Underwater Demolition Team members, diving Draeger Lt Lungll, used a closed-circuit, oxygen rebreather in the '50s.
His late great-grandfather, Hazelton Bowden, who lived in Maine, served during World War II on the Navy's
Underwater Demolition Teams, the precursor to today's SEALs.
Prior to President Kennedy's initiation of the SEALs (Sea Air and Land Teams), the amphibious warriors were known as
Underwater Demolition Teams and were trained in Oceanside, California.
Kauffman received his second Navy Cross for valor in leading
underwater demolition teams at Tinian in the Pacific, as well as advance demolition teams at the invasions of Iwo Jima and Okinawa.
From surviving his time as a prisoner of the Germans, to his acclaimed wartime service disarming enemy bombs and establishing bomb disposal schools, to the
underwater demolition teams he led at Saipan, Tinian, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa, America's First Frogman is an amazing true story of skill, courage, dedication, high standards, and excellence under extreme pressure.
Starting with the famed
Underwater Demolition Teams of WW II, the Navy trained its frogmen in all forms of land warfare, and then taught them to parachute into action, anywhere and anytime.
The Navy use of
underwater demolition teams in partisan support was the first form of special operations missions for Navy swimmers.
The Navy responded to the need by transforming the character of Naval Combat Demolition Units into
Underwater Demolition Teams (UDT).
They were formed by personnel from
Underwater Demolition Teams (UDT), or frogmen, at the direction of President John F.