Free Combat Swimmer by Robert A. Gormly Page B

two of the numbers, which made it appear we were about a thousand meters from where we really were. Jake never could figure out why Lieutenant Fred Kochey, the 2nd Platoon commander and a whiz with a map and compass, couldn’t ever find us.
    My squad made shelters with our ponchos and put our sleeping bags underneath. Jess and I talked it over before we went, and I’d opted not to use tents. I wanted to be able to move out in a hurry, because I knew sooner or later Jake would tell each squad where the others were located. This way, when we left on a mission we’d simply collapse the ponchos over our sleeping bags and the gear we weren’t using, pile leaves and branches over them, and go. We did such a good camouflage job that we usually had to search for the camp each time we came back.
    Chief Bob Gallagher and a couple of other SEAL Two guys helped Jake run the three-week field training. Bob built some quick-reaction ranges for us to shoot on that really improved our close-quarter shooting skills. We figured most of the shooting we’d have to do in Vietnam would be within twenty-five meters because that’s what SEAL Team One was experiencing in the Rung Sat Special Zone. Once we got to the Mekong Delta, we found we hadn’t been entirely correct; still, it was good training.
    We also went to the ranges for controlled shooting with our new M-16s. Each man in my squad was assigned a primary weapon, which would stay with him as long as he was in SEAL Two, or until it broke. We figured a man would take better care of a weapon that was his than of one he’d drawn from the armory. Same for our other equipment: each man had his own parachute and Draeger closed-circuit diving gear. As Dave Schaible used to say, “Nobody waxes a rental car.”
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    We all carried the same basic gear: a flashlight with red and green lenses; a medical kit; ammunition pouches; an MK-26 fragmentation grenade; a K-Bar knife; two canteens; and a butt pack for miscellaneous items. In my butt pack I always carried handheld pop flares to illuminate ambushes after we initiated contact. We always wore, or carried in our butt packs, UDT life jackets; with all the weight we carried, the life jackets were invaluable for crossing canals. They were also handy if we had to get out of a tight situation. Most military forces view water as an obstacle. As long as I was near water I didn’t have to worry. SEALs see it as a haven.
    We carried the gear on an H-harness attached to a pistol belt, which fastened around our waist. An H-harness distributes the weight evenly on your shoulders and around your waist. We all wore the gear in the same place on our rigs so at night each man could find whatever he wanted on any rig he happened to grab. The grenadier and the heavy-weapons man had different configurations for their ammo, but otherwise we looked pretty much the same. For each mission I would decide what additional weapons or equipment we would carry, and we’d distribute the weight among us; everyone pulled the load.
    After his first deployment ended in June 1967, one of the chiefs in Fred Kochey’s platoon, Jim Watson, designed a load-bearing vest with a built-in life jacket, magazine pockets, grenade attachment points, and a large pocket in the back that replaced the butt pack. It was a well-thought-out piece of gear. It distributed the weight well, and the magazine pouches were high on the front of the vest to help keep them dry as we waded around in rice paddies. I found I had to wear my knife high on the back of my vest, between my shoulder blades, where I could get to it easily by reaching over my shoulder. The vest resembled one a hunter might wear—appropriately, since we were hunting VC. I liked it and wore one throughout my second tour.
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    At the end of the three weeks’ training we returned to Little Creek much more confident of our capabilities. I’d learned a lot from Jess, and we’d all