First SEALs (2 page)

The Shoreham has had more guests and hosted more functions than history has recorded, but on the evening of November 18, 1942, a small group of men gathered at the hotel to engage in an activity that would directly and substantially influence the evolution of America's military. They came not to stay in one of the suites or to eat in the dining room or even to relax with a drink in one of its lobbies. Instead, they gathered around the hotel's expansive indoor pool, which at the time was one of the largest in Washington, D.C.

On that cold November night, Jack Taylor was gearing up for the evening's demonstration while guards posted at the pool doors turned away any guests who came down to enjoy a swim. A renowned Hollywood dentist, Taylor put his livelihood on hold
during World War II to serve his country. He was an avid swimmer and lifelong adventurer who had a penchant for racing yachts, sailing solo halfway around the world, and flying airplanes. An ultimate survivor, he once escaped from an Alaska gold mine after being trapped for two days following an earthquake. After Pearl Harbor, Taylor volunteered for the U.S. Navy, which initially relegated him to a dull dental position on a ship. Later, the highly secretive Office of Strategic Services (OSS) sought to recruit him, and Jack enthusiastically volunteered to join its ranks.

This swim was unlike any other in Taylor's lifetime. He dipped his toes into the 60-plus degree water and put on a face mask, carefully checking the hoses and buckles of the newly invented Lambertsen Amphibious Respiratory Unit (LARU), a breakthrough underwater breathing device that was a precursor to
SCUBA (self-contained underwater breathing apparatus). Initially constructed in the inventor's garage from an old World War I gas mask and a bicycle pump, the LARU was the first closed-circuit rebreathing device that would be used in American military underwater operations. That night at the
Shoreham pool, America would finally have a device that would enable it to compete with the Axis powers' much more advanced and sophisticated underwater military operations. The LARU provided the technology America needed to pioneer the formation of an elite and highly effective American commando unit that would ultimately do it all: sea, air, and land operations.

Taylor secured the oxygen tank and scrubber, then plunged into the pool. The water enveloped his body as he remained submerged, breathing with the assistance of the LARU, swimming one lap after another. Normally exhalation underwater would cause a stream of air bubbles—a telltale trace that could reveal the presence of any diver. Any sign of bubbles remained absent as Taylor's audience watched him swim without coming up for air.

The small retinue of men present for the testing included the device's inventor, twenty-five-year-old Christian Lambertsen, a medical student. In the coming months, Lambertsen would covertly engage in testing and development of the LARU, traveling back and forth to Washington, D.C., from Philadelphia, where he attended the University of Pennsylvania's Medical School. Sworn to secrecy, he couldn't tell anyone—not even the school dean—the true reason for his trips.

Standing next to Lambertsen was British officer Commander H. G. A. Woolley of the Royal Navy, on loan to the OSS. Recently Woolley had been serving on the personal staff of the British Chief of Combined Operations and the British Joint Staff Mission in Washington, D.C. General William J. Donovan personally chose him to “
assist in the study of British methods of training operatives and raiding forces.” Prior to the war, Woolley lived in Hollywood, where he was a successful scriptwriter for several major studios. It is likely Taylor and Wooley ran in the same circles and were friends before the war. The bearded World War I veteran possessed the dynamic transformative leadership capabilities that could take an idea and develop it into a new form of warfare. With very few resources, he quickly built a new organization that would reshape intelligence gathering and warfare for generations to come.

On that cold November night, Taylor, Woolley, and Lambertsen made history. Their successful experiment in the Shoreham's pool spawned the beginnings of one of America's most elite military units—the U.S. Navy SEALs.
*

*
U.S. Army Special Forces, the Green Berets, also trace their combat swimmer program to the OSS Maritime Unit.

1

“CAVITIES IN THE LION'S MOUTH”: THE BIRTH OF UNDERWATER COMBAT SWIMMING

DECEMBER 19, 1941, THE WATERS OUTSIDE ALEXANDRIA HARBOR

Resting silently in the dark, cold waters of the Mediterranean at a depth of forty-five feet below the surface, the
Scirè
released three lethal
maiali
(pigs) that would change the balance of power in the region. Frogman Luigi Durand de la Penne and his five other confederates riding the
maiali
were part of a special undersea Italian commando group known as
Decima Flottiglia Mezzi d'Assalto
, or, simply,
Decima MAS
. Created more than a year earlier, the unit consisted of Gamma men (frogmen specially trained in affixing underwater explosives), a parachute battalion, and the San Marco Battalion, a group of highly trained operatives and boat handlers.

Early in the war, the Italian Navy had modified the 709-ton
Auda
-class Italian submarine to deliver the twenty-four-foot, 1.6-ton torpedoes as well as the specialized SEAL-like teams trained to maneuver the warheads and affix them to their intended targets. An electric motor powered the submersibles, which were guided by two frogmen who rode atop them. This daring mission called for the men and their pigs to travel over a mile underwater and
stealthily enter the lion's den:
Alexandria Harbor, one of the most heavily defended Allied harbors in the world and where many of the prized ships of the Royal Navy were berthed. To reach their objectives, the divers would have to carefully and covertly navigate the maze of torpedo nets and other defenses that ringed the harbor.

The Gamma men wolfed down a quick meal and took stimulants before being discharged from the submarine. On their way to the deck from which they would be launched, the commanding officer of the submarine, Prince Junio Valerio Scipione Borghese, also the leader of
Decima MAS
and known as the “Black Prince,” gave each of them a ceremonial kick in the ass for good luck. The Black Prince was largely responsible for pioneering and directing Italy's underwater combat operations.

Surreptitiously, the commandos rode through the water, quickly advancing on their intended targets. Patiently, de la Penne and the others riding the pigs waited for the Allies to open up their defenses to let three British destroyers exit the harbor. The massive hulls of the Royal Navy ships loomed in front of them when a small British motorboat appeared suddenly from the night's gloom and randomly dropped a series of depth charges in the harbor. The crude tactic was meant to repel Axis underwater operatives, who the British had encountered several months earlier.

Booming underwater concussions began wreaking havoc on the men's bodies, “
painfully constricting [their] legs.” Undaunted, de la Penne and his partner were closing in on the HMS
Valiant
when everything began to go wrong. As he was maneuvering around the many underwater obstacles that littered the harbor, de la Penne ripped his wetsuit and icy seawater hit his skin. Despite months of training to condition his body to withstand the elements, hypothermia began to take its toll. Increasing the likelihood of detection, his partner's underwater breathing device failed, and he had to surface. De la Penne was now swimming solo atop the gigantic torpedo when suddenly the propeller stopped after snagging a
cable. Unable to disentangle it, he was forced to transport the huge underwater explosive manually. As de la Penne recalled, “
[I had] to drag the torpedo along in the mud by [my] strength until directly beneath the ship. The mud was extremely gooey and cut out all visibility, but I guided my pig by the noise of one of the pumps on board the enemy ship. . . . Seawater seeped into my mask, and I had to drink it to avoid drowning.”

Despite all the adversity, he somehow managed to attach a 230-kilogram explosive charge of TNT under the centerline of the hull of the
Valiant
and set the time-activated detonator. The pigs were the pinnacle of high technology for the time, one of Italy's most classified secrets. Naturally, they didn't want the crafts to fall into enemy hands. They were equipped with self-destruct mechanisms, but de la Penne knew he didn't need it on this occasion because the explosion would destroy the submersible. Though his teammates failed to locate their primary target, a British aircraft carrier, they were able to attach their mines to the battleship HMS
Queen Elizabeth
and to a large Norwegian tanker known as the
Sagona
. The Gamma men also carried with them incendiary devices to ignite oil from the destroyed tanker with the goal of wreaking further havoc in the harbor following the explosions.

Out of air and exhausted, de la Penne surfaced. When a crewman aboard the
Valiant
spotted him, the ship sent a hail of machine-gun fire his way, forcing him and his partner to surrender. Ironically, both men were taken aboard the
Valiant
and placed in a compartment near the location of the explosive charge they had just planted. Fifteen minutes before the explosives were scheduled to detonate, de la Penne made an urgent request to speak to the ship's commanding officer (CO), Captain Charles Morgan. After approving the request, the CO listened intently as the Gamma man informed him of the imminent explosion on his ship. However, the cagey Italian frogmen refused to reveal the location of the mine. Morgan, in no mood for games, ordered the Italians to be
placed in the hold. Before they reached their destination, a tremendous blast ripped apart the
Valiant
's hull.

Simultaneous explosions echoed across the harbor as the limpets affixed to the other ships detonated. The
Sagona
lost her entire stern. A destroyer, the HMS
Jarvis
, berthed alongside the Norwegian tanker, was also badly damaged, as were many other craft in the area. The two battleships,
Valiant
and
Queen Elizabeth
, sank in a few feet of water, effectively putting them out of action for nearly a year. One historian has noted, “
Overnight, [the eastern Mediterranean] had become an Axis lake, and the Italian Navy held the dominating power.” Although the Italians succeeded in their mission, they failed to escape capture. Ultimately, the British arrested all of the Gamma men involved in the attack, though two nearly escaped by disguising themselves as French sailors. En route to rendezvous with the
Scirè
, the “French sailors” attempted to exchange British currency outside Alexandria and blew their cover, leading to their rapid arrest.

The
Scirè
's crew observed the devastation the explosions caused as they waited at the rendezvous point. Time passed. Eventually it became clear to everyone on the ship that the Gamma men would not be returning. Borghese ordered his vessel to depart the area. He had reasons to be pleased, as he had seen his prophecy become a reality. In a coded message to headquarters prior to the attack he predicted, “Foresee cavities developing in Lion's mouth.”

This innovative, highly trained group of Italian Gamma men had changed the course of underwater combat forever.

F
OLLOWING THE
I
TALIANS
'
successful underwater attack on the British Navy, an intense race ensued among the powers of the world to replicate
Decima MAS.
At the time the United States was the furthest behind. The federal agency in charge of developing special operations units and gathering foreign intelligence was the newly formed office of the Coordinator of Information (COI), later known as the Office of Strategic Services (OSS).