Cook, Jack. Personal Interview. 4/20/06.

• Sent to Great Lakes training facility in June 1943 to become an instructor in Fort Pierce after being hit by a propeller while acting as an aircraft mechanic in the Naval Air Corp
• Gunnery instructor at Fort Pierce, Florida training facility
• Good with antiaircraft and 40 millimeter guns and throwing knives
• Taught men to swim underwater for extensive periods of time in order to blow up concrete blocks
• Trained battalions that went overseas and invaded different areas by sea

Hamilton, W.H. World War II Underwater Demolition Teams. 2003. 4/17/06. http://www.navyfrogmen.com/WWII%20UDT.html

• Heavy losses in Marine Corp during the invasion of Tarawa lead to the founding of Underwater Demolition Teams
• Primary personnel pulled from CB’s, Navy Construction Battalion men, and Navy/Marine Scout and Raider volunteers
• Sent to Fort Pierce, Florida to undergo intensive training camp
•  “An intensive physical training program was devised, apparently based on the theory that a man is capable of about 10 times as much physical output as is the normal conception. Demolition work was emphasized and non-restricted. Methods were developed for demolishing the type obstacles expected at Normandy. Grueling nighttime problems conducted in the snake and alligator infested swamps of Florida produced a specimen of man who was at home with mud, noise, exhaustion, water, and hostile beings, human or otherwise.” S-1/2
• Graduates organized into 6 man units (Navy Combat Demolition Units) and sent to England to join the large invading force into Normandy in the summer of 1944

Wikipedia Encyclopedia. Underwater Demolition Teams. March 2006. 4/17/06 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underwater_Demolition_Team

• Precursor to Navy SEALs- tasked with reconnoitering and clearing beach obstacles for those going ashore during amphibious landings
• UDTs distinguished in both Atlantic and Pacific theatres during World War II

Robinson, Steve. Naval Combat Demolition Unit. 4/19/06.  http://www.navyfrogmen.com/NCDU.html.

• Fort Pierce, Florida was the Naval Amphibious Training Base
• Admiral J. King, who was both Commander in Chief, U.S. Fleet, and Chief of Naval Operation. His directive was in two parts: “providing men for a present urgent requirement of the Amphibious Forces, Atlantic Fleet; and starting experimental work and training for permanent Naval Demolition Units for assignment to other amphibious forces.’” S-top
• June of 1943- first class arrived at Fort Pierce training camp
• Training began one year prior to the invasion of Normandy
• The Underwater Demolition Teams were formed in response to heavy Marine personnel losses in the invasion of the Pacific island of Tarawa.
• As precursors to the Navy S.E.A.L.s of today, the UDTs were tasked with exploring and clearing beach obstacles for those going ashore during amphibious landings.
•  Personnel for these teams were pulled from the Navy Construction Battalion men, CBs, and Scout and Raider Volunteers of both the Army and the Marines

Carnes, Mark C. and John A. Garraty. The American Nation: A History of the United States. 11th ed. United States: Pearson Longman, 2003.
Hamilton, W.H. WWII Underwater Demolition Teams. 1960. 4/22/06. http://www.goinfantry.com/forum/showthread.php?t=791.

• “The Underwater Demolition Teams were a newly formed unit. They were designed to chart beaches and pave the way for amphibious landings. Training for the swimmers was vigorous. The men were made to swim miles in jellyfish infested waters. Often men would have to be pulled out of the water, from being stung so many times, because they could no longer swim. All of this training was an attempt to form men who would go anywhere and would feel no pain. Men who would compete the mission, no matter what the cost.” S-top
• “They were responsible for performing the following tasks: hydrographic reconnaissance, beach clearance, and the demolition of underwater obstacles". All of these missions were very important because they were all necessary in order to prepare for an amphibious landing. They helped to pave the way for the landing of Marines on Normandy shore (D-Day).” S-top
• The Underwater Demolition Teams had four specific tasks to perform before Marines were allowed to land on a beach.
• hydrographic reconnaissance: UDTs scope out the conditions of the beach and take samples of the sand to determine what kind of machinery it would hold. Between two and fifty swimmers would be dropped off far offshore and swim within twenty-five to fifty yards of the beach. They would then begin looking for underwater obstacles by lining up and swimming in a zigzag pattern.
• The second and third tasks were beach and underwater beach clearing. After performing the hydrograph reconnaissance, the swimmers would return with explosives, place them around the obstacles, swim out to sea and detonate the explosives.
• fourth task: creating diversions. The UDTs would make the enemy think a certain beach was going to be attacked by beginning an obvious reconnaissance and placing false demolitions on the beach

 

 UDTs at Normandy (S-top)
 Forces at Tarawa (S-top)
Robinson, Steve. Amphibious Scouts and Raiders. 4/23/06. http://www.navyfrogmen.com/Scouts%20and%20Raiders.html

• “The training course included running, swimming, obstacle course, log PT, hand-to-hand combat, and classes in Signaling, Radio, Gunnery, etc. According to John "Barry" Dwyer in his comprehensive book SCOUTS AND RAIDERS, "When LT Draper Kauffman was sent to Ft. Pierce in July 1943 to form the first NCDUs, he adopted and condensed the S & R PT course in what his men called "Hell Week", which evolved into the physically and pyschologically demanding ordeal known as BUD/S, Basic Underwater Demolition / SEAL Training, which must be survived by anyone wishing to become a Navy SEAL." S-top
• Formed as joint Army-Navy reconnaissance units 8 months after Pearl Harbor
• Before December of 1943, instructors and trainees at Fort Pierce were both Navy and Army (after this, Fort Pierce was only Navy)

 Scouts and Raiders emblem (S-top)
 Trainees and instructor at Fort Pierce (S-1/2)

 

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