screened the candidates for this first class to determine their potential to succeed. My memory of the UDT seems like a distant bad dream, which began when a Senior Chief Petty Officer came to the barracks in Coronado, California, and told Fisher and me that we were going to be tested for a swimming class. At first, Fisher and I had a ball in this swimming class. As the so called swimming class progressed, the Navy revealed that this class was the start of a new Special Forces Unit. Once we were told that we were training for a Special Forces Unit everything happened fast. In my mind, it seemed like one day we were swimming, relaxing, without a care in the world, and then all of a sudden we were training for the UDT. None of us knew what work was until UDT training started. Training for this new unit was relentless. Our UDT training began in late October, 1948, outside Coronado. The training we received was designed to test our spirit and stamina. The first phase of our training dealt with physical conditioning, which focused on running, swimming, navigating obstacle courses, and basic under water skills. The physical conditioning training consisted of a very rigid exercise program designed to tax our physical endurance and will power. On a typical day, the UDT instructors had us up at 4:00 A.M. to go on a five mile run. Upon our return, we took what was called a physical training (PT) shower. A PT shower was a shower, which lasted less than three minutes from start to finish. After showering, we double timed to breakfast. Unlike the sailors stationed in San Diego, we did not go through a regular chow line. Instead, we marched into a special wing of the chow hall, which contained two long tables. After being seated at these tables, mess men would bring in our food. A typical breakfast would consist of platters of steak, ham, fried potatoes, biscuits, fried eggs, scrambled eggs, pitchers of milk and water, jars of jelly, and plates of butter. We ate like kings compared to the other sailors in the chow hall. For the breakfast meal, we were given fifteen minutes to eat from the time our unit reached the chow hall until we were to be in formation to leave. Usually following breakfast, our unit would receive detailed class instruction on one of several topics, which had to be mastered before graduation. These classes included: diving, under water welding and cutting, repelling, hand to hand combat, explosives handling, and small arms training. To emphasize the material covered in these periods of instruction, our unit would receive class demonstrations. After these demonstrations, we would go back to physical training. Initially, our daily routine included swimming at noon; however, the physical training increased until we were spending approximately eight hours each day swimming and exercising. My class contained 100 sailors when we started UDT training. During the second day of UDT training, the head instructor told us to look around at the others in the class. There was total silence as all of us looked at those sitting near us wondering if this was some kind of a test. Then with a deep growl he barked, "Only one out of five of you will complete UDT successfully." None of us believed this statement. Ultimately, his prediction proved to be too optimistic as only 17 of those in my class graduated. I look back on this statement about the dropout rate and wonder whether it was a form of psychology used by the head instructor to make us strive harder. Since I had just turned eighteen, I was gullible. Needless to say this statement about the drop out rate had a profound impact on me. Because of this statement, when I was hurting, sore, or tired, I masked it. I was determined to succeed. In fact, Fisher and I would not have quit even if our lives had depended on it. As Fisher and I built up our stamina and physical endurance, we would laugh at the instructors and challenge them. In the beginning, our swimming for UDT was done in a swimming pool. This swimming pool was larger than an Olympic size pool and ten feet deep. However, our UDT class soon learned that this was not a normal pool. After our first week of swimming, the instructors changed the rules. The new rules were that once you got into the pool, you could not get out. To prevent us from getting out, special boards were placed on the sides of the pool. These boards were covered with a slick, ceramic coating so that you could not hang onto them. After the first week, entry into the pool became an all day affair (8 hours). I got to the point that I could put my hand out like a suction cup to hold onto the slick wall of the pool. Upon completion of the swimming pool phase of our training, we were taken out to sea. Usually, our unit would be dumped out over twenty miles from shore. It can be unnerving to be dumped out in water where no land is visible. For safety purposes small boats were present to rescue those men who had problems. In this environment, our instructors would come by with a small boat as fast as it would run with a life ring extended from a boom on the side of the boat. The life ring would be just above the water. The objective was for us to grab the ring as the boat came by. After grabbing the ring, the boom holding the ring would rotate around to the rear of the small boat where we would roll up a ramp and climb into the boat. The only problem was that when you grabbed the life ring with the boat traveling at 30 knots or better, it would almost jerk your arm out of its socket. If you managed to hold on, you would be skimming along the water just like a skipping stone. I soon learned that skimming along the top of the water would burn you just like being dragged along a road. It did not take me long to figure out that the trick was to miss the life ring deliberately without letting them know that you had missed it on purpose. When you missed the life ring, they had to slow down and turn around to come back. After slowing down to turn around, they could not get the boat going as fast so you could grab the ring and get on board. The purpose behind using the boat and ring was to pick us up after an operation when the enemy was shooting at us. As the training advanced, our weekly training changed. At the end of the second week, the instructors started dropping us in the ocean twenty miles from shore so that we could swim ashore. During my third ocean drop, I felt mischievous so I sprinted a short distance ahead of the main group.