The genesis of the Special Warfare Operator (SO) rating can be traced directly back to World War II and the various amphibious operations carried out by the Allied Forces that required highly specialized teams to clear mines and other obstacles at landing sites. In the European Theater, these included Operations Torch (North Africa), Husky (Sicily), Avalanche (Salerno), Shingle (Anzio), Overlord (Normandy), and landings in Southern France. The use of underwater demolition teams carrying out similar missions was much more commonplace in the Pacific; these began in 1943 with a landing in New Guinea and continued throughout the “island hopping” campaign carried out by General Douglas Macarthur.
These teams went by a variety of names—Amphibious Scouts and Raiders, Nava Combat Demolition Units, Underwater Demolition Teams, Special Services Unit One, and the Office of Strategic Services Maritime Unit—and drew personnel from both the Army and the Navy. Although the skills, tactics, training methods, and other of these units were ultimately incorporated in some form or fashion into the training of the Vietnam-era SEALs which are the immediate predecessors of today’s Special Warfare Operators, one group in particular had a powerful, lasting impact: The Office of Strategic Services (OSS) Maritime Unit.
In 1942, a Maritime Section was created inside the Special Operations Branch of OSS, tasked with planning covert amphibious infiltrations into enemy territory. A few months later, it was reorganized as the Maritime Unit and given the responsibilities of engaging in maritime sabotage, supplying resistance and partisan groups with weapons, and coordinating the insertion of agents for espionage and reconnaissance purposes.
The OSS’ Maritime Unit employed special-boat infiltration tactics, deployed limpet mines, and led the way in the use of submersible vehicles and other types of equipment that are either still in use today or which have been replaced with more technologically advanced devices. And because the OSS was the direct forerunner of the CIA, the Underwater Demolition Teams that continued to operate after the conclusion of World War II were some of the first combat units that “the Company” reached out to perform covert operations as the Cold War began to spread across the globe.
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