SEAL! The name conjures up images of evil-looking men with painted faces who lurk in the shadows just waiting for an opportunity to pounce on an unsuspecting enemy. That’s only partially right. During the Vietnam War, the SEAL (an acronym for sea, air, land) team members performed a variety of commando-style missions. Operating in the fertile Mekong Delta region of South Vietnam, SEAL platoons were the military’s eyes and ears, providing vital intelligence on the enemy’s whereabouts and methods of operation and, most important, anticipating the enemy’s next move. In addition, SEALs were attached to MACV – SOG (Military Assistance Command, Vietnam – Studies and Observation Group) to conduct secret intelligence operations. The enemy called them ‘the men with green faces.’

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To become a SEAL was a hellish ordeal. A SEAL candidate must endure nearly six months of basic underwater demolition training before he can wear the coveted Naval Special Warfare breast insignia: an eagle clutching an anchor and a trident.

Retired Lt. Cmdr. Mike Walsh was in Naval Special Warfare for 26 years, including five tours in Vietnam, where he was an adviser in the highly controversial Phoenix Program. Describing himself as a ‘renegade and consummate survivalist,’ he was also the task unit commander during operations in Grenada and Lebanon. Walsh talked with Vietnam Magazine contributing editor Al Hemingway about his experiences in Vietnam.

Vietnam: Why did you want to become a SEAL?

Walsh: That was the reason I joined the Navy in September 1966. It was probably the challenge. I was trying to decide between Army Special Forces and being a SEAL. I thought that the water, being a little bit tougher environment to operate in, had the best of both worlds; it was coming from the sea.

Vietnam: You just wanted to be part of the elite?

Walsh: I did. I had something to prove at 18. Everyone’s got something to prove at 18. Vietnam was going hot and heavy; I almost quit high school in my third year; I decided to enlist.

Vietnam: In your first book, SEAL!, you talk about the training you went through as a SEAL candidate. It took a long time to complete, if I remember correctly.

Walsh: Back then it was 18 weeks, three 6-week phases. Now it’s 26 weeks. In those days you had UDT (underwater demolition training) and that lasted 18 weeks. When you left UDT you either went to an underwater demolition team or a SEAL team. If you went to a SEAL team you had an additional six weeks of training in the desert. It was what you would expect: advanced infantry training, small-unit tactics, etc. And more weapons than you ever saw in your life. It was good training. All the instructors were ex-soldiers, some former Special Forces members, who had left the Army and come into the Navy.

Vietnam: The first part of SEAL training is supposed to be pure hell. I’ve heard that in the first three or four weeks, what you mostly get is harassment.

Walsh: It’s the physical breakdown. You’re getting used to running on the sand, and there’s lots of PT (physical training). You start learning knot tying and all the other little basic skills that go along with that. Working with the rubber boats, mastering surf passage, or how to take seven guys out in a rubber boat and get through that surf.

Vietnam: That’s got to be hard.

Walsh: It’s supposed to be hard. You start learning a little bit about how the sea really works. And if you’re a farm boy from Kansas, it’s good training. I was from Boston and around water all my life and it was still good training, so you go from there. That’s where the process starts, that’s where you start to see what you’re really made of. The last night of hell week, that’s when you’re really starting to feel sorry for yourself. That’s the wrong thing to do. Hell week can make or break you. You average about one to two hours of sleep a night. That’s about it. What hell week is designed to do is to put as much of the stress of combat on you as possible. It starts on Sunday night. On Tuesday morning you go through your first real demolition harassment. You crawl through an obstacle field. The explosives are all half-pound blocks of TNT with the metal lids removed to simulate an artillery attack or a mortar barrage. It’s at that point, when you’re already fatigued, that your ears start ringing. By Tuesday night the first hallucinations start. And, believe it or not, you’re so tired you could paddle yourself right out of a boat and into the water. That’s how you wake up. Also, I saw guys sleep on long-distance swims. They would start going right or left; that’s why you’ve got to look at your swim buddy and keep a watchful eye on each other. It’s mechanical. People say that it doesn’t happen, but it happens. I’ve done it and my swim buddy did it. Most people either swim right or left–very few people ever swim in a straight line–this way you’re always navigating. Well, if all of a sudden your partner is veering off to the left real quick, you’ve got to grab him and get him back on course. You learn that you never, ever, leave your swim buddy.

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