SEAL of Honor (23 page)

CHAPTER TEN

—CARLOS CASTANEDA,
Journey to Ixtlan
(New York: Simon & Schuster, 1972)

T
he NSW Command was commissioned April 16, 1987, at the Naval Amphibious Base in Coronado, California. As the Naval special operations component in the United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM), headquartered at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida, it is responsible for providing the vision, leadership, doctrinal guidance, resources, and oversight needed to ensure that its units are ready to meet the mission requirements of commanders.

The mission of the commander of the Naval Special Warfare Command is to prepare NSW forces to carry out assigned missions and to develop maritime special operations strategy, doctrine, and tactics. It exercises operational control over all U.S.-based NSW Command training, has operational control over all U.S.based Naval Special Warfare forces, and is responsible for training, equipping, supporting, and providing trained and ready forces to the combatant commanders. The commander of NSW Command is a Navy flag officer, Rear Admiral Edward G. Winters III.

The Naval Special Warfare Center serves as the schoolhouse for much Naval Special Warfare training. It is a major component of the Naval Special Warfare Command and is commanded by an NSW captain. In addition to the twenty-sixweek BUD/S and nine-week Special Warfare Combatant-craft Crewman (SWCC) courses, the Center also conducts advanced maritime special operations training for NSW and other service-component SOF personnel. The Center maintains a
detachment at the Naval Amphibious Base, Little Creek, in Virginia, for selected training of personnel assigned to commands on the East Coast.

There are three types of personnel assigned to NAVSPECWARCOM: NSW officers, Navy enlisted SEALs, and Special Warfare Combatant-craft Crewmen.

The NSW mission areas include unconventional warfare, direct action, combating terrorism, special reconnaissance, foreign internal defense, information warfare, security assistance, counterdrug operations, personnel recovery, and hydrographic reconnaissance. NSW forces can operate independently or integrate with other U.S. special operations forces or within U.S. Navy carrier battle groups and amphibious ready groups.

Naval Special Warfare units are organized, trained, and equipped to conduct special operations in maritime and riverine environments. They are deployed in small units around the world in support of fleet and national operations. They provide an effective means to apply an effective counterforce in conjunction with national policy and objectives in peacetime and across the spectrum of hostilities from peacetime operations to limited war and to general war.

NSW is a highly structured and close-knit organization. The major operational components of Naval Special Warfare Command include Naval Special Warfare Group One and Special Boat Squadron One, located in Coronado
,
California, and Naval Special Warfare Group Two and Special Boat Squadron Two, stationed in Little Creek, Virginia. These components deploy SEAL teams, SEAL Delivery Vehicle Teams, and Special Boat Units (SBUs) throughout the world.

Naval Special Warfare Groups (NSWGs) are major commands led by a Navy captain that provide command and control as well as trained and ready SEAL and SDV platoons and forces to specific geographic areas. NSW Groups One and Two are organized into (1) three SEAL teams, consisting of six sixteen-man platoons, which conduct reconnaissance, direct action, unconventional warfare, foreign internal defense, and other operations in maritime or riverine environments; (2) one SDV Team, which operates and maintains submersible vehicles that deliver and recover SEALs in hostile areas and conduct reconnaissance and direct-action missions; and (3) NSW Units, which are small command-and-control elements located outside the continental United States used to support other NSW forces assigned to theater special operations commanders (SOCs) or components of naval task forces.

A Naval Special Warfare Command Combat Service Support Team (CSST) is assigned to each NSW Group and provides a full range of support for designated SEAL teams, Special Boat Units, NSW Task Groups/Task Units, and/or special mission units. Special Boat Squadrons, also commanded by Navy captains, equip, support, and provide trained and ready special operations ships and craft to the assigned geographic areas of operations. Each command is comprised of one or more active or reserve component Special Boat Units (SBUs) and
Cyclone
-class Patrol Coastal (PC) ships.

Although SEALs are expert combat swimmers, there are times when the distances they must swim would be too great for them to remain effective, or when they have too much gear to transport to the site themselves. SDV Teams use underwater SDV craft to increase the areas in which SEALs can operate. SDV Teams usually deploy from submarines, but when necessary, they can also deploy from shore-based stations or surface ships. The SDV provides life support for the embarked SEALs. The older boats allow each SEAL to plug into an onboard air source and are flooded during operations, but the new Advanced SEAL Delivery System (ASDS) carries the SEALs in a dry compartment, keeping them warmer longer and increasing their effectiveness once they reach their drop-off point. Each type of SDV is powered by batteries and offers navigation and communications equipment in addition to the propulsion and life-support systems.

The primary SDV used by SEALs currently is the MK-8 Mod 1. At 22 feet, it is rated to carry six SEALs (two operators and four passengers). It can travel at about six knots out to a range of about seventy miles, although in many cases the effects of water conditions on the crew is more of a limitation than the battery power of the SDV. The MK-9 SDV was developed to carry a crew of two SEALs and two MK 37 torpedoes for use in standoff attacks against enemy shipping but has been superseded by the MK-8.

The MK-8 is used to conduct long-range submerged missions as well as deliver SEALs or other agents onto enemy territory from a submarine or other vessel at sea. Mission usage would include underwater mapping and terrain exploration, location and recovery of lost or downed objects, offshore and in-port intelligence collection, and infiltration or exfiltration of personnel on direct-action missions.

The latest addition to the delivery vehicles is the new Advanced SEAL Delivery System. It is a dry, 65-foot mini submersible used for long-range insertion of SEALs from a larger platform, either a surface ship or a submarine. Along with its increased range, speed, and capacity above that of the MK-8, it has the distinct advantage of keeping the SEALs dry, thereby minimizing their exposure to cold and fatigue while being transported to their target. The ASDS can also be transported by land, sea, or air by C-5 or C-17 aircraft.

Two
Los Angeles
-class submarines, the USS
Greenville
and the USS
Charlotte
, have been structurally modified to carry the ASDS, which is connected to the ship by a watertight hatch. With a sophisticated sonar and hyperbaric recompression chamber and operating with a sixty-seven horsepower electric motor, the ASDS is manned by a crew of two and can carry eight SEALs.

There are two SDV Teams. SEAL Delivery Vehicle Team One (SDVT-1) is based at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and operates in the Pacific Command and Central Command geographic areas. Team Two is based at Little Creek, Virginia, and conducts operations throughout the Atlantic, Southern, and European Command areas.

Currently there are ten SEAL teams, each under the leadership of a Navy commander, consisting of six operational SEAL platoons with a headquarters element and support personnel.

A SEAL platoon is the largest operational element that will normally be used to conduct a mission. A Navy lieutenant normally commands a SEAL platoon. A platoon consists of sixteen SEALs—two officers, one chief petty officer, and thirteen enlisted men. The senior officer is the platoon commander or officer in charge, the junior officer is his assistant, the senior enlisted man is the platoon chief, and the next senior enlisted man is the leading petty officer. The LPO is in charge of the day-to-day management of the enlisted platoon members.

A platoon may divide into two squads of eight or four elements of four. All SEALs are dive, parachute, and demolitions qualified. They can destroy or sabotage enemy shipping, port and harbor facilities, bridges, railway lines, communications centers, and other lines of communication, or infiltrate and exfiltrate selected personnel by submarine, surface vessel, aircraft, or land vehicle. They also can conduct reconnaissance and surveillance in multiple environments, and organize, train, and assist U.S., allied, and other friendly military or paramilitary forces in the conduct of special operations.

Regardless of whether a SEAL team is working strictly for the Navy or as a component of a joint task force operating within the USSOCOM, SEALs have nine primary or core missions:

SEALs have performed these core or primary missions around the globe. An integral part of SEAL training is studying previous missions. During this process they not only analyze what went right and what went wrong, but also, more important, why and how to prevent errors from reoccurring on future missions. Michael Murphy and his classmates examined numerous previous SEAL missions.