Naval War College Review Volume 59 Article 18 Number 2 Spring 2006 America’s First Frogman: The Draper Kauffman Story Robert G. Kaufman Elizabeth Kauffman Bush Follow this and additional works at: https://digital-commons.usnwc.edu/nwc-review Recommended Citation Kaufman, Robert G. and Bush, Elizabeth Kauffman (2006) "America’s First Frogman: The Draper Kauffman Story," Naval War College Review: Vol. 59 : No. 2 , Article 18. Available at: https://digital-commons.usnwc.edu/nwc-review/vol59/iss2/18 This Book Review is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at U.S. Naval War College Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Naval War College Review by an authorized editor of U.S. Naval War College Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Color profile: Disabled Composite Default screen BOOK REVIEWS 175 Kaufman and Bush: America’s First Frogman: The Draper Kauffman Story had spent as much time dissecting the Laurence), Kauffman persevered at the Chavez regime as those that preceded it. Naval Academy despite his poor eye- One of the few drawbacks is that there sight, which nearly prevented him from is little attention to an examination of attending and initially denied him a Hugo Chavez and his inner circle of commission in the Navy when he grad- advisors. uated in 1933. This book is a must-read for anyone Disappointed but undaunted, he ac- who wishes to get beyond Chavez’s cepted a position at a shipping company, rhetoric and red beret. It would enrich U.S. Lines, in New York, where he be- any South American regional studies came assistant operations manager. His course and has applicability for other two-month tenure at the company’s disciplines as well. Readers who take the German office in 1939 convinced him time to consider The Unraveling of Rep- that the United States had to join with resentative Democracy in Venezuela will France and Great Britain to stop Hitler. emerge richer for the effort. Among When he returned home, Kauffman those who should read it are business- joined the free-lecture circuit urging men interested in Venezuelan markets early American intervention in the war, and any military officer assigned to the in defiance of the prevailing isolationist U.S. Southern Command. sentiment in the United States. Given the success McCoy and Myers Eager to do more to defend the cause of have had in creating this book, it is only freedom, Kauffman joined the Ameri- to be hoped that a companion is in the can Volunteer Ambulance Corps, which works. placed itself under the direct command of the French army. He served with RICHARD NORTON Naval War College valor as an ambulance driver during the Battle of France in May–June 1940 be- fore the Germans captured him. He languished several weeks in a Nazi prisoner-of-war camp, dropping forty Bush, Elizabeth Kauffman. America’s First Frog- pounds before the American embassy man: The Draper Kauffman Story. Annapolis, secured his release. Md.: Naval Institute Press, 2004. 221pp. $28.94 After a six-week voyage from Portugal, War brings out the best as well as the Kauffman arrived in Great Britain at worst in human nature. Freedom for the peak of Hitler’s bombing campaign. Americans has always depended on the He joined the Royal Navy and became bravery and innovation of servicemen expert at the harrowing task of diffus- willing to endure danger and privation. ing delayed-action German bombs and Elizabeth Kauffman Bush has written a mines during the Blitz. He narrowly es- marvelous account of one such hero, caped with his own life when a mine he her brother, Draper Kauffman—the na- was working on blew up. tion’s first frogman and the founder of Kauffman returned home to recover the Navy SEALs. from his wounds, and in November 1941 Determined to follow in the footsteps he finally received his commission in the of his father (Vice Admiral James U.S. Naval Reserve. His experience in Published by U.S. Naval War College Digital Commons, 2006 1 T:\Academic\NWC Review\NWC Review Spring 2006\Ventura\NWC Review Spring 2006.vp Tuesday, April 11, 2006 8:23:06 AM Color profile: Disabled Composite Default screen 176 NAVAL WAR COLLEGE REVIEW Naval War College Review, Vol. 59 [2006], No. 2, Art. 18 Great Britain won him the job of Gearing and the heavy cruiser Helena. launching the Navy’s Bomb Disposal Promoted early to rear admiral, School, receiving his first Navy Cross Kauffman eventually became superin- for dismantling a five-hundred-pound tendent of the U.S. Naval Academy in bomb dropped in Hawaii by the Japa- Annapolis, Maryland. His naval career nese attack on Pearl Harbor. Chosen in concluded with two postings: as Com- 1943 to establish an underwater demo- mander, U.S. Naval Forces, Philippines, lition school in Fort Pierce, Florida, and then as commandant of the Ninth Kauffman rigorously trained teams Naval District and the Great Lakes later known as frogmen (later to be Training Center, north of Chicago. known as the Navy SEALs) to defuse Kauffman retired from the Navy in bombs and destroy submerged obsta- 1973, revered by those with whom he cles deployed by the Nazis to impede had served. The author of this work is the invasion of France. Kauffman re- Kauffman’s sister, Elizabeth Kauffman ceived his second Navy Cross for valor Bush. Her historical analysis is precise, in leading underwater demolition teams concise, and judicious. She has not only at Tinian in the Pacific, as well as ad- mastered such technically intricate top- vance demolition teams at the invasions ics as bomb demolition but conveys of Iwo Jima and Okinawa. them in a way that keeps the reader When the war ended, Draper Kauffman riveted. continued his distinguished naval ca- ROBERT G. KAUFMAN reer, commanding the destroyer USS Pepperdine University https://digital-commons.usnwc.edu/nwc-review/vol59/iss2/18 2 T:\Academic\NWC Review\NWC Review Spring 2006\Ventura\NWC Review Spring 2006.vp Tuesday, April 11, 2006 8:23:06 AM.