ISSUE 8 IN THIS ISSUE 14 NATIVE ADVANTAGE: New enablers bridge the culture, language gap for squadrons. 16 LEARNING THE LINGO: A new program teaches foreign languages to operators. 17 GROWING THE FORCE: Recruiters and the Center take action to bring the best candidates to BUD/S. 20 Focusing on Families: Learn how the FOCUS program supports operators and families. 22 Third Location Decompression: A pit stop after deployment helps warriors reintegrate into post-combat life. 24 THE TACTICAL ATHLETE: Operators benefit from the same 2 FOR A JUST CAUSE: medical support as pro athletes. SEAL Team 4 remembers Operation 26 SCIENCE ENTERS THE Just Cause. FIGHT: 3 WHERE THERE’S A Defense scientists use cutting RHIB, THERE’S A WAY: edge technology to help NSW. NSW trains with Filipino counterparts. 4 STEALTH ON THE NEW ON YOUR MIND FRONTIER: Unit 10 ramps up in support of SOCAFRICA. 28 TRUST ME: 6 A LONG-TERM HUMAN An essay about an essential INVESTMENT: virtue from a retired SEAL. New Anchor Units signify renewed commitment to foreign partnerships and regional expertise. 29 Book Review: 10 DANGER OR DELUSION? A SEAL reviews Koran, Kalashnikov and Laptop: The Neo-Taliban A SEAL describes the Al Qaeda affiliate Insurgency in Afghanistan. group in Northern Africa. COMMANDER > Rear Adm. Edward Winters PRODUCTION MANAGER > MC1 (SW/AW) Andre Mitchell FORCE PUBLIC AFFAIRS OFFICER > Cmdr. Gregory Geisen ASSOCIATE EDITOR > Ms. Mandy McCammon DEP. PAO/EXTERNAL COMMUNICATIONS > Lt. Cate Wallace STAFF > MC2 (SW/AW) Arcenio Gonzalez, MC2 (SW) Shauntae Hinkle- DEP. PAO/INTERNAL COMMUNICATIONS > Ms. Patricia O’Connor Lymas, MC2 (SW/AW) Dominique Lasco , MC2 (SW/AW) Erika Manzano, EDITOR > MCCS (SW/AW) Scott Williams MC2 (SW/AW) John Scorza Ethos is an authorized official production of the Naval Special Warfare Command Public Affairs Office, 2000 Trident Way, San Diego, Calif. 92155-5599. Send electronic submissions and correspondence to [email protected] or call (619) 522-2825. STAFF Front cover photo by MC2 Michael D. Blackwell Table of contents photo by MC2 Michael D. Blackwell The Ever-Evolving As we grow our end strength of operators and expand their mission sets, our technical enablers are mirroring their efforts. New units are being organized Art and fielded by the Support Activities. These include Unmanned Aircraft Systems Troops, Multi-Purpose Combat Canine Teams and Cultural Engagement Troops. The Center is also in the midst of its own transformation in training our future warriors. We are now seeing gains in the quality and quantity of candidates completing BUD/S. Read Naval Special Warfare is known for its ability to carry out the more about this beginning on page 14. WARtoughest missions and adapt to new threats with innovative thinking While this Ethos is very operationally focused, we are still paying and dynamic action. 2010 will showcase these hallmark traits of our attention to how we can take care of the warrior and his family here warriors and organization as we continually adapt our operations. at home. Beginning on page 20, read how Project FOCUS and the This issue focuses heavily on our forward operations, highlighting third location decompression program that we initiated months ago are the newly developed NSW Anchor Teams. As you read further on page maturing and evolving as we learn more about how to maintain and even six, the Anchor Teams are our response to SOCOM’s requirement for improve our lives beyond the battlefield. a focused, persistent presence in key geographic locations where we NSW is evolving like never before, and we will raise direct and indirect expect to operate for the foreseeable future. Small teams of operators will special warfare capabilities for the fight to new levels. Operators, Sailors provide continuity to our foreign and interagency partners by bridging the in combat support and combat service support roles, and civilian staff gap between squadron deployments. They will be assigned to an AOR must recognize this transformation and continually support it with fresh for a four-year tour, establishing relationships and learning everything ideas. I am committed to ensuring Naval Special Warfare remains flexible possible about the local culture, language and customs. NSW has a and innovative, and building upon the legacy of honor we inherited from legacy of serving in an ‘advise and assist’ role. Now it is time for a new our pioneers. generation of operators to further the legacy. Rear Adm. Edward Winters The first Anchor Teams roll out the door next month. I expect to see our brightest and most skilled SEALs and SWCC step forward to take on this new, challenging assignment. To help bring NSW focus in Africa, read on page four how the newly formed NSW Unit 10 will set the example of how we work with our foreign partners in this new front against the enemies of the United States. While we have tracked terrorist activity in places like the Horn of Africa, there are emerging threats in the northern region of the continent. Lt. Cmdr. Chris Fussell, a SEAL and Naval Postgraduate School student, wrote an excellent analysis of this new threat for this issue on page 10. ETHOS 1 n the 1989 U.S. invasion of Panama, four SEALs died and eight were injured during an attempt to secure Punta Paitilla Airfield, disable Gen. Manuel Noriega’s plane and prevent him from leaving the country. In December 2009 and January 2010, both the White House and that the operation had been compromised, and he moved up the SEAL Team 4 hosted remembrance ceremonies honoring service time to execute the operation by a half hour,” Carley said. “But members who participated in the action, otherwise known as the clocks and safety and arming devices on the explosives Operation Just Cause. were already set.” Navy SEAL Capt. Adam Curtis did not attend either ceremony, “As they were doing so (attaching explosives to the patrol but he will never forget what happened. boat), a fire fight was going on and grenades were falling into It was almost Christmas, 1989, and Curtis was looking forward the water,” said Carley. “They (SEALs) thought that they were to a great evening with his wife Bonnie who was visiting him in detected. But they finished attaching their explosive devices Panama. Curtis was a lieutenant assigned as a riverine division before swimming away.” officer at a special boat unit in Panama at the time. As the clock struck 0100, a large blast from the SEAL’s “I transferred on an unaccompanied tour to Panama. I had been explosives shook the walls of buildings across Panama, married a year and a half. I went down for what was intended to sending PDF soldiers scrambling for an imminent battle. This be a 14-month tour,” said Curtis. part of the mission was a historic success — it was the first Curtis and Bonnie had just finished eating dinner at a local time SEALs successfully executed an underwater swimmer restaurant and were on the way back to his barracks when they attack against an enemy ship of battle. reached a Panamanian Defense Forces (PDF) checkpoint. At the same moment near Paitilla Airfield, more SEALs The couple was questioned and their car was searched. Curtis were coming ashore in small inflatable boats. “We saw and recounted. “While we were there, another group of Americans heard the explosion in Panama City while waiting for our swim came to the road block, three Army guys and a Marine – all officers. scouts to signal the beach landing site,” recounted SEAL Capt. They (the Americans) felt threatened, they gunned it through the Dennis Hansen, a lieutenant at the time, and platoon officer in road block, and five PDF soldiers turned and fired at the car. The charge for SEAL Team 4. officer in the back, an Army lieutenant named (Robert) Paz, was “As we advanced, I heard yelling,” Hansen said. “The plan killed.” was to tell security guards to go away. This seemed to work That night, the PDF held Curtis and his wife at a detention well until we got to Noriega’s plane hangar. There, a gun center where they were interrogated for hours. Their ordeal was a fight broke out after a brief exchange of words. The platoon moment that changed their lives and American history. adjacent to mine was directly in front of the hanger. They were Tensions between the United States and Panama had been to disable the plane. About half of the platoon was wounded. escalating long before Curtis’ situation and the PDF had been I sent my assistant officer in charge (AOIC) and his squad to harassing Americans stationed there for a while, he said. According support the platoon that was in contact. They took effective fire to Curtis, President George H. W. Bush made the final decision to also, killing my AOIC and wounding a couple of other men.” invade Panama after hearing about how Curtis had been beaten Four team members died in the fire fight: Lt.j.g. John during his interrogation, and particularly how wis wife was Connors, Chief Engineman Donald McFaul, Boatswain’s Mate terrorized while they were detained. 1st Class Chris Tilghman, and Torpedoman’s Mate 2nd Class By Sunday, elements of Navy SEAL Teams 2 and 4 had Isaac Rodriguez III. infiltrated the country. The two teams were given the task of The SEALs who participated in Operation Just Cause destroying Panamanian patrol boats and taking control of Paitilla endured a bittersweet ending. Bonnie and the other SEAL Airfield. At that point, Noriega was the leader of Panama and one families remained in Panama, having to endure the nearby of the world’s most scandalous dictators.