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[ automatic gunfire ]
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00:00:13,514 --> 00:00:15,383
It was about a 24-hour battle,
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00:00:15,416 --> 00:00:17,618
stretching from one day
into the next.
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00:00:17,651 --> 00:00:20,154
[ indistinct shouting ]
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00:00:20,188 --> 00:00:24,458
We'd been training for years,
and this is our four minutes.
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00:00:27,228 --> 00:00:28,929
Every one of them,
they gave their life
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00:00:28,962 --> 00:00:30,464
in that rescue attempt.
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00:00:30,498 --> 00:00:32,966
And they did it because
one of their own was down.
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00:00:33,000 --> 00:00:36,204
Widely viewed as the world's
combat elite,
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00:00:36,237 --> 00:00:38,739
the clandestine U.S. Navy SEALs
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00:00:38,772 --> 00:00:41,642
have found themselves
in the media spotlight
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00:00:41,675 --> 00:00:45,546
as recent operations have
brought these quiet warriors
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00:00:45,579 --> 00:00:47,981
unaccustomed fame.
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00:00:48,015 --> 00:00:49,550
NEWS ANNOUNCER:
U.S. Navy SEALs rescued
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American cargo ship captain
Richard Phillips.
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00:00:52,153 --> 00:00:54,054
They're the superheroes,
they're the titans,
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00:00:54,088 --> 00:00:56,857
they're impossible men
doing an impossible job.
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00:00:56,890 --> 00:00:59,160
Much of their history
is as secretive
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00:00:59,193 --> 00:01:02,363
as their missions.
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00:01:02,396 --> 00:01:06,300
But over the decades,
the roles of SEALs
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and their frogmen forefathers
have transformed
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00:01:09,503 --> 00:01:12,005
along with evolving threats...
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[ explosion ]
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00:01:14,808 --> 00:01:17,044
[ overlapping indistinct
dialogue ]
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00:01:17,077 --> 00:01:19,513
and a 24-hour news cycle.
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From Hitler to bin Laden,
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from countering massive
armies...
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[ indistinct shouting ]
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to countering terror,
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from frogmen to
high-tech commandos,
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how have the covert SEALs
become
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the renowned warriors of today?
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Who are the men behind
the face masks,
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behind the green paint,
behind the history?
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Move, move! Go! Go!
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[ ** ]
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[ shouting ]
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[ ** ]
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There are just 2,000 men today
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00:02:23,811 --> 00:02:27,014
who are active-duty
U.S. Navy SEALs.
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They are all volunteers
who endure
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what is perhaps the hardest
military training in the world.
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MAN: I think my hell week
was just like
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00:02:39,660 --> 00:02:43,431
everybody else's hell week
in the 92 classes before me.
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00:02:43,464 --> 00:02:45,533
And that's why we do hell week.
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00:02:45,566 --> 00:02:48,969
First and foremost, so that you
have confidence in yourself.
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00:02:49,002 --> 00:02:51,639
You stay up for 120 hours
during the week,
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00:02:51,672 --> 00:02:54,942
and you get about three or four
hours of sleep.
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00:02:54,975 --> 00:02:56,944
And the reason why you get
three or four hours
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00:02:56,977 --> 00:02:58,479
is because we've done studies,
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00:02:58,512 --> 00:03:01,349
and if you don't get that
minimum amount of sleep,
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00:03:01,382 --> 00:03:04,418
you'll die after staying up
for 120 hours.
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00:03:04,452 --> 00:03:08,356
Until you go through it,
you don't understand
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00:03:08,389 --> 00:03:12,092
what it can do --
it grabs your inner soul.
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00:03:12,125 --> 00:03:13,894
If you don't think you're
the best SEAL,
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you don't need to be
in the SEAL Team.
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00:03:15,963 --> 00:03:19,900
It's a real job, and it hurts,
and it breaks people:
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00:03:19,933 --> 00:03:22,002
mentally, physically,
it does all of that.
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00:03:22,035 --> 00:03:24,004
MAN: In the movies,
they make it look like
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everything goes as planned,
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but no mission ever goes exactly
the way you plan it,
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so you have to be able to adapt.
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That's the million-dollar
question:
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why do you want to be a frogman?
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Because they're going to pay me
and let me skydive
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and blow [bleep] up?
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Well, if you could be part
of a team,
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wouldn't you want to be a part
of the very best
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00:03:44,725 --> 00:03:46,460
in the entire world?
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00:03:50,030 --> 00:03:54,368
While fewer than 10,000 men
have ever been Navy SEALs...
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[ men shouting and gunfire ]
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they greatly define
the modern battlespace.
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Small groups of highly trained,
well-equipped commandos
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00:04:14,021 --> 00:04:17,691
facing off against
terrorist enemies:
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00:04:17,725 --> 00:04:24,465
the Taliban, Iraqi insurgents,
al-Qaeda, and Osama bin Laden.
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00:04:24,498 --> 00:04:26,266
OSMAN: The reputation
the community has
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isn't because of anything
I've ever done.
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It's because of what everybody
came before me,
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00:04:30,904 --> 00:04:32,606
everybody who's gone
after me,
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00:04:32,640 --> 00:04:35,776
and that collective talent
is now pooled
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00:04:35,809 --> 00:04:38,446
onto an emblem that's
on your chest.
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The SEALs' forerunners have
always been state-of-the-art...
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for their day.
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00:04:47,821 --> 00:04:51,158
The generic term for all
naval Special Warfare swimmers
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is "frogmen," allegedly because
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of how their British colleagues
looked
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in their newly fashioned
green wetsuits.
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Others recall it's how
the divers appeared
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00:05:02,235 --> 00:05:06,073
once they were issued some
exciting new high-tech gear:
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00:05:06,106 --> 00:05:08,241
swim fins.
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00:05:08,275 --> 00:05:10,544
KAISER: What do I think about
my frogman forefathers?
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It's just unbelievable what
they did with what they had.
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[ ** ]
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When I think about guys
fighting the Japanese
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00:05:19,887 --> 00:05:22,923
with a KA-BAR and a bag
of explosives,
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00:05:22,956 --> 00:05:26,360
it's unbelievable when I think
about the things they did.
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SPARKS: The older generation
of frogmen
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did so much with so little.
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They had to rely on their
ingenuity and kind of
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00:05:34,001 --> 00:05:36,770
their working-class-hero
kind of person.
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That's who they were:
tough guys.
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MAN: The guys who were
the forefathers,
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they're going out to go ahead
and clear a beach.
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And the guys who went out before
them didn't come back.
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And so now these guys are
putting their hand up
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and saying, "I'll still go."
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That's the kind of people
that are still coming in
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00:05:52,520 --> 00:05:54,221
to the SEAL community.
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[ explosion ]
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SEAL is an acronym
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meaning sea, air, and land.
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It's how and where
they operate.
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00:06:05,466 --> 00:06:08,235
So how did Naval Special
Operations teams
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also become land-based
commandos?
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MAN:
It's a Cinderella story.
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It doesn't make sense that
a Navy unit would be doing
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the types of things
that we're doing.
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It doesn't make sense that
a Navy unit would be
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00:06:21,682 --> 00:06:23,717
in Afghanistan or in the middle
of Iraq,
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completely separated from
a body of water.
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It just doesn't make sense.
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00:06:27,521 --> 00:06:28,989
The fact that we are there,
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00:06:29,022 --> 00:06:30,791
the fact that we're doing
those types of missions,
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00:06:30,824 --> 00:06:33,494
it's all related to how
we evolved.
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00:06:33,527 --> 00:06:36,697
The SEALs were born
in World War II,
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of two oceans, for two kinds
of demolition work.
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In the Pacific,
their predecessors swam in
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00:06:44,838 --> 00:06:48,208
in advance of U.S. Marines
and Army troops,
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00:06:48,241 --> 00:06:50,478
removing underwater obstacles
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00:06:50,511 --> 00:06:53,514
to make amphibious landings
possible.
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And in the Atlantic, teams were
needed on the beaches of France
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to blow open the gateway
to Europe for D-Day.
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Everybody knows
that the invasion
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00:07:05,192 --> 00:07:06,927
is going to happen
in France.
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00:07:06,960 --> 00:07:09,963
They know that they're going
to have to put
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00:07:09,997 --> 00:07:14,001
millions of men onto the coast
to unseat Hitler,
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00:07:14,034 --> 00:07:18,138
to defeat the German armies
in France.
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00:07:18,171 --> 00:07:20,674
The Allies would have to land
somewhere
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00:07:20,708 --> 00:07:22,943
along the coast of France.
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00:07:22,976 --> 00:07:26,580
They knew that Hitler had built
a massive Atlantic wall
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to prevent the invasion
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00:07:28,916 --> 00:07:31,652
and that they would have to
find a way to breach it.
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But on the eve of its entry
into World War II,
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00:07:35,055 --> 00:07:38,626
the U.S. military had no one
with expertise
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00:07:38,659 --> 00:07:43,363
in this kind of complex
demolition work.
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00:07:43,396 --> 00:07:47,367
The U.S. Navy would recruit
a 31-year-old expatriate,
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Draper Kauffman.
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00:07:49,570 --> 00:07:51,805
He would help create
one of the forefather teams
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00:07:51,839 --> 00:07:54,207
of today's Navy SEALs.
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00:07:54,241 --> 00:07:56,476
When the nearsighted Kauffman
graduated
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00:07:56,510 --> 00:07:58,411
from the Naval Academy,
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00:07:58,445 --> 00:08:01,782
he failed to get a commission
in the U.S. Navy.
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00:08:01,815 --> 00:08:04,885
But by the late 1930s,
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00:08:04,918 --> 00:08:07,955
France and England were
at war with Germany,
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00:08:07,988 --> 00:08:11,258
years before America entered
the fray.
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00:08:11,291 --> 00:08:16,597
So he went overseas to serve,
becoming an ambulance driver.
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00:08:16,630 --> 00:08:19,900
After a brief stint
as a German prisoner of war,
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00:08:19,933 --> 00:08:23,971
he went to London to join
the fight there.
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00:08:24,004 --> 00:08:26,774
The Blitz is going on
this entire time.
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00:08:26,807 --> 00:08:28,776
Hundreds of people are
getting killed in London,
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you know, every other day.
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Bombs are falling.
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Some bombs are not exploding.
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00:08:34,514 --> 00:08:36,984
They asked for volunteers
for bomb disposal,
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and true to form,
Draper volunteers.
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Yeah, he's a character.
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For whatever reason,
he wants to be
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00:08:42,690 --> 00:08:45,759
as close to the center of action
as he possibly can.
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00:08:45,793 --> 00:08:48,896
Kauffman's experience
with ordnance
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00:08:48,929 --> 00:08:51,031
got him a transfer
from the British navy
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00:08:51,064 --> 00:08:53,166
to the American one.
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00:08:53,200 --> 00:08:56,503
His orders to start the
U.S. Navy's bomb disposal unit
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came just in the nick of time.
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00:08:59,172 --> 00:09:01,775
[ blades whirring ]
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00:09:08,849 --> 00:09:10,884
[ bombs whistling ]
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Days after Draper Kauffman
returns to the U.S. Navy,
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00:09:19,192 --> 00:09:21,595
the Japanese attack
Pearl Harbor.
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00:09:21,629 --> 00:09:25,065
[ siren blares ]
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00:09:27,835 --> 00:09:30,804
Shortly after the Japanese
attack on Hawaii,
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00:09:30,838 --> 00:09:33,173
Kauffman was ordered
to dismantle
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00:09:33,206 --> 00:09:37,811
an unexploded 500-pound bomb
in Pearl Harbor.
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For his valor, he was awarded
the Navy Cross.
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00:09:41,915 --> 00:09:43,851
He returned
to Washington, D.C.,
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00:09:43,884 --> 00:09:46,486
to run the Navy's
bomb disposal school.
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00:09:46,519 --> 00:09:50,357
Then, in 1943,
while on his honeymoon,
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00:09:50,390 --> 00:09:53,360
Lt. Commander Kauffman
received orders
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00:09:53,393 --> 00:09:55,996
to report back to D.C.
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00:09:56,029 --> 00:10:01,234
After four days of honeymoon,
we were at the Hotel New Yorker.
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00:10:01,268 --> 00:10:06,573
And I got a telegram telling me
to report immediately,
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00:10:06,606 --> 00:10:09,910
and I did what I guess
anybody else would've done.
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00:10:09,943 --> 00:10:12,646
I gave the young bellboy
five bucks and said,
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00:10:12,680 --> 00:10:17,217
"Son, you can't find me.
Come back tomorrow."
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00:10:17,250 --> 00:10:19,286
When he arrived in Washington,
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00:10:19,319 --> 00:10:22,422
Draper Kauffman was given
his new assignment:
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00:10:22,455 --> 00:10:24,958
clear Hitler's beaches.
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00:10:24,992 --> 00:10:27,294
"Have you ever seen
intelligence pictures
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00:10:27,327 --> 00:10:29,229
of the obstacles the Germans
are building
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00:10:29,262 --> 00:10:31,665
on their beaches in France?"
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00:10:31,699 --> 00:10:33,233
And I said, "No, sir."
200
00:10:33,266 --> 00:10:34,868
He said, "Well, they're putting
obstacles
201
00:10:34,902 --> 00:10:38,405
out in 6 feet of water
to stop the landing craft there,
202
00:10:38,438 --> 00:10:42,676
and the soldiers would have
to get out in 6 feet of water.
203
00:10:42,710 --> 00:10:45,913
Do you know how much
an infantryman's pack weighs?"
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00:10:45,946 --> 00:10:47,815
And I said, "No, sir."
205
00:10:47,848 --> 00:10:51,852
He said, "Well, neither do I,
but they'll all drown."
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00:10:51,885 --> 00:10:56,156
He said, "Now, I want you
to put a stop to that."
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00:10:56,189 --> 00:10:58,391
Kauffman's new mission
took him
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00:10:58,425 --> 00:11:01,895
from running a school
on disposing unexploded bombs
209
00:11:01,929 --> 00:11:04,031
to exploding ones.
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00:11:04,064 --> 00:11:07,935
He was ordered to create the
Naval Combat Demolition Units,
211
00:11:07,968 --> 00:11:10,738
or NCDUs.
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00:11:10,771 --> 00:11:12,272
MAN:
By his own accounting,
213
00:11:12,305 --> 00:11:14,307
he didn't have a clue
what he was doing.
214
00:11:14,341 --> 00:11:16,944
But he took some of his officers
with him,
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00:11:16,977 --> 00:11:19,179
and those officers are actually
the ones
216
00:11:19,212 --> 00:11:20,948
that set everything up
and made it work.
217
00:11:20,981 --> 00:11:23,683
For their training camp,
the men went
218
00:11:23,717 --> 00:11:27,220
to a swampy outpost
in Fort Pierce, Florida.
219
00:11:27,254 --> 00:11:29,923
There was no air conditioning
out there,
220
00:11:29,957 --> 00:11:32,726
there was no OFF! mosquito
repellent.
221
00:11:32,760 --> 00:11:34,928
They said they would rather
face the Germans
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00:11:34,962 --> 00:11:38,431
than the mosquitoes
and the no-see-ums out there.
223
00:11:38,465 --> 00:11:41,534
The training that still happens
at BUDS,
224
00:11:41,568 --> 00:11:44,037
which is Basic Underwater
Demolition SEAL training,
225
00:11:44,071 --> 00:11:46,039
started right here
in Fort Pierce.
226
00:11:46,073 --> 00:11:48,408
So every time you see guys
lifting up a log,
227
00:11:48,441 --> 00:11:50,643
that started right here
at Fort Pierce.
228
00:11:50,677 --> 00:11:52,980
Boat teams going out
through the waves,
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00:11:53,013 --> 00:11:55,082
that started right here
in Fort Pierce.
230
00:11:55,115 --> 00:11:57,717
The term "hell week" started
right here in Fort Pierce
231
00:11:57,751 --> 00:12:00,687
because Draper Kauffman
wanted to condense the training
232
00:12:00,720 --> 00:12:03,090
because he was getting ready
for war.
233
00:12:03,123 --> 00:12:05,525
So he said, "Let's get this
all done in a week,"
234
00:12:05,558 --> 00:12:08,061
and they called it
introduction week.
235
00:12:08,095 --> 00:12:10,764
The guys called it hell week.
236
00:12:10,798 --> 00:12:13,100
MILLIGAN: Kauffman's trying
to create
237
00:12:13,133 --> 00:12:17,637
as close a representation
of actual war as possible.
238
00:12:17,670 --> 00:12:20,740
[ ** ]
239
00:12:24,511 --> 00:12:26,847
When the Second World War
starts,
240
00:12:26,880 --> 00:12:30,117
Draper Kauffman is probably
the one American
241
00:12:30,150 --> 00:12:32,052
that has seen the most of it.
242
00:12:32,085 --> 00:12:34,054
He's seen how horrible
war is.
243
00:12:34,087 --> 00:12:36,356
He's seen the emotional
and physical toll
244
00:12:36,389 --> 00:12:37,724
that it takes on you.
245
00:12:37,757 --> 00:12:40,360
So when he creates this
NCDU training,
246
00:12:40,393 --> 00:12:43,630
he's trying to get as close
to that experience as possible.
247
00:12:43,663 --> 00:12:45,999
He's trying to show
they can go without sleep
248
00:12:46,033 --> 00:12:47,600
for a long period of time.
249
00:12:47,634 --> 00:12:51,004
They can be cold and miserable
and hungry and everything else.
250
00:12:51,038 --> 00:12:55,642
Kauffman used instructors
from his bomb disposal unit
251
00:12:55,675 --> 00:12:58,979
to help transform
Navy construction battalions,
252
00:12:59,012 --> 00:13:04,084
or Seabees, into Naval Combat
Demolition Units.
253
00:13:05,819 --> 00:13:08,388
Men from the Scouts
and Raiders,
254
00:13:08,421 --> 00:13:11,825
a joint Army/Navy maritime
reconnaissance unit,
255
00:13:11,859 --> 00:13:14,227
were in charge of
the physical training
256
00:13:14,261 --> 00:13:16,529
that created hell week.
257
00:13:16,563 --> 00:13:20,200
According to one of
the original NCDU officers,
258
00:13:20,233 --> 00:13:24,037
hell week separated the men
from the boys:
259
00:13:24,071 --> 00:13:28,842
"The men took off
and left us with the boys.
260
00:13:28,876 --> 00:13:31,078
But the boys who stayed
turned out to have
261
00:13:31,111 --> 00:13:35,648
the intrepid spirit
for this kind of work."
262
00:13:35,682 --> 00:13:39,519
Our first class started,
I think it was about 200,
263
00:13:39,552 --> 00:13:42,655
and we graduated about 70.
264
00:13:42,689 --> 00:13:48,261
NCDU training began
on June 6, 1943.
265
00:13:48,295 --> 00:13:51,965
The trainees didn't know it
at the time,
266
00:13:51,999 --> 00:13:55,235
but exactly one year later,
these men would be
267
00:13:55,268 --> 00:13:59,339
on the beaches of Normandy
on D-Day.
268
00:13:59,372 --> 00:14:03,610
HAWKINS: Naval Combat Demolition
men were put together
269
00:14:03,643 --> 00:14:07,614
to get rid of the obstacles
on beach approaches in Europe,
270
00:14:07,647 --> 00:14:09,917
specifically Normandy.
271
00:14:09,950 --> 00:14:13,020
There's a very high tidal shift
at Normandy.
272
00:14:13,053 --> 00:14:16,023
So sometimes the obstacles
are underwater,
273
00:14:16,056 --> 00:14:18,691
sometimes they're not
underwater.
274
00:14:18,725 --> 00:14:20,994
And if you're going to eliminate
the obstacles,
275
00:14:21,028 --> 00:14:23,730
you really have to get in there
and get them at low tide.
276
00:14:23,763 --> 00:14:27,567
[ explosions ]
277
00:14:34,074 --> 00:14:37,610
Much has been told
of the D-Day invasion
278
00:14:37,644 --> 00:14:42,916
and the sacrifices made
on these bloodstained beaches.
279
00:14:42,950 --> 00:14:46,286
But the story of the
Naval Combat Demolition men,
280
00:14:46,319 --> 00:14:48,855
forefathers of today's SEALs
281
00:14:48,888 --> 00:14:51,424
who helped make the invasion
possible,
282
00:14:51,458 --> 00:14:55,695
has lived mostly in the shadows
of history.
283
00:14:58,065 --> 00:15:00,133
Eighteen-year-old Ken Reynolds
284
00:15:00,167 --> 00:15:04,771
was one of the men
who volunteered for the NCDUs.
285
00:15:04,804 --> 00:15:07,007
I thought, and other people
thought, it meant
286
00:15:07,040 --> 00:15:09,309
non-combat demolition.
287
00:15:09,342 --> 00:15:13,113
And my mother was elated,
because it was non-combat.
288
00:15:13,146 --> 00:15:16,483
But I soon found out that
that's not what it meant.
289
00:15:16,516 --> 00:15:20,487
The seaman second class
went to England
290
00:15:20,520 --> 00:15:23,890
to join about 100 Naval Combat
Demolition volunteers
291
00:15:23,923 --> 00:15:26,459
who were already training.
292
00:15:26,493 --> 00:15:29,262
Allied engineers in England
293
00:15:29,296 --> 00:15:32,532
had reproduced the German beach
obstacles
294
00:15:32,565 --> 00:15:37,104
so the NCDU men could
practice exploding them.
295
00:15:37,137 --> 00:15:38,972
[ explosion ]
296
00:15:41,641 --> 00:15:45,478
One of the obstacles that
the NCDUs would have to defeat
297
00:15:45,512 --> 00:15:49,649
was called a Belgian Gate.
298
00:15:49,682 --> 00:15:52,185
An officer named Carl Hagensen
299
00:15:52,219 --> 00:15:55,622
pre-packaged 2-pound charges
of C2 explosives
300
00:15:55,655 --> 00:15:59,059
that could be quickly wrapped
around the beach obstacles.
301
00:15:59,092 --> 00:16:02,395
Engineers determined that
these Hagensen Packs
302
00:16:02,429 --> 00:16:06,133
had to be placed
in 16 strategic spots
303
00:16:06,166 --> 00:16:08,435
in order to flatten
the metal tank trap
304
00:16:08,468 --> 00:16:13,173
in a way that would allow
Allied vehicles...
305
00:16:13,206 --> 00:16:15,775
to drive over the former
obstacles.
306
00:16:15,808 --> 00:16:19,046
The NCDU men, along with
Army engineers,
307
00:16:19,079 --> 00:16:21,314
were assigned to
Gap Assault Teams,
308
00:16:21,348 --> 00:16:25,252
each one responsible for
blowing 50-yard breaks
309
00:16:25,285 --> 00:16:27,820
in the beach defenses
at Normandy.
310
00:16:27,854 --> 00:16:30,090
If they failed,
it would jeopardize
311
00:16:30,123 --> 00:16:33,493
the largest invasion
in history.
312
00:16:36,596 --> 00:16:40,333
Early on the morning
of June 6, 1944,
313
00:16:40,367 --> 00:16:44,171
the NCDUs pulled their
explosive-laden rubber boats
314
00:16:44,204 --> 00:16:47,640
as close to the obstacles
as possible.
315
00:16:47,674 --> 00:16:49,642
REYNOLDS: You knew what was
in back of you.
316
00:16:49,676 --> 00:16:51,944
There was thousands
and thousands of ships
317
00:16:51,978 --> 00:16:54,013
coming across the channel,
318
00:16:54,047 --> 00:16:55,682
and if we didn't open up
the beach,
319
00:16:55,715 --> 00:16:57,517
there was nowhere to go.
320
00:16:57,550 --> 00:17:00,587
Some of the Army soldiers
advancing towards Normandy
321
00:17:00,620 --> 00:17:02,789
looked at the hell
in front of them --
322
00:17:02,822 --> 00:17:04,791
their fellow troops
being massacred
323
00:17:04,824 --> 00:17:08,095
by German defenses
on Omaha Beach --
324
00:17:08,128 --> 00:17:10,163
and they clung
to the obstacles
325
00:17:10,197 --> 00:17:12,232
that Ken and the other
demolitioneers
326
00:17:12,265 --> 00:17:14,467
had already wired.
327
00:17:14,501 --> 00:17:17,036
Ken tried, sometimes in vain,
328
00:17:17,070 --> 00:17:20,173
to get the soldiers to loosen
their suicide grips
329
00:17:20,207 --> 00:17:22,642
on the German defenses.
330
00:17:22,675 --> 00:17:25,812
We got about half of all
the obstacles charged,
331
00:17:25,845 --> 00:17:29,582
and the Army decided that
they were going to come in.
332
00:17:29,616 --> 00:17:32,285
You'd take a fuse lighter
and you'd pull it
333
00:17:32,319 --> 00:17:35,088
and so you've got two minutes
to get out of here.
334
00:17:35,122 --> 00:17:37,290
But some of them didn't move.
335
00:17:37,324 --> 00:17:40,627
They were so scared that they
didn't know what to do.
336
00:17:42,695 --> 00:17:46,633
Despite suffering a 52%
casualty rate,
337
00:17:46,666 --> 00:17:50,703
the NCDU men, alongside
the Army combat engineers,
338
00:17:50,737 --> 00:17:53,273
were able to blast
completely open
339
00:17:53,306 --> 00:17:56,343
five of the sixteen corridors
assigned to them
340
00:17:56,376 --> 00:17:58,978
and three more partial gaps.
341
00:17:59,011 --> 00:18:02,415
But that was enough to allow
the landings at Omaha Beach
342
00:18:02,449 --> 00:18:07,154
and the Allied forces to pursue
Hitler's army.
343
00:18:08,921 --> 00:18:11,090
We were an expendable unit.
344
00:18:11,124 --> 00:18:14,227
If you survived, "Oh, well and
good. Boy, you survived."
345
00:18:14,261 --> 00:18:17,197
If you died, "Well, that's,
that's -- we're sorry."
346
00:18:17,230 --> 00:18:19,399
Nobody knew who we were.
347
00:18:19,432 --> 00:18:22,869
The only identification
we carried was on our helmet,
348
00:18:22,902 --> 00:18:25,037
which says USN on the helmet.
349
00:18:25,071 --> 00:18:28,408
So consequently we were there
by ourselves.
350
00:18:28,441 --> 00:18:30,109
But we were there.
351
00:18:30,143 --> 00:18:32,812
Very much so, we were there.
352
00:18:32,845 --> 00:18:35,682
One of the reasons
that the NCDU remained
353
00:18:35,715 --> 00:18:39,018
invisible to history
is that they would only serve
354
00:18:39,051 --> 00:18:41,921
in two significant operations
in Europe:
355
00:18:41,954 --> 00:18:45,258
D-Day and the invasion
of Southern France.
356
00:18:45,292 --> 00:18:47,960
And once U.S. troops were
on the ground in Europe,
357
00:18:47,994 --> 00:18:50,497
demolition work shifted
completely
358
00:18:50,530 --> 00:18:53,800
to the war in the Pacific.
359
00:18:53,833 --> 00:18:57,537
Battles in the Pacific Ocean
posed very different challenges
360
00:18:57,570 --> 00:19:00,307
than the land war
now raging in Europe.
361
00:19:00,340 --> 00:19:02,275
The fight against Japan
362
00:19:02,309 --> 00:19:05,978
was all about U.S. amphibious
island landings.
363
00:19:06,012 --> 00:19:08,448
American military leaders
decided
364
00:19:08,481 --> 00:19:10,983
the best way to advance
towards Tokyo
365
00:19:11,017 --> 00:19:14,654
was to implement
an island-hopping campaign,
366
00:19:14,687 --> 00:19:18,090
skipping the enemy's largest
strongholds
367
00:19:18,124 --> 00:19:19,892
while capturing other islands
368
00:19:19,926 --> 00:19:24,464
that would allow them to
hopscotch across the Pacific.
369
00:19:24,497 --> 00:19:29,802
It began in the fall of 1943
at a place called Tarawa.
370
00:19:29,836 --> 00:19:32,939
This would be the first
major test
371
00:19:32,972 --> 00:19:35,508
of the combined Navy/Marine
Corps ability
372
00:19:35,542 --> 00:19:37,677
to capture an island fortress
373
00:19:37,710 --> 00:19:40,380
in the middle
of the Pacific Ocean.
374
00:19:40,413 --> 00:19:42,549
It would also be the place
375
00:19:42,582 --> 00:19:45,017
where the need for underwater
demolition men
376
00:19:45,051 --> 00:19:47,920
became tragically apparent.
377
00:19:47,954 --> 00:19:52,058
[ guns firing ]
378
00:19:54,093 --> 00:19:56,763
HAWKINS: Tarawa was the first
major amphibious assault
379
00:19:56,796 --> 00:19:59,366
in the Pacific,
and they were using
380
00:19:59,399 --> 00:20:01,067
photographic interpretation
381
00:20:01,100 --> 00:20:03,002
of what the coral reefs
looked like
382
00:20:03,035 --> 00:20:07,106
or what beaches they were going
to land on.
383
00:20:08,675 --> 00:20:11,978
What they discovered
was that the boats
384
00:20:12,011 --> 00:20:14,781
hit these coral reefs
far from the beach,
385
00:20:14,814 --> 00:20:18,251
and many of the Marines
had jumped out.
386
00:20:18,285 --> 00:20:22,255
Hundreds of Marines drowned.
387
00:20:22,289 --> 00:20:25,692
So they knew that
they had to have
388
00:20:25,725 --> 00:20:28,328
some sort of pre-assault
reconnaissance.
389
00:20:28,361 --> 00:20:31,698
That's when they established
the two provisional UDTs.
390
00:20:31,731 --> 00:20:35,702
UDT stands for Underwater
Demolition Team.
391
00:20:35,735 --> 00:20:40,039
[ ** ]
392
00:20:40,072 --> 00:20:42,108
[ gunshots ]
393
00:20:44,444 --> 00:20:48,214
After the Marines suffered
more than 3,000 casualties
394
00:20:48,247 --> 00:20:52,051
in the 76-hour battle
to take Tarawa,
395
00:20:52,084 --> 00:20:54,954
UDTs would subsequently
be used
396
00:20:54,987 --> 00:20:57,724
in advance of every major
amphibious landing
397
00:20:57,757 --> 00:21:00,026
in the Pacific.
398
00:21:00,059 --> 00:21:01,361
[ explosion ]
399
00:21:01,394 --> 00:21:04,864
Unlike their NCDU brothers
at D-Day,
400
00:21:04,897 --> 00:21:08,100
these men worked underwater.
401
00:21:08,134 --> 00:21:13,540
History has dubbed them
"The Naked Warriors."
402
00:21:13,573 --> 00:21:16,976
The Naked Warrior was the UDT
operator in the Pacific
403
00:21:17,009 --> 00:21:21,681
who went to the beach just in
swim trunks, a KA-BAR knife,
404
00:21:21,714 --> 00:21:25,051
a slate around his neck,
and a stubby pencil
405
00:21:25,084 --> 00:21:29,155
to take a string line
reconnaissance of the beach,
406
00:21:29,188 --> 00:21:33,092
taking depth soundings and then
recording it on their slates.
407
00:21:33,125 --> 00:21:36,195
They were the naked warrior.
408
00:21:36,228 --> 00:21:39,999
These barely-armed men
made a critical difference
409
00:21:40,032 --> 00:21:48,475
in the victories at places like
Saipan, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa.
410
00:21:48,508 --> 00:21:51,310
Other maritime commandos
operated
411
00:21:51,344 --> 00:21:54,414
for the Office of Strategic
Services,
412
00:21:54,447 --> 00:21:57,717
precursor of the CIA.
413
00:21:57,750 --> 00:22:01,153
Their missions included
infiltration behind enemy lines
414
00:22:01,187 --> 00:22:04,056
and sabotage.
415
00:22:04,090 --> 00:22:08,027
Of all the forefathers
of the SEAL Teams,
416
00:22:08,060 --> 00:22:10,763
the covert OSS Maritime Unit
417
00:22:10,797 --> 00:22:14,501
pushed the limits
of technology.
418
00:22:14,534 --> 00:22:18,505
The Lambertsen Lung that was
used by OSS Maritime
419
00:22:18,538 --> 00:22:21,040
was very innovative in its time.
420
00:22:21,073 --> 00:22:26,278
It was a closed-circuit
pure oxygen breathing apparatus
421
00:22:26,312 --> 00:22:29,549
that essentially took
exhaled air
422
00:22:29,582 --> 00:22:32,819
and spread it over
a bed of chemicals
423
00:22:32,852 --> 00:22:35,822
that re-circulated it
back to the diver,
424
00:22:35,855 --> 00:22:40,359
and this in essence created
a bubble-free diving apparatus.
425
00:22:41,894 --> 00:22:47,099
They adopted the first usable
submersible from the British,
426
00:22:47,133 --> 00:22:49,001
which was called
Sleeping Beauty.
427
00:22:49,035 --> 00:22:50,870
It was called
a submersible canoe.
428
00:22:50,903 --> 00:22:52,872
It was a one-man vessel
429
00:22:52,905 --> 00:22:54,674
that could be propelled
on the surface
430
00:22:54,707 --> 00:22:57,744
and then submerged
for the attack.
431
00:22:57,777 --> 00:23:01,280
They developed a floating
mattress that was propelled.
432
00:23:01,313 --> 00:23:05,351
And they used an electric drill
with a 12-volt battery
433
00:23:05,384 --> 00:23:09,489
to propel two guys through
the water with it.
434
00:23:09,522 --> 00:23:11,824
As the Underwater Demolition
Teams
435
00:23:11,858 --> 00:23:14,761
prepared for an invasion
of mainland Japan,
436
00:23:14,794 --> 00:23:19,466
President Harry Truman changed
the course of history.
437
00:23:19,499 --> 00:23:22,969
[ explosion ]
438
00:23:25,572 --> 00:23:31,310
Two atomic weapons ended
the war in the Pacific.
439
00:23:31,343 --> 00:23:37,316
[ brass band playing
and crowd cheering ]
440
00:23:37,349 --> 00:23:39,118
NEWSREEL ANNOUNCER:
Tens of thousands
441
00:23:39,151 --> 00:23:41,253
of proud American flags
dotted the square.
442
00:23:41,287 --> 00:23:44,423
And as the day wore on,
hilarity reached a high peak.
443
00:23:45,558 --> 00:23:47,827
As happens after war,
444
00:23:47,860 --> 00:23:51,498
the military immediately
began downsizing.
445
00:23:51,531 --> 00:23:56,335
The OSS Maritime Unit
would not survive.
446
00:23:56,368 --> 00:23:59,772
Nor would the Scouts
and Raiders.
447
00:23:59,806 --> 00:24:02,975
Nor the Naval Combat
Demolition Units.
448
00:24:03,009 --> 00:24:07,346
All but a handful of UDTs
were disbanded.
449
00:24:07,379 --> 00:24:13,419
Still, young men were drawn
to becoming Navy frogmen.
450
00:24:13,452 --> 00:24:16,255
[ ** ]
451
00:24:16,288 --> 00:24:19,826
MAN: I saw the movie The Frogmen
with Richard Widmark.
452
00:24:19,859 --> 00:24:22,394
I was a very good athlete
at the time,
453
00:24:22,428 --> 00:24:24,463
and I was a good swimmer.
454
00:24:24,497 --> 00:24:26,866
MAN:
The movie was Frogmen.
455
00:24:26,899 --> 00:24:29,135
I had said at the end
of that movie,
456
00:24:29,168 --> 00:24:33,405
"That's what I'm going to do
when I get a little bit older."
457
00:24:33,439 --> 00:24:35,174
MAN: The movie came out,
458
00:24:35,207 --> 00:24:37,644
The Frogmen movie with
Richard Widmark,
459
00:24:37,677 --> 00:24:41,881
and I thought, "Well, I'll just
go down and become a frogman."
460
00:24:41,914 --> 00:24:44,817
That's when I went down
and joined the Navy.
461
00:24:44,851 --> 00:24:47,920
Despite young men's ambitions,
462
00:24:47,954 --> 00:24:50,957
the Underwater Demolition Teams
shrank
463
00:24:50,990 --> 00:24:56,596
from 3,100 men at the end
of the World War to 200.
464
00:24:56,629 --> 00:25:00,366
The nature of warfare
in the late 1940s
465
00:25:00,399 --> 00:25:02,234
chilled from hot battles
466
00:25:02,268 --> 00:25:05,137
against the axis of Germany,
Japan, and Italy
467
00:25:05,171 --> 00:25:07,874
to the Cold War between
the democratic West
468
00:25:07,907 --> 00:25:11,343
and the communist East.
469
00:25:11,377 --> 00:25:14,280
[ ** ]
470
00:25:14,313 --> 00:25:16,916
What some have described as
"hysteria"
471
00:25:16,949 --> 00:25:19,485
gripped much of
the United States
472
00:25:19,518 --> 00:25:22,555
over fear of Communist
infiltrators.
473
00:25:22,589 --> 00:25:24,657
Called the Red Scare
474
00:25:24,691 --> 00:25:28,795
because of adherents' devotion
to the flag of the USSR,
475
00:25:28,828 --> 00:25:33,566
it prompted President Truman
to issue a "Loyalty Order"
476
00:25:33,600 --> 00:25:37,136
requiring government employees
to be investigated
477
00:25:37,169 --> 00:25:42,174
for adequate allegiance to
the United States of America.
478
00:25:42,208 --> 00:25:46,813
[ explosion ]
479
00:25:46,846 --> 00:25:50,617
In 1949, the Soviets
successfully tested
480
00:25:50,650 --> 00:25:53,019
a nuclear weapon
481
00:25:53,052 --> 00:25:59,491
and Communist forces led
by Mao Zedong overtook China.
482
00:25:59,525 --> 00:26:04,964
Then, in 1950, the Cold War
boiled over.
483
00:26:04,997 --> 00:26:08,100
[ ** ]
484
00:26:08,134 --> 00:26:11,971
On Sunday, June 25th,
Communist forces attacked
485
00:26:12,004 --> 00:26:14,006
the Republic of Korea.
486
00:26:14,040 --> 00:26:19,812
It was the first major combat
of the Cold War.
487
00:26:19,846 --> 00:26:23,015
When 75,000 Soviet-backed
North Korean troops
488
00:26:23,049 --> 00:26:27,219
poured south into the Republic
of Korea, an American ally,
489
00:26:27,253 --> 00:26:31,257
President Truman responded
by sending U.S. forces
490
00:26:31,290 --> 00:26:34,426
to stop the advance
of the Communists.
491
00:26:34,460 --> 00:26:38,597
The American military started
arriving in Korea within weeks,
492
00:26:38,631 --> 00:26:41,233
and the Underwater Demolition
Teams
493
00:26:41,267 --> 00:26:44,103
were in the fight once again.
494
00:26:44,136 --> 00:26:48,274
Korea marked a transformation
for the UDTs.
495
00:26:48,307 --> 00:26:51,177
This would be the first time
they moved inland
496
00:26:51,210 --> 00:26:55,014
beyond their traditional Navy
maritime habitat.
497
00:26:55,047 --> 00:26:58,350
But their missions were still
mostly nautical,
498
00:26:58,384 --> 00:27:04,123
often keeping passageways
for American ships open.
499
00:27:04,156 --> 00:27:07,660
Wonsan Harbor in North Korea
had been heavily mined
500
00:27:07,694 --> 00:27:12,364
before U.S. and United Nations
navies enforced a blockade.
501
00:27:12,398 --> 00:27:14,967
But it required constant
vigilance
502
00:27:15,001 --> 00:27:17,036
from the Underwater Demolition
Teams
503
00:27:17,069 --> 00:27:21,540
to keep it from being further
mined by the North Koreans.
504
00:27:24,110 --> 00:27:29,381
A former WWII Scout and Raider
turned UDT man,
505
00:27:29,415 --> 00:27:32,484
Dick Lyon, was assigned
a dangerous new mission
506
00:27:32,518 --> 00:27:34,987
in Wonsan Harbor.
507
00:27:35,021 --> 00:27:38,024
His commanding officer called
the 28-year-old lieutenant
508
00:27:38,057 --> 00:27:40,359
into his office.
509
00:27:40,392 --> 00:27:43,930
He said, "I have to have
the strongest swimmer.
510
00:27:43,963 --> 00:27:50,636
I've just received an indication
that a new shallow-water mine
511
00:27:50,669 --> 00:27:57,043
has been dispensed
inside of Wonsan Harbor.
512
00:27:57,076 --> 00:27:59,211
You're going to be heavily armed
513
00:27:59,245 --> 00:28:02,081
with a pair of 24-inch
bolt cutters,
514
00:28:02,114 --> 00:28:04,984
and your job is to dive down
under the mine
515
00:28:05,017 --> 00:28:07,686
and cut the mooring cable."
516
00:28:09,055 --> 00:28:12,591
It was before we had any issued
scuba gear,
517
00:28:12,624 --> 00:28:15,694
which is why I was freebie
518
00:28:15,728 --> 00:28:18,630
going down with bolt cutters
-- kuh! --
519
00:28:18,664 --> 00:28:21,367
and a KA-BAR.
520
00:28:21,400 --> 00:28:24,636
So... [ chuckles ]
that's it.
521
00:28:24,670 --> 00:28:28,040
Dick Lyon entered
the 36-degree water
522
00:28:28,074 --> 00:28:31,878
with no experience or training
in mine warfare.
523
00:28:31,911 --> 00:28:34,080
And no American had ever
confronted
524
00:28:34,113 --> 00:28:37,083
this kind of mine before.
525
00:28:37,116 --> 00:28:41,287
I swam down under the mine
with my bolt cutters,
526
00:28:41,320 --> 00:28:45,724
making sure that I don't do
something really cuckoo
527
00:28:45,758 --> 00:28:48,494
like break one of those horns,
528
00:28:48,527 --> 00:28:52,164
because that's the last thing
I would ever remember.
529
00:28:52,198 --> 00:28:55,802
Inside one of the mines
that Dick Lyon recovered
530
00:28:55,835 --> 00:28:59,105
was its packing slip --
in Russian.
531
00:28:59,138 --> 00:29:02,842
It's not clear why a receipt
would be inside a mine,
532
00:29:02,875 --> 00:29:06,412
but it was clear: the Soviets
were supplying these weapons
533
00:29:06,445 --> 00:29:08,347
to the North Koreans.
534
00:29:08,380 --> 00:29:11,884
The Cold War was in full swing.
535
00:29:11,918 --> 00:29:15,387
NEWSREEL ANNOUNCER:
It came on July 27, 1953.
536
00:29:15,421 --> 00:29:18,390
While the Communists signed
at Panmunjom...
537
00:29:18,424 --> 00:29:21,360
After three years of fighting,
538
00:29:21,393 --> 00:29:25,731
the Korean Conflict ended
in a stalemate in 1953.
539
00:29:25,764 --> 00:29:28,167
But once an armistice
was signed,
540
00:29:28,200 --> 00:29:30,602
the United States entered
another period
541
00:29:30,636 --> 00:29:33,672
of military evolution.
542
00:29:33,705 --> 00:29:37,176
President Dwight Eisenhower,
the former general,
543
00:29:37,209 --> 00:29:40,212
was careful not to dismantle
the military
544
00:29:40,246 --> 00:29:43,082
as had happened after
World War II.
545
00:29:43,115 --> 00:29:47,786
But he now based his strategies
around nuclear capabilities.
546
00:29:47,820 --> 00:29:51,023
As the Strategic Air Command
patrolled the skies
547
00:29:51,057 --> 00:29:52,925
24 hours a day
548
00:29:52,959 --> 00:29:56,662
while nuclear submarines
plied the oceans,
549
00:29:56,695 --> 00:29:59,098
the tides of warfare
were shifting
550
00:29:59,131 --> 00:30:04,403
to the concept of mutually
assured destruction, or MAD.
551
00:30:04,436 --> 00:30:07,306
The theory was that
if two opposing sides
552
00:30:07,339 --> 00:30:09,441
each had enough nuclear
firepower
553
00:30:09,475 --> 00:30:11,577
to destroy the other,
554
00:30:11,610 --> 00:30:13,479
then neither would fire
their weapons
555
00:30:13,512 --> 00:30:16,682
because there could be
no victor in such a conflict,
556
00:30:16,715 --> 00:30:21,187
only equal, shared destruction.
557
00:30:22,321 --> 00:30:24,490
The massive nuclear build-up
558
00:30:24,523 --> 00:30:27,826
was designed to contain both
the Soviet Union and China,
559
00:30:27,860 --> 00:30:30,429
but those adversaries
were now using
560
00:30:30,462 --> 00:30:33,799
a very different strategy:
spreading Communism
561
00:30:33,832 --> 00:30:37,603
through smaller guerrilla wars
in countries like Laos.
562
00:30:37,636 --> 00:30:40,806
U.S. military and political
leaders were concerned
563
00:30:40,839 --> 00:30:44,243
about what was known as
the domino effect:
564
00:30:44,276 --> 00:30:46,578
one country falling
to Communism
565
00:30:46,612 --> 00:30:49,315
triggering the next one
to fall.
566
00:30:49,348 --> 00:30:52,818
So they were determined
to draw a line in the sand
567
00:30:52,851 --> 00:30:55,687
without launching nuclear
missiles.
568
00:30:55,721 --> 00:30:59,225
In 1958, an admiral named
Arleigh Burke
569
00:30:59,258 --> 00:31:02,528
came up with a plan
for special warfare teams
570
00:31:02,561 --> 00:31:04,430
that would be the blueprint
571
00:31:04,463 --> 00:31:08,000
for what the U.S. Navy SEALs
would one day become.
572
00:31:08,034 --> 00:31:11,103
MAN: Arleigh Burke was
the Chief of Naval Operations.
573
00:31:11,137 --> 00:31:15,607
He felt that the services
had to be alert to
574
00:31:15,641 --> 00:31:19,411
the changing national threat
575
00:31:19,445 --> 00:31:23,682
and be able to create operations
576
00:31:23,715 --> 00:31:27,386
that were something less than
nuclear war.
577
00:31:27,419 --> 00:31:29,355
And so he was the one,
578
00:31:29,388 --> 00:31:32,558
if anyone would be considered
the Papa SEAL,
579
00:31:32,591 --> 00:31:35,161
Arleigh Burke would be
Papa SEAL.
580
00:31:35,194 --> 00:31:37,863
Although Admiral Burke
conceived the plans
581
00:31:37,896 --> 00:31:40,066
for unconventional
naval warfare
582
00:31:40,099 --> 00:31:42,601
under the Eisenhower
administration,
583
00:31:42,634 --> 00:31:46,038
it would be a new president
who would champion them.
584
00:31:46,072 --> 00:31:50,109
[ ** ]
585
00:31:50,142 --> 00:31:52,678
NEWSREEL ANNOUNCER: John F.
Kennedy settles into office
586
00:31:52,711 --> 00:31:55,414
as the 35th president
of the United States.
587
00:31:55,447 --> 00:31:58,650
Fourteen days before Kennedy's
inauguration,
588
00:31:58,684 --> 00:32:01,487
the Soviets had announced
they would be advancing
589
00:32:01,520 --> 00:32:05,891
"wars of liberation"
to spread Communism.
590
00:32:05,924 --> 00:32:07,893
It was in this tense climate
591
00:32:07,926 --> 00:32:11,130
that John Kennedy was about
to take Arleigh Burke's vision
592
00:32:11,163 --> 00:32:14,633
of SEAL Teams
and make it a reality.
593
00:32:14,666 --> 00:32:17,303
In the same speech that Kennedy
announced the plan
594
00:32:17,336 --> 00:32:20,506
to have an American on the moon
by the end of the decade,
595
00:32:20,539 --> 00:32:22,608
he also declared the need
596
00:32:22,641 --> 00:32:26,145
for enhanced special warfare
capabilities,
597
00:32:26,178 --> 00:32:29,681
laying out his vision
for the decade to come.
598
00:32:29,715 --> 00:32:32,151
To expand rapidly
and substantially,
599
00:32:32,184 --> 00:32:34,620
in cooperation with our allies,
600
00:32:34,653 --> 00:32:37,556
the orientation
of existing forces
601
00:32:37,589 --> 00:32:40,559
for the conduct
of non-nuclear war,
602
00:32:40,592 --> 00:32:42,861
paramilitary operations,
603
00:32:42,894 --> 00:32:46,832
and sub-limited or
unconventional wars.
604
00:32:46,865 --> 00:32:50,036
A little more than seven months
after this speech,
605
00:32:50,069 --> 00:32:55,041
the U.S. Navy established
SEAL Teams One and Two.
606
00:32:55,074 --> 00:32:56,875
As is still the case,
607
00:32:56,908 --> 00:32:59,178
odd-number teams are
on the West Coast
608
00:32:59,211 --> 00:33:02,548
and even-number teams
on the East Coast.
609
00:33:02,581 --> 00:33:04,950
Although the Underwater
Demolition Teams
610
00:33:04,983 --> 00:33:07,686
would continue on with their
strictly maritime mission
611
00:33:07,719 --> 00:33:10,722
of clearing beaches
for amphibious landings,
612
00:33:10,756 --> 00:33:12,924
every man on the first
SEAL Teams
613
00:33:12,958 --> 00:33:15,527
was pulled from the UDTs.
614
00:33:15,561 --> 00:33:17,363
MAN:
We had heard rumors,
615
00:33:17,396 --> 00:33:20,499
because they'd been working on
putting something together,
616
00:33:20,532 --> 00:33:22,901
but we had absolutely
no knowledge
617
00:33:22,934 --> 00:33:26,072
that anything was imminent.
618
00:33:26,105 --> 00:33:30,542
And we didn't really know
what SEAL Team was going to be.
619
00:33:30,576 --> 00:33:33,812
I'm not sure anybody did
at that point.
620
00:33:33,845 --> 00:33:36,148
MAN: First of all,
I've got to tell you
621
00:33:36,182 --> 00:33:38,917
I was like halfway through
my training
622
00:33:38,950 --> 00:33:41,853
before I found out
there were SEALs there.
623
00:33:41,887 --> 00:33:43,722
I had heard of them before,
624
00:33:43,755 --> 00:33:45,191
but I thought they was
talking about
625
00:33:45,224 --> 00:33:48,627
a little furry creature
that swam around in the harbor.
626
00:33:48,660 --> 00:33:51,830
So I didn't really pay that much
attention to the SEALs.
627
00:33:51,863 --> 00:33:54,200
I just wanted to be a frogman.
628
00:33:54,233 --> 00:33:56,802
McCORMACK: The first time
I heard the term SEAL used
629
00:33:56,835 --> 00:33:59,871
was in late 1961.
630
00:33:59,905 --> 00:34:02,608
And most of us thought
that the SEALs
631
00:34:02,641 --> 00:34:05,010
stood for South East
Asia Liaison.
632
00:34:05,043 --> 00:34:08,180
Seemed to fit,
but we soon found out
633
00:34:08,214 --> 00:34:10,282
it stood for sea, air, land
634
00:34:10,316 --> 00:34:15,053
and would take us beyond
the capabilities of UDT.
635
00:34:15,087 --> 00:34:19,024
A 29-year-old lieutenant named
Dave Del Giudice was selected
636
00:34:19,057 --> 00:34:22,361
as the first commanding
officer of SEAL Team One.
637
00:34:22,394 --> 00:34:24,996
Considering the sophisticated
operations
638
00:34:25,030 --> 00:34:28,800
the teams have today,
these were humble beginnings.
639
00:34:28,834 --> 00:34:30,602
DEL GIUDICE:
We were only 10 officers
640
00:34:30,636 --> 00:34:32,371
and 50 enlisted at that time.
641
00:34:32,404 --> 00:34:35,374
We didn't even have a building
to work out of.
642
00:34:35,407 --> 00:34:39,077
So we had to start from scratch
and get everything organized --
643
00:34:39,111 --> 00:34:42,714
not only equipment,
but a place to call home.
644
00:34:42,748 --> 00:34:46,818
I had almost no guidance at
the beginning of SEAL Team One.
645
00:34:46,852 --> 00:34:51,757
It was a question of trying
to learn as we went along
646
00:34:51,790 --> 00:34:54,660
how best to fulfill the mission.
647
00:34:54,693 --> 00:34:57,095
[ camera focusing and beeping ]
648
00:34:57,129 --> 00:35:01,833
The mission would be Vietnam.
649
00:35:01,867 --> 00:35:06,605
[ ** ]
650
00:35:06,638 --> 00:35:09,908
Just 10 days after
SEAL Team One was formed,
651
00:35:09,941 --> 00:35:13,645
Dave Del Giudice and one of
his officers, John Stockholm,
652
00:35:13,679 --> 00:35:16,382
were on their way
to Southeast Asia
653
00:35:16,415 --> 00:35:20,519
where guerrilla warfare
was already widespread.
654
00:35:20,552 --> 00:35:25,191
Saigon's military was no match
for the Communist Viet Cong,
655
00:35:25,224 --> 00:35:27,726
and the Kennedy administration
was concerned
656
00:35:27,759 --> 00:35:29,995
that the V.C. would soon
vanquish
657
00:35:30,028 --> 00:35:33,232
America's ally in the south.
658
00:35:33,265 --> 00:35:39,738
The first SEALs in Vietnam
did not fight, they advised.
659
00:35:39,771 --> 00:35:43,175
Although the teams arrived
in 1962,
660
00:35:43,209 --> 00:35:45,611
they would not operate
in combat missions
661
00:35:45,644 --> 00:35:48,714
in Vietnam until 1966.
662
00:35:48,747 --> 00:35:52,251
Instead, they trained their
South Vietnamese counterparts
663
00:35:52,284 --> 00:35:56,188
for CIA-planned missions
into North Vietnam.
664
00:35:56,222 --> 00:36:00,025
The early '60s found
the SEALs and CIA
665
00:36:00,058 --> 00:36:03,662
as partners in formulating
covert operations
666
00:36:03,695 --> 00:36:05,631
against the Communist North.
667
00:36:05,664 --> 00:36:07,633
The CIA picked the targets,
668
00:36:07,666 --> 00:36:11,770
and the SEALs worked out
the military tactics.
669
00:36:11,803 --> 00:36:16,007
[ ** ]
670
00:36:16,041 --> 00:36:19,645
In addition to working with
the CIA on intelligence,
671
00:36:19,678 --> 00:36:24,716
the SEALs collaborated
with technological experts.
672
00:36:24,750 --> 00:36:27,919
In 1964, American scientists
673
00:36:27,953 --> 00:36:31,390
began working on a secret
weapon for the SEALS.
674
00:36:31,423 --> 00:36:33,725
The extraordinary new device?
675
00:36:33,759 --> 00:36:37,229
A miniature nuclear bomb.
676
00:36:37,263 --> 00:36:40,065
Known as "backpack nukes,"
677
00:36:40,098 --> 00:36:42,701
these weapons were built
as an alternative
678
00:36:42,734 --> 00:36:45,271
to the massively destructive
nuclear weapons
679
00:36:45,304 --> 00:36:47,606
in the U.S. arsenal.
680
00:36:47,639 --> 00:36:49,608
These little nukes
were called
681
00:36:49,641 --> 00:36:55,581
B-54 Special Atomic Demolition
Munitions, or SADMs.
682
00:36:55,614 --> 00:36:58,884
A handful of SEALs trained
to parachute in
683
00:36:58,917 --> 00:37:01,019
with the 58-pound device,
684
00:37:01,052 --> 00:37:04,222
infiltrate behind enemy lines,
and have the capability
685
00:37:04,256 --> 00:37:07,659
of annihilating an entire
battlefield.
686
00:37:07,693 --> 00:37:11,797
A pair of swimmers could also
insert into an enemy-held area,
687
00:37:11,830 --> 00:37:15,233
plant the bomb,
and swim back out.
688
00:37:15,267 --> 00:37:18,437
Despite their size,
some of these nuclear weapons
689
00:37:18,470 --> 00:37:22,474
were more powerful than the one
dropped on Hiroshima.
690
00:37:22,508 --> 00:37:26,111
Other than in testing,
the SADM was never detonated
691
00:37:26,144 --> 00:37:30,782
during the 25 years it was
in the military's arsenal.
692
00:37:30,816 --> 00:37:33,819
Some Team members interviewed
to train with the device
693
00:37:33,852 --> 00:37:37,389
were uncomfortable working with
its potential devastation,
694
00:37:37,423 --> 00:37:41,226
saying they'd rather go back
to Vietnam.
695
00:37:41,259 --> 00:37:44,296
[ ** ]
696
00:37:51,036 --> 00:37:54,239
Vietnam, 1966.
697
00:37:54,272 --> 00:37:56,107
It would be here and now
698
00:37:56,141 --> 00:37:58,344
that the SEALs would establish
their reputation
699
00:37:58,377 --> 00:38:01,212
as true combat warriors.
700
00:38:01,246 --> 00:38:04,383
The North Vietnamese were
successfully building
701
00:38:04,416 --> 00:38:06,918
an insurgency in the South.
702
00:38:06,952 --> 00:38:10,522
At the same time, the CIA
realized there was little hope
703
00:38:10,556 --> 00:38:14,125
of creating meaningful
resistance in the North.
704
00:38:14,159 --> 00:38:16,662
A detachment of SEALs
were sent in
705
00:38:16,695 --> 00:38:19,865
to take direct action against
Viet Cong guerrillas
706
00:38:19,898 --> 00:38:23,201
who had infiltrated the South.
707
00:38:23,234 --> 00:38:27,939
Operationally, the SEALs worked
almost autonomously.
708
00:38:27,973 --> 00:38:29,975
They would gather
their own intel
709
00:38:30,008 --> 00:38:33,379
and plan their own
counterinsurgency missions.
710
00:38:33,412 --> 00:38:37,015
They also chose their
own equipment.
711
00:38:37,048 --> 00:38:40,519
MAN: It changed from being this
guy in the water with fins on
712
00:38:40,552 --> 00:38:43,955
and a face mask and
a life jacket and a KA-BAR
713
00:38:43,989 --> 00:38:48,827
to a guy with an AR-15,
M-16 machine guns
714
00:38:48,860 --> 00:38:52,864
going in and going directly
against the enemy.
715
00:38:52,898 --> 00:38:54,633
HAWKINS: The first SEALs
in combat
716
00:38:54,666 --> 00:39:00,238
wore Marine Corps green uniforms
and camouflage uniforms
717
00:39:00,271 --> 00:39:02,841
when they could get them.
718
00:39:02,874 --> 00:39:07,212
And a lot of the later SEALs
wore camouflage tops and Levi's.
719
00:39:07,245 --> 00:39:09,014
More comfortable.
720
00:39:09,047 --> 00:39:11,216
They also wore pantyhose,
by the way,
721
00:39:11,249 --> 00:39:13,385
to keep the leeches off of you
722
00:39:13,419 --> 00:39:15,987
when you're going through
the canals.
723
00:39:16,021 --> 00:39:17,989
NEWS ANNOUNCER:
These men are members of
724
00:39:18,023 --> 00:39:21,359
one of the most unique military
organizations in history.
725
00:39:21,393 --> 00:39:23,495
Behind these green faces
726
00:39:23,529 --> 00:39:25,296
are men who have accepted
the challenge
727
00:39:25,330 --> 00:39:27,232
of some of the most daring
assignments
728
00:39:27,265 --> 00:39:29,735
given to American fighting men.
729
00:39:29,768 --> 00:39:33,238
These are the Navy SEALs.
730
00:39:33,271 --> 00:39:36,408
BRUHMULLER: The "men with
the green faces" was a term
731
00:39:36,442 --> 00:39:39,878
that came out at the start
of Vietnam
732
00:39:39,911 --> 00:39:42,080
because we used to use
this camouflage makeup
733
00:39:42,113 --> 00:39:43,549
on our faces and everything,
734
00:39:43,582 --> 00:39:45,584
and a lot of it was green
and black.
735
00:39:45,617 --> 00:39:48,720
And it used to scare the living
daylights out of the Vietnamese
736
00:39:48,754 --> 00:39:51,723
to have you pop up and wake
some guy up in his hooch
737
00:39:51,757 --> 00:39:53,825
and be looking at him.
738
00:39:53,859 --> 00:39:55,661
It almost put him in shock.
739
00:39:55,694 --> 00:39:57,463
THORNTON:
Of course back then,
740
00:39:57,496 --> 00:39:59,931
everybody knew that stuff
didn't work worth a damn,
741
00:39:59,965 --> 00:40:02,768
and it'd wash off after you'd
sweated so much in the jungles,
742
00:40:02,801 --> 00:40:05,471
it would be gone, and you'd be
the guys with the white faces
743
00:40:05,504 --> 00:40:08,173
or the dark brown tan faces,
you know?
744
00:40:08,206 --> 00:40:10,842
MARTIN: We started out
with the simple missions
745
00:40:10,876 --> 00:40:14,345
just to kind of get used
to the terrain and acclimate.
746
00:40:14,379 --> 00:40:16,682
You know, the weather there
and the bugs
747
00:40:16,715 --> 00:40:20,719
and the creepy-crawlies
and the caimans.
748
00:40:20,752 --> 00:40:22,554
God, those caimans.
749
00:40:22,588 --> 00:40:25,156
You know, saltwater alligators,
they come out of nowhere.
750
00:40:25,190 --> 00:40:27,859
MAN: I was put in charge of
a 14-man SEAL platoon
751
00:40:27,893 --> 00:40:30,128
on the edge of the Rung Sat
Special Zone,
752
00:40:30,161 --> 00:40:33,932
which controlled the seaborne
approaches to Saigon
753
00:40:33,965 --> 00:40:36,167
from the South China Sea.
754
00:40:36,201 --> 00:40:38,770
We had rules of engagement,
but there was nothing --
755
00:40:38,804 --> 00:40:41,106
I recall no restriction
whatsoever.
756
00:40:41,139 --> 00:40:43,609
In fact, it was a playground.
757
00:40:43,642 --> 00:40:46,211
My SEAL platoon, we had
the weapons we needed,
758
00:40:46,244 --> 00:40:48,680
we had helicopters to insert us,
759
00:40:48,714 --> 00:40:50,749
boats to insert us
and extract us,
760
00:40:50,782 --> 00:40:53,552
helicopters to shoot for us
if we got in trouble,
761
00:40:53,585 --> 00:40:55,754
intelligence assets.
762
00:40:55,787 --> 00:40:58,289
And basically it was,
"Okay, Lt. Woolard,
763
00:40:58,323 --> 00:40:59,858
here's the Rung Sat.
764
00:40:59,891 --> 00:41:03,562
Stop these guys from mining it.
Just go out and do it."
765
00:41:03,595 --> 00:41:08,199
The name "Rung Sat" translates
as "Killer Swamp."
766
00:41:08,233 --> 00:41:12,671
And in 1966, it was a dangerous
V.C. stronghold
767
00:41:12,704 --> 00:41:15,406
located deep in South Vietnam.
768
00:41:15,440 --> 00:41:17,643
Yet the enemy's strength
was hidden
769
00:41:17,676 --> 00:41:19,845
in the shadows of the jungle,
770
00:41:19,878 --> 00:41:22,914
in their ability to ambush.
771
00:41:22,948 --> 00:41:26,217
Lt. Maynard Weyers led
a SEAL platoon
772
00:41:26,251 --> 00:41:28,453
that was supposed to keep
the Viet Cong
773
00:41:28,486 --> 00:41:31,422
from using this area
as a supply route.
774
00:41:31,456 --> 00:41:34,993
Saigon thought that there was
a lot of stuff coming from there
775
00:41:35,026 --> 00:41:37,763
and there weren't any
U.S. troops down there,
776
00:41:37,796 --> 00:41:40,065
or there weren't many,
and so it was up to us
777
00:41:40,098 --> 00:41:43,468
to go in there and find them
and destroy them.
778
00:41:43,501 --> 00:41:47,072
Twenty-eight-year-old
Billy Machen was one of the men
779
00:41:47,105 --> 00:41:49,507
in Lt. Weyer's platoon.
780
00:41:49,541 --> 00:41:51,710
They had been through
hand-to-hand combat school
781
00:41:51,743 --> 00:41:54,512
together and were
close friends.
782
00:41:54,546 --> 00:41:58,416
Billy Machen was with a platoon,
783
00:41:58,449 --> 00:42:01,753
and we were spending a lot of
time in this particular area.
784
00:42:01,787 --> 00:42:06,692
We found several caches of rice
in buildings,
785
00:42:06,725 --> 00:42:09,227
and so we destroyed them.
786
00:42:09,260 --> 00:42:11,897
The helicopters were flying
above us.
787
00:42:11,930 --> 00:42:15,701
They indicated they saw
a V.C. camp
788
00:42:15,734 --> 00:42:17,869
and some boats and stuff.
789
00:42:17,903 --> 00:42:21,139
They said that it would probably
be good to check it out,
790
00:42:21,172 --> 00:42:25,644
and so I talked to the platoon
that Machen was in.
791
00:42:25,677 --> 00:42:29,681
I said, "Hey, we need to go in
and check this out."
792
00:42:29,715 --> 00:42:32,250
And Billy said to me, he said,
"Well, do you think we should?
793
00:42:32,283 --> 00:42:35,320
They know we're around,
and this may not be too smart."
794
00:42:35,353 --> 00:42:37,322
And I said, "Yeah,
I understand that," I said,
795
00:42:37,355 --> 00:42:40,325
"but we'll have the helicopters
above us for support,
796
00:42:40,358 --> 00:42:42,327
so it'll be okay."
797
00:42:42,360 --> 00:42:45,296
They got about halfway
to the site,
798
00:42:45,330 --> 00:42:48,433
and the helicopters called us
on the radio and said that,
799
00:42:48,466 --> 00:42:51,469
"We're running out of gas,
we gotta go home."
800
00:42:51,502 --> 00:42:54,806
And so they took off, and we
were halfway to the target.
801
00:42:54,840 --> 00:42:59,510
And they kept going and they got
ambushed on the way in there,
802
00:42:59,544 --> 00:43:02,013
and Machen got killed.
803
00:43:02,047 --> 00:43:04,616
It was tough to take
because, first off,
804
00:43:04,650 --> 00:43:07,185
he got killed in there,
805
00:43:07,218 --> 00:43:14,059
and then, you know, we always
bring our people back.
806
00:43:17,763 --> 00:43:21,700
One of the guys picked him up
and carried him out,
807
00:43:21,733 --> 00:43:25,103
and it was touch-and-go,
808
00:43:25,136 --> 00:43:27,639
but they were able to get back
to the boat
809
00:43:27,673 --> 00:43:31,176
with everybody intact
except for Billy.
810
00:43:31,209 --> 00:43:33,979
It was a tough loss.
811
00:43:34,012 --> 00:43:36,815
Despite the SEALs' growing
reputation
812
00:43:36,848 --> 00:43:39,117
as invincible commandos,
813
00:43:39,150 --> 00:43:42,553
Billy Machen proved they were
quite mortal.
814
00:43:42,587 --> 00:43:45,523
He was the first Navy SEAL
combat death
815
00:43:45,556 --> 00:43:48,193
of the Vietnam War.
816
00:43:48,226 --> 00:43:51,830
But as the teams expanded their
direct action missions,
817
00:43:51,863 --> 00:43:54,599
he would not be the last.
818
00:43:54,632 --> 00:43:58,336
A CIA-backed ongoing operation
819
00:43:58,369 --> 00:44:01,139
would cost five SEALs
their lives
820
00:44:01,172 --> 00:44:04,375
as they led local forces
and mercenaries on missions
821
00:44:04,409 --> 00:44:07,746
to capture or kill
Viet Cong leadership.
822
00:44:07,779 --> 00:44:11,883
Provincial Reconnaissance
Units, known as PRUs,
823
00:44:11,917 --> 00:44:15,687
were run under the CIA's
infamous Phoenix Program,
824
00:44:15,721 --> 00:44:21,092
an initiative to destroy
the Viet Cong Infrastructure.
825
00:44:21,126 --> 00:44:24,595
When the North and South
separated,
826
00:44:24,629 --> 00:44:29,634
the North kept a parallel
government in South Vietnam.
827
00:44:29,667 --> 00:44:34,505
And the idea was to go kill off
this parallel government,
828
00:44:34,539 --> 00:44:39,410
the province chief, the
governors, the tax collectors.
829
00:44:39,444 --> 00:44:45,817
It kind of got a bad name of
being an assassination outfit.
830
00:44:45,851 --> 00:44:48,720
WEYERS: We were trying
to gather intel
831
00:44:48,754 --> 00:44:51,089
is one of the main things
you want to do.
832
00:44:51,122 --> 00:44:53,624
If you can capture them
without killing them,
833
00:44:53,658 --> 00:44:55,827
you're ahead of the game.
834
00:44:55,861 --> 00:44:59,597
For most cases we were trying
to capture them.
835
00:44:59,630 --> 00:45:05,103
I think there were 60 SEALs
totally that were involved.
836
00:45:05,136 --> 00:45:08,239
And no one knew we were SEALs.
837
00:45:08,273 --> 00:45:12,343
We had special ID cards
and were kept quiet,
838
00:45:12,377 --> 00:45:14,179
and some of the reason is,
839
00:45:14,212 --> 00:45:17,148
I was telling Army majors
what to do,
840
00:45:17,182 --> 00:45:20,518
and little do they know that
it was an E-6 enlisted SEAL
841
00:45:20,551 --> 00:45:22,287
that was telling them
what to do.
842
00:45:22,320 --> 00:45:24,355
We had a lot of power,
843
00:45:24,389 --> 00:45:28,526
and it was very effective
and also very dangerous.
844
00:45:28,559 --> 00:45:31,029
According to the CIA,
845
00:45:31,062 --> 00:45:33,198
the Provincial Reconnaissance
Units became
846
00:45:33,231 --> 00:45:37,568
probably the most controversial
element of Phoenix.
847
00:45:37,602 --> 00:45:42,140
The CIA used their existing
network of over 100
848
00:45:42,173 --> 00:45:45,743
South Vietnamese district
intelligence committees
849
00:45:45,777 --> 00:45:49,180
to compile lists of known
Viet Cong Infrastructure,
850
00:45:49,214 --> 00:45:52,250
or VCI, operatives.
851
00:45:52,283 --> 00:45:54,920
These targets' identities
were sent
852
00:45:54,953 --> 00:45:59,190
to special forces, police,
and the PRUs.
853
00:45:59,224 --> 00:46:04,129
The stated preferred goal was
to "neutralize" the VCI
854
00:46:04,162 --> 00:46:08,333
on the list by capturing
and interrogating them.
855
00:46:08,366 --> 00:46:11,736
But if they resisted, which
apparently thousands did,
856
00:46:11,769 --> 00:46:14,039
they were killed.
857
00:46:14,072 --> 00:46:16,341
There's a degree of it
that's uncomfortable
858
00:46:16,374 --> 00:46:19,310
because I was told to not talk
about it for a long time.
859
00:46:19,344 --> 00:46:22,347
At one point, I was an assistant
principal in a high school
860
00:46:22,380 --> 00:46:25,851
and I didn't really want the
kids to know what my past was.
861
00:46:25,884 --> 00:46:27,953
They knew I had been
in SEAL Team,
862
00:46:27,986 --> 00:46:30,188
but I never really talked about
what I did.
863
00:46:30,221 --> 00:46:33,191
There are parts that
I'm uncomfortable with.
864
00:46:33,224 --> 00:46:37,628
I think any time that a warrior
starts talking about combat,
865
00:46:37,662 --> 00:46:42,333
there's a part of that person
will go back into that,
866
00:46:42,367 --> 00:46:46,071
and I don't want to go there.
867
00:46:46,104 --> 00:46:50,641
SEAL contact with the enemy
was close and personal,
868
00:46:50,675 --> 00:46:55,780
often operating just inches
from their targets.
869
00:46:55,813 --> 00:46:57,883
Their direct actions
were considered
870
00:46:57,916 --> 00:47:00,251
the most effective
anti-guerrilla operations
871
00:47:00,285 --> 00:47:02,720
in the war.
872
00:47:02,753 --> 00:47:08,393
The last SEAL platoon left
Vietnam on December 7, 1971.
873
00:47:08,426 --> 00:47:11,029
By then, two-thirds
of America's troops
874
00:47:11,062 --> 00:47:12,998
had been pulled out.
875
00:47:13,031 --> 00:47:15,800
By early 1972,
876
00:47:15,833 --> 00:47:18,970
the ground war was now
mostly the responsibility
877
00:47:19,004 --> 00:47:23,208
of the South Vietnamese.
878
00:47:23,241 --> 00:47:26,077
But a handful of SEAL advisors
did remain,
879
00:47:26,111 --> 00:47:29,380
and men like Lt. Tom Norris
were still operating
880
00:47:29,414 --> 00:47:32,183
on critical, dangerous
missions.
881
00:47:32,217 --> 00:47:34,452
[ jet engine squeals ]
882
00:47:34,485 --> 00:47:39,090
On April 2nd, 1972, a U.S.
electronics jamming plane
883
00:47:39,124 --> 00:47:41,759
was shot down in an area
that was occupied
884
00:47:41,792 --> 00:47:45,030
by thousands of North
Vietnamese troops.
885
00:47:45,063 --> 00:47:50,001
Only the navigator, 53-year-old
Lt. Colonel Iceal Hambleton,
886
00:47:50,035 --> 00:47:52,037
survived the crash.
887
00:47:52,070 --> 00:47:56,007
Also, a crewman from another
plane, Lieutenant Mark Clark,
888
00:47:56,041 --> 00:47:59,477
was alive on the ground
after being shot down.
889
00:47:59,510 --> 00:48:02,113
Clark had been trying to rescue
Hambleton,
890
00:48:02,147 --> 00:48:04,950
who possessed U.S. nuclear
weapons information --
891
00:48:04,983 --> 00:48:08,019
secrets that would be
of great value to the enemy
892
00:48:08,053 --> 00:48:10,055
if he were captured.
893
00:48:10,088 --> 00:48:14,392
The mission to save Hambleton,
whose call sign was "Bat-21,"
894
00:48:14,425 --> 00:48:18,163
was memorialized in a book
and movie.
895
00:48:18,196 --> 00:48:21,066
When Tom Norris undertook
the rescue mission,
896
00:48:21,099 --> 00:48:25,703
12 airmen had already died
trying to save Hambleton.
897
00:48:25,736 --> 00:48:28,039
Rescue helicopters kept being
shot down
898
00:48:28,073 --> 00:48:31,509
in the North Vietnamese
controlled area.
899
00:48:31,542 --> 00:48:34,045
But Norris was able
to walk in
900
00:48:34,079 --> 00:48:36,414
and snatch Lieutenant Clark
901
00:48:36,447 --> 00:48:38,950
from the riverbed
where he was hiding.
902
00:48:38,984 --> 00:48:41,119
Then Tom Norris headed back
903
00:48:41,152 --> 00:48:43,554
into the heavily patrolled
enemy area
904
00:48:43,588 --> 00:48:46,958
to save Lt. Colonel Hambleton.
905
00:48:46,992 --> 00:48:49,060
I was talking to the
forward air controllers,
906
00:48:49,094 --> 00:48:50,861
and they were telling me
that Hambleton's not making
907
00:48:50,895 --> 00:48:53,031
his scheduled calls to them.
908
00:48:53,064 --> 00:48:56,101
And when he is, he's not
very coherent
909
00:48:56,134 --> 00:48:59,637
and they think he's losing --
he's not going to make it.
910
00:48:59,670 --> 00:49:02,073
So I went, "Okay, we're gonna go
after him."
911
00:49:02,107 --> 00:49:05,510
Tom Norris and his South
Vietnamese partner, Kiet,
912
00:49:05,543 --> 00:49:10,148
traveled by sampan to blend in
with the local river traffic.
913
00:49:10,181 --> 00:49:14,752
And we came out of the fog
just below the Cam Lo Bridge,
914
00:49:14,785 --> 00:49:17,622
which was supposed to have been
disabled.
915
00:49:17,655 --> 00:49:19,357
It was not.
916
00:49:19,390 --> 00:49:21,459
But it told me exactly
where I was.
917
00:49:21,492 --> 00:49:23,928
Tom didn't know it at the time,
918
00:49:23,961 --> 00:49:27,165
but there were 30,000
North Vietnamese troops
919
00:49:27,198 --> 00:49:29,334
crossing the Cam Lo Bridge.
920
00:49:29,367 --> 00:49:31,136
From that, I had a pretty
good idea
921
00:49:31,169 --> 00:49:32,770
where to start looking
for Hambleton
922
00:49:32,803 --> 00:49:35,306
because the forward air
controllers had seen him
923
00:49:35,340 --> 00:49:38,676
and they had been able to get
a location on him from that.
924
00:49:38,709 --> 00:49:41,412
We got to an area where
I thought looked pretty good,
925
00:49:41,446 --> 00:49:44,615
beached the sampan, climbed up
on the bank and started looking,
926
00:49:44,649 --> 00:49:47,485
and the guy was 25 yards
off the bank,
927
00:49:47,518 --> 00:49:51,189
sitting there in a bunch
of shrubbery, you know?
928
00:49:51,222 --> 00:49:54,259
He saw me, and of course,
he lit up
929
00:49:54,292 --> 00:49:58,763
and he started smiling
and waving.
930
00:49:58,796 --> 00:50:00,965
So we loaded him on the sampan,
put a couple life vests on him,
931
00:50:00,998 --> 00:50:02,667
put him at the bottom
of the sampan,
932
00:50:02,700 --> 00:50:04,269
put a bunch of vegetation
on him.
933
00:50:04,302 --> 00:50:05,970
Kiet got in the front,
I got in the back,
934
00:50:06,003 --> 00:50:07,905
and we headed off downstream.
935
00:50:07,938 --> 00:50:10,241
Racing towards their base,
936
00:50:10,275 --> 00:50:12,977
the men were spotted
by the North Vietnamese,
937
00:50:13,010 --> 00:50:15,913
but Norris and Kiet kept
paddling furiously
938
00:50:15,946 --> 00:50:18,015
along the far side
of the river,
939
00:50:18,049 --> 00:50:20,351
trying to outdistance
the enemy,
940
00:50:20,385 --> 00:50:23,321
when they came under withering
machine-gun fire.
941
00:50:23,354 --> 00:50:27,024
Norris called in air support.
942
00:50:27,058 --> 00:50:31,028
The men finally reached
the safety of their camp.
943
00:50:31,062 --> 00:50:33,564
Doctors later reported
that Hambleton,
944
00:50:33,598 --> 00:50:38,236
who had lost 45 pounds
over his 11.5-day ordeal,
945
00:50:38,269 --> 00:50:42,006
could not have lasted
much longer.
946
00:50:42,039 --> 00:50:46,777
And, as it had for
over 10 years,
947
00:50:46,811 --> 00:50:50,381
the Vietnam War bled on.
948
00:50:50,415 --> 00:50:53,618
In Paris, President
Richard Nixon's
949
00:50:53,651 --> 00:50:56,821
National Security Advisor,
Henry Kissinger,
950
00:50:56,854 --> 00:50:59,724
was in peace talks with
the North Vietnamese.
951
00:50:59,757 --> 00:51:01,559
To give him more leverage,
952
00:51:01,592 --> 00:51:04,028
all military options were
on the table,
953
00:51:04,061 --> 00:51:06,597
including a massive
amphibious landing
954
00:51:06,631 --> 00:51:08,999
near the North Vietnamese
border.
955
00:51:09,033 --> 00:51:11,702
Two of the few SEALs left
in country
956
00:51:11,736 --> 00:51:14,305
undertook a reconnaissance
mission:
957
00:51:14,339 --> 00:51:16,241
Lieutenant Tom Norris,
958
00:51:16,274 --> 00:51:19,944
who six months earlier
made the Bat-21 rescue,
959
00:51:19,977 --> 00:51:21,979
and Petty Officer Mike Thornton
960
00:51:22,012 --> 00:51:25,850
were joined by three South
Vietnamese special operators.
961
00:51:25,883 --> 00:51:29,620
Norris, who was scheduled
to go home in about a week,
962
00:51:29,654 --> 00:51:33,224
hand-picked Mike Thornton
for the operation.
963
00:51:33,258 --> 00:51:36,127
NORRIS: Mike's the kind of guy
that you think a SEAL should be.
964
00:51:36,161 --> 00:51:40,030
He's the big, muscular,
you know, "I'm a SEAL."
965
00:51:40,064 --> 00:51:43,701
The rest of us, in actuality,
most of them are my size.
966
00:51:43,734 --> 00:51:45,636
They're not big guys at all.
967
00:51:45,670 --> 00:51:47,938
They're tough average-sized
folks.
968
00:51:47,972 --> 00:51:50,675
Tom and Mike's mission
called for them to reconnoiter
969
00:51:50,708 --> 00:51:53,944
an enemy-held naval base
on the Cua Viet River
970
00:51:53,978 --> 00:51:56,681
and see how heavily defended
it was.
971
00:51:56,714 --> 00:51:59,016
Was it vulnerable to being
captured
972
00:51:59,049 --> 00:52:02,086
for a possible amphibious
landing site?
973
00:52:02,119 --> 00:52:03,988
Planned to go up with
the Vietnamese.
974
00:52:04,021 --> 00:52:06,557
They were gonna drop us off
into small little rubber rafts
975
00:52:06,591 --> 00:52:09,627
called Inflatable Boat, Small
-- IBSs.
976
00:52:09,660 --> 00:52:11,562
And we were gonna paddle
into an area
977
00:52:11,596 --> 00:52:14,532
and then offload from the IBSs
and swim into the beach
978
00:52:14,565 --> 00:52:17,067
and do our patrol and then
come back out again.
979
00:52:17,101 --> 00:52:19,637
The SEALs did not know it
at the time,
980
00:52:19,670 --> 00:52:22,240
but their Vietnamese boat
driver inserted them
981
00:52:22,273 --> 00:52:25,510
far north of their intended
drop point.
982
00:52:25,543 --> 00:52:27,812
We slipped in the water
and swam to the beach.
983
00:52:27,845 --> 00:52:30,915
Tommy sent me up over --
I had a Starlight scope
984
00:52:30,948 --> 00:52:33,117
and went up over the beach,
looked both ways
985
00:52:33,150 --> 00:52:35,085
to make sure the areas
were clear.
986
00:52:35,119 --> 00:52:36,721
Couldn't see the Cua Viet,
987
00:52:36,754 --> 00:52:39,590
but we brought everybody up
over the beach one at a time.
988
00:52:39,624 --> 00:52:42,893
The men did not find the river
where they were supposed to be,
989
00:52:42,927 --> 00:52:47,632
but as dawn was about to break,
they spotted something ominous.
990
00:52:47,665 --> 00:52:50,335
We're looking around and Mike
says -- he called me Nasty.
991
00:52:50,368 --> 00:52:52,102
He says, "Hey, Nasty, is that
what I think it is
992
00:52:52,136 --> 00:52:53,638
up there on the hill?"
993
00:52:53,671 --> 00:52:56,073
And I said, "If you're talking
about that tank, absolutely."
994
00:52:56,106 --> 00:52:58,843
He said, "Okay. Just thought
I'd check." You know?
995
00:52:58,876 --> 00:53:00,978
[ laughs ]
996
00:53:01,011 --> 00:53:03,781
"We're fine where we are,
but you know?
997
00:53:03,814 --> 00:53:06,684
They're up there, we're down
here. It's okay."
998
00:53:06,717 --> 00:53:09,420
And it didn't end up that way.
999
00:53:09,454 --> 00:53:11,422
There was a patrol that came
down the beach.
1000
00:53:11,456 --> 00:53:13,224
The officer that was with us
1001
00:53:13,258 --> 00:53:15,159
decided that they thought
it would be a good idea
1002
00:53:15,192 --> 00:53:17,061
to see if we could do
a body snatch.
1003
00:53:17,094 --> 00:53:19,230
He stood up behind
the sand dunes and yelled,
1004
00:53:19,264 --> 00:53:20,765
[ speaks in Vietnamese ]
1005
00:53:20,798 --> 00:53:22,267
It means, "Come here."
1006
00:53:22,300 --> 00:53:24,469
- Tried to call the guy over.
- Tried to call the guy over.
1007
00:53:24,502 --> 00:53:26,404
The guy's got an AK-47.
1008
00:53:26,437 --> 00:53:27,972
He's got this little...
1009
00:53:28,005 --> 00:53:31,676
And this guy's 100, probably
100 yards away from him and...
1010
00:53:31,709 --> 00:53:33,811
Things went from bad to worse.
1011
00:53:33,844 --> 00:53:37,715
You know, we got in
a tremendous firefight.
1012
00:53:37,748 --> 00:53:40,485
The South Vietnamese officer's
decision
1013
00:53:40,518 --> 00:53:43,921
to attempt to capture an enemy
soldier by shouting at him
1014
00:53:43,954 --> 00:53:45,956
ended up alerting
the North Vietnamese
1015
00:53:45,990 --> 00:53:48,025
to the Americans' presence.
1016
00:53:48,058 --> 00:53:50,728
The two SEALs and the three
South Vietnamese operators
1017
00:53:50,761 --> 00:53:55,966
found themselves overwhelmed
by a force of roughly 300.
1018
00:53:56,000 --> 00:53:57,535
They had dunes all up here.
1019
00:53:57,568 --> 00:53:59,370
So I would move up here
and shoot.
1020
00:53:59,404 --> 00:54:01,105
And then I'd fall back
and shoot.
1021
00:54:01,138 --> 00:54:02,840
And I'd roll over here and throw
a grenade over there,
1022
00:54:02,873 --> 00:54:04,241
and then I'd shoot.
1023
00:54:04,275 --> 00:54:05,976
But by me moving around,
1024
00:54:06,010 --> 00:54:07,712
it gave them a false pretense
as to how many people we had.
1025
00:54:07,745 --> 00:54:09,414
Thought we had
a lot more people.
1026
00:54:09,447 --> 00:54:11,916
And we did that a lot, a lot
of shooting and maneuvering.
1027
00:54:11,949 --> 00:54:14,352
After a three-hour firefight,
1028
00:54:14,385 --> 00:54:17,655
the North Vietnamese troops
began to pull back.
1029
00:54:17,688 --> 00:54:21,659
But the SEALs realized that
their enemy was not retreating,
1030
00:54:21,692 --> 00:54:24,862
merely repositioning
to surround them.
1031
00:54:24,895 --> 00:54:29,166
Tom Norris used his radio to
call in an American destroyer
1032
00:54:29,199 --> 00:54:31,902
to bombard their position.
1033
00:54:31,936 --> 00:54:34,204
"We're gonna be overrun.
1034
00:54:34,238 --> 00:54:36,607
This is what I need, and I want
you to fire for effect."
1035
00:54:36,641 --> 00:54:38,142
And of course to them,
1036
00:54:38,175 --> 00:54:40,010
that means you're throwing
rounds right on top of us.
1037
00:54:40,044 --> 00:54:41,879
And the guy comes back
and he says,
1038
00:54:41,912 --> 00:54:43,514
"Understand fire for effect?"
1039
00:54:43,548 --> 00:54:45,716
And I said, "Absolutely.
Put it on us."
1040
00:54:45,750 --> 00:54:48,185
And he said, "Are you sure?"
1041
00:54:48,218 --> 00:54:50,421
And I said, "Get it in here!"
1042
00:54:50,455 --> 00:54:52,156
And they did.
I mean, they brought it in.
1043
00:54:52,189 --> 00:54:53,724
Thank goodness.
1044
00:54:53,758 --> 00:54:57,662
But, I mean, it was
a long time coming.
1045
00:54:57,695 --> 00:54:59,730
As soon as I said,
"Mike, we're extracting,"
1046
00:54:59,764 --> 00:55:01,499
we started leapfrogging
out of there,
1047
00:55:01,532 --> 00:55:03,100
and I'm the last guy up there.
1048
00:55:03,133 --> 00:55:07,171
So I'm covering those guys until
it's my turn to leapfrog out.
1049
00:55:07,204 --> 00:55:09,173
And that never happened,
because I got shot.
1050
00:55:09,206 --> 00:55:10,808
I mean, I knew I'd been hit.
1051
00:55:10,841 --> 00:55:13,444
But I didn't -- I didn't know
how bad.
1052
00:55:13,478 --> 00:55:16,914
So I'm scrounging around
to find my rifle
1053
00:55:16,947 --> 00:55:19,149
to try and, you know,
shoot back.
1054
00:55:19,183 --> 00:55:21,118
And I'm seeing tunnel vision
come in,
1055
00:55:21,151 --> 00:55:23,320
and I'm fighting, going,
"No, no, no, no, no, no!"
1056
00:55:23,354 --> 00:55:26,290
Because I need to shoot.
I mean, I need to cover my guys.
1057
00:55:26,323 --> 00:55:28,459
And, boom, I went out.
1058
00:55:28,493 --> 00:55:30,728
Later on, I see Dang coming back
by himself,
1059
00:55:30,761 --> 00:55:31,996
and I said, "Where's Tom?"
1060
00:55:32,029 --> 00:55:34,999
He said, "He's dead."
And I said, "Stay here."
1061
00:55:35,032 --> 00:55:37,768
They both grabbed me and I said,
"Stay here. I'll go get Tommy."
1062
00:55:37,802 --> 00:55:39,136
I thought he was dead,
1063
00:55:39,169 --> 00:55:40,705
but I wasn't going to leave him
behind.
1064
00:55:40,738 --> 00:55:43,374
That was the thing, that we
never leave anybody behind.
1065
00:55:43,408 --> 00:55:45,643
So I sure wasn't going to be
the first one.
1066
00:55:45,676 --> 00:55:47,678
When Mike got to Tom's
position,
1067
00:55:47,712 --> 00:55:50,247
it was being overrun
by the enemy.
1068
00:55:50,280 --> 00:55:52,750
I eliminated several other guys
coming over the top.
1069
00:55:52,783 --> 00:55:54,819
Then I picked him up
and started running,
1070
00:55:54,852 --> 00:55:56,887
and that's when
the first round hit.
1071
00:55:56,921 --> 00:55:59,256
And we got blown into the sky.
1072
00:55:59,289 --> 00:56:02,493
And I fell and I saw him flying
off my shoulders.
1073
00:56:02,527 --> 00:56:04,862
When I picked up Tommy, he said,
"Mike, buddy."
1074
00:56:04,895 --> 00:56:06,363
And that's when I knew he was
back alive.
1075
00:56:06,397 --> 00:56:08,198
I had blood all over my face.
1076
00:56:08,232 --> 00:56:10,601
I mean, my brain was hanging out
and I don't know what all.
1077
00:56:10,635 --> 00:56:12,503
Bad guys just shooting at us,
1078
00:56:12,537 --> 00:56:14,639
and I could see rounds
hitting the water going,
1079
00:56:14,672 --> 00:56:16,507
"Cha-cha-ching! Cha-cha-ching!
Cha-cha-ching!"
1080
00:56:16,541 --> 00:56:19,376
And pretty soon, I'm kind of
losing consciousness again,
1081
00:56:19,410 --> 00:56:22,179
and Mike's trying to pull me
out to sea.
1082
00:56:22,212 --> 00:56:25,683
Shot through his leg and hit
with shrapnel in his back,
1083
00:56:25,716 --> 00:56:27,785
Mike Thornton was now swimming
1084
00:56:27,818 --> 00:56:30,354
two injured comrades
out to sea:
1085
00:56:30,387 --> 00:56:32,990
Tom Norris,
who was barely alive,
1086
00:56:33,023 --> 00:56:35,359
and one of the South Vietnamese
operators
1087
00:56:35,392 --> 00:56:38,362
who'd also been shot
and couldn't swim.
1088
00:56:38,395 --> 00:56:40,998
Mike carried them both
for several hours
1089
00:56:41,031 --> 00:56:43,634
before they were finally
picked up.
1090
00:56:43,668 --> 00:56:46,003
The doctor gave him no chance
at all to live.
1091
00:56:46,036 --> 00:56:49,373
His first operation was almost
19 and a half hours long.
1092
00:56:49,406 --> 00:56:53,077
Nearly a year after saving
Tom Norris's life,
1093
00:56:53,110 --> 00:56:56,146
Mike Thornton would be awarded
the Medal of Honor,
1094
00:56:56,180 --> 00:56:59,183
America's highest
military honor.
1095
00:56:59,216 --> 00:57:02,119
But Norris was still
in the hospital.
1096
00:57:02,152 --> 00:57:04,455
When Mike was to receive
his medal, of course,
1097
00:57:04,489 --> 00:57:06,290
he wanted me to be there.
1098
00:57:06,323 --> 00:57:08,225
We went to the hospital
and said,
1099
00:57:08,258 --> 00:57:11,195
"You know, I'd like to be able
to be at this ceremony."
1100
00:57:11,228 --> 00:57:12,963
And they felt that was --
1101
00:57:12,997 --> 00:57:15,466
I mean, medically, I wasn't
supposed to be doing that.
1102
00:57:15,500 --> 00:57:17,968
So they said,
"No, you can't do that."
1103
00:57:18,002 --> 00:57:20,738
Of course, that's not
the thing to tell...
1104
00:57:20,771 --> 00:57:23,641
you just don't tell a SEAL
he can't.
1105
00:57:23,674 --> 00:57:26,443
You know, it's not a word
in our vocabulary.
1106
00:57:26,477 --> 00:57:29,279
And so we...
1107
00:57:29,313 --> 00:57:30,881
[ laughs ]
1108
00:57:30,915 --> 00:57:32,750
I just went up there
in the middle of the night.
1109
00:57:32,783 --> 00:57:34,552
[ laughs ]
1110
00:57:34,585 --> 00:57:36,521
Yeah. Well, he did.
1111
00:57:36,554 --> 00:57:38,923
Mike kind of kidnapped me
out of the hospital.
1112
00:57:38,956 --> 00:57:41,158
THORNTON:
The Navy got so angry at me
1113
00:57:41,191 --> 00:57:43,160
because I ended up keeping Tommy
for four days
1114
00:57:43,193 --> 00:57:44,729
instead of one day.
1115
00:57:44,762 --> 00:57:47,331
I told Admiral Zumwalt, I didn't
leave him in North Vietnam,
1116
00:57:47,364 --> 00:57:48,999
and I sure as hell wasn't going
to leave him in the hospital
1117
00:57:49,033 --> 00:57:50,367
on that great day.
1118
00:57:50,400 --> 00:57:52,469
I'll never forget
President Nixon said,
1119
00:57:52,503 --> 00:57:54,505
"Mike, what can I do for you?"
1120
00:57:54,539 --> 00:57:56,774
And I said, "Well, if you could
break this medal in half
1121
00:57:56,807 --> 00:57:59,143
and give the other half to the
young man standing behind me,
1122
00:57:59,176 --> 00:58:02,379
because he saved my life, too."
1123
00:58:02,412 --> 00:58:05,750
Four years later,
President Gerald Ford
1124
00:58:05,783 --> 00:58:09,319
awarded Tom Norris his own
Medal of Honor
1125
00:58:09,353 --> 00:58:12,557
for the rescue of
the two downed airmen.
1126
00:58:12,590 --> 00:58:15,526
Once he and Mike Thornton both
had received the medal,
1127
00:58:15,560 --> 00:58:18,295
it would be the only time
in modern history
1128
00:58:18,328 --> 00:58:22,667
that one recipient had saved
the life of another.
1129
00:58:22,700 --> 00:58:25,335
Neither one of us feel
that we deserve our medals.
1130
00:58:25,369 --> 00:58:26,671
He may think I deserve mine
1131
00:58:26,704 --> 00:58:28,372
because he's sitting
next to me now.
1132
00:58:28,405 --> 00:58:30,407
But did I ever think
about it twice
1133
00:58:30,440 --> 00:58:32,042
about going back to get Tommy?
1134
00:58:32,076 --> 00:58:33,711
No, because I knew
that he would've done
1135
00:58:33,744 --> 00:58:35,379
the same thing for me.
1136
00:58:35,412 --> 00:58:37,247
And that's what type of trust
that you have to have
1137
00:58:37,281 --> 00:58:40,384
within each other to do
missions like that.
1138
00:58:40,417 --> 00:58:46,924
The last SEAL advisor left
Vietnam in March of 1973.
1139
00:58:48,092 --> 00:58:50,160
With another war ending,
1140
00:58:50,194 --> 00:58:53,764
the special warfare units
were once again imperiled
1141
00:58:53,798 --> 00:58:56,500
by budgets and bureaucracy.
1142
00:58:56,533 --> 00:58:59,604
MAN: The worst time I can
remember is post-Vietnam.
1143
00:58:59,637 --> 00:59:03,107
We actually took United States
Navy SEALs out of the teams
1144
00:59:03,140 --> 00:59:04,609
and put them back in the fleet.
1145
00:59:04,642 --> 00:59:07,011
At that time
the brain power said,
1146
00:59:07,044 --> 00:59:09,546
"Well, we probably don't need
that much special operations."
1147
00:59:09,580 --> 00:59:11,849
That was a terrible mistake,
1148
00:59:11,882 --> 00:59:13,884
and a lot of guys suffered
for it.
1149
00:59:13,918 --> 00:59:16,987
So I think the darkest time
in the 45 years
1150
00:59:17,021 --> 00:59:19,123
I've been associated
with this community
1151
00:59:19,156 --> 00:59:22,526
was post-Vietnam just because
the SEALs weren't valued.
1152
00:59:22,559 --> 00:59:26,864
Funding for the military,
including the SEALs
1153
00:59:26,897 --> 00:59:30,000
and Underwater Demolition Teams,
dropped off quite a bit.
1154
00:59:30,034 --> 00:59:33,570
And there was a very low period
where it was difficult
1155
00:59:33,604 --> 00:59:38,075
to get the supplies you needed
to even train properly.
1156
00:59:38,108 --> 00:59:40,678
We got a lot of training done,
1157
00:59:40,711 --> 00:59:42,546
but we didn't get a lot
of shooting done
1158
00:59:42,579 --> 00:59:46,483
because we didn't have the money
for bullets at the time.
1159
00:59:46,516 --> 00:59:50,120
Skills atrophied or were not
developed with the times.
1160
00:59:50,154 --> 00:59:54,524
That went on for a number
of years after Vietnam.
1161
00:59:57,461 --> 01:00:02,900
But special operators would
still be needed.
1162
01:00:02,933 --> 01:00:07,137
[ crowd chanting
in foreign language ]
1163
01:00:07,171 --> 01:00:10,140
In 1980, President Jimmy Carter
1164
01:00:10,174 --> 01:00:14,011
approved an Army Special Forces
rescue of 53 Americans
1165
01:00:14,044 --> 01:00:18,582
being held hostage at
the U.S. Embassy in Iran.
1166
01:00:18,615 --> 01:00:23,620
The rescue mission, however,
met with disaster
1167
01:00:23,654 --> 01:00:27,992
when a helicopter collided
with a C-130 troop carrier
1168
01:00:28,025 --> 01:00:30,494
that was refueling.
1169
01:00:30,527 --> 01:00:35,866
Eight servicemen were killed
and several others injured.
1170
01:00:35,900 --> 01:00:39,870
In order to avoid another
catastrophe like Desert One,
1171
01:00:39,904 --> 01:00:44,474
the military created
two new organizations:
1172
01:00:44,508 --> 01:00:47,011
a Joint Special Operations
Command
1173
01:00:47,044 --> 01:00:50,014
to coordinate all special
warfare missions
1174
01:00:50,047 --> 01:00:52,649
and SEAL Team Six, the Navy's
1175
01:00:52,683 --> 01:00:56,987
dedicated counter-terror
and hostage rescue unit.
1176
01:00:57,021 --> 01:01:00,257
They chose the number six
to make the Soviets believe
1177
01:01:00,290 --> 01:01:03,293
there were five other teams
working against them.
1178
01:01:03,327 --> 01:01:05,129
[ shouts indistinctly ]
1179
01:01:05,162 --> 01:01:07,564
[ automatic gunfire ]
1180
01:01:12,336 --> 01:01:15,272
While now considered the elite
of the elite,
1181
01:01:15,305 --> 01:01:20,677
SEAL Team Six's first combat
mission met with tragedy.
1182
01:01:23,180 --> 01:01:26,050
[ explosion ]
1183
01:01:26,083 --> 01:01:29,954
Early this morning, forces from
six Caribbean democracies
1184
01:01:29,987 --> 01:01:34,324
and the United States
began a landing or landings
1185
01:01:34,358 --> 01:01:38,228
on the island of Grenada
in the Eastern Caribbean.
1186
01:01:38,262 --> 01:01:42,232
When President Ronald Reagan
gave the go-ahead
1187
01:01:42,266 --> 01:01:46,070
for Operation Urgent Fury,
he expressed concern
1188
01:01:46,103 --> 01:01:52,009
for the safety of 600 U.S.
medical students on Grenada.
1189
01:01:52,042 --> 01:01:54,912
But the underlying concerns
were, once again,
1190
01:01:54,945 --> 01:01:57,948
about the spread of Communism.
1191
01:01:57,982 --> 01:02:01,085
The country's Marxist prime
minister had been gunned down
1192
01:02:01,118 --> 01:02:03,120
by even more radical members
1193
01:02:03,153 --> 01:02:06,356
of his Cuban-influenced
administration.
1194
01:02:06,390 --> 01:02:09,226
Grenadian military forces
had been augmented
1195
01:02:09,259 --> 01:02:14,731
by Cubans and other
Soviet Bloc troops.
1196
01:02:14,765 --> 01:02:19,136
Reagan saw the prospect
of another Communist toehold
1197
01:02:19,169 --> 01:02:21,839
in the Americas as unacceptable
1198
01:02:21,872 --> 01:02:25,209
and ordered the American
military to capture the island
1199
01:02:25,242 --> 01:02:28,946
and restore constitutional
democracy.
1200
01:02:28,979 --> 01:02:33,083
While this was America's first
major combat operation
1201
01:02:33,117 --> 01:02:37,922
since leaving Vietnam, it was
planned in just three days.
1202
01:02:41,591 --> 01:02:46,363
SEAL Team Six was part of
the rushed operation.
1203
01:02:46,396 --> 01:02:50,234
Twelve teammates undertook an
ill-planned parachute insertion
1204
01:02:50,267 --> 01:02:52,536
in heavy winds.
1205
01:02:52,569 --> 01:02:56,140
Intelligence failed to consider
daylight savings time,
1206
01:02:56,173 --> 01:03:00,110
and a daytime mission faded
into night.
1207
01:03:00,144 --> 01:03:03,213
The men were dropped
in the wrong place.
1208
01:03:03,247 --> 01:03:06,016
Ten-foot swells
and a driving rain
1209
01:03:06,050 --> 01:03:09,386
dragged the men
and their parachutes.
1210
01:03:09,419 --> 01:03:13,590
Four SEALs perished that night.
1211
01:03:16,226 --> 01:03:20,164
Other SEALs were able to save
the Commonwealth governor,
1212
01:03:20,197 --> 01:03:24,401
who went on to stabilize
the country.
1213
01:03:24,434 --> 01:03:27,437
And the mission in Grenada
was hailed by President Reagan
1214
01:03:27,471 --> 01:03:32,376
as a triumph over Communism.
1215
01:03:32,409 --> 01:03:34,378
But the operation exposed
the need
1216
01:03:34,411 --> 01:03:36,981
for better Joint Special Ops
communications
1217
01:03:37,014 --> 01:03:39,449
and cross-service training.
1218
01:03:39,483 --> 01:03:43,120
The SEAL community did some
soul-searching.
1219
01:03:43,153 --> 01:03:45,923
If it was a training exercise,
we would've cancelled this.
1220
01:03:45,956 --> 01:03:48,525
But we can't. This is
real world; in you go.
1221
01:03:48,558 --> 01:03:50,194
And so you look at those things,
1222
01:03:50,227 --> 01:03:54,131
and you talk about it
in very gloves-off terms
1223
01:03:54,164 --> 01:03:57,434
not to assign blame,
but how do we train ourselves
1224
01:03:57,467 --> 01:03:59,436
or how do we prevent this
from happening again?
1225
01:03:59,469 --> 01:04:01,138
Because had we made
the better decision,
1226
01:04:01,171 --> 01:04:02,907
this would not have taken place.
1227
01:04:02,940 --> 01:04:06,610
We wouldn't have lost
those people.
1228
01:04:06,643 --> 01:04:09,113
[ automatic gunfire ]
1229
01:04:09,146 --> 01:04:11,815
The SEALs had been fighting
Communism
1230
01:04:11,848 --> 01:04:14,018
since their inception.
1231
01:04:14,051 --> 01:04:17,754
But the threats were shifting
in the 1980s.
1232
01:04:17,787 --> 01:04:20,024
There were Islamist militants
1233
01:04:20,057 --> 01:04:22,859
who held Americans hostage
in Iran.
1234
01:04:22,893 --> 01:04:25,029
Then the war on drugs flared
1235
01:04:25,062 --> 01:04:30,000
and President George H.W. Bush
sent the U.S. military,
1236
01:04:30,034 --> 01:04:32,336
including the Navy SEALs,
1237
01:04:32,369 --> 01:04:35,973
to capture Panamanian drug lord
Manuel Noriega
1238
01:04:36,006 --> 01:04:39,043
in December 1989.
1239
01:04:43,347 --> 01:04:45,682
Six weeks before that,
however...
1240
01:04:45,715 --> 01:04:47,417
[ jackhammer pounding ]
1241
01:04:47,451 --> 01:04:50,988
the Cold War took a turn.
1242
01:04:51,021 --> 01:04:54,558
The Berlin Wall
came shattering down.
1243
01:04:54,591 --> 01:05:00,630
[ cheering and applause ]
1244
01:05:00,664 --> 01:05:03,233
Much of the history
of the 20th century
1245
01:05:03,267 --> 01:05:05,869
is written in the struggle
for dominion
1246
01:05:05,902 --> 01:05:09,206
between communism
and democracy.
1247
01:05:09,239 --> 01:05:12,842
There is no more enduring
symbol of the Cold War
1248
01:05:12,876 --> 01:05:15,445
than of the Berlin Wall...
1249
01:05:15,479 --> 01:05:17,547
[ people shouting and singing ]
1250
01:05:17,581 --> 01:05:20,817
even in pieces.
1251
01:05:20,850 --> 01:05:24,621
Erected in 1961
as a permanent border
1252
01:05:24,654 --> 01:05:26,823
between East and West Berlin,
1253
01:05:26,856 --> 01:05:29,726
it was designed to keep
East German defectors
1254
01:05:29,759 --> 01:05:33,063
from leaving the Communist Bloc
and heading West.
1255
01:05:33,097 --> 01:05:36,800
[ trumpet blaring
and people cheering ]
1256
01:05:36,833 --> 01:05:39,336
Although the wall was down...
1257
01:05:39,369 --> 01:05:42,339
[ bomb squeals and explodes ]
1258
01:05:42,372 --> 01:05:45,209
the U.S. military continued
preparing
1259
01:05:45,242 --> 01:05:48,145
against its traditional enemy,
1260
01:05:48,178 --> 01:05:51,948
not knowing the extent
of an ongoing Soviet threat.
1261
01:05:51,982 --> 01:05:53,483
[ ** ]
1262
01:05:53,517 --> 01:05:58,555
So the men just kept training
-- Cold War training.
1263
01:05:58,588 --> 01:06:00,790
Foxtrot Bravo,
this is Alpha Charlie.
1264
01:06:00,824 --> 01:06:03,193
We worked with the Norwegians
and the Germans,
1265
01:06:03,227 --> 01:06:06,463
and we did crazy stuff like
1266
01:06:06,496 --> 01:06:10,867
the border of the Soviet Union
on skis.
1267
01:06:10,900 --> 01:06:13,970
And we would go out and patrol
for days and days,
1268
01:06:14,004 --> 01:06:17,374
living in the Arctic,
below zero,
1269
01:06:17,407 --> 01:06:19,709
thinking we were going to stop
the Soviet invasion?
1270
01:06:19,743 --> 01:06:22,579
I don't know.
1271
01:06:22,612 --> 01:06:24,514
But as the threat of war
1272
01:06:24,548 --> 01:06:27,517
between the Soviet Union
and the United States declined,
1273
01:06:27,551 --> 01:06:33,423
a new enemy was on the rise:
al-Qaeda.
1274
01:06:33,457 --> 01:06:39,396
In its first attack on America,
the terrorist organization
1275
01:06:39,429 --> 01:06:43,767
bombed New York's World Trade
Center in February, 1993,
1276
01:06:43,800 --> 01:06:47,137
killing 6 and wounding 1,000.
1277
01:06:49,306 --> 01:06:53,977
This was the same year that
Osama bin Laden issued a fatwa,
1278
01:06:54,010 --> 01:06:55,479
urging his followers
1279
01:06:55,512 --> 01:06:58,848
to kill American soldiers
stationed in Somalia
1280
01:06:58,882 --> 01:07:03,153
as part of a United Nations
humanitarian mission.
1281
01:07:03,187 --> 01:07:06,790
bin Laden provided military
training to Somali tribes
1282
01:07:06,823 --> 01:07:10,160
opposed to the UN's
intervention.
1283
01:07:10,194 --> 01:07:16,100
My first actual combat mission
was in Somalia in 1993.
1284
01:07:16,133 --> 01:07:18,935
I was a member of Task Force
Ranger,
1285
01:07:18,968 --> 01:07:22,306
which was a Joint Special
Operations task force
1286
01:07:22,339 --> 01:07:27,911
that went overseas to Somalia
to capture Mohamed Farrah Aidid,
1287
01:07:27,944 --> 01:07:29,746
who happened to be
one of the warlords
1288
01:07:29,779 --> 01:07:32,349
in control of the area
at the time.
1289
01:07:32,382 --> 01:07:35,252
[ men chanting and clapping ]
1290
01:07:35,285 --> 01:07:37,654
They were taking control
of the food,
1291
01:07:37,687 --> 01:07:40,090
which was causing famine
for a lot of people.
1292
01:07:40,124 --> 01:07:42,326
Innocent civilians were dying.
1293
01:07:42,359 --> 01:07:45,662
[ ** ]
1294
01:07:48,098 --> 01:07:51,335
And before we had actually
deployed over there,
1295
01:07:51,368 --> 01:07:53,837
they had actually killed a group
of Pakistani soldiers
1296
01:07:53,870 --> 01:07:55,472
and massacred them.
1297
01:07:55,505 --> 01:07:58,408
So our job was to go in there
and try and capture him.
1298
01:08:04,514 --> 01:08:09,286
I was part of a small SEAL
sniper team of four guys,
1299
01:08:09,319 --> 01:08:12,222
very close-knit,
and our specialty
1300
01:08:12,256 --> 01:08:17,494
was sniping off of helicopters.
1301
01:08:17,527 --> 01:08:21,565
We thought that that's the skill
set they needed in Somalia.
1302
01:08:21,598 --> 01:08:23,133
When we got on the ground,
though,
1303
01:08:23,167 --> 01:08:25,935
it was a different story.
1304
01:08:25,969 --> 01:08:27,637
The Army was in charge,
1305
01:08:27,671 --> 01:08:29,973
rightfully so --
we were only four SEALs --
1306
01:08:30,006 --> 01:08:32,976
and they decided to use
their guys in those roles.
1307
01:08:33,009 --> 01:08:36,045
So we just took it upon
ourselves to find a job.
1308
01:08:36,079 --> 01:08:38,548
You know, that's what SEALs do.
1309
01:08:38,582 --> 01:08:42,286
We weren't just going to sit
on the cots at the airport.
1310
01:08:42,319 --> 01:08:45,054
Rick Kaiser and his teammates
from SEAL Team Six
1311
01:08:45,088 --> 01:08:47,023
successfully carried out
1312
01:08:47,056 --> 01:08:49,859
several "snatch and grab"
missions in Mogadishu,
1313
01:08:49,893 --> 01:08:52,862
intent on capturing Aidid's
top lieutenants
1314
01:08:52,896 --> 01:08:56,900
on their way to the warlord
himself.
1315
01:08:56,933 --> 01:08:59,969
The SEAL utility vehicle, right,
was our transportation,
1316
01:09:00,003 --> 01:09:02,071
even though it was not armored
at all.
1317
01:09:02,105 --> 01:09:03,807
It was very dangerous.
1318
01:09:03,840 --> 01:09:06,410
So anyway, we went in to reload
our magazines, get some water,
1319
01:09:06,443 --> 01:09:08,912
and get ready to go out,
and I went to the bathroom.
1320
01:09:08,945 --> 01:09:12,015
And when I came back, all the
guys were in the Humvee already,
1321
01:09:12,048 --> 01:09:15,219
ready to go, except for one
place: the driving seat.
1322
01:09:15,252 --> 01:09:18,755
And I looked at them and I go,
"You bastards," you know?
1323
01:09:18,788 --> 01:09:20,624
Because that is the worst place
to be
1324
01:09:20,657 --> 01:09:22,459
is in the driver's seat,
because you can't shoot.
1325
01:09:22,492 --> 01:09:24,228
You gotta just drive.
1326
01:09:24,261 --> 01:09:25,862
You're just like, wide open,
1327
01:09:25,895 --> 01:09:28,665
especially with no door
and no armor or nothing.
1328
01:09:28,698 --> 01:09:31,301
But they all looked at me,
and I could just see them,
1329
01:09:31,335 --> 01:09:33,437
a couple of guys were behind
the sandbags going like this...
1330
01:09:33,470 --> 01:09:35,272
laughing at me.
1331
01:09:35,305 --> 01:09:38,208
I was like, man, it didn't pay
to go to the bathroom.
1332
01:09:38,242 --> 01:09:41,978
So before the big battle
on October the 3rd,
1333
01:09:42,011 --> 01:09:45,882
we had already conducted,
I think, six other missions.
1334
01:09:45,915 --> 01:09:49,719
All of which gave us, I think,
overconfidence
1335
01:09:49,753 --> 01:09:53,490
that we could do whatever
we wanted in the city,
1336
01:09:53,523 --> 01:09:56,760
that the enemy was not
that fierce.
1337
01:09:56,793 --> 01:10:01,331
But unfortunately, you know, as
events unfolded on October 3rd,
1338
01:10:01,365 --> 01:10:03,667
when we were doing another
typical mission
1339
01:10:03,700 --> 01:10:05,502
to go into a city,
1340
01:10:05,535 --> 01:10:08,238
to a hotel in the heart
of the bad-guy territory,
1341
01:10:08,272 --> 01:10:11,140
one of our helicopters
got shot down.
1342
01:10:11,174 --> 01:10:16,880
Then Islamist militants shot
down a second U.S. helicopter.
1343
01:10:16,913 --> 01:10:20,183
But the men trying to rescue
the embattled Americans
1344
01:10:20,216 --> 01:10:22,051
also got trapped.
1345
01:10:22,085 --> 01:10:24,220
Ninety-nine U.S. servicemen
1346
01:10:24,254 --> 01:10:26,856
were now stranded in the middle
of the city,
1347
01:10:26,890 --> 01:10:30,360
surrounded by thousands
of armed fighters.
1348
01:10:30,394 --> 01:10:33,463
This operation was memorialized
in the book and movie
1349
01:10:33,497 --> 01:10:37,033
called Black Hawk Down.
1350
01:10:37,066 --> 01:10:38,968
It was not widely reported
1351
01:10:39,002 --> 01:10:42,071
that four Navy SEALs worked
with Army Rangers
1352
01:10:42,105 --> 01:10:44,908
to rescue their downed
soldiers.
1353
01:10:44,941 --> 01:10:48,111
So we were in a gun battle
from about noon that day
1354
01:10:48,144 --> 01:10:50,046
until noon the next.
1355
01:10:50,079 --> 01:10:53,049
[ gunfire and shouting ]
1356
01:11:09,466 --> 01:11:11,301
We took wounded guys in
1357
01:11:11,335 --> 01:11:13,236
and we went back out
and fought some more,
1358
01:11:13,269 --> 01:11:15,839
took some more back in, and then
we went out a third time
1359
01:11:15,872 --> 01:11:18,475
to rescue the guys
in the helicopter.
1360
01:11:18,508 --> 01:11:22,145
And we did.
We finally got them out.
1361
01:11:23,913 --> 01:11:26,249
Although 18 Americans died
1362
01:11:26,282 --> 01:11:29,719
in perhaps the fiercest
firefight since Vietnam,
1363
01:11:29,753 --> 01:11:33,256
every SEAL who was in Mogadishu
earned a Silver Star
1364
01:11:33,289 --> 01:11:35,525
for valor in combat.
1365
01:11:35,559 --> 01:11:38,695
But the brutality of the battle
was broadcast
1366
01:11:38,728 --> 01:11:40,897
and the U.S. withdrew.
1367
01:11:40,930 --> 01:11:45,168
Known as the Mogadishu Effect,
fear of public humiliation
1368
01:11:45,201 --> 01:11:49,906
underscored many future U.S.
foreign policy decisions.
1369
01:11:49,939 --> 01:11:54,511
But a loss for America was
taken as a victory by al-Qaeda.
1370
01:11:54,544 --> 01:11:56,713
What we found out later is that
1371
01:11:56,746 --> 01:11:59,483
that was really a test bed
for al-Qaeda
1372
01:11:59,516 --> 01:12:02,619
and other Islamic militants
for the future,
1373
01:12:02,652 --> 01:12:04,654
because what they saw us do
1374
01:12:04,688 --> 01:12:08,324
was when the going got tough and
Americans got killed, we left.
1375
01:12:08,358 --> 01:12:10,560
So it really gave them
the courage
1376
01:12:10,594 --> 01:12:15,164
to carry on and fight us, you
know, all the way up to 9/11.
1377
01:12:16,766 --> 01:12:19,636
[ explosion ]
1378
01:12:23,407 --> 01:12:28,945
September 11, 2001, was a new
generation's Pearl Harbor.
1379
01:12:28,978 --> 01:12:32,382
[ engines humming ]
1380
01:12:32,416 --> 01:12:35,084
[ explosion ]
1381
01:12:39,088 --> 01:12:43,026
But after that deadly attack
on America in 1941,
1382
01:12:43,059 --> 01:12:49,365
there was an obvious enemy and
a nation to hold responsible.
1383
01:12:49,399 --> 01:12:52,569
[ sirens blaring ]
1384
01:12:54,738 --> 01:12:58,808
Sixty years later,
9/11 was different.
1385
01:12:58,842 --> 01:13:01,811
Terror had no government.
1386
01:13:09,753 --> 01:13:13,623
[ siren blaring
and fire truck horn honking ]
1387
01:13:17,360 --> 01:13:20,464
I was in the Operations
Department at Dev Group
1388
01:13:20,497 --> 01:13:22,566
when 9/11 happened.
1389
01:13:22,599 --> 01:13:24,934
We were standing in our
operations center,
1390
01:13:24,968 --> 01:13:28,672
watching it happen
on the news.
1391
01:13:28,705 --> 01:13:33,276
MAN: I was in the Pentagon
when the airplanes flew into it.
1392
01:13:33,309 --> 01:13:36,212
I was where every good team guy
needs to be
1393
01:13:36,245 --> 01:13:40,016
when the caca hits the fan --
I was in the gym working out.
1394
01:13:40,049 --> 01:13:43,186
And I heard the fire alarm
go off.
1395
01:13:43,219 --> 01:13:45,354
But we'd had numerous
such drills,
1396
01:13:45,388 --> 01:13:48,357
and I thought it was a drill,
so I casually got dressed.
1397
01:13:48,391 --> 01:13:50,159
And I went out, and as I
stepped out I saw
1398
01:13:50,193 --> 01:13:52,729
25,000 of my closest friends
leaving the building,
1399
01:13:52,762 --> 01:13:54,998
going down to the river.
"What the hell happened?"
1400
01:13:55,031 --> 01:13:58,835
They said, "We think an airplane
hit the building."
1401
01:14:00,770 --> 01:14:04,007
[ sirens blaring ]
1402
01:14:04,040 --> 01:14:09,212
My response was I gotta find
my boss, he needs me now.
1403
01:14:09,245 --> 01:14:11,347
So I fought my way back
into the Pentagon,
1404
01:14:11,380 --> 01:14:14,183
and was inside the Pentagon
and actually sitting right there
1405
01:14:14,217 --> 01:14:17,420
with the Secretary of Defense
and my boss
1406
01:14:17,453 --> 01:14:20,957
while they were trying to figure
out what the heck was going on
1407
01:14:20,990 --> 01:14:23,026
and how many more airplanes
were going to come in
1408
01:14:23,059 --> 01:14:25,629
and were going to hit what.
1409
01:14:25,662 --> 01:14:27,531
OSMAN:
I didn't even believe it.
1410
01:14:27,564 --> 01:14:29,065
"What do you mean
they're hijacking planes?"
1411
01:14:29,098 --> 01:14:30,867
He goes, "There's terrorists
that have hijacked planes,
1412
01:14:30,900 --> 01:14:32,669
and they're crashing them
into buildings."
1413
01:14:32,702 --> 01:14:34,437
And I'm like, "What?!"
1414
01:14:34,470 --> 01:14:37,473
[ sirens blaring ]
1415
01:14:39,743 --> 01:14:41,778
Our intelligence agency,
1416
01:14:41,811 --> 01:14:44,147
we're tracking terrorist
organizations,
1417
01:14:44,180 --> 01:14:49,418
and it just felt like it was
just a matter of time.
1418
01:14:49,452 --> 01:14:52,388
You had already had some of
these attacks overseas:
1419
01:14:52,421 --> 01:14:55,859
the barracks in Saudi Arabia,
1420
01:14:55,892 --> 01:14:59,529
the bombings at the embassies
in northern Africa.
1421
01:15:03,366 --> 01:15:06,069
Then you had the USS Cole.
1422
01:15:06,102 --> 01:15:08,572
It was like, these things
are coming more quickly.
1423
01:15:08,605 --> 01:15:10,974
It changed the course.
1424
01:15:11,007 --> 01:15:12,909
OSMAN: So I was a sniper
at that time.
1425
01:15:12,942 --> 01:15:14,644
I was the ordnance rep,
1426
01:15:14,678 --> 01:15:16,913
so I was in charge of all
of the platoon's firearms,
1427
01:15:16,946 --> 01:15:18,748
all of its weapon systems.
1428
01:15:18,782 --> 01:15:21,017
So I said, "Sir, what do you
need from me?"
1429
01:15:21,050 --> 01:15:22,451
And he goes, "Obviously
you've heard.
1430
01:15:22,485 --> 01:15:24,020
You've seen what's going on
downstairs.
1431
01:15:24,053 --> 01:15:26,222
We're packing, so load up
everything."
1432
01:15:26,255 --> 01:15:27,957
And I just turned to him
and I said,
1433
01:15:27,991 --> 01:15:29,492
"What are we -- packing
for what?"
1434
01:15:29,525 --> 01:15:31,060
And he looked right back
and goes,
1435
01:15:31,094 --> 01:15:32,729
"We're going to war.
Take everything."
1436
01:15:32,762 --> 01:15:34,598
(chanting)
USA! USA!
1437
01:15:34,631 --> 01:15:36,800
I can hear you!
1438
01:15:36,833 --> 01:15:39,636
[ crowd cheers and whistles ]
1439
01:15:39,669 --> 01:15:42,105
The rest of the world hears you.
1440
01:15:42,138 --> 01:15:43,539
And the people --
1441
01:15:43,573 --> 01:15:46,810
[ loud cheers and whooping ]
1442
01:15:46,843 --> 01:15:49,813
And the people who knocked
these buildings down
1443
01:15:49,846 --> 01:15:52,348
will hear all of us soon.
1444
01:15:52,381 --> 01:15:54,283
[ loud exclaiming and cheers ]
1445
01:15:54,317 --> 01:15:56,485
What changed on 9/11
for us?
1446
01:15:56,519 --> 01:15:58,221
I don't think we realized it
1447
01:15:58,254 --> 01:16:00,223
until probably two years
into it,
1448
01:16:00,256 --> 01:16:02,692
that it changed us from
a reactive force
1449
01:16:02,726 --> 01:16:08,231
into a long-term, long-range
fighting force.
1450
01:16:08,264 --> 01:16:13,102
Whereas before, we would go for
quick missions, a week or two,
1451
01:16:13,136 --> 01:16:14,938
go rescue some hostages,
1452
01:16:14,971 --> 01:16:17,707
go take down a ship
that's been taken over,
1453
01:16:17,741 --> 01:16:19,475
that kind of thing,
1454
01:16:19,508 --> 01:16:22,245
and we'd be home and happy
and everybody'd be, you know...
1455
01:16:22,278 --> 01:16:25,514
But now, we were like,
this is the long haul.
1456
01:16:25,548 --> 01:16:29,886
[ ** ]
1457
01:16:31,320 --> 01:16:33,589
OSMAN: Fourth or fifth day
after 9/11,
1458
01:16:33,623 --> 01:16:35,659
got a brief from
the commanding officer
1459
01:16:35,692 --> 01:16:39,763
telling us that we had been
selected to go overseas.
1460
01:16:39,796 --> 01:16:41,564
He'd been given National Command
Authority
1461
01:16:41,597 --> 01:16:44,968
to send one SEAL platoon, and he
was going to send our platoon.
1462
01:16:45,001 --> 01:16:47,704
And, like, you are happy
that you're going,
1463
01:16:47,737 --> 01:16:49,873
but you feel bad for the guys
in the other platoon.
1464
01:16:49,906 --> 01:16:51,374
And I remember leaving,
and I was like,
1465
01:16:51,407 --> 01:16:53,076
"Oh, man, sorry you didn't get
picked."
1466
01:16:53,109 --> 01:16:55,979
And one guy looked at me,
he's like, "[bleep] you, dude."
1467
01:16:56,012 --> 01:16:59,783
We were allowed to go home
for one night.
1468
01:16:59,816 --> 01:17:02,285
We basically got about seven
or eight hours off to go home
1469
01:17:02,318 --> 01:17:04,153
and say bye to our families.
1470
01:17:04,187 --> 01:17:05,855
And we filled out last will
and testaments.
1471
01:17:05,889 --> 01:17:07,991
We filled out life insurance
paperwork.
1472
01:17:08,024 --> 01:17:10,559
We filled out power of attorneys
for all of our families.
1473
01:17:10,593 --> 01:17:13,429
So it was the real deal.
1474
01:17:13,462 --> 01:17:16,966
KAISER: It took about four weeks
after 9/11
1475
01:17:17,000 --> 01:17:19,936
before we knew what
the government wanted to do.
1476
01:17:19,969 --> 01:17:23,506
We just kept training like we
normally trained and got ready.
1477
01:17:23,539 --> 01:17:25,842
The general consensus
of the population
1478
01:17:25,875 --> 01:17:28,511
is that SEALs hide in a cave
somewhere.
1479
01:17:28,544 --> 01:17:31,314
When the bat signal goes up,
they show up -- doo-do-do! --
1480
01:17:31,347 --> 01:17:32,816
and they save the day!
1481
01:17:32,849 --> 01:17:34,450
And then when they get done,
they go back
1482
01:17:34,483 --> 01:17:35,852
and they attach their feet
to the ceiling
1483
01:17:35,885 --> 01:17:37,353
and they go back to hanging
upside down.
1484
01:17:37,386 --> 01:17:39,388
Not really the case.
1485
01:17:39,422 --> 01:17:42,859
What they're doing is they're
going back to training.
1486
01:17:42,892 --> 01:17:45,829
Training is as close
to realistic combat conditions
1487
01:17:45,862 --> 01:17:48,397
as is allowable.
1488
01:17:48,431 --> 01:17:51,134
[ gunfire ]
1489
01:17:51,167 --> 01:17:53,803
You always shoot live rounds
in the SEAL teams.
1490
01:17:53,837 --> 01:17:56,940
There's very little blank
training.
1491
01:17:56,973 --> 01:17:59,575
If there is, it's only just
1492
01:17:59,608 --> 01:18:01,644
to kind of get some of
the basic moves down
1493
01:18:01,677 --> 01:18:03,880
before everything turns
into live fire.
1494
01:18:03,913 --> 01:18:07,083
And so all the rockets are real,
all the rounds are real.
1495
01:18:10,053 --> 01:18:14,257
What it's fostering in you
is your ability to react
1496
01:18:14,290 --> 01:18:17,894
under extreme adversity
and to be able to clearly think
1497
01:18:17,927 --> 01:18:20,964
under a lot of stress.
1498
01:18:20,997 --> 01:18:24,500
So, you know, when bombs are
going off and rounds are flying
1499
01:18:24,533 --> 01:18:26,669
and, you know, you hear
"man down,"
1500
01:18:26,702 --> 01:18:28,537
and next thing you know,
you gotta do buddy drags,
1501
01:18:28,571 --> 01:18:30,239
and you're doing
all of these things,
1502
01:18:30,273 --> 01:18:32,608
what that is doing is allowing
you to remember
1503
01:18:32,641 --> 01:18:34,811
that you have to stay focused
1504
01:18:34,844 --> 01:18:37,914
and the last thing you're
supposed to do is panic.
1505
01:18:37,947 --> 01:18:42,418
[ gunfire ]
1506
01:18:42,451 --> 01:18:47,290
The Taliban must act,
and act immediately.
1507
01:18:47,323 --> 01:18:50,827
They will hand over
the terrorists...
1508
01:18:50,860 --> 01:18:53,596
or they will share
in their fate.
1509
01:18:53,629 --> 01:18:58,234
Shortly after 9/11,
SEAL Team 3's Echo Platoon
1510
01:18:58,267 --> 01:19:02,238
headed to an unknown
destination in the Middle East.
1511
01:19:02,271 --> 01:19:04,908
We were the first
SEAL platoon
1512
01:19:04,941 --> 01:19:08,644
to deploy from the United States
that I'm aware of.
1513
01:19:08,677 --> 01:19:11,314
Well, we didn't know
where we were even going.
1514
01:19:11,347 --> 01:19:14,517
It wasn't until we had
gotten to altitude
1515
01:19:14,550 --> 01:19:16,953
that our Officer In Charge asked
one of the air crew,
1516
01:19:16,986 --> 01:19:18,521
"Hey, where's this plane
even going?"
1517
01:19:18,554 --> 01:19:20,023
And he was like, "We were told
1518
01:19:20,056 --> 01:19:21,524
we're flying you guys
to Kuwait."
1519
01:19:21,557 --> 01:19:23,292
We're like, "All right,
Kuwait it is," you know?
1520
01:19:23,326 --> 01:19:24,527
What are you gonna do?
1521
01:19:24,560 --> 01:19:26,195
You're not gonna leave,
you know what I mean?
1522
01:19:26,229 --> 01:19:27,396
[ laughs ]
1523
01:19:27,430 --> 01:19:29,198
The men had hoped
they were going
1524
01:19:29,232 --> 01:19:31,567
to the heart of the fight
in Afghanistan,
1525
01:19:31,600 --> 01:19:36,305
but their disappointment
would soon diminish.
1526
01:19:36,339 --> 01:19:40,509
Chris and his teammates were
assigned a maritime mission
1527
01:19:40,543 --> 01:19:44,647
called VBSS -- Visit, Board,
Search, and Seizure --
1528
01:19:44,680 --> 01:19:48,017
of smuggling vessels.
1529
01:19:48,051 --> 01:19:51,187
A couple of weeks into
their deployment,
1530
01:19:51,220 --> 01:19:54,723
a drone in their area
identified a tier one target
1531
01:19:54,757 --> 01:19:59,395
related to Osama bin Laden's
earlier terrorist attacks.
1532
01:19:59,428 --> 01:20:01,797
It was the ship
that al-Qaeda used
1533
01:20:01,831 --> 01:20:03,933
to smuggle the explosives
into Africa
1534
01:20:03,967 --> 01:20:06,069
for the two U.S. embassy
bombings
1535
01:20:06,102 --> 01:20:08,271
that killed over 200 people.
1536
01:20:08,304 --> 01:20:11,307
And so they wanted that ship
taken down,
1537
01:20:11,340 --> 01:20:15,244
and our platoon was given
the green light to do it,
1538
01:20:15,278 --> 01:20:18,948
and we were just like, "Wow!"
1539
01:20:18,982 --> 01:20:20,984
No one says anything, right?
1540
01:20:21,017 --> 01:20:23,052
And all of a sudden, the joking,
the grab-assing goes away
1541
01:20:23,086 --> 01:20:24,921
and it's game time.
1542
01:20:24,954 --> 01:20:27,456
So, you know, unzip the bags,
put all the gear on,
1543
01:20:27,490 --> 01:20:28,992
press check the weapons.
1544
01:20:29,025 --> 01:20:31,460
Make sure there's a round
in the chamber.
1545
01:20:31,494 --> 01:20:36,365
And we raced up at 40 miles an
hour in the middle of the night,
1546
01:20:36,399 --> 01:20:39,335
hooked and climbed up the side
of the ship,
1547
01:20:39,368 --> 01:20:42,771
jumped over the railing.
1548
01:20:42,805 --> 01:20:44,673
We probably had about
four or five people
1549
01:20:44,707 --> 01:20:46,509
that had already made it
over the railing
1550
01:20:46,542 --> 01:20:48,477
and we were setting
a security perimeter
1551
01:20:48,511 --> 01:20:50,446
when the doors opened and people
started coming out.
1552
01:20:50,479 --> 01:20:52,848
At that moment, really,
we couldn't even wait
1553
01:20:52,882 --> 01:20:54,650
for the rest of the platoon,
1554
01:20:54,683 --> 01:20:58,787
so we started the assault on the
ship with four or five people.
1555
01:20:58,821 --> 01:21:01,657
There was a -- a seriousness
about what we were doing
1556
01:21:01,690 --> 01:21:03,692
that I hadn't experienced
before.
1557
01:21:03,726 --> 01:21:06,429
The professionalism rose
to the challenge,
1558
01:21:06,462 --> 01:21:09,765
and all of us just never really
said anything,
1559
01:21:09,798 --> 01:21:12,835
never talked, nothing;
we just operated.
1560
01:21:12,868 --> 01:21:17,140
So that ship takedown took
about three minutes.
1561
01:21:17,173 --> 01:21:20,043
[ ** ]
1562
01:21:28,051 --> 01:21:29,953
In October 2001,
1563
01:21:29,986 --> 01:21:32,488
SEALs were among
the first U.S. forces
1564
01:21:32,521 --> 01:21:34,723
to set foot in Afghanistan
1565
01:21:34,757 --> 01:21:38,894
as part of a true
Joint Special Forces Operation.
1566
01:21:38,928 --> 01:21:43,399
There were a lot of folks who
initially asked the question:
1567
01:21:43,432 --> 01:21:45,534
what are SEALs doing
in Afghanistan?
1568
01:21:45,568 --> 01:21:48,771
Well, SEAL is an acronym
for sea, air, land.
1569
01:21:48,804 --> 01:21:51,040
That's just how you get to work.
1570
01:21:51,074 --> 01:21:52,708
SPARKS: I can tell you
the first time
1571
01:21:52,741 --> 01:21:54,743
that I ever touched down
in Afghanistan,
1572
01:21:54,777 --> 01:21:59,315
it was a very surreal feeling
and experience.
1573
01:21:59,348 --> 01:22:02,685
You know, you feel like
you've trained
1574
01:22:02,718 --> 01:22:06,155
and worked so hard and so long
for something,
1575
01:22:06,189 --> 01:22:07,923
and now you're --
the time is here.
1576
01:22:07,957 --> 01:22:09,392
You know, everything you --
1577
01:22:09,425 --> 01:22:12,495
all your blood, sweat, and tears
that you gave in training,
1578
01:22:12,528 --> 01:22:14,630
you're gonna get ready
to test that overseas
1579
01:22:14,663 --> 01:22:18,267
somewhere for real.
1580
01:22:18,301 --> 01:22:20,636
But it was, you know, exciting
1581
01:22:20,669 --> 01:22:22,505
and a little bit scary
all at once.
1582
01:22:22,538 --> 01:22:25,208
You know, I landed at night
shortly after September 11th,
1583
01:22:25,241 --> 01:22:27,943
and it was... the time had come.
1584
01:22:27,977 --> 01:22:29,712
[ ** ]
1585
01:22:29,745 --> 01:22:33,349
Although Osama bin Laden
would not claim responsibility
1586
01:22:33,382 --> 01:22:37,720
for the 2001 attacks on America
until 2004,
1587
01:22:37,753 --> 01:22:43,259
U.S. intelligence quickly
assigned blame to al-Qaeda.
1588
01:22:43,292 --> 01:22:45,561
They had also known
that the Taliban,
1589
01:22:45,594 --> 01:22:48,831
fundamentalist Islamists
based in Afghanistan,
1590
01:22:48,864 --> 01:22:52,168
had been harboring al-Qaeda
agents for years.
1591
01:22:52,201 --> 01:22:57,406
[ gunfire and indistinct
shouting ]
1592
01:22:59,208 --> 01:23:03,079
Early in 2002, the U.S.
and coalition partners
1593
01:23:03,112 --> 01:23:06,982
launched Operation Anaconda,
the first major initiative
1594
01:23:07,016 --> 01:23:09,785
to capture or kill
al-Qaeda fighters
1595
01:23:09,818 --> 01:23:13,456
and their Taliban supporters
in Afghanistan.
1596
01:23:17,026 --> 01:23:19,595
Before the operation began,
1597
01:23:19,628 --> 01:23:23,066
U.S. intelligence agencies
concentrated satellites
1598
01:23:23,099 --> 01:23:25,768
and other spy technologies
on the valley
1599
01:23:25,801 --> 01:23:29,438
where the initial attacks
would be staged.
1600
01:23:29,472 --> 01:23:33,776
Despite focusing what one
officer at the time called
1601
01:23:33,809 --> 01:23:38,481
"every national asset"
on the Shah-i-Kot Valley,
1602
01:23:38,514 --> 01:23:41,517
the intelligence estimates
turned out to be
1603
01:23:41,550 --> 01:23:43,786
wildly off the mark.
1604
01:23:43,819 --> 01:23:47,690
Rather than 1- or 200
al-Qaeda fighters
1605
01:23:47,723 --> 01:23:51,360
concentrated mostly in the
villages on the valley floor,
1606
01:23:51,394 --> 01:23:54,597
there were probably
several times that,
1607
01:23:54,630 --> 01:23:57,433
and a lot of the positions
they occupied
1608
01:23:57,466 --> 01:23:59,835
were in the high ground
overlooking the valley
1609
01:23:59,868 --> 01:24:02,405
and therefore overlooking
the landing zones
1610
01:24:02,438 --> 01:24:04,940
that the helicopters carrying
the U.S. infantry
1611
01:24:04,973 --> 01:24:07,410
were going to land on.
1612
01:24:07,443 --> 01:24:10,313
A Delta Force Lt. Colonel,
Pete Blaber,
1613
01:24:10,346 --> 01:24:13,649
was in charge of Advanced
Force Operations.
1614
01:24:13,682 --> 01:24:17,153
Blaber's gut told him
that it was important to get
1615
01:24:17,186 --> 01:24:22,291
U.S. eyes on the ground before
the main assault force went in.
1616
01:24:22,325 --> 01:24:25,494
Blaber had two of his own
reconnaissance teams
1617
01:24:25,528 --> 01:24:28,731
and requested a third
from SEAL Team Six.
1618
01:24:28,764 --> 01:24:32,868
The five-man unit
was code-named Mako 31.
1619
01:24:32,901 --> 01:24:35,771
It was led by a SEAL
reconnaissance expert
1620
01:24:35,804 --> 01:24:37,640
named Goody.
1621
01:24:37,673 --> 01:24:41,377
Blaber pulled Goody aside
and told him,
1622
01:24:41,410 --> 01:24:45,614
"The success or failure
of your mission
1623
01:24:45,648 --> 01:24:50,419
will predicate the success or
failure of the entire operation.
1624
01:24:50,453 --> 01:24:54,390
You have to get to your
observation post by H-Hour,"
1625
01:24:54,423 --> 01:24:57,560
the time that the operation
officially starts.
1626
01:24:57,593 --> 01:25:00,463
Goody was determined not to let
Blaber down,
1627
01:25:00,496 --> 01:25:03,832
so he told them that if they
were falling behind schedule,
1628
01:25:03,866 --> 01:25:07,970
they would just keep dropping
gear if necessary
1629
01:25:08,003 --> 01:25:11,440
until there were five naked guys
with guns
1630
01:25:11,474 --> 01:25:14,643
standing on the O.P. at H-Hour.
1631
01:25:14,677 --> 01:25:19,014
Shortly after dawn
on March 1, 2002,
1632
01:25:19,047 --> 01:25:22,185
Goody sent the other two SEAL
snipers on his team
1633
01:25:22,218 --> 01:25:26,189
to scout their pre-determined
observation post.
1634
01:25:26,222 --> 01:25:29,325
When they finally poked
their heads over the rocks
1635
01:25:29,358 --> 01:25:32,328
to take a look, they got
the shock of their lives.
1636
01:25:32,361 --> 01:25:36,865
Right there was a tent occupied
by al-Qaeda fighters
1637
01:25:36,899 --> 01:25:39,101
on the very spot
1638
01:25:39,134 --> 01:25:41,837
that they had wanted to put
their observation post.
1639
01:25:41,870 --> 01:25:45,641
Everything changed when
Mako 31 moved into position.
1640
01:25:45,674 --> 01:25:48,677
In addition to discovering
enemy fighters,
1641
01:25:48,711 --> 01:25:52,080
the SEALs also identified
a DShK heavy machine gun
1642
01:25:52,114 --> 01:25:53,982
on the ridgeline,
1643
01:25:54,016 --> 01:25:58,153
an anti-aircraft weapon with
a range of about 1,000 meters.
1644
01:25:58,187 --> 01:26:03,592
That was the exact path that
the infantry assault helicopters
1645
01:26:03,626 --> 01:26:06,929
were going to fly
in just a day or so
1646
01:26:06,962 --> 01:26:10,233
to start Operation Anaconda.
1647
01:26:12,000 --> 01:26:14,670
Airborne surveillance
had completely missed
1648
01:26:14,703 --> 01:26:18,006
both the men and their
equipment.
1649
01:26:18,040 --> 01:26:21,143
FITZGERALD:
Until you're on the ground
1650
01:26:21,176 --> 01:26:24,413
and until you see it
from your own eyes
1651
01:26:24,447 --> 01:26:26,982
and choreograph everything
in your mind,
1652
01:26:27,015 --> 01:26:29,051
you have to have operators
on the ground
1653
01:26:29,084 --> 01:26:32,154
to pull the sensitive things off
that we need to do.
1654
01:26:32,187 --> 01:26:35,991
Goody's plan was to wait until
just before Operation Anaconda
1655
01:26:36,024 --> 01:26:39,595
was to begin before assaulting
the al-Qaeda tent.
1656
01:26:39,628 --> 01:26:41,430
This would diminish the risk
1657
01:26:41,464 --> 01:26:43,566
of other enemy fighters
in the area
1658
01:26:43,599 --> 01:26:46,369
being alerted to their
presence.
1659
01:26:46,402 --> 01:26:49,238
The SEALs took up a position
behind some rocks
1660
01:26:49,272 --> 01:26:54,610
only about 20 meters from
the al-Qaeda tent and watched.
1661
01:26:54,643 --> 01:26:56,712
NAYLOR:
As the SEALs waited,
1662
01:26:56,745 --> 01:26:59,515
an al-Qaeda fighter
emerged from the tent
1663
01:26:59,548 --> 01:27:03,286
and wandered over
towards their position.
1664
01:27:03,319 --> 01:27:06,889
The fighter let out a shout
to raise the alarm,
1665
01:27:06,922 --> 01:27:10,058
and at that point, Goody gave
the order to attack.
1666
01:27:10,092 --> 01:27:12,328
[ gunfire ]
1667
01:27:12,361 --> 01:27:15,964
The SEALs came over
the ridgeline firing.
1668
01:27:15,998 --> 01:27:20,903
Somebody inside the tent
fired off an entire clip.
1669
01:27:20,936 --> 01:27:24,340
They took the tent under fire.
1670
01:27:27,510 --> 01:27:31,046
The SEALs killed two
of the five al-Qaeda men
1671
01:27:31,079 --> 01:27:33,549
and wounded a third.
1672
01:27:33,582 --> 01:27:36,352
Goody's team called in
an AC-130
1673
01:27:36,385 --> 01:27:38,321
circling above the firefight
1674
01:27:38,354 --> 01:27:42,090
to take out the remaining
al-Qaeda fighters,
1675
01:27:42,124 --> 01:27:45,594
ending the threat
to U.S. helicopters
1676
01:27:45,628 --> 01:27:50,933
which would enter the valley
less than two hours later.
1677
01:27:50,966 --> 01:27:54,437
FITZGERALD: Our guys made
the right decisions.
1678
01:27:54,470 --> 01:27:57,072
And they took care
of the threat.
1679
01:27:57,105 --> 01:27:58,741
If they had not been there
1680
01:27:58,774 --> 01:28:00,509
at the right place
at the right time,
1681
01:28:00,543 --> 01:28:02,778
the beginning of this event
1682
01:28:02,811 --> 01:28:04,580
would have been a lot different
than it was.
1683
01:28:04,613 --> 01:28:07,650
Diverting a disaster?
Yeah, probably.
1684
01:28:07,683 --> 01:28:11,520
[ ** ]
1685
01:28:11,554 --> 01:28:14,957
In the first phases of
Operation Enduring Freedom,
1686
01:28:14,990 --> 01:28:17,025
SEALs carried out 75
1687
01:28:17,059 --> 01:28:21,597
of these special reconnaissance
and direct action missions.
1688
01:28:26,335 --> 01:28:28,837
While Team members would fight
in Afghanistan
1689
01:28:28,871 --> 01:28:33,241
for the duration...
1690
01:28:33,275 --> 01:28:36,178
early on,
their commander in chief
1691
01:28:36,211 --> 01:28:39,882
opened a new battlefront
against a familiar enemy.
1692
01:28:39,915 --> 01:28:42,651
[ rippling explosions ]
1693
01:28:44,387 --> 01:28:49,992
The SEALs would, once again, be
amongst the first to operate.
1694
01:28:52,294 --> 01:28:56,432
March 2003:
1695
01:28:56,465 --> 01:29:00,135
the United States was poised
to invade Iraq.
1696
01:29:00,168 --> 01:29:02,838
Congress had granted
President George W. Bush
1697
01:29:02,871 --> 01:29:04,673
the power to wage war
1698
01:29:04,707 --> 01:29:06,809
after the Bush administration
argued
1699
01:29:06,842 --> 01:29:10,413
that Saddam Hussein had failed
to disclose his arsenal
1700
01:29:10,446 --> 01:29:14,950
of Weapons of Mass Destruction,
or WMDs.
1701
01:29:17,553 --> 01:29:21,156
The administration
also accused Hussein
1702
01:29:21,189 --> 01:29:25,828
of forming alliances
with al-Qaeda.
1703
01:29:25,861 --> 01:29:29,264
Former U.S. Secretary of
Defense Donald Rumsfeld
1704
01:29:29,297 --> 01:29:31,567
later admitted that
they eventually discovered
1705
01:29:31,600 --> 01:29:36,772
the intelligence underlying
their WMD estimates was false.
1706
01:29:36,805 --> 01:29:40,242
No WMDs would be found in Iraq.
1707
01:29:40,275 --> 01:29:43,378
And confiscated Iraqi documents
would later reveal
1708
01:29:43,412 --> 01:29:45,481
that there were no direct ties
1709
01:29:45,514 --> 01:29:50,085
between al-Qaeda and Hussein's
government.
1710
01:29:50,118 --> 01:29:53,656
But in March of 2003,
1711
01:29:53,689 --> 01:29:56,725
all branches of the
United States military
1712
01:29:56,759 --> 01:30:01,029
were preparing
for the offensive.
1713
01:30:01,063 --> 01:30:04,099
[ ** ]
1714
01:30:05,701 --> 01:30:08,003
On the eve of the Iraq
invasion,
1715
01:30:08,036 --> 01:30:10,473
the SEALs undertook what was,
at the time,
1716
01:30:10,506 --> 01:30:15,010
the most complex operation
in their history.
1717
01:30:15,043 --> 01:30:18,246
Their mission: to capture
1718
01:30:18,280 --> 01:30:21,517
Iraq's enormous southern
oil supply
1719
01:30:21,550 --> 01:30:25,454
without allowing an economic
or environmental disaster
1720
01:30:25,488 --> 01:30:29,825
as had happened in 1991.
1721
01:30:29,858 --> 01:30:32,595
It was considered essential
1722
01:30:32,628 --> 01:30:37,666
that the oil supply be taken
over before the invasion began,
1723
01:30:37,700 --> 01:30:41,336
before the Iraqis
could destroy it.
1724
01:30:41,369 --> 01:30:43,005
MAN: The first Gulf War,
1725
01:30:43,038 --> 01:30:44,540
the first thing that
Saddam Hussein did
1726
01:30:44,573 --> 01:30:46,742
was blow up his southern
oil infrastructure.
1727
01:30:46,775 --> 01:30:49,244
And what that did was dump
millions of gallons of oil
1728
01:30:49,277 --> 01:30:51,179
into the northern Arabian Gulf,
1729
01:30:51,213 --> 01:30:55,083
which created massive
environmental impact.
1730
01:30:55,117 --> 01:30:58,186
Over a decade later,
it was the SEALs
1731
01:30:58,220 --> 01:31:00,556
who were tasked with keeping
Saddam Hussein
1732
01:31:00,589 --> 01:31:03,258
from destroying the country's
oil supply
1733
01:31:03,291 --> 01:31:09,064
as well as the entire region's
environment and economy.
1734
01:31:09,097 --> 01:31:12,134
The way that oil flows
off southern Iraq
1735
01:31:12,167 --> 01:31:15,303
is it gets pumped from this
large pumping/metering station
1736
01:31:15,337 --> 01:31:18,306
to two nodes, which you can
think of as almost faucets,
1737
01:31:18,340 --> 01:31:20,275
on the very end of
the Al-Faw Peninsula.
1738
01:31:20,308 --> 01:31:22,545
And it's through those faucets
that oil runs
1739
01:31:22,578 --> 01:31:25,581
to these two terminals,
KAAOT and MABOT.
1740
01:31:25,614 --> 01:31:29,818
And these are massive -- each
one is about a mile in length.
1741
01:31:29,852 --> 01:31:32,187
If the Iraqis had a chance
to destroy
1742
01:31:32,220 --> 01:31:34,890
any one of five critical
points,
1743
01:31:34,923 --> 01:31:39,094
it would coat the Northern
Arabian Gulf with oil.
1744
01:31:39,127 --> 01:31:41,129
We had to have boots
on the ground
1745
01:31:41,163 --> 01:31:43,331
in each one of those
five locations
1746
01:31:43,365 --> 01:31:45,267
at exactly the same time.
1747
01:31:45,300 --> 01:31:48,671
And so we started our planning
months in advance
1748
01:31:48,704 --> 01:31:53,375
of how we would put SEALs
onboard these two terminals
1749
01:31:53,408 --> 01:31:57,345
in the event that there may be
rigged explosive devices.
1750
01:31:57,379 --> 01:31:59,982
We were getting intelligence
from different places
1751
01:32:00,015 --> 01:32:03,586
that suggested that there were
arms and explosive devices
1752
01:32:03,619 --> 01:32:07,389
on at least one if not two
of the terminals.
1753
01:32:07,422 --> 01:32:10,726
What started out as a much
smaller isolated mission
1754
01:32:10,759 --> 01:32:14,029
expanded into what became
a very large mission,
1755
01:32:14,062 --> 01:32:16,599
all the night before the war
started.
1756
01:32:16,632 --> 01:32:21,069
The day before H-Hour,
it had just oil workers on it,
1757
01:32:21,103 --> 01:32:23,138
so at that point
it was just going to be
1758
01:32:23,171 --> 01:32:25,874
go and secure it and get
those people off of it.
1759
01:32:25,908 --> 01:32:28,076
Kind of no big deal, and then
we'd hold it and secure it
1760
01:32:28,110 --> 01:32:30,846
and turn it over to someone else
so no one could get on it.
1761
01:32:30,879 --> 01:32:33,181
And the day before, we noticed
all of a sudden
1762
01:32:33,215 --> 01:32:35,217
all those guys were getting
off-loaded
1763
01:32:35,250 --> 01:32:37,252
and they were bringing
Iraqi bad guys.
1764
01:32:37,285 --> 01:32:38,854
And they were bringing them on,
1765
01:32:38,887 --> 01:32:40,889
they had an anti-aircraft piece
that they brought on.
1766
01:32:40,923 --> 01:32:42,357
It changed quickly.
1767
01:32:42,390 --> 01:32:44,960
The Teams' nightly
reconnaissance had revealed
1768
01:32:44,993 --> 01:32:48,731
that tugboats would patrol the
perimeter of the oil platforms,
1769
01:32:48,764 --> 01:32:52,668
cruising a long circuit around
each of the terminals.
1770
01:32:52,701 --> 01:32:54,903
There were also large rings
of light
1771
01:32:54,937 --> 01:32:57,940
from searchlights on the MABOT
and KAAOT.
1772
01:32:57,973 --> 01:33:01,610
HELLER: The plan was we would
get all of our assets
1773
01:33:01,644 --> 01:33:04,046
outside the light ring
of the terminal
1774
01:33:04,079 --> 01:33:07,515
and we would wait for that tug
to go around.
1775
01:33:09,317 --> 01:33:11,620
And as soon as the tug
passed us,
1776
01:33:11,654 --> 01:33:14,022
we'd send three RHIBs
carrying SEALs
1777
01:33:14,056 --> 01:33:15,691
and a Polish Special Forces team
1778
01:33:15,724 --> 01:33:18,927
very quickly through the light
underneath the platform,
1779
01:33:18,961 --> 01:33:21,496
and from there, the guys would
scale up.
1780
01:33:21,529 --> 01:33:26,368
The operation began at
10:00 p.m. on March 20, 2003.
1781
01:33:26,401 --> 01:33:29,404
More SEALs were deployed
for this one mission
1782
01:33:29,437 --> 01:33:34,042
than ever operated together
during the entire Vietnam War.
1783
01:33:34,076 --> 01:33:36,311
We had helicopters
where I was overhead
1784
01:33:36,344 --> 01:33:38,881
looking at it with the FLIR,
which, you know,
1785
01:33:38,914 --> 01:33:40,916
I can see what was going on
at like 2,000 meters.
1786
01:33:40,949 --> 01:33:42,851
And then once we were up close,
1787
01:33:42,885 --> 01:33:45,287
circling the thing, providing
security as snipers.
1788
01:33:45,320 --> 01:33:47,355
And then I was up there also
working the radio,
1789
01:33:47,389 --> 01:33:51,259
pushing the timeline along and
the execution checklist along.
1790
01:33:51,293 --> 01:33:52,895
HELLER: Clockwork was
so important.
1791
01:33:52,928 --> 01:33:54,730
It was so important
to get guys there.
1792
01:33:54,763 --> 01:33:56,699
Every part of the mission
was so interlocked.
1793
01:33:56,732 --> 01:33:58,801
And if someone got there early,
1794
01:33:58,834 --> 01:34:02,204
there was the potential
to put folks in danger.
1795
01:34:02,237 --> 01:34:04,239
Until those guys were feet
on the deck on that thing,
1796
01:34:04,272 --> 01:34:06,308
anything that moved
or acted stupid on it
1797
01:34:06,341 --> 01:34:07,976
was gonna get shot by myself
1798
01:34:08,010 --> 01:34:10,846
or my partner in the other
helicopter.
1799
01:34:10,879 --> 01:34:14,216
The SEALs successfully got
aboard the platforms,
1800
01:34:14,249 --> 01:34:16,618
safely secured their prisoners
1801
01:34:16,651 --> 01:34:19,788
as well as the weapons
they discovered.
1802
01:34:19,822 --> 01:34:24,592
The entire operation took
about 45 minutes.
1803
01:34:26,695 --> 01:34:30,966
One thing we know is that
unlike in the first Gulf War,
1804
01:34:30,999 --> 01:34:32,935
we prevented the destruction
1805
01:34:32,968 --> 01:34:36,171
of millions and millions
of gallons of oil.
1806
01:34:36,204 --> 01:34:39,708
We prevented that
environmental disaster.
1807
01:34:39,742 --> 01:34:45,280
Within hours, the United States
invaded Iraq.
1808
01:34:45,313 --> 01:34:50,118
[ explosions ]
1809
01:34:50,152 --> 01:34:53,421
The invasion immediately
toppled the regime
1810
01:34:53,455 --> 01:34:57,860
of President Saddam Hussein,
who quickly went into hiding.
1811
01:34:57,893 --> 01:35:01,429
Although he was the number one
fugitive in the country,
1812
01:35:01,463 --> 01:35:03,799
there were over 50
top-tier targets
1813
01:35:03,832 --> 01:35:05,768
on the Most Wanted List.
1814
01:35:05,801 --> 01:35:08,403
So a group of soldiers
came up with the idea
1815
01:35:08,436 --> 01:35:10,372
of a deck of cards,
1816
01:35:10,405 --> 01:35:14,910
ranking the missing outlaws
by the face value of the cards.
1817
01:35:14,943 --> 01:35:17,946
The deck of cards, well, they
started at the ace of spades,
1818
01:35:17,980 --> 01:35:21,049
which was Saddam Hussein,
and then they went down,
1819
01:35:21,083 --> 01:35:23,451
you know, to the twos down
on the bottom somewhere
1820
01:35:23,485 --> 01:35:25,453
before they started the rest
of the blacklist.
1821
01:35:25,487 --> 01:35:27,555
And that's how we knew them,
you know?
1822
01:35:27,589 --> 01:35:29,591
It was easier than pronouncing
their name.
1823
01:35:29,624 --> 01:35:32,027
SEAL Teams and other
special forces
1824
01:35:32,060 --> 01:35:36,231
started taking cards
"out of play."
1825
01:35:36,264 --> 01:35:40,302
There was only one woman
featured in the deck.
1826
01:35:40,335 --> 01:35:44,406
Huda Salih Mahdi Ammash was
better known by her nickname:
1827
01:35:44,439 --> 01:35:46,942
Mrs. Anthrax.
1828
01:35:46,975 --> 01:35:51,413
The Five of Hearts was a female
who was part of Saddam's --
1829
01:35:51,446 --> 01:35:55,818
he was her main, like, chemical
biological weapons gal.
1830
01:35:55,851 --> 01:35:57,752
She was moving around
quite a bit
1831
01:35:57,786 --> 01:35:59,587
from safe house to safe house.
1832
01:35:59,621 --> 01:36:03,591
And the intel that we got on
her, we needed to move fast.
1833
01:36:03,625 --> 01:36:07,462
And we figured that
the best time to take her
1834
01:36:07,495 --> 01:36:09,664
would be while she was
in a vehicle
1835
01:36:09,697 --> 01:36:13,235
when her security detail was
smaller than it normally was.
1836
01:36:13,268 --> 01:36:15,337
[ ** ]
1837
01:36:15,370 --> 01:36:17,672
We had such a small
amount of time
1838
01:36:17,705 --> 01:36:19,374
for mission planning
on that one.
1839
01:36:19,407 --> 01:36:21,409
And that's the magic of
the SEAL Teams, that's --
1840
01:36:21,443 --> 01:36:23,879
that's just the way we do it,
you know?
1841
01:36:23,912 --> 01:36:27,282
If it needs to be done,
we'll do it.
1842
01:36:27,315 --> 01:36:30,285
In December of 2003,
1843
01:36:30,318 --> 01:36:34,689
U.S. troops and a Special
Operations Joint Task Force
1844
01:36:34,722 --> 01:36:37,893
captured the Ace of Spades.
1845
01:36:37,926 --> 01:36:40,395
But the arrest of President
Saddam Hussein
1846
01:36:40,428 --> 01:36:42,564
hardly ended the war in Iraq.
1847
01:36:42,597 --> 01:36:46,001
[ automatic gunfire ]
1848
01:36:46,034 --> 01:36:48,303
As it persisted, more SEALs
1849
01:36:48,336 --> 01:36:51,006
were engaged in Operation
Iraqi Freedom
1850
01:36:51,039 --> 01:36:55,077
than in any other war
in their history.
1851
01:36:55,110 --> 01:36:59,114
SEAL Teams adapted to being
unconventional warriors
1852
01:36:59,147 --> 01:37:01,516
in a conventional war.
1853
01:37:01,549 --> 01:37:04,887
For the first time, they truly
fought side by side
1854
01:37:04,920 --> 01:37:09,157
with their comrades in the Army
and Marine Corps.
1855
01:37:09,191 --> 01:37:14,362
It started in a place
called Ramadi,
1856
01:37:14,396 --> 01:37:17,299
center of the insurgency.
1857
01:37:20,068 --> 01:37:23,405
[ gunfire ]
1858
01:37:25,407 --> 01:37:30,478
Al-Qaeda in Iraq declared
this city to be its capital.
1859
01:37:33,781 --> 01:37:35,450
When we got into town,
1860
01:37:35,483 --> 01:37:37,585
we began to interface with
the conventional forces --
1861
01:37:37,619 --> 01:37:39,087
the Army and the Marines.
1862
01:37:39,121 --> 01:37:41,223
They're the ones who own
the battlespace, not us.
1863
01:37:41,256 --> 01:37:42,690
And so we very humbly said,
1864
01:37:42,724 --> 01:37:44,226
"Hey, look, you guys own
this battlespace.
1865
01:37:44,259 --> 01:37:46,394
You tell us how we can help
serve you.
1866
01:37:46,428 --> 01:37:49,064
What's going on here?
Where are your bases?
1867
01:37:49,097 --> 01:37:51,566
Where are your outposts?
What's this area over here?"
1868
01:37:51,599 --> 01:37:53,368
And there was an entire area --
1869
01:37:53,401 --> 01:37:54,869
I mean, I remember this
distinctly.
1870
01:37:54,903 --> 01:37:57,039
They said, "This whole area
right here
1871
01:37:57,072 --> 01:38:00,442
is al-Qaeda controlled
battlespace.
1872
01:38:00,475 --> 01:38:02,577
Don't go there.
You can't go there --
1873
01:38:02,610 --> 01:38:05,280
or go there, but nobody
will come get you."
1874
01:38:09,284 --> 01:38:10,618
We got him over here.
1875
01:38:10,652 --> 01:38:13,655
In the past, the SEALs often
did not work very well
1876
01:38:13,688 --> 01:38:15,523
with conventional forces.
1877
01:38:15,557 --> 01:38:18,493
SEALs had their mission, and it
was like, "This is our mission.
1878
01:38:18,526 --> 01:38:20,963
We can't tell you what it is and
we're gonna go do our thing."
1879
01:38:20,996 --> 01:38:22,931
And our task unit commander
1880
01:38:22,965 --> 01:38:25,033
had a much different philosophy
on things.
1881
01:38:25,067 --> 01:38:27,069
We said, "What are you doing?
What can we do to help?"
1882
01:38:27,102 --> 01:38:28,636
And guess what?
1883
01:38:28,670 --> 01:38:30,572
We integrated and interfaced
with them,
1884
01:38:30,605 --> 01:38:34,242
and it was -- it was a mutually
beneficial relationship, right?
1885
01:38:34,276 --> 01:38:36,678
Rather than us having
to coordinate
1886
01:38:36,711 --> 01:38:38,613
how to drive all our guys
into a mission,
1887
01:38:38,646 --> 01:38:41,649
well, the Army guys would
give us a ride... in tanks!
1888
01:38:41,683 --> 01:38:45,053
I mean, that's a heck of a lot
better than a dang Humvee.
1889
01:38:47,789 --> 01:38:49,791
Andrew Paul was a lieutenant
1890
01:38:49,824 --> 01:38:53,228
with a task force
of 32 SEAL snipers.
1891
01:38:53,261 --> 01:38:56,031
[ ** ]
1892
01:38:56,064 --> 01:38:58,566
[ indistinct shouting ]
1893
01:39:01,536 --> 01:39:04,272
[ explosions ]
1894
01:39:04,306 --> 01:39:07,642
As something would happen,
we would come in
1895
01:39:07,675 --> 01:39:11,779
and we would go grab these guys.
1896
01:39:11,813 --> 01:39:14,249
Or we'd go out and do
an overwatch operation,
1897
01:39:14,282 --> 01:39:17,252
and these guys with masks
and guns would come out
1898
01:39:17,285 --> 01:39:20,655
to attack an Army patrol,
and, you know, our snipers
1899
01:39:20,688 --> 01:39:24,359
would whack all four or five
of those guys all at once.
1900
01:39:24,392 --> 01:39:28,530
Over the course of six months,
we had over 360 confirmed kills.
1901
01:39:28,563 --> 01:39:31,799
That's just our task unit.
1902
01:39:31,833 --> 01:39:34,502
That area that was al-Qaeda
controlled battlespace,
1903
01:39:34,536 --> 01:39:36,838
we owned it by the time we left.
1904
01:39:40,008 --> 01:39:42,944
When you're interacting
with the local populace,
1905
01:39:42,977 --> 01:39:45,513
you are an ambassador
of America.
1906
01:39:45,547 --> 01:39:48,683
And, you know, not everybody
feels that way.
1907
01:39:48,716 --> 01:39:51,953
But I felt that was important,
so I would talk to them.
1908
01:39:51,986 --> 01:39:53,421
I'd ask them where
they were from.
1909
01:39:53,455 --> 01:39:55,257
I'd tell them about my family
and where I'm from
1910
01:39:55,290 --> 01:39:56,691
and why I was here.
1911
01:39:56,724 --> 01:39:58,826
They'd first probably see
these guys come in
1912
01:39:58,860 --> 01:40:02,597
with all this gear on and, I
mean, they would be very afraid.
1913
01:40:02,630 --> 01:40:05,133
And that's not what
we're there to do.
1914
01:40:05,167 --> 01:40:08,370
My idea wasn't that we were
there to go terrorize Iraqis.
1915
01:40:08,403 --> 01:40:12,807
My idea was that we're there to
go relieve the country of Iraq.
1916
01:40:12,840 --> 01:40:15,477
You can only shoot so many guys.
1917
01:40:15,510 --> 01:40:18,480
You can only, you know,
blow up so many things.
1918
01:40:18,513 --> 01:40:20,282
You can only do so many
missions.
1919
01:40:20,315 --> 01:40:23,051
You know, sooner or later,
our mission really
1920
01:40:23,085 --> 01:40:26,621
is to give this back
to the people of Iraq.
1921
01:40:26,654 --> 01:40:30,192
[ ** ]
1922
01:40:30,225 --> 01:40:32,026
When people think of SEALs,
1923
01:40:32,060 --> 01:40:33,395
they think of them kicking in
doors,
1924
01:40:33,428 --> 01:40:35,097
doing the very offensive things.
1925
01:40:35,130 --> 01:40:36,931
Yeah, that's true, but I think
1926
01:40:36,964 --> 01:40:39,801
where the nation gets the most
bang for the buck
1927
01:40:39,834 --> 01:40:43,871
is in that diplomatic
problem-solving type guy
1928
01:40:43,905 --> 01:40:46,741
who can work with partners
to expand their capabilities
1929
01:40:46,774 --> 01:40:49,511
and their capacity
and prevent wars.
1930
01:40:49,544 --> 01:40:51,579
There are a lot of guys
who we can train
1931
01:40:51,613 --> 01:40:55,317
to go shoot people in the face,
but what SEALs
1932
01:40:55,350 --> 01:40:58,520
and Green Berets
and Special Forces do
1933
01:40:58,553 --> 01:41:01,189
are working that full spectrum
of conflict
1934
01:41:01,223 --> 01:41:03,158
and being able to go
from drinking tea
1935
01:41:03,191 --> 01:41:05,127
to step outside the tent
and go do something
1936
01:41:05,160 --> 01:41:08,029
that a commando needs to do,
1937
01:41:08,062 --> 01:41:11,466
and then go back inside the tent
and drink tea some more.
1938
01:41:11,499 --> 01:41:14,969
And that is a unique skill set.
1939
01:41:15,002 --> 01:41:16,904
But what's going to make them
SEALs
1940
01:41:16,938 --> 01:41:20,342
is they've got to be able
to do both.
1941
01:41:22,144 --> 01:41:25,847
At that moment in time, it's --
1942
01:41:25,880 --> 01:41:30,685
to me anyway, it wasn't ever
about God and country, you know?
1943
01:41:30,718 --> 01:41:32,387
It was about being
with your brothers.
1944
01:41:32,420 --> 01:41:33,721
It's about operating.
1945
01:41:33,755 --> 01:41:36,124
It's about doing everything
you could
1946
01:41:36,158 --> 01:41:39,026
to make sure they could come
home to their family.
1947
01:41:39,060 --> 01:41:42,697
In September of 2006
in Ramadi,
1948
01:41:42,730 --> 01:41:46,934
a 25-year-old petty officer,
2nd class, Michael Monsoor,
1949
01:41:46,968 --> 01:41:50,905
was on his first combat
deployment as a Navy SEAL.
1950
01:41:50,938 --> 01:41:54,542
Mike had failed his initial
attempt at SEAL training
1951
01:41:54,576 --> 01:41:59,247
but persevered and ultimately
made it to the Teams.
1952
01:41:59,281 --> 01:42:03,084
Mike Monsoor was one of our
platoon mates
1953
01:42:03,117 --> 01:42:05,987
who lost his life in Iraq.
1954
01:42:06,020 --> 01:42:12,160
And he jumped on a grenade
and saved two guys,
1955
01:42:12,194 --> 01:42:14,229
one on either side of him.
1956
01:42:14,262 --> 01:42:18,500
And he subsequently got
the Medal of Honor.
1957
01:42:18,533 --> 01:42:21,903
Mike leaves behind a big hole
in my heart.
1958
01:42:21,936 --> 01:42:23,838
But I'm proud of what he did
1959
01:42:23,871 --> 01:42:26,741
and I'm proud of what
that stands for.
1960
01:42:26,774 --> 01:42:32,314
This idealistic warrior.
1961
01:42:32,347 --> 01:42:36,718
Mike had sent an email to his
sister the night before,
1962
01:42:36,751 --> 01:42:40,755
saying, "Gear's packed.
I'm on my way home."
1963
01:42:40,788 --> 01:42:43,057
Yeah, it's pretty rough.
1964
01:42:43,090 --> 01:42:46,060
Andrew Paul was already
back in California
1965
01:42:46,093 --> 01:42:48,763
when Mike Monsoor was killed.
1966
01:42:48,796 --> 01:42:53,535
He was one of the men to notify
the Monsoor family.
1967
01:42:53,568 --> 01:42:55,903
We got our blues together,
we got our plan together
1968
01:42:55,937 --> 01:43:00,308
and drove up to find
his parents' house.
1969
01:43:00,342 --> 01:43:02,777
And, man, that was
the hardest thing
1970
01:43:02,810 --> 01:43:05,847
I've ever done in my life.
1971
01:43:05,880 --> 01:43:10,352
I remember the commander who
came up with us said, you know,
1972
01:43:10,385 --> 01:43:12,554
"Sally Monsoor?"
She said, "Yes."
1973
01:43:12,587 --> 01:43:14,889
He goes, "Well, we have some
news about your son."
1974
01:43:14,922 --> 01:43:17,559
And, yeah, I mean, I just --
1975
01:43:17,592 --> 01:43:21,296
her head just slumped against
the door,
1976
01:43:21,329 --> 01:43:25,333
and, I mean, I just watched
the life drain out of her.
1977
01:43:25,367 --> 01:43:27,302
[ trumpet playing "Taps" ]
1978
01:43:27,335 --> 01:43:31,306
MAGUIRE: Look at Section 60
at Arlington National Cemetery.
1979
01:43:31,339 --> 01:43:35,577
MAN: Ready. Aim. Fire!
1980
01:43:35,610 --> 01:43:37,879
It's full of SEALs.
1981
01:43:37,912 --> 01:43:41,916
Men who've sacrificed
and given their lives.
1982
01:43:46,888 --> 01:43:50,325
The enemy gets a vote,
and nobody's immortal.
1983
01:44:01,303 --> 01:44:04,439
At SEAL funerals,
there is a tradition
1984
01:44:04,472 --> 01:44:08,242
of teammates removing their
insignia, called the Trident,
1985
01:44:08,276 --> 01:44:13,781
and embedding them into the
coffin of their fallen comrade.
1986
01:44:18,252 --> 01:44:19,721
You're not just burying
a warrior.
1987
01:44:19,754 --> 01:44:21,289
You're not just burying
a teammate.
1988
01:44:21,323 --> 01:44:22,957
You're burying somebody
that you love,
1989
01:44:22,990 --> 01:44:24,759
somebody that you know,
1990
01:44:24,792 --> 01:44:26,661
somebody that you
trained with.
1991
01:44:26,694 --> 01:44:29,864
You know his family.
You know his children.
1992
01:44:29,897 --> 01:44:31,866
For those of us who wear
the Trident,
1993
01:44:31,899 --> 01:44:34,101
everybody refers to each other
as brother.
1994
01:44:34,135 --> 01:44:35,937
And that is not just
an expression.
1995
01:44:35,970 --> 01:44:38,039
That's how everybody feels
about each other.
1996
01:44:38,072 --> 01:44:40,908
Because my teammate's
more important than I am.
1997
01:44:40,942 --> 01:44:44,145
Poseidon, the god of the seas,
1998
01:44:44,178 --> 01:44:46,481
wielded a trident
that gave him the power
1999
01:44:46,514 --> 01:44:50,485
to both create storms
and calm the waters.
2000
01:44:50,518 --> 01:44:52,186
Being a SEAL and the Trident,
2001
01:44:52,219 --> 01:44:55,523
you come from a long line
of people
2002
01:44:55,557 --> 01:44:59,361
who've sacrificed greatly
to get you to where you are.
2003
01:44:59,394 --> 01:45:03,798
Nobody who wears the Trident
today earned that reputation.
2004
01:45:03,831 --> 01:45:05,767
They inherited that reputation
2005
01:45:05,800 --> 01:45:09,303
from the men who came
before them.
2006
01:45:09,337 --> 01:45:12,306
And while you have the
opportunity to be a SEAL,
2007
01:45:12,340 --> 01:45:15,477
what you have to do is keep
that reputation intact
2008
01:45:15,510 --> 01:45:17,278
and make it just a little bit
better
2009
01:45:17,311 --> 01:45:20,181
than when they pinned a Trident
on your chest.
2010
01:45:22,384 --> 01:45:25,219
I think we're flesh
and blood,
2011
01:45:25,252 --> 01:45:28,823
but there is something extra
inside us.
2012
01:45:28,856 --> 01:45:32,560
And the enemies of this country
need to fear that,
2013
01:45:32,594 --> 01:45:35,463
because there is something
different they don't know about.
2014
01:45:35,497 --> 01:45:38,666
And the bonds to our brothers
is incredibly strong.
2015
01:45:38,700 --> 01:45:41,002
It'd be like a parent losing
their son.
2016
01:45:41,035 --> 01:45:42,870
It hurts a lot.
2017
01:45:42,904 --> 01:45:44,839
But it doesn't stop us.
2018
01:45:44,872 --> 01:45:48,810
In fact, if anything,
it just makes us stronger.
2019
01:45:48,843 --> 01:45:52,046
We'll obviously go to some
pretty extreme measures
2020
01:45:52,079 --> 01:45:54,348
if we need to.
2021
01:45:54,382 --> 01:45:56,350
Like flying in helicopters
2022
01:45:56,384 --> 01:45:58,786
that you've never seen
or heard of in your life
2023
01:45:58,820 --> 01:46:01,423
into a country that we swear
we'll never go to
2024
01:46:01,456 --> 01:46:04,358
in the middle of the night,
crash one of them
2025
01:46:04,392 --> 01:46:05,927
and still kill you.
2026
01:46:05,960 --> 01:46:07,595
I mean, you know, it's just...
2027
01:46:07,629 --> 01:46:10,465
[ chuckles ]
2028
01:46:10,498 --> 01:46:12,934
Yeah, that's the SEAL Teams.
What can I tell you?
2029
01:46:12,967 --> 01:46:16,203
On the night of May 1, 2011,
2030
01:46:16,237 --> 01:46:21,142
23 SEALs crammed aboard two
stealth prototype helicopters.
2031
01:46:21,175 --> 01:46:23,845
They lifted off
for a 90-minute flight
2032
01:46:23,878 --> 01:46:27,949
deep into the forbidden
airspace of Pakistan.
2033
01:46:27,982 --> 01:46:30,685
Despite the unusual location,
2034
01:46:30,718 --> 01:46:32,954
for the members of
SEAL Team Six,
2035
01:46:32,987 --> 01:46:35,923
this kind of raid
was a typical one...
2036
01:46:35,957 --> 01:46:41,696
except for the target:
Osama bin Laden.
2037
01:46:41,729 --> 01:46:44,932
As SEAL Team Six descended
on the compound,
2038
01:46:44,966 --> 01:46:46,901
one of the helicopters
got caught
2039
01:46:46,934 --> 01:46:51,439
in its own rotor wash
and crashed.
2040
01:46:51,473 --> 01:46:53,508
The SEALs scrambled
from the wreckage
2041
01:46:53,541 --> 01:46:58,145
and began moving
toward the house.
2042
01:46:58,179 --> 01:47:02,884
The second helicopter landed
safely outside the walls.
2043
01:47:02,917 --> 01:47:05,987
Quietly, the SEALs advanced.
2044
01:47:06,020 --> 01:47:09,090
On the third floor,
they found and killed
2045
01:47:09,123 --> 01:47:13,060
the world's most wanted
terrorist.
2046
01:47:13,094 --> 01:47:15,930
[ gunshots ]
2047
01:47:18,566 --> 01:47:24,171
Over the radio, the SEALs
reported bin Laden was dead.
2048
01:47:25,740 --> 01:47:28,242
The news of Bin Laden's death
2049
01:47:28,275 --> 01:47:32,446
brought celebrations to the
streets of the United States.
2050
01:47:32,480 --> 01:47:35,416
But it also haunted the world
with memories
2051
01:47:35,449 --> 01:47:38,820
of a clear September morning
a decade before
2052
01:47:38,853 --> 01:47:43,858
when the streets of America
were choked by terror.
2053
01:47:43,891 --> 01:47:47,995
This man's death was personal.
2054
01:47:48,029 --> 01:47:49,864
MAGUIRE: I grew up
in New York City.
2055
01:47:49,897 --> 01:47:52,166
I watched the Twin Towers go up.
2056
01:47:52,199 --> 01:47:54,869
But I also know the traffic
pattern of the Hudson River.
2057
01:47:54,902 --> 01:47:57,639
And I saw the second plane
flying south.
2058
01:47:57,672 --> 01:47:59,641
And I just said,
"Look at that guy.
2059
01:47:59,674 --> 01:48:01,475
He's not supposed to be flying
south there.
2060
01:48:01,509 --> 01:48:05,713
He's just taking a look at --
at that first tower."
2061
01:48:05,747 --> 01:48:07,582
And then I saw him go
into the second tower.
2062
01:48:07,615 --> 01:48:10,084
I saw it when it happened,
and immediately I said,
2063
01:48:10,117 --> 01:48:13,354
"We're under attack."
2064
01:48:13,387 --> 01:48:15,356
I finally got home from work
2065
01:48:15,389 --> 01:48:20,962
around midnight on 9/11
and my phone rang.
2066
01:48:20,995 --> 01:48:23,565
And I picked up the phone
and there was a voice
2067
01:48:23,598 --> 01:48:27,268
extremely emotional and crying,
and said,
2068
01:48:27,301 --> 01:48:29,403
"Joseph, I know what you do.
2069
01:48:29,436 --> 01:48:31,539
Get them. Get them
for what they did."
2070
01:48:31,573 --> 01:48:33,374
And it took me
a couple of seconds
2071
01:48:33,407 --> 01:48:35,276
to realize it's my brother.
2072
01:48:35,309 --> 01:48:37,679
And on the 2nd of May,
2073
01:48:37,712 --> 01:48:39,814
I placed a phone call
to my brother.
2074
01:48:39,847 --> 01:48:43,017
I said, "It took us a while,
but we got him."
2075
01:48:43,050 --> 01:48:44,752
All across America,
people gathered
2076
01:48:44,786 --> 01:48:46,420
in spontaneous celebrations --
2077
01:48:46,453 --> 01:48:50,792
outside the White House,
at Ground Zero, to Times Square.
2078
01:48:50,825 --> 01:48:54,161
SPARKS: I got numb.
I felt chills.
2079
01:48:54,195 --> 01:48:55,997
He was the face of terrorism
2080
01:48:56,030 --> 01:48:57,832
and the driving force behind
a lot of stuff,
2081
01:48:57,865 --> 01:49:00,034
but it felt like victory.
2082
01:49:00,067 --> 01:49:02,303
bin Laden was the embodiment
2083
01:49:02,336 --> 01:49:04,939
of the Western world's
newest enemy.
2084
01:49:04,972 --> 01:49:09,076
The leader of an international
network of splintered cells.
2085
01:49:09,110 --> 01:49:12,113
Nearly impossible to
infiltrate.
2086
01:49:14,716 --> 01:49:19,220
His was a shadow leadership
2087
01:49:19,253 --> 01:49:23,057
that took shadow warriors
to end.
2088
01:49:24,191 --> 01:49:26,327
No official state.
2089
01:49:26,360 --> 01:49:29,330
No traditional command
and control centers.
2090
01:49:29,363 --> 01:49:34,001
No uniforms identifying
an enemy combatant.
2091
01:49:34,035 --> 01:49:36,470
bin Laden's death symbolized
the fact
2092
01:49:36,503 --> 01:49:38,039
that America had adapted
2093
01:49:38,072 --> 01:49:41,275
to fighting this new kind
of adversary.
2094
01:49:43,577 --> 01:49:49,116
And the Navy SEALs became
the embodiment of that change.
2095
01:49:49,150 --> 01:49:52,854
[ ** ]
2096
01:49:52,887 --> 01:49:54,856
We are what they're scared of.
2097
01:49:54,889 --> 01:49:57,992
We're they're -- that bump
in the night.
2098
01:49:58,025 --> 01:50:02,029
That mystique and that legacy
goes way, way back
2099
01:50:02,063 --> 01:50:04,632
to even Vietnam and before.
2100
01:50:04,666 --> 01:50:07,168
You know, the enemy knew
the men in green faces,
2101
01:50:07,201 --> 01:50:10,638
if they were coming for you,
you weren't coming back.
2102
01:50:10,672 --> 01:50:14,809
[ ** ]
2103
01:50:14,842 --> 01:50:18,045
BRAMSTEDT: When you're out there
and you're in a conflict,
2104
01:50:18,079 --> 01:50:20,214
or a "tick" is what
they call it,
2105
01:50:20,247 --> 01:50:22,483
you're fighting for
the brotherhood.
2106
01:50:22,516 --> 01:50:25,119
It's the guys on your left
and your right.
2107
01:50:25,152 --> 01:50:28,089
The real reason and
the political reasons
2108
01:50:28,122 --> 01:50:30,692
why you're there and --
that's all gonna be argued
2109
01:50:30,725 --> 01:50:32,827
on the left and the right
of the aisle
2110
01:50:32,860 --> 01:50:34,862
somewhere in Congress somewhere,
2111
01:50:34,896 --> 01:50:36,497
the guys in the barber shop,
2112
01:50:36,530 --> 01:50:38,299
people driving down the road,
you know,
2113
01:50:38,332 --> 01:50:40,401
on their Bluetooth headsets.
2114
01:50:40,434 --> 01:50:45,539
But when you're in it and it's
happening, it's about this man.
2115
01:50:45,572 --> 01:50:49,410
I'm not firing my weapon to make
sure that I come home alive.
2116
01:50:49,443 --> 01:50:52,980
I'm firing my weapon to make
sure he comes home alive.
2117
01:50:53,014 --> 01:50:54,348
Back!
2118
01:50:54,381 --> 01:50:56,383
KAISER: I never thought about
killing people,
2119
01:50:56,417 --> 01:50:58,652
because I always thought
about it as a mission.
2120
01:50:58,686 --> 01:51:01,155
My job was never to go out
and kill somebody.
2121
01:51:01,188 --> 01:51:03,357
My job was to go capture
somebody,
2122
01:51:03,390 --> 01:51:06,293
go collect intelligence,
go do reconnaissance.
2123
01:51:06,327 --> 01:51:08,195
Because if you kill somebody,
2124
01:51:08,229 --> 01:51:10,031
you don't get any intelligence
out of them.
2125
01:51:10,064 --> 01:51:12,466
You capture them, you're gonna
get something out of them.
2126
01:51:12,499 --> 01:51:13,901
So -- eventually.
2127
01:51:13,935 --> 01:51:15,737
And then we can plan
our next mission,
2128
01:51:15,770 --> 01:51:18,806
because that's what every SEAL
wants is the next mission.
2129
01:51:18,840 --> 01:51:23,978
[ ** ]
2130
01:51:24,011 --> 01:51:26,680
WOOLARD: I think there's always
gonna be SEALs
2131
01:51:26,714 --> 01:51:29,717
in one form or another, but I
think they're still gonna be
2132
01:51:29,751 --> 01:51:32,253
the same basic sort of guy
2133
01:51:32,286 --> 01:51:35,957
who trained right down the road
from us here in Fort Pierce
2134
01:51:35,990 --> 01:51:37,558
during World War II,
2135
01:51:37,591 --> 01:51:40,194
the same guys who fought
in Vietnam,
2136
01:51:40,227 --> 01:51:45,933
in the mountains in Afghanistan,
and in Iraq.
2137
01:51:45,967 --> 01:51:47,969
The innate thread,
I think,
2138
01:51:48,002 --> 01:51:50,938
that goes through the teams
since their inception
2139
01:51:50,972 --> 01:51:54,141
way back to WWII is what I call
the Rudy Factor.
2140
01:51:54,175 --> 01:51:56,177
If you remember the Notre Dame
footballer:
2141
01:51:56,210 --> 01:51:59,080
they have hearts that they
just will not quit.
2142
01:51:59,113 --> 01:52:00,982
They will not quit
no matter what.
2143
01:52:01,015 --> 01:52:03,885
They're the type of guys who can
get knocked down, get back up,
2144
01:52:03,918 --> 01:52:06,220
get knocked down,
and get back up.
2145
01:52:06,253 --> 01:52:10,324
That's the common thread.
2146
01:52:14,829 --> 01:52:18,399
Since World War II, SEALs
and their forefathers
2147
01:52:18,432 --> 01:52:20,134
have faced whatever threat
2148
01:52:20,167 --> 01:52:23,304
the enemies of each generation
have posed...
2149
01:52:23,337 --> 01:52:28,009
[ explosions ]
2150
01:52:28,042 --> 01:52:32,313
from Hitler's beaches...
2151
01:52:32,346 --> 01:52:37,518
to bin Laden's terror.
2152
01:52:37,551 --> 01:52:41,155
While the perils have changed
and will continue to,
2153
01:52:41,188 --> 01:52:43,991
the invisible men
behind the face masks
2154
01:52:44,025 --> 01:52:48,062
still claim a common heritage
and future.
2155
01:52:48,095 --> 01:52:52,800
No matter how sophisticated
they or their foes become,
2156
01:52:52,834 --> 01:52:58,039
they are simply frogmen.
2157
01:52:59,640 --> 01:53:02,476
MAGUIRE: We live in an extremely
dangerous and difficult world.
2158
01:53:02,509 --> 01:53:05,312
And no matter where we
as a nation go next,
2159
01:53:05,346 --> 01:53:09,116
the first people in
will be the SEALs.
2160
01:53:11,819 --> 01:53:14,989
[ ** ]
166059
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