USA armed forces divers
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The USA has these types of frogmen and other armed forces divers:
[edit] United States Navy
- Underwater Demolition Teams (UDT's) – The first USA frogmen (later became SEALs).
- United States Navy SEALs – primarily trained as Combat Swimmers/Divers.
- Naval Special Warfare Center trains the SEALs and some of the combat swimmers for the other U.S. military branches.
- United States Navy SpecOp (based in Indian Head, Maryland) is a naval unit which trains and supports divers and develops dive equipment for neutralizing mines and removing submerged unexploded ordnance.
- United States Navy Divers – (not combat swimmers), underwater welding, ship husbandry, underwater construction, harbor clearing (except for explosive ordnance), and other "underwater work".[1]
[edit] United States Army
- Some United States Army Rangers attend the Special Forces Combat Diver Qualification Course.
- Delta Force – all trained in Combat Swimming.
- US Army Engineer Divers- Trained in underwater construction, Salvage, Demolitions, Hydrographic survey, Hyperbaric chamber opeations, Beach and river recon, bridge recon, underwater cutting and welding, side scan sonar operations, mine and countermine operations, search and recovery operations and ships husbandry operations. Army divers use both surface supplied "Hard hat" and scuba to perform their missions.
- The U.S. Army Special Forces maintains a robust combat diving capability. One Operational Detachment-Alpha (ODA) per Special Forces Company is trained and equipped to conduct open and closed circuit sub-surface maritime infiltration operations. Special Forces combat divers, along with many combat divers from other services, attend the Special Forces Combat Diver Qualification Course, which is held at the Special Forces Underwater Operations School on Key West, Florida.
[edit] United States Marine Corps
The U.S. Marine Corps has a Combat Diver course located in Panama City, FL. Members of Force Recon, among others, attend the course to gain proficiency in open and closed-circuit diving techniques and to learn underwater infiltration methods.
[edit] United States Coast Guard
According to Record Group 226 at the National Archive over 45 United States Coast Guard men were attached to the Office of Strategic Services Maritime Unit Operational Swimmer Groups (OSG). All OSG's had Coast Guard men and several CG men were attached to UDT 10 in the Pacific after training with the OSS MU. LT John P. Booth (USCG) was Commanding Officer in the field of OSG 1 and was attached to OSS Detachment 101 and 404 in the China Burma India war area where he and his team conducted reconnaissance, infiltration by sea, scouted enemy shoreline and participated in combat swimmer and covert operations. These OSS Frogmen pioneered the use of unassisted diving techniques to include the Lambertsen Unit (allowing men to swim underwater for up to 3 hours), swimfins and the underwater compass. These men also experimented with underwater delivery systems referred to as the "Sleeping Beauty." Several of these Coast Guard/OSS FrogmenN, to include LT Booth, were awarded the Bronze Star for their "service with the Office of Strategic Services" by the Commanding General CBI. Although it is widely thought that the Navy UDT's were the first Frogmen, in fact it was the combined efforts of the OSS Frogmen (Operational/Combat Swimmers), USN Scouts and Rangers and UDTs that eventually created the foundation for what would later become U.S. Navy SEALS. The first FROGMAN, according to the Naval Special Warfare Foundation was USN Petty Officer named Jim Spence who trained at OSS Maritime Unit AREA D on the Potomac River with USN LT Jack Taylor who is widely considered the first SEAL. Over half of the OSS Frogmen / Combat swimmers were in fact Coast Guard men sought out for the advanced swimming, diving, and boat handing skills.
[edit] United States Air Force
- Pararescue (PJ) and Combat Control (CCT) personnel are all trained in open-circuit diving. Graduates of the US Army Special Forces Combat Diver Qualification Course or of the Air Force Combat Diver Course are also trained in closed-circuit diving.
- Some Tactical Air Control Party (TACP) members and some Special Operations Weather Team (SOWT) members are SCUBA or Combat Diver qualified. Both they and PJ/CCT personnel are able to operate as members of Special Forces ODAs (see above) and Navy SEAL teams on diving operations, on missions requiring subsurface infiltration, and in other waterborne operations.
