Extreme SEAL Experience Blog Archives
You’re going to Liberia. Part Two
Added: Wednesday March 05th 2008By: Don Shipley
Matt got me on the flight deck one hot morning and said a Ship had exploded and there was a lot of dead and wounded and we were to get to the Wardroom right away for a meeting.
The Wardroom was packed as the Captain explained that a message was received concerning a Merchant Ship a few hundred miles from us that had exploded and was burning. The Ship crew were unknown and the explosion a mystery while it seemed it had been attacked. The Ship had no power and was sinking. Their only communications was a hand-held radio to another passing Merchant Ship who came along side Her but could not assist. Details were very sketchy.
Everyone was throwing in their two-cents with ideas of what could be done while the Ponce turned and began closing the distance.
Right in the middle of all this, Matt stands again and interrupts saying he had a Paramedic, a EMT/Corpsman, the best communicator on the Ship and that we could fastrope on-board.
The Captain took all of...
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You’re going to Liberia. Part 1.
Added: Wednesday March 05th 2008By: Don Shipley
I had just come off a "Cruise" on the USS Ponce, a MARG or Mediterranean Amphibious Ready Group and was teaching a demolitions course a few hours from the Team as the SEAL Platoon’s showed up for training.
Putting the last minute touches on the course, a couple guys said they had a message from the Team that I was going to Liberia.
Ok, Dude... Shut up and give me a break this morning and I continued setting up.
A couple hours later the guy manning the radio said "Range Control just called and you’re going to Liberia, call the Team." I believed it this time but so unusual for information to be passed that way. I called our OPS Officer and he said "You’re going to Liberia get back here now."
Every couple of years the Liberians would get a nice load of drugs and liqueur and start shooting the American Embassy. Civilians would be evacuated by helo and they would be shot at. The solution was to blow a beach lane for Assault Craft to be able to land...
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Pets.
Added: Monday March 10th 2008By: Don Shipley
I grew up on a large cattle farm in Pennsylvania and I did three things as a kid; I hunted and I trapped and I accumulated pets. You name it, and chances are I’ve had it as a pet. That changed very little when I became a SEAL and continues today.
My first pet in SEAL Team was a rattlesnake. The desert was filled with them and one night I caught a pile. I had them all in a trash can and they were laying on top of each other hiding.
All hiding except one.
In the middle of the can he rattled and struck anything being fearless and I decided I’d keep him. I put him in and ammo box and attached screen on top and released the others. I put the ammo box under the barracks to keep my friend safe and cool.
We were in the middle of a brief when the doors blew opened and in came a red faced super pissed Vietnam vet SEAL who was the camp guard. He yelled " WHO THE F__K PUT A SNAKE UNDER THE BARRACKS?"
Being a "New Guy" I came clean and waited to be punched...
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Sorry General...
Added: Saturday March 22nd 2008By: Don Shipley
29 Palms is a huge Marine Corps training base in California and during the first Gulf War I made a few trips to teach Desert Warfare to SEAL Platoons deploying for the conflict. Vast, hot and barren, 29 Palms also had no shortage of Marines that made the trips even worse.
There have always been conflicts between the Navy and Marines With SEALs and Marines, it gets even worse as the Marines normally view us as undisciplined pirates and would go out of their way to screw us any chance they got.
Marines are hard guys, very disciplined and exact. We’re the same except we don’t wake up and begin our day by screaming in the mirror and to the outsider we tend to look a little laid back compared to the average Marine.
When that Marine happens to be a General, it gets even worse.
Everywhere on the base, the laundry, PX, barracks, everywhere, were pictures of the base Commanding General named Livingston.
Oooo he was a fierce looking Marine, very...
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Where the Hell Have you BEEN?
Added: Sunday March 30th 2008By: Don Shipley
I was putting a class of young SEALs through STT or SEAL Tactical Training at Fort AP. Hill one summer. The training was land warfare and included demolitions, marksmanship, tactics and a host of other skills and we were using an isolated camp we called SEAL Camp and many SEALs had spent many a training phase in the run down camp.
We lived in tents without running water but had an outhouse that could seat 10 SEALs sitting side by side doing their morning business together and it seemed like every day, at just the right time to inflict maximum damage on the most guys using the shitter, someone in the class would silently drop a grenade simulator inside while we held our breath and swatted at flies.
Boom... Not the way to start the day.
The guys had been kicking ass and I decided to cut them some
slack on Friday after a couple weeks of being blown up in the outhouse and hard
Land Warfare Training. I told them to go home for the weekend and be back...
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SEAL BLOG. Booby Traps
Added: Thursday April 03rd 2008By: Don Shipley
I ran my first booby trap course as a new SEAL and smoked it doing very well. Trapping as a kid and access to demo in SEAL Team went well together setting up my own booby trap courses. The courses normally consisted of 100 meters of trail, ten traps and ten targets to shoot.
Scattered along were ten military type objects laying off the trail and hung in trees for the guys to pick out.
I’d do a wild ass explosive filled class teaching booby traps and then one at a time the guys would run the course. It began with "KIMS" Game or "Keep in Memory. I’d pull back a poncho with ten items under it like a bullet, ear plug, compass and allow a one minute study. After the course, the clock stopped, bullet holes were counted, time was added for traps that they had tripped, items they saw on the trail counted and KIMS played into it for an overall score.
I always worked hard to trick them at the start of the class as guys coming had already heard "Don’t touch anything"...
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SEAL Blog. A Turd in BUD/S.
Added: Thursday April 03rd 2008By: Don Shipley
Uncle Ray was my favorite BUD/S instructor. He was also the most feared in my class. Chief Ray could dole out punishment like few others to make his point but he was also a born comedian. If I think back to the funniest thing I ever saw or heard, Ray had done or said them.
Ray liked me after I proved I was there for the long haul, but he let his affection for me show in strange ways.
NOBODY in first phase passes uniform inspection, nobody and Ray would give them. They were conducted Monday mornings and you had the weekend to prepare. Starching hats, spit shining boots, all of it in a desperate attempt not to fail as punishment was a trip to the surf zone and sand berm runs and the hard work was ruined.
Our numbers had shrunk after Hell Week and I was the class leading petty officer. First phase was ending and Ray shows up for our final phase inspection.
Ray begins moving through the ranks picking guys apart for infractions and a steady stream of...
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Lack of Communication.
Added: Friday April 11th 2008By: Don Shipley
Mikey W was a Thai SEAL Officer in my BUD/S Class. He was already qualified as a SEAL in Thailand surviving that arduous training and why elect to go through BUD/S with us; he was just tough. A small guy who always smiled, he was popular in the class and he came with another Thai Officer. During Hell Week one of our instructors told Mikey to tell a joke in Thai. Mikey began a rambling babble for 40 of us which no one could understand and when he hit the punch line the other Thai began laughing. While we didn’t understand the joke we almost threw up laughing when the other Thai did.
A few years later my Platoon from SEAL Team ONE arrived in Thailand for Joint Training with our counterparts. The Thais compound was on an island that housed their only Team; SEAL Team ONE and Mikey was the Commanding Officer. Their BUD/S Training was in the same compound and they put one class through a year.
We had a deep respect for the Thais as they did so much with so little. Very...
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