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Following the same sad route as at the end of World War
II, our Navy abandoned its light forces with the end of
the war in Vietnam who had played a major role both on
the coast and up the many rivers and tributaries of
South East Asia. Fortunately, farsighted officers in
Naval Special Warfare (Specwar) said they would gladly
accept the missions of Riverine Warfare, Coastal Patrol
and Interdiction as well as SEAL Support. For these
battle hardened veterans, it was a no brainer. They
wanted their own boats with their own guys who were
totally on board with the missions and would stay on
line during a high speed recovery under hostile shore
fire or pull the squad off the bank in a hot extraction;
they did not want to rely on borrowing the captain's gig
or a Mike boat (landing craft) from a Gator
(landing ship like an LSD, LST or CVH) and take their
chances with who ever was thrown into the landing party
or had crewed the last liberty boat. However as the cold
war wore on and the glamour of air operations gleamed,
the Boat Units were relegated into more
administrative support missions: safety boats for rubber
ducks (parachute drops of combat rubber raiding craft),
ship attacks (swimmer delivered limpeteer attacks), sub
ops (locking operators in and out of submarines while
submerged) demo shots (explosive clearance of beach
obstacles) and SDV (Swimmer Delivery Vehicle, miniature
submarine) ops. The close bond between boat crews and
Seals drifted apart despite deployments with ARGs
(Amphibious ReadyGroups) and forward deployments to
Philippines and Panama.
The draw down after Vietnam was particularly harmful,
and what little new Naval resources were channeled into
Nuclear Submarines and Anti Submarine Warfare (Trident
ballistic missile submarines and Lockheed S-3's,
anti-submarine jet aircraft). Production of .50 cal
ammunition was suspended (In my seven years in the boat
units, I never fired a .50 cal round that was not at
least seven years older than I was, and I was born in
1960.) Even with the build up during the Reagan Years
and the 600 ship Navy, the emphasis was on the "blue
water" Navy and an anticipated Tom Clanceyesque
confrontation with the Soviets. For a good portion of
this time, Specwar did not even have a single admiral.
Unlike today, an 0-6 (Captain) was in charge of both
Coasts. (In 1984 due to miscommunication during a
submarine operation between an ASDV and an attack
submarine, a multi star Submarine
Admiral from SUBPAC wanted to cancel all of Naval
Special Warfare, the Teams. the Boats and everything
that went with them; thankfully, cooler heads
prevailed.) Despite this Eurocentric stance, there was
still enough hot brush fire off Beirut, in the Caribbean
(Grenada), Central America and the Persian Gulf to keep
the missions real for all the operators in Spec War. In
fact more so, because they were pulling the triggers and
on the receiving end of hostile fire in these so called
sideshows.
The boat units were a strange bird for reporting Seals
and Surface personnel alike. Despite three major wars
experience of waterborne insertion/extraction to the
contrary, the emphasis on air and submarine operations
became the glamour ops for the generation of
Seals after Vietnam. High speed cast and recovery was
something you did at BUD/S (Basic Underwater
Demolition/Seal Training) and for demo (demonstration)
day on the 4th of July. A hot extract(ion) off the beach
or river bank was about as likely to happen in the
European Theater as actually paddling to shore in an IBS
(Inflatable Boat Small). If you did not have air
(helicopter or C-130) or an SDV (Swimmer Delivery
Vehicle), a CRRC (Combat Rubber Raiding Craft) or Z-bird
(Zodiac manufactured Combat Rubber Raiding Craft) was
going to get you to shore and back from a sub not some
Vietnam-era left over or Sea Fox. Administratively, a
SEAL officer now had to deal with a command almost
completely consisting of surface officers and sailors
who came from an entirely different culture, as well as
much more complex equipment than a parachute, M-16,
PRC-77, Drager re breather
or out board motor. Now faced with a variety of multi
engined turbocharged diesels, lorans, Fruno radars, IFF
black boxes, power operated gun mounts etc., it was a
huge step. Then there were many issues with fleet
sailors who were not as physically fit or cohesive as
their own closed loop enlisted men who were used to
independent
command and action.
Likewise for the surface sailor, SPECWAR was equally
mystifying. Though the early morning Hoo-yah
calisthenics and the runs were exactly what the Seals
were famous for, and this is during a time when smoking
cigarettes, black Navy Joe and hard steaming on shore
were the norm in the Fleet, Seals did not just tear off
guns ablazing. There was a huge emphasis on breaking
missions down: phase diagramming, rehearsing; briefing,
Patrol Leader's Order (PLO); final rehearsals and
preparations; then debriefing after action. And this
mission planning was not the exclusive bailiwick of the
officers and chiefs either, a Second or Third Class
Petty Officer could easily be in charge of a single or
multi boat mission, and it was up to him to plan and
make it happen. No one individual could do all the
planning and preparation alone, so the entire crew was
completely involved. With crews as small as two or
three, it was equally important for a Seaman Recruit or
a Lieutenant Commander to be able to pilot a shot up
boat back to base by himself with a load of killed and
wounded, call in fire support or Medivac, work the IFF
or get on a gun and return fire. Despite all of the
planning and rehearsal, you still had to improvise,
think on your feet as well as out side the box, and
learn from your comrades, because the manuals did not
spell out the detail and there was very little in the
literature (You really had to read a lot to get those
snippets of tactical or practical information from the
many books on small boat operations from the American
Civil War to Arab Israeli Wars). Specwar was and is very
much a pass down culture and a significant transition
from the regimentation of the fleet. There was no
wardroom or chief's mess even on the big ASDV. Not
everyone could adjust, and it was a big adjustment. You
could easily have a Third Class Petty Officer or Ensign
who could run rings around a salty Chief Boatswains mate
pushing the boats way past their official limits; or a
SWO (Surface Warfare Officer) qualified to drive a
nuclear carrier who
could never get the hang of a PB (65 ft Patrol Boat)
much less a Sea Fox (36 ft SWCL). However, after the
initial shock, many made a very successful transition
and a number who were not stars in the fleet excelled in
the boats.
Sadly in those days before closed looping, good men were
always rotated back to the fleet, even the truly
exceptional, so there was a constant loss of experience
on the active side. However on the reserve side, there
were a number of combat veterans as well as men
who had at least a tour on the active side in one of the
Boat Units.Also the longer you were in, the more often
you would be able to participate in some of the more
infrequent operations like a live fire hot extract or a
submarine operation. This was where the real
experience lay, and a lot of cross-pollination occurred
when active and reserve units would exercise together.
The reserves also taught many insertion and extraction
techniques to reserve and active counterparts in Marine
Recon and Army Special Forces as well as Naval Specwar.
Like any unit, there were folks who did not belong and
caused a disproportionate amount of trouble, but most
men not only wanted to be in the unit but wanted to
operate. The best reserve officers, chiefs and enlisted
men put in a lot of extra time ensuring the drill
weekends and ACTDUTRAs (two week summer training
periods) were action packed for the rest of the unit:
organizing training with other units, qualifying as
range safety officers for Pendleton and volunteering for
Special Active Duties not to mention all the dreaded
paperwork, administrative, pre and post operational.
Though generally older than their active duty
counterparts, the reserves tended to be much more mature
and more enthusiastic about operating. It was not
uncommon for some of the enlisted men to have highly
successful carriers on the outside (CIVPAC or CIVLANT)
even managing their own companies with scores of
employees. Also many reservists had unique civilian jobs
in diesel engine maintenance, law enforcement, ship
building that directly enhanced the units' abilities as
well as outside interests in sailing, kayaking, diving
and quite a few reservists lived on their own boats.
As an aside: while SBU-13 and SBU-11 were considered
shore duty, a time to reconnect with family and live at
a slower pace with no six month plus deployments, for
actives assigned to SBU-13 closer to commands in
Coronado and Pendleton this was not the typical reserve
assignment-spend the month fixing the boats for the next
drill weekend, so the reserves could play. The high
tempo of admin.ops-para drops, safety ops for ship
attacks, SDV ops, demo shots, range safety at San
Clemente, requal dives-training missions for BUD/S and
Marine Recon from the Strand to Camp Pendleton and San
Clemente Island necessitated the SBU-13 crews have their
boats back on line pronto, and due to the clandestine
nature of SPECWAR operate at night during the working
week. As soon as the balloon went up for Desert Shield,
the best actives in the Squadron (SBU-12, 13 and SBR-1)
went straight to the Persian Gulf.
With the emphasis on the blue water Navy, replacement
craft for SBU's were generally poor. Though the PBR's
were rebuilt in phases, new engines then new hulls or
vice versa, the Vietnam era craft wore out. The mighty
PTF's troublesome Napier Deltic's were toast by 1984 and
the big boats were gone by 1985; the PCF's (Patrol
Coastal Fast, Swift Boats)-not one of the most brilliant
designs to begin with-followed shortly afterwards. The
mini-armored troop Carrier (Mini- ATC) a development of
Medium Seal Support Craft was an actual improvement over
the STAB (Strike, Assault Boat) and LSSC (Light Seal
Support Craft); though a flat bottomed riverene craft,
this was the best fighting craft in the stable. SBU-11's
Monitor was a lovingly preserved relic, that served as a
command and control platform well beyond her years.
While technically a Patrol Boat, the 65 ft. "Sea
Specter" MK-III always referred to simply as a "PB", was
hardly an improvement over the PCF and never in same
class as the PTF with regard to speed, firepower or sea
keeping not to mention crew comfort.
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