Tom Yum

Just spoke with a friend of mine who will be attending Navy EOD school soon and it got me thinking about what they'll be doing. Not many people understand what exactly an EOD does or is (including self), so I'll try to summarize what I've been told for those who are interested in special operations support teams.

EOD (Explosives Ordinance Disposal) teams are the guys who disarm or set up explosive ordinance for special operation missions. These guys get training in anything that blows up - from home-made IED type weapons to nuclear/biological/chemical weapons. They also use some interesting technology, like robots and even teams of dolphins to detect and disarm ordinances. They are very technically savvy and they get to attend some high-level combat training as well.

On top of that, they are dive & jump qualified so they can enter and exit from the sea or air undetected.

Here's a video that I found from youtube about EOD technicians.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqIkI...eature=related

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By W. Thomas Smith Jr.
Contributing Editor
NavySEALs.com

All sailors are not created equal. And in the purest sense of the word, the best-trained “sailors” in the world may well-be the U.S. Navy’s Special Warfare Combatant-craft Crewmen (SWCC). They are certainly some of the most skilled seaborne warriors in the U.S. Special Operations Command. Yet few outside of military circles have heard of them, and those who have, see them only as post-9/11 bluejackets driving fast boats in dangerous waters.

They are much more.

A cross between the old “Brown Water Navy” Riverine sailors – from which they are directly descended – and their British cousins in the Special Boat Squadrons of the Royal Marines; America’s SWCC (pronounced “swick”) crews are considered the younger brothers of the U.S. Navy SEALs with whom they work: Younger in the sense that actual SWCC units are relatively new, though their lineage is long, and they are today equal partners with SEALs in special warfare operations.

SWCC sailors are not SEALs. But SWCC crewmen are quick to point out, SEALs aren’t SWCC either: The latter being boat crewmen – true sailors in an age when many Naval personnel are rarely on the water. Yet SWCC sailors are as much at home leaping from a cargo jet in the dead of night or responding to an enemy ambush on the ground, as they are racing across swelling seas in small craft bristling with guns and loaded with SEALs

“SWCC and SEALs work very closely together,” says retired Captain Louis Colbus, a destroyer squadron commander and the former chief of staff for [Aircraft] Carrier Battle Group Eight, whose son is a SWCC sailor. “SWCC are out there swimming and running with the SEALs everyday. Their [operational] roles are often interchangeable. In fact, if you were a civilian watching them on the beach, you wouldn’t know the difference between the SEALs and the boat crews.”

Not all men (females are barred from serving in special operations units) applying to the SWCC program pack the gear to be SWCC crewmen. “There’s a 30-percent wash-out rate,” says Petty Officer 2nd Class Jason Knudson, a SWCC Crewman who served a stint in Iraq and is currently a Naval officer candidate. “It’s not for everyone.”

Though not nearly as high as the attrition rate for SEALs, the SWCC wash-out rate is almost three times higher than that of any conventional military force. The reasons are not surprising: You’ve got to be tough, smart, mechanically inclined, and almost as good a surface swimmer as a SEAL. In fact, the Navy warns its applicants not to approach the SWCC program from the standpoint that SWCC training will get you in shape. You’d better be fit before you get there.

Aside from a keen eyesight requirement, a squeaky clean criminal background record, and a high score on the military entrance (written) exam; SWCC candidates must be able to pass the following physical screening test (PST) upon arrival at boot camp:

• 500-yard swim using breast and/or sidestroke in less than 13:00 minutes (Followed by a 10-minute rest)
• Perform at least 42 push-ups in two minutes (Followed by a two-minute rest)
• Perform at least 50 sit-ups in two minutes (Followed by a two-minute rest)
• Perform at least six pull-ups with no time limit (Followed by a 10-minute rest)
• Run 1.5 miles wearing tennis shoes and shorts in less than 12 minutes, 30 seconds

Those are just the basics, and similar to the slightly more challenging SEAL entry PST in that if meeting the minimum requirements is the best you can do, you are probably not going to make it.

The tough part of becoming a SWCC is the training: It consists of three phases over a fast nine weeks, at the Naval Amphibious Base Coronado, California (yes, where SEALs train, and this writer attended the Marine Corps amphibious raid course more than 20 years ago). There the candidate will endure lots of running and swimming, engineering training, seamanship, land and sea navigation, weapons skills training, patrolling, and ground combat tactics. Then there is jump (parachute) school, SERE (Survival, Evasion, Resistance, Escape) school for some, and a continuing series of additional courses and training evolutions: All of it necessary when working with hopped-up combat boats and special operations forces.

“SWCC sailors are not only boat support for the SEALs, but can go ashore and participate alongside SEALs in a ground combat environment if needed,” says former SWCC Petty Officer 1st Class Steve Siderias, who currently owns and operates Extreme Outfitters, an international tactical and outdoor gear sales company. “If you just had a guy driving a boat, and he couldn’t shoot a weapon, land nav, or jump out of a plane, the SEAL Teams and the Special Warfare community would be limited.”

Knudson agrees.

“We are a legitimate, equal branch of Naval Special Warfare,” he says. “Just like SEALs specialize in SCUBA, demolitions, and close combat; we specialize in boats and big machineguns.”

One of the primary missions of SWCC is extraction of special operations forces from the beach.

“In a hot extract where SEALs might be coming out fast in Zodiacs [15-foot inflatable rubber boats], we’ll be providing intense covering fire with grenade launchers and machine-guns from the back of our Mark Vs,” Knudson adds.

At 81-feet long, the Mark V Combat boat (with a top speed of nearly 50 knots) is the largest of the three primary boats in the SWCC inventory, which also includes the 11-Meter Rigid-hull Inflatable Boat or RIB (36-feet long with a top speed of 45-plus knots) and the Special Operations Craft Riverine or SOC-R boat (33-feet long with a top speed of 40-plus knots). The Mark V has a range of over 500 nautical miles, and the RIB and SOC-R each have ranges at or above 200 nautical miles. Despite their size and range, all three vessels have extremely shallow drafts enabling them to operate in shallow waters, which larger, deeper-drafted boats and ships dare not enter.

“When these multi-million dollar craft hit the water, they are not only providing the SEALs with a high-speed delivery platform, but state-of-the-art electronics, night-vision and infrared technology, miniguns, cannon, and other advanced weaponry,” says Siderias. “In terms of range, SEALs used to be limited in terms of distance to land from where they might launch boats or where they could refuel. But now with jump-qualified SWCC guys, SEALs can hypothetically strike from hundreds of miles out [anywhere on the planet], reach their target, still have their Zodiacs and/or have a very fast platform to get them where they need to go.”

SWCC sailors fight on land and sea, deep upriver, and they deploy from land, sea, and air. They are also capable of engaging – and have engaged – enemy conventional and special forces, terrorists, even pirates. According to Knudson, when he was deployed to the Persian Gulf region in 2004, “it wasn’t profitable for Ali Baba and his forty thieves to commit banditry on land, so they moved on to seaborne piracy.”

But SWCC is not all about fighting and special combat missions. For instance, in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in August-September 2005, SWCC units deployed to the Gulf Coast and were in many areas the first responders on-scene. Other missions might find SWCC sailors operating forklifts and huge cranes, driving tractor-trailers, serving as aircraft loadmasters, rebuilding engines, or working on satellite equipment and microelectronics.

SWCC aren’t the only small-craft crewmen in the Navy. Others, like those who man the Naval Coastal Warfare Group’s Inshore Boat Units (IBUs), are also multi-skilled sailors who operate in many of the world’s littoral regions away from the big ships of the blue-water Navy. The difference between the brand new IBUs and SWCC units being that IBUs conduct conventional patrols and provide surveillance to the Navy and its expeditionary forces, whereas SWCC is dedicated to special warfare and the myriad ventures and vagaries associated with special operations.

Like the IBUs, SWCC units are relative newcomers in an organizational sense, though SWCC crews trace their unofficial lineage to a bitter cold Christmas night in 1776. “George Washington crossed the Delaware River with what was kind of the first American special boat team,” says Knudson, adding that special boat crews have – in some way – been key components of U.S. military operations for nearly 230 years, but not really coming of age until World War II.

“Then we had the PT boats,” he says. “John Kennedy and the members of PT-109 were essentially a special boat crew. Then, during the Vietnam era, we had the Swift Boats and River Rats.”

Boat crews continued to evolve, and during the decade of the 1980’s – when SEALs were organized into SEAL Teams and Swimmer Delivery Vehicle Teams (later SEAL Delivery Vehicle Teams or SDVTs), and the Naval Special Warfare Command was commissioned – SWCC was born.

Following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, everything in the special operations community was ratcheted up.

“The high-speed SEALs needed more maritime support flexibility and they needed a dedicated force of warriors trained as experts in maritime operations, launching craft, and air-deploying assets,” says Siderias. “SWCC today frees up the heavily tasked SEALs to focus on underwater demolition, land warfare, and CQB [close quarters battle].”

Today, some 2,450 SEALs are directly supported by approximately 600 active SWCC sailors (not including 125 SWCC Reservists), worldwide. It’s a small force of select men doing a very tough job. “Imagine being out on a little boat with a 70-knot wind, in 30-foot seas, and waves crashing over you,” says Siderias. “You’re wet, freezing cold, and a few hours you may be in combat. It’s definitely not a job you just walk into out of high school.”


Link (http://www.navyseals.com/community/a...le.cfm?id=9600)

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bigred389

Even newer, in addition to IBUs and SWCC, we've now got the RIVRONs.

Brown water sailors are back.

Mike Brewer

Good article Tom! The Special Ops community is full of missions that the public at large is generally unaware of. In the Army, Civil Affairs is one that almost no one thinks of as a Spec Ops field, but it certainly is one. My old job in Psychological Operations tends to fly under the radar as well. Air force Combat Controllers and PJs have been getting a little more press lately, but they're still largely unknown. It's good to see the SWCC sailors getting a nod from the press, too.

And by the way - hope training is going well. You'll have to give me a call sometime and catch me up.

npk9

Hey Mike, I always wondered what PsyOps did. When I was seriously considering joining the Army after college (because it was right at 9/11 and couldn't find a job) I thought about being in PsyOps if I scored high enough on the ASVAB. Suffice it to say a lot of my friends and family did not want me to go and thus found me a job in a hospital for dual diagnosed patients (all sentenced there because of a crime as well. . .).

To get to my point could you enlighten me on some of the stuff that I most likely missed out on in PsyOps?

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Mike Brewer

I can give you the basics, sure.

I think you may find a more detailed account of what the job is one Army sponsored web sites. However, I can go into general detail about what I did. I was on what's called a Tactical Psyop Team (TPT) the entire time I was in. That's a (generally) three-man unit that does everything from loudspeaker operations to psychological operations assessments. Our mission profile included a range of capabilities that spanned 14 different and unique missions, each with the usual subsets and derivatives. I can go over about 8 of them without breaking any rules or compromising any ongoing sources or methods. For the sake of maintaining some doctrinal security, I won't use the official names for these things. They are, in no particular order:

1. Psychological Operations Assessments - We'd basically go into a target area nad get to know the locals. We'd find out who was influential in the society, and we'd find out their beliefs and attitudes toward a wide range of things. We'd also look at the needs of the people. Finding out what a village or tribe needs allows us to try and provide for that need and hopefully win cooperation and good will. This was one of the biggest parts of the job - influencing potential allies and trying to sway potential enemies to our side of the fence. It involved a LOT of cooperation with the Civil Affairs and S.F. guys, because this was ordinarily done well in advance of any large maneuver.

2. Information Operations - Broadly put, this was how we'd disseminate messages to the populace at large. Mostly, it meant driving through an area with a vehicle mounted loudspeaker and letting people know about things like curfews, troops in the area, food and medical aid points nearby, etc. Especially in areas with limited radio and TV access, the loudspeakers were a good way to get messages to the general public. It also got past the usual filters, such as government mouthpieces and mosques, etc.

3. Community Relations - We'd occasionally work our way into the local radio stations, bars, social clubs, etc. and put out U.S. messages there. I had a good friend who spent his entire deployment in Bosnia as a DJ at a local bar holding bikini contests and beer giveaways to foster goodwill with the locals. It worked.

4. Deception Operations - For the sake of maintaining some security, I'm not going to go into detail, but it's publicly available. Suffice it to say this was any and everything we could do to make the enemy think what we wanted them to think. It could be anything from false radio broadcasts to staged troop movements made believable by using man-pack loudspeaker sets broadcasting conversational noises, engine sounds, and all the other din that comes with maneuver.

5. Disinformation Ops - Again, this meant working out ways to make the enemy believe something that wasn't true. The range of tools available was different and more diverse, however. You could use anything from the bad guys' own movements to their own message traffic.

6. Product Assessments - We'd analyze propaganda to determine things like who produced it, who it was aimed at, who the primary audience was, who any unintentional audiences might have been, what the effects might be, and whether it was credible and relevant. This went for media, news, flyers, leaflets, and any other type of propaganda out there. It's also one of the reasons I don't trust pulic news sources. I have firsthand experience on how they work, and how they present opinions as facts.

7. Harassment Operations - These were operations designed to keep the enemy ragged. Deny them sleep, insert doubt, damage morale, and generally make sure they just don't have room to get comfortable. Often, these operations happened behind enemy lines by necessity, since that's where the bad guys' rest areas are.

8. Surrender appeals - As the name suggests, these were operations where we'd go to an area we'd determined susceptible to surrender and we'd drive the message home. You saw this used to great effect in the first Gulf War, when we managed to convince tens of thousands of Iraqis to surrender without a fight. You've seen it used far, far less effectively this time around.

These are some of the major responsibilites that fall to PSYOP. There are more, as I said, but I'm not terribly comfortable sharing them openly. I'm sure if you research it, you can find more info though.

Hope that helps some.

npk9

Thanks for the info - just wanted talk to someone who's been there instead of a recruiter.

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Ghost

I notice the entry requirements are always very low for these things. Why?
They obviously reach a high level in the end but i think someone virtually untrained could nearly do those entry requirements. Is that the point perhaps?

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