diately.

t meals.
as the
At sea,
eady to

shoulructors
hot cof-

in batwe want

he bell,
used to

SEALs,
in their

f fortue made

t.

01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30S
31N

EyesOnTarget_TPtext1P.indd

01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
S30
N31

EYES
ON

TARGET

xxix

12/18/14

12:32:29 AM

01
02
03
CHAPTER 1
04
05
06
07
08
09
10
11
12
13
ort
14 Pierce sits on a serpentine, sandy barrier island, several
hours
15 north of Palm Beach, Florida. Aside from a chain-linked
fence16around a string of Navy bunkers and buildings and a small
town17with a five-and-dime store and a few bars, it was uninhabited 18
and alone. On a night in the winter of 1942, viewed from
the sea,
19 it was a desolate strip of palm trees washed by the cold
Atlantic
20 wavesmuch as the Spanish explorers might have seen
it centuries
earlier. No lights appeared on shore and the moon
21
revealed
22 no landmarks.
Swimming
with the tide, men with blackened faces and air
23
tanks24on their backs swam up to the empty beach. They were met
with25
large concrete Xs and barbed wire, painted to blend into the
night.
26
Without
a word, the frogmen began their work, cutting
27
through
28 obstacles.
The
29 halo of a flashlight beam soon found them. The voice of
an offi
cer carried over the crash of the waves: Chief, your men
30S
will 31N
have to try that again.

The Froggy Origins

of the Navy SEALs

EyesOnTarget_TPtext1P.indd

12/18/14

12:32:29 AM

01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
S30
N31

 U E Y E S O N TA RG E T

01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30S
31N

Th

01
The exercise of the U.S. Navys first Underwater Demolition
Teams had been going on for weeks. The men, known as02frogmen, were training to clear beach obstacles and to attach 03
limpet
04
mines to enemy vessels.
05U.S.
Less than a year before, the Japanese had attacked the
06
Navy, Marine Corps, and Army bases at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii,
violently shoving America into World War II. The early07Sunday morning surprise attack, when most men were asleep08or at
09
services, came in two waves, with a total of some 350 Japanese
10
bombers, fighters, and other attack aircraft. Some 2,403 Ameri11
cans (including civilians) died in the December 7, 1941, attack,
12 and
which sank or capsized four battleships, sank three cruisers,
three destroyers (the cruisers and destroyers were later 13
raised
14auxand re-built), along with a number of minesweepers and
15
iliary craft. Four other battleships were so severely damaged
16 Of
that they would not be put to sea until the following year.
17 169
the 402 American aircraft stationed in Hawaii on that day,
were destroyed and another 159 crippled, many of them 18
on the
19only
ground, according to U.S. Navy records. The Japanese lost
20
29 planes and no ships. It was the biggest defeat in American
21
naval history.
22
* * *
23
24 for
Meanwhile, the navy was already developing new techniques
25
amphibious landings. The slaughter of British forces attempting
to land on hostile beaches in Turkey during the Gallipoli26cam27offipaign in World War I had concentrated the minds of senior
28men
cers. They knew that any future war would mean masses of
29
on the beach under withering fire.
S30 2nd
Five months before the Japanese attacks, the Navy tasked
N31

EyesOnTarget_TPtext1P.indd

12/18/14

Lt. Llo
to asse
ing sail
move u
ligence
level. A
beach-l
(Later,
sent to
from sp
to pass
graphs
speed
under m
to esca
waded
gets of
Ped
the Jap
Navys
operati
called t
Little C
At t
Amphi
From t
Some n
admira
One
player

12:32:29 AM

molition
as froglimpet

he U.S.
Hawaii,
ly Sunep or at
apanese
Ameriattack,
ers, and
r raised
nd auxamaged
ear. Of
day, 169
on the
ost only
merican

ques for
mpting
li camor offiof men

ked 2nd

Th e F r o g g y O r i g i n s o f t h e N a v y S E A L s U

Lt. Lloyd
01 E. Peddicord to research the need for Navy swimmers
to assess
02 the reefs, fortifications, and other obstacles to landing sailors
and Marines. These reconnaissance teams needed to
03
move04undetected in enemy waters and collect the kind of intelligence
05 that could be gathered only by skilled observers at sea
level.06Aerial surveillance provides only a top-down view, not a
beach07level view, of enemy entrenchments, Peddicord warned.
(Later,
08 in 1943, he would prove tragically correct. Marines were
sent 09
to seize the Japanese-held island of Tarawa. Photographs
from10spotter planes indicated that the reefs were deep enough
to pass
11 easily under the Marine landing craft. But those photographs
12 were taken near high-tide. At low-tide, the reefs became
speed
13 bumps, trapping the craft hundreds of yards offshore
under
14murderous machine-gun fire. The Marines who managed
to escape
15 the trapped crafts plunged into waist-deep water and
waded
16 without cover over hundreds of yards as defenseless targets 17
of Japanese gunners. The death toll was high.)
Peddicords
report was already working its way upstream when
18
the Japanese
surprise attack on December 7, 1941, quickened the
19
Navys
20 interest in new capabilities. By August 1942, Peddicord was
operating
a training facility at Little Creek, Virginia. Peddicord
21
called
22the new unit the Navy Scouts and Raiders. Decades later,
Little
23Creek would be one of the homes of the U.S. Navy SEALs.
At
24the same time, the U.S. Army and Navy opened a joint
Amphibious
Scout and Raider School at Fort Pierce, Florida.
25
From
26the start, those extraordinary men were hard to handle.
Some
27narrowly escaped court-martial when they kidnapped an
admiral
28 in Miami as a Christmas party prank.
One
29 of Peddicords first recruits was a professional football
player
30Swith the Cleveland Rams, named Phil H. Bucklew. He
31N

EyesOnTarget_TPtext1P.indd

12/18/14

12:32:29 AM

01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
S30
N31

} U E Y E S O N TA RG E T

01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30S
31N

Th

joined the navy the day after the Pearl Harbor attacks. 01
In the
02
years ahead, he would be hailed as the father of Naval Special
Warfare and, therefore, the godfather of the SEALs. 03
04(and
Tall and dark-haired, he also had the habits of a scholar
would earn his PhD at Columbia University after the war).05
06
Bucklews career traced the origins of naval special warfare.
07
He swam into an enemy harbor in North Africa in November
1942 to cut the antisubmarine nets and surveil the airfield08
for an
091943
Allied assault as part of Operation Torch. The summer of
found Bucklew in a small boat off of Sicily, the large Italian10
island
11vital
then held by the Nazis. Through binoculars, he gathered
12 for
intelligence on Nazi beach defenses, which proved essential
13
Allied landings in July 1943. His reports saved lives and surged
14
the chances of victory.
15
It was Bucklews role in the D-Day invasions of Normandy,
16
France, that made him a legend in the history of naval special
17 in
warfare. Six months before the largest amphibious landing
human history, Bucklew and another Navy scout dived18off a
19
small boat a half mile off the coast of France and swam through
20
the cold and treacherous waters of the Atlantic. It was a January
21over
night in 1944. The Nazi pillboxes and fortifications loomed
22 He
him as he dug sand from the beach on that moonless night.
23 a
packed the sand into a small kit bag and swam back out toward
24
darkened boat.
25
The wet sand was precious cargo.
26 if it
Back in England, allied planners tested the sand to see
27
would bear the weight of tanks and other allied tracked vehicles.
It could. That same beach was soon code-named Omaha,28
and it
29
was the scene of some of the bloodiest fighting of the Normandy
S30
invasion.
N31again
On another dark night, Bucklew and his swim buddy

EyesOnTarget_TPtext1P.indd

12/18/14

left the
coast. N
on the
troop m
the num
This, to
On
porting
shore h
was pr
stormy
ingly e
water a
diers ab

After t
and ado
versity
blance
profess
had van
Soo
to the N
Late
rang. H
approve
Warfar
tion Te
to him
Team O

12:32:29 AM

In the
Special

lar (and
).
warfare.
vember
d for an
of 1943
n island
ed vital
ntial for
surged

mandy,
special
ding in
d off a
hrough
January
ed over
ght. He
oward a

see if it
ehicles.
, and it
rmandy

y again

Th e F r o g g y O r i g i n s o f t h e N a v y S E A L s U y

left 01
the comfort of a small boat to swim to the rocky French
coast.
02Nazi patrols were a constant danger. They hid for hours
on the
03 exposed beach to collect sand samples and study the Nazi
troop
04movements. They learned the patrol schedules and noted
the numbers
of soldiers and the type of guns that they carried.
05
This,06too, provided vital intelligence for the D-Day landings.
On
07 D-Day itself, Bucklew and his small boat were back supporting
08 the first wave of tank assaults on Omaha Beach, the very
shore09he had reconnoitered less than six months before. His boat
was 10
probed by Nazi machine-gun fire and raked by waves of
stormy
11 seas. Landing craft exploded around him, under seemingly12endless artillery fire. As the enemy shells made geysers of
water13all around him, he reached into the bloody seas to haul soldiers14aboard, saving many from drowning.
15
* * *
16
After17the war, Bucklew left the Navy, married his sweetheart,
and adopted
the quiet life of a graduate student at Columbia Uni18
versity
19 in New York. Like many veterans, he longed for a semblance
20 of prewar normalcy. Too old and too worn out to play
professional
football, he learned that many of the prewar teams
21
had vanished.
22
Soon,
23 the call of the sea roared in his ears. When he returned
to the
24Navy in 1948, he saw action in Korea and other parts of Asia.
Later,
as mandatory retirement neared in 1962, the phone
25
rang.26He was asked to command a new unit that was just being
approved
27 by President John F. Kennedy, called Naval Special
Warfare
28 Group One. In addition to two Underwater Demolition 29
Teams and a Boat Support Unit, which were each familiar
to him,
30S the command included something entirely new SEAL
Team
One.
31N

EyesOnTarget_TPtext1P.indd

12/18/14

12:32:29 AM

01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
S30
N31

 U E Y E S O N TA RG E T

01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30S
31N

Th

01
02
03 in a
John F. Kennedys shortened presidency set in motion a lot
04 the
few years: the challenge to land the first men on the moon,
05 and
tax cuts that triggered the enormous 1960s economic boom,
06
the creation of the U.S. Navy SEALs.
07
The SEAL name stood for Sea, Air, Land. The young president
08 kill
imagined a mobile commando force that could stalk, hunt, and
09 and
in any terrain on Earth, operating from the ships, submarines,
10
aircraft of the U.S. Navy.
Kennedy had been a naval officer during World War II,11commanding a small, fast PT boat in the Pacific. He had seen12com13 his
bat against the brutal Japanese Navy and nearly died when
14
PT 109 had been sunk in a firefight. He and his crew survived
through escape and evasion in the jungles of enemy-held15Asia.
16
And, like many Democrats and Republicans of his era, he understood the threat of Soviet Communism and the dire stakes17
in the
18
escalating Vietnam War.
19
So he signed off on the creation of a new type of frogman,
20were
the SEALs, in 1962. It would not be long before the SEALs
deployed as Bucklew once was: at night, on enemy shores. 21
22
* * *
23
24 in
Captain Bucklew didnt like what he saw in South Vietnam
25
1964. The North Vietnamese Army and its irregular guerilla
arm, the Vietcong, were freely landing on beaches in the 26
South,
moving ashore men and materiel. The South Vietnamese27army
would arrive too late, or not at all, and the allied navy 28
was ill
equipped and poorly led. Americas ally couldnt stop the 29
moveS30
ment of North Vietnamese fighters on land or sea.
If America didnt act quickly, its ally would succumb N31
to Com-

munist
and sch
cation
secuted
schooli
politica
to be w
United
1975.) N
the risk
Buc
by the
The
trovers
includi
Comm
flowed
dia. Th
sampan
its mud
and aut
be hidd
shallow
The
role, pa
forces f
novel a
The
the Sou
rivers,
So t

* * *

EyesOnTarget_TPtext1P.indd

12/18/14

12:32:29 AM

lot in a
on, the
om, and

resident
and kill
nes, and

I, comn comhen his

urvived
ld Asia.
unders in the

ogman,
Ls were

nam in
guerilla
South,
e army
was ill
move-

o Com-

Th e F r o g g y O r i g i n s o f t h e N a v y S E A L s U

munist
01 invasion. Its democratically elected leaders, village elders,
and 02
schoolteachers would be killed or sent to political reeducation
03 camps, Hmong and Chinese minorities would be persecuted
04 or killed, and its entire population enslaved. Food and
schooling,
when it was provided at all, would be doled out on a
05
political
06 basis. And Americas pledge to her ally would be shown
to be
07worthlessfrightening other allies from relying on the
United
08 States. (Indeed, all of these things would come to pass in
1975.)
09None of these things had to be explicitly said by Bucklew;
the risks
10 were well known.
Bucklew
recommended a complete blockade of the coastline
11
by the
12 U.S. Navy, a suggestion that his superiors had expected.
The
13 rest of the now-famous Bucklew report was more controversial.
He recommended that special operations teams
14
including
his SEAL teambe used to patrol and ambush the
15
Communist
invaders along the Mekong and Bassac rivers that
16
flowed
17 into the western interior of South Vietnam from Cambodia. 18
These winding rivers were packed with shallow-draft boats,
sampans,
19 and junks, which carried fish and rice to the markets on
its muddy
banks. They were also ideal for smuggling insurgents
20
and 21
automatic weapons. From the air, enemy movements would
be hidden
among the native boats. Only on the ground or in the
22
shallow
23 water could the invaders be stopped.
The
24 Navy was comfortable with its traditional blue-water
role,25
patrolling and fighting in deep ocean waters. Sending naval
forces
26far from the sight of its oceangoing vessels struck many as
novel27and strange. Wasnt that what Marines were for?
The
28 U.S. Navy quickly chased the North Vietnamese from
the South
China Sea, and the enemy moved to the unguarded
29
rivers,
exactly as Bucklew had predicted.
30S
So
the SEALs would follow them into the small, jungle-shaded
31N

EyesOnTarget_TPtext1P.indd

12/18/14

12:32:29 AM

01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
S30
N31

n U E Y E S O N TA RG E T

01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30S
31N

Th

rivers. No longer seen as a force to clear beach obstacles for01

largescale naval invasions, the SEALs went far beyond the blue 02
waters
of the traditional Navy to the brown and muddy waters of03
coun04 in
terinsurgency in the jungles of Vietnam and Cambodia. There,
the mosquito-infested jungles where Vietcong hid behind05rain06
dripping fronds, the SEALs came into their own.
07
* * *
08
09
One of them was Michael Thornton.
10 he
Thornton was a new member of SEAL Team One when
arrived in Southeast Asia on January 1, 1970. As he stepped 11
off the
12
plane, the heat rushed on him like the opening of an oven door.
Within days, he was deployed up-country, moving in13small
inflatable boats and lying in wait, among tall weeds, for 14
enemy
troop movements to cross his gun barrel. For the next two15
years,
16
as the American public thought the war in Vietnam was winding
17
down, he and his teammates were ambushing North Vietnam18 had
ese Army regulars. (The infamous Vietcong guerilla fighters
ceased to exist as a separate fighting unit following their19utter
defeat during the 1968 Tet Offensive.) The enemy was 20
highly
21And
trained (often by Soviet advisors), disciplined, and bold.
22
the Communists could stage ambushes of their ownproviding
23
Thornton with his share of close calls.
24
Thornton, under the command of Lt. Thomas R. Norris,
along with three men from the South Vietnamese Special 25
Forces
(known as the LDNN), was given a mission that would defi26
ne his
27
career and illustrate the bold new role of the SEALs.
Norris was already a legend among the SEALs. From28
a for29 he
ward operating base (FOB) in northern South Vietnam,
S301972.
led a five-man team to locate a downed pilot on April 10,
Throughout the night, his team carefully moved throughN31
terrain

EyesOnTarget_TPtext1P.indd

12/18/14

crowde
pilot hi
Comm
and roc
the-clo
run by
Nor
the cop
derness
ing, and
On
a Vietn
ese sold
Maneu
wounde
the riv
moved
he ease
climbe
the FO
gun. H
were tr
strike n
the jun
scramb
some m
their li
raised h
Wit
Norris
ery tha

12:32:29 AM

r largee waters
f counhere, in
d rain-

when he
d off the
door.
n small
enemy
o years,
winding
etnamers had
ir utter
highly
d. And
oviding

Norris,
Forces
fine his

m a foram, he
0, 1972.
terrain

Th e F r o g g y O r i g i n s o f t h e N a v y S E A L s U

crowded
01 with North Vietnamese forces. At dawn, he found the
pilot02
hiding in the jungle and led him safely back to the base. The
Communists
announced their displeasure with massive mortar
03
and 04
rocket attacks on the small, sandbagged base. Only roundthe-clock
05 air support kept the remote outpost from being overrun by
06 the determined enemy.
Norris
knew that the North Vietnamese were searching for
07
the copilot.
The next day, he led two more patrols into the wil08
derness
09 owned by the enemy. No joy. The copilot remained missing, 10
and Norris and his men were lucky to escape with their lives.
On
11 April 12, he decided to try again. He disguised himself as
a Vietnamese
fisherman and, along with a brave South Vietnam12
ese soldier,
pushed out on an old sampan, a native wooden boat.
13
Maneuvering
the boat throughout the night, he finally found the
14
wounded
15 pilot. But the North Vietnamese had moved in along
the riverbank.
He covered the pilot in bamboo and weeds and
16
moved
17 the boat back into the muddy creek. With sheer bravado,
he eased
18 the boat past North Vietnamese patrols. As the trio
climbed
19 out of the sampan, less than two thousand yards from
the FOB,
20 Norris heard the telltale bark of a Soviet-made machine
gun.21
He hit the deck as bullets savaged the foliage above. They
were22
trapped. Concealed in vegetation, he gamely called in an air
strike
23near his own position. Seconds after the explosions rocked
the jungle,
Norris, the pilot, and the South Vietnamese soldier
24
scrambled
to reach the FOB. The smoke and debris gave them
25
some26momentary cover. But it wouldnt last. They had to run for
their27lives and cross nearly a half mile of jungle before Charlie
raised
28his head and resumed firing.
With
29 the crack of enemy rifle fire overhead, they made it.
Norris
30Swould later be awarded the Medal of Honor for his bravery that
31Nday.

EyesOnTarget_TPtext1P.indd

12/18/14

12:32:29 AM

01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
S30
N31

 U E Y E S O N TA RG E T

01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30S
31N

Th e

Five months later, Norris was outlining a mission that 01

would
02 life.
take him back to the same territory where he nearly lost his
03
This time, he wanted to take Thornton with him.
Norris traced his finger on a map showing the North04Vietnameses Cua Viet River Base, on the jagged coastline of05
South
06and,
Vietnams Qu ng Tr Province. It was October 31, 1972,
07 one
Thornton knew, this Halloween mission was likely to be
08 of
of the last SEAL operations in Southeast Asia. The numbers
09 to
SEALs left in country had dwindled from hundreds in 1966
10
roughly a dozen in 1972.
The mission was simple and dangerous: capture North11Vietnamese prisoners and gather intelligence from a spot of 12
jungly
13
marsh only a few miles from the border of North Vietnam.
14 was
Though they would be landing in South Vietnam, the area
entirely in Communist hands. The North Vietnamese15were
numerous, their patrols were constant, and they were well 16
armed
17
with machine guns and Soviet-made rocket launchers. Artillery
18
and tanks could be nearby.
They would have to move without sign or scent. If19they
20 by
were discovered, the lucky ones would die quickly. Capture
21 into
the North Vietnamese meant torture and disappearance
22
nightmarish prison camps. At this stage of the war, no prisoners
23 had
had ever been released from North Vietnam, and very few
24 that
escaped. The risks were sky-high, and the SEALs were told
25
they could bow out. None did.
26
* * *
27
28
A weather-beaten Chinese-style junk took them up the hostile
29
coast. The men stayed out of sight of Communist patrol planes.
S30 carThe thud of the diesel outboard and the whine of flimsy sails
N31sky.
ried them ever northward as the sun crawled across the hot

EyesOnTarget_TPtext1P.indd

10

12/18/14

Afte
darkne
junk. T
fully tr
and the
The
dled to
them.
Stil
web ve
load ou
The
from e
spilled
avoid d
The
them m
They c
avoid c
Firs
over th
current
North
Nor
beach,
luck, th
water.
But
A N
spotted
AK-47s

12:32:29 AM

t would
his life.

h Vietf South
72, and,
be one
mbers of
1966 to

h Vietjungly
ietnam.
rea was
e were
l armed
rtillery

If they
ture by
ce into
isoners
ew had
old that

hostile
planes.
ails carot sky.

Th e F r o g g y O r i g i n s o f t h e N a v y S E A L s U

After
01 sunset, the team reached its objective. In the humid
darkness,
02 they inflated a small boat and put it over the side of the
junk.03The SEALs and the South Vietnamese commandos carefully04
transferred their guns and equipment into the bobbing boat
and then
05 lowered themselves aboard.
The
06 distant coastline was a dark tangle of trees. As they paddled07
toward it, they did not know if enemy lookouts had spotted
them.
08
Still
09 more than a mile out, the men attached their gear to their
web 10
vests and climbed over the side. They swam with their full
load 11
out, through the waves and currents of the inky-dark sea.
They
12 crept ashore under the tropical stars, which, this far
from13electrical light, were numerous and brightlike sugar
spilled
14 on a black tablecloth. They would have to be careful to
avoid15detection. They communicated only in hand signals.
They
16 could hear North Vietnamese soldiers talking and see
them17moving around campfires, drinking tea, and making jokes.
They18crept slowly through the underbrush, pausing often to
avoid19creating a pattern of sound.
First
20 light found them deep in the jungle, with Norris poring
over21
the map. The commander quickly realized that the ocean
currents
22 had taken them too far north. They were actually in
North
23 Vietnam. There was no hope of rescue there.
Norris
decided to creep back toward the coast. Once near the
24
beach,
25 they could use a compass to wend their way south. With
luck,26they would avoid Communist patrols and make it into the
water.
27
But
28 their luck had run out.
A29North Vietnamese force of more than fifty soldiers soon
spotted
30S the commandos. They fired on them instantly, with
AK-47s,
31Ntheir 7.62-millimeter rounds slicing through palm trunks.

EyesOnTarget_TPtext1P.indd

11

12/18/14

12:32:29 AM

01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
S30
N31

 U E Y E S O N TA RG E T

01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30S
31N

Th e

01
Thornton and the other men were outnumbered in hostile
02only
terrain. They returned fire, running and gunning, stopping
03 as
to reload. The moving battle raged for more than five hours
04
the SEALs fought to get to the coast.
05 An
Soon, the enemy was close enough to hurl grenades.
06 leg.
explosion stunned Thornton, and shrapnel cut through his
His camo pants were soaked with his own blood. Still, he 07
had to
keep moving or he would die. He knelt down to take aim08at his
09
attackers.
10 to
One of the South Vietnamese commandos crawled over
11 shot
Thornton. The situation had gotten worse. Norris had been
12
in the head, and Thornton was told, he was dead.
13 five
Now Thornton had to make a decision. Norris was at least
football fields to his rear and most likely dead. Still, the 14
SEAL
15
mantraLeave no man behind echoed in Thorntons head.
16
Despite his wounds, he made his way over the rough ground,
17
taking fire from enemy soldiers.
18
He found Norris in a puddle of his own blood. As Thornton
tried to move him, Norris moved. He was alive. Barely. 19
20
Thornton picked him up and staggered toward the beach.
Another explosion knocked the two men down. It was21artil22
lery fire, likely from an American cruiser offshore.
23onto
Thornton struggled to get up again and pulled Norris
24
his back.
25 the
Again, they made for the shore. Bullets screamed past
26
lumbering duo. The shots were getting closer.
27
Thornton winced. A North Vietnamese bullet had smashed
through his leg, pumping out more of his own blood. Now 28
he was
29
wounded in both legs.
S30
Yet Thornton kept going. Somehow.
N31

EyesOnTarget_TPtext1P.indd

12

12/18/14

In t
mando
the oce
around
Wit
himself
All thr
bleedin
and the
water, s
It w
help ar
them o
all thre
The
Alm
to Was
est dec
in the m
from h
Norris
Naval H
move t
Tho
room.
shift ca
wheelc
to ques
The
and No

12:32:29 AM

hostile
ng only
ours as

des. An
his leg.
e had to
m at his

over to
en shot

east five
SEAL
head.
ground,

hornton

ach.
as artil-

ris onto

past the

mashed
w he was

Th e F r o g g y O r i g i n s o f t h e N a v y S E A L s U

In
01the surf, he found a wounded South Vietnamese commando.
02 Another teammate. Thornton dragged both men into
the ocean.
He fought against the rising tide as bullets splashed
03
around
04 him.
With
05 a burning sun overhead, Thornton would have to keep
himself
06 and two other men floating and breathing. It wasnt easy.
All three
07 men had potentially mortal wounds, and their open,
bleeding
08 wounds sapped their energy to fight the merciless waves
and 09
the ruthless sun. Given the amount of blood in the tropical
water,
10shark attack was a definite possibility.
It11would take two hours of paddling in the open ocean before
help12
arrived. Sailors, aboard the same junk that had dropped
them13off the night before, helped haul them aboard. Remarkably,
all three
14 men lived.
The
15 story, like the best SEAL stories, has a coda.
Almost
exactly a year later, Thornton was ordered to report
16
to Washington
to receive the Medal of Honor, the nations high17
est decoration.
He had one request. He wanted Norris, who was
18
in the
19midst of a three-year battery of operations to restore him
from20his head injury, to join him at the White House ceremony.
Norris
21 was a few miles north of the White House at Bethesda
Naval
22Hospital, but the doctors firmly said no. It was too risky to
move23their patient.
Thornton
paid his old commander a visit in his hospital
24
room.
25 He sat by his bedside, swapping stories. When the night
shift26
came on, Thornton calmly lowered Norris into a nearby
wheelchair
and wheeled him out of the hospital. No one stopped
27
to question
them. Thorton had just kidnapped the man he saved.
28
The
29 following afternoon, on October 15, 1973, Thornton
and 30S
Norris were side by side in the White House. As President
31N

EyesOnTarget_TPtext1P.indd

13

12/18/14

12:32:29 AM

01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
S30
N31

} U E Y E S O N T A R G E T

01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30S
31N

Th e

01
Richard Nixon put the blue sash holding the gold medal around
Thorntons neck, the president asked: Is there anything I 02
can do
03
for you?
04half,
Sir, Thornton said, if you could break this medal in
1
05
the other half belongs to the man beside me.
06
He meant Norris.
07 was
Thornton would later get his wish, although his medal
08 by
never broken in half. Norris was awarded the Medal of Honor
09 two
President Gerald R. Ford on March 6, 1976, for rescuing the
10
downed pilots in 1972.
Thornton was asked many times: why did he do it? He 11
always
12
gave an answer similar to the one he gave the Norfolk Virgin13
ian Pilot newspaper: We loved, and we gave, and we understood
each otherthats what SEAL teams are about . . . .We 14
would
15
have given our lives for each other.
16cenThorntons case remains the only time in the twentieth
17
tury that one Medal of Honor winner saved another.
18
* * *
19
A Medal of Honor winner can always get a meeting. In201979,
21
Norris went to see FBI director William H. Webster.
22 the
Norris hoped to persuade the FBI director to let him join
23
Bureau, despite his war injuries. Webster was a tough-minded
man, a former federal judge who stared down several mafi24
a dons
25 the
in his New York courtroom. His refusal to knuckle under
26
pressure from the mob and its lawyers brought him to promi27 the
nence and led President Jimmy Carter to appoint him to run
28 sayFBI. Webster considered the risks: the potential news story
ing a decorated SEAL was unfit for the FBI versus putting29
a man
S30 his
in the line of fire who might not be capable of performing
N31tests,
duties. At length, Webster told him that if he passed all the

EyesOnTarget_TPtext1P.indd

14

12/18/14

like any
was a to
Nor
as a spe
base in

With t
senior
island i
The
compo
borders
its state
watchin
ian life
they str
heavy l
Don
was wh
In Z
SEALs
new g
the tra
values
let it a
tion fou
bombin
firmed
vestige
only ea

12:32:29 AM

around
can do

in half,

dal was
onor by
the two

always
Virginerstood
would

th cen-

n 1979,

oin the
minded
fia dons
der the
promirun the
ory sayg a man
ing his
he tests,

Th e F r o g g y O r i g i n s o f t h e N a v y S E A L s U y

like any
01 other FBI special agent, the Bureau would accept him. It
was a02tough but fair decision.
Norris
passed the tests and would go on to serve twenty years
03
as a 04
special agent. A building is named for Norris at the SEAL
base05
in Coronado.
06
* * *
07
With08the end of the Vietnam War, Thornton was sent to be a
senior
09 instructor at the SEAL training base at Coronado, an
island
10in San Diego Bay. This is where BUD/S happens.
The
11 worlds most fearsome training program begins in a small
compound
of two-story buildings ringed by chain-link fence. It
12
borders
13 the famous Victorian-style Hotel Del Coronado. From
its stately
14 porches, guests can casually sip their cappuccinos while
watching
15 SEALs struggle in the surf below. The ease of civilian life
16 is clearly visible to the salt-and-sand-starched SEALs as
they17
struggle to attach a line to wet rocks or run in the sand with
heavy
18logs on their shoulders.
Don
19 Zub attended BUD/S in 1975, as part of class 91. This
was where
he met Thornton.
20
In
21Zubs day there was a significant cultural divide in the
SEALs
22 between the Vietnam veterans, like Thornton, and the
new23guys. During the war, civilian society pivoted away from
the traditional
ideals of self-sacrifice, patience, and forbearance,
24
values
25 essential for military service. Self-discipline eased into a
let it
26all hang out attitude. Many SEALs of Thorntons generation 27
found the changes unnerving. The riots, assassinations, and
bombings,
prompted by calls for a radical new society, only con28
firmed
29 their suspicions. So the veteran instructors beat out any
vestige
30Sof this thinking in their recruits. When they said the
only31N
easy day was yesterday, it was initially meant as a challenge

EyesOnTarget_TPtext1P.indd

15

12/18/14

12:32:29 AM

01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
S30
N31

 U E Y E S O N T A R G E T

01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30S
31N

Th e

01
to the drift of American society. At the receiving end, the recruits
didnt like it much. There was some tension, Zub admits.02
03 like
Virtually all of the instructors were Vietnam veterans,
04 war.
Thornton. They were hard men who had been hardened by
05stuff
They saw a lot of their brothers die, Zub said. They did
06
that they couldnt get away with today. They were very professional, at the extreme end of professional. The deadly end.07
08 in
Their professionalism and their hardness showed itself
09 takunusual ways. One day Zub and several other SEALs were
10 cold
ing cold showers to condition themselves for training in the
11curwaters of the Pacific. One instructor ripped open the shower
12The
tain and kicked Zub in the balls. He doubled over in pain.
instructor barked: If I kicked you in the balls ten times, 13
would
14
the eleventh time feel any different?
15
The instructors point was that shivering in a cold shower
16The
would not prepare you for the rigors of cold-water training.
17
way he illustrated that lesson, which would be a criminal offense
18
today, was never forgotten.
19
* * *
20
21The
The Emerson rig is a bubble-rebreather made in France.
22
specially made device lets U.S. Navy SEALs dive up to thirty23 But
two feet underwater and swim undetected beneath the waves.
24 Zub
the device requires considerable training to avoid drowning.
and his fellow SEALs began a series of training sessions25
called
26 in
evolutionswith the Emerson rig in 1976. They practiced
a pool, then in a nearby bay. Then they practiced using it27
in the
28 last.
bay at night. Each practice drill was more taxing than the
Finally, in May 1976, the day came to use the Emerson rig29
in the
S30
ever-dangerous ocean.
N31
SEAL Team One stood on the beach on Coronado
Island

EyesOnTarget_TPtext1P.indd

16

12/18/14

that m
the roc
that we
The
into the
be that
The
groups
always
water w
strange
Zub
extra le
weight
wild wa
to work
which
the wav
kill the
Not
their ch
them.
Wh
anxious
their fa
One
buddy a
onto th
Zub
it was n
Tha

12:32:29 AM

Th e F r o g g y O r i g i n s o f t h e N a v y S E A L s U

recruits
s.
ns, like
by war.
id stuff
profes.
tself in
ere takhe cold
wer curin. The
, would

shower
ng. The
offense

ce. The
thirtyves. But
ng. Zub
called
ticed in
t in the
he last.
g in the
Island

that 01
morning, watching the wild eight-foot waves roar against
the rocks
02 and feeling the wind lash their faces. There is no way
that 03
we are diving today, Zub told his teammates.
They
04 were silent. Would their instructors actually send them
into 05
the stormy seas? Would their Vietnam-hardened instructors
be that
06 crazy? Everyone wondered, but no one dared to ask.
The
07 suspense didnt last long. The men were lined up in
groups
08 of two, swim buddies side by side. (SEALs in training are
always
09 divided into teams of two, called swim buddies.) The
water10was cold. The currents were unpredictable, strong and
strange.
11
Zub
12 and his swim buddy survived through strategy: they put
extra13lead weights in the pockets of their rebreathing vests. The
weight
14 drove them deeper into the water and kept them out of the
wild15
waves raging above them. But it came at a price. They had
to work
16 hard to stop from sinking to a depth of thirty-two feet,
which
17 would kill them. Anything higher than ten feet, where
the waves
would smash them onto knife-edged rocks, might also
18
kill them.
They were trying to swim a path between perils.
19
Not
20 every pair of SEALs followed Zubs strategy. Others took
their21chances in the waves. The gamble didnt pay off for all of
them.
22
When
23 Zub crawled out of the surf, he could see the instructors
anxiously
24 running up and down the beach. Worry was written on
their25
faces.
One
26 of the unweighted SEALs had separated from his swim
buddy
27 and was caught in a claw of angry waves. His body washed
onto28
the shore, helpless and motionless, like driftwood.
Zub
29 saw one of the instructors repeatedly perform CPR. But
it was
no use. The man was dead.
30S
That
31Nnight at dinner, the SEALs were quiet. But their instructors

EyesOnTarget_TPtext1P.indd

17

12/18/14

12:32:29 AM

01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
S30
N31

n U E Y E S O N TA RG E T

01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30S
31N

Th e

01 a
were not. Each instructor, including Thornton, stood behind
table of SEALs, whispering over and over the dead mans02
name.
03
They were rubbing it in that he had died, Zub said.
04with
Each sailor knew the dead man well. They had trained
05 who
him, ate with him, slept near him. Some had met his parents,
06were
came from a tough section of East Los Angeles. The men
07
taking the loss hard, and the instructors were making it harder.
08 lesThe instructors were teaching a brutal but necessary
09 You
son: In training and in combat, your teammates will die.
10seen
had better get used to it. The instructors themselves had
11suntheir friends die in the fast-moving waters, dark jungles, and
cooked rice paddies of South Vietnam. They knew that12
if the
trainees could not accept the human cost of combat, they 13
would
14
be useless as fighting men.
15 the
And they also knew that SEALs find it easier to accept
possibility of losing their own lives than the risk of losing16
teammates. It was the loss of friends and teammates that they 17
would
18
have to learn how to handle.
19 kill
What was the purpose? Zub sums it up: What doesnt
you will make you stronger. But, still, Zub didnt like 20
it very
21
much.
22 and
Yet Thorntons hardened imprint was passed onto Zub
23
the others. It helped make them SEALs.
24
* * *
25
26
In Zubs days there was an incredible rivalry between the SEALs
based on the East Coast and those based on the West 27
Coast.
28 It
Each had a nasty nickname for the teams of the other coast.
29 the
was East Coast pukes versus Hollywood SEALs. Over
S30
years, the nicknames have faded and the rivalry reduced.
But it
N31
remains.

EyesOnTarget_TPtext1P.indd

18

12/18/14

The
no miss
But
rior a
Navy S

12:32:29 AM

ehind a
s name.

ed with
nts, who
en were
arder.
ary lesie. You
ad seen
nd sunt if the
y would

ept the
g teamy would

snt kill
it very

ub and

SEALs
Coast.
oast. It
ver the
. But it

Th e F r o g g y O r i g i n s o f t h e N a v y S E A L s U

The
01 intense rivalry was there because there was no war and
no mission
to unite the brotherhood.
02
But
03 that was about to change. A self-described rogue warrior04and a bearded mullah were about to utterly change the
Navy05SEALs.
06
07
08
09
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30S
31N

EyesOnTarget_TPtext1P.indd

19

12/18/14

12:32:29 AM

01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
S30
N31