Michael Farnham - SBU-24 History
01/08/07 Michael Farnham On the whole 24 at the time
was setup to be more coastal, shallow water than riverine. I
say that but know going into the early to mid 80's they may
have well made some shifts back to riverine, due to our
working in Central America, which was in direct support of
SEAL efforts.
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24 did had some different boats, we in fact did have one of
the few MK I , kind of huge by PBR or Seafox standards. It
had a 20 mm on the back 50/60 and Mk 19 capabilities up
front and on the side. One really neat thing it had unlike
any other boat I was on was a twin 50 mount, gear driven up
in the crows nest. We also had a number of mini 4 -ATC's a
handful of Mk II's , they later went to La, for a boat unit
out of New Orleans. We had 2 or 3 Mk III's, that was the
boat I qualified as boat Capt on down in Puerto Rico.
Somewhere I think I have a picture of one tied up along side
at the DET at Rosey Roads. The MK III to me was an
ass kickin boat, it had all the fixins, 19, 50's on the
sides or 60's. It had 20mm mech belt fed, up front and back,
I seem to recall it had the twin 50 turret offset, it also
had an offset plate that mounted a Rocket Propelled Grenade
Launcher MK 81 . For its size it was very fast, but limited
to coastal, it drew a wee bit more water to take it to far
inshore.
We also had 2 seafox's.
The unit was made up of 6 SEALs not quite a squad, commanded
by SEAL's, a lot of our training was with SEAL's ie S.E.R.E.,
and field exercises up at Ft AP Hill in Virginia and at the
SEAL camp at Rosey Roads. There we learned patrol tactics,
downed pilot rescue, P.O.W rescue, ambush, light weapons.
Compass course, first aid, etc, etc.
We also provided training and support for the force that
ended up going to Grenada, in 83, though for some reason
there is little known or written about.
Talk to you soon. - Michael
Michael Farnham
Land Development Manager
email: mkfarnham@drhorton.com |
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Before transferring over to
IUWG, which was in the spring of 83, my last training was
the Sea Fox's doing high speed beach runs practicing
strafing using the Mk III back behind us. We had SEALs
swimming in setting charges on the beach. That was from a
mile out.
As best as I can remember 24 and 20 were the boat units that
deployed for Grenada, by the time Lebanon came along I was
over in IUWG. I also thought SBU had some work in Panama in
89 but I don't have anything to confirm that. I know 4 SEALs
went in at the beach at Grenada, from Little Creek but I
don't know which team, my guess it would have been 2 or 4.
Our underway gun shoots took place both off the coast of
Virginia, there are as you might know a number of ranges,
and over in Puerto Rico, which for us was wide open and we
had pick of the litter with what tiny coral islands we shoot
up. Standing orders were to come back
tie with no ammo, we'd shoot 60, 19's , 20' and 50' all day
long.
More soon - mf |
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