Special Forces Underwater Operations (SFUWO) is the term for

United States Army Special Forces The United States Army Special Forces (SF), colloquially known as the "Green Berets" due to their distinctive service Berets of the United States Army, headgear, is a branch of the United States Army United States Army Special Operations Comm ...

combat operations involving the use of underwater infiltration methods. These typically involve the use of closed circuit dive equipment to infiltrate a beach landing site (BLS) undetected. The US Army Special Forces, also known as

Green Berets The United States Army Special Forces (SF), colloquially known as the "Green Berets" due to their distinctive service Berets of the United States Army, headgear, is a branch of the United States Army United States Army Special Operations Comm ...

have been conducting maritime operations and underwater operations since their founding in 1952. Currently, each company within a Special Forces Group mans, trains, equips, and deploys a SFUWO Operation Detachment Alpha (SFOD-A). These twelve-man teams train for SFUWO as their primary infiltration method when conducting one of their missions of

unconventional warfare Unconventional warfare (UW) is broadly defined as "military and quasi-military operations other than conventional warfare" and may use covert forces or actions such as subversion, diversion, sabotage, espionage, biowarfare, sanctions, propaga ...

direct action Direct action is a term for economic and political behavior in which participants use agency—for example economic or physical power—to achieve their goals. The aim of direct action is to either obstruct a certain practice (such as a governm ...

counter-terrorism Counterterrorism (alternatively spelled: counter-terrorism), also known as anti-terrorism, relates to the practices, military tactics, techniques, and strategies that governments, law enforcement, businesses, and intelligence agencies use to co ...

foreign internal defense Foreign internal defense (FID) is a term used by the military in several countries, including the United States Armed Forces, United States, French Armed Forces, France and the British Armed Forces, United Kingdom, to describe an integrated or ...

, among others. US Army Special Forces first existed within the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) Operational Groups. Army Green Beret Combat Divers were first in the

OSS Maritime Unit The Maritime Unit (MU) was a branch of the Office of Strategic Services that enabled maritime warfare for the allies during World War II. MU's mission was to "infiltrate agents and supply resistance groups by sea, conduct maritime sabotage, and to ...

. The Lambertsen Amphibious Respiratory Unit (LARU) was the first closed-circuit re-breather adopted by the US Military and used in Combat Operations with the OSS MU. It was invented by Dr. Christian Lambertsen. Army Special Forces have been conducting these operations for nearly seventy years. The Army Special Forces fielded Special Operations Combat Divers with detachments conducting SFUWO in the early and mid 1950s, nearly a decade prior to the creation of the

Navy SEALs The United States Navy Sea, Air, and Land (SEAL) Teams, commonly known as Navy SEALs, are the United States Navy's primary special operations force and a component of the United States Naval Special Warfare Command. Among the SEALs' main funct ...

. Archival footage from this time period depicts an Army Special Forces detachment conducting advanced underwater operations including underwater infiltration, submarine lockout procedures, and underwater demolition.

Special Forces Underwater Operations School

The US

Army Special Forces The United States Army Special Forces (SF), colloquially known as the "Green Berets" due to their distinctive service headgear, is a branch of the United States Army Special Operations Command (USASOC). The core missionset of Special Forces ...

founded the Special Forces Underwater Operations School in Trumbo Point Annex,

Naval Air Station Key West Naval Air Station Key West , is a naval air station and military airport located on Boca Chica Key, four miles (6 km) east of the central business district of Key West, Florida, United States., effective 2007-10-25 NAS Key West is an ai ...

, in 1964. Prior to that SF Detachment-Alphas were receiving disparate levels of dive training at their respective groups. SFUWO makes up C Company of the 2nd Battalion, 1st Special Warfare Training Group at the U.S. Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School. Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps personnel have previously attended the Combat Diver Qualification Course (CDQC), the seven week course that trains special operators to conduct SFUWO in a combat environment. With a cadre of instructors primarily made up of Army Special Forces, along with a smaller number of Army Rangers, Navy SEALs, and Air Force

pararescue Pararescuemen (also known as Pararescue Jumpers or PJs) are United States Air Force Special operations, special operators who conduct personnel recovery and combat search and rescue operations as well as other missions for the U.S. military and ...

men and combat controllers, CDQC was formerly a standard part of the Air Force pararescue and combat control training pipelines (prior to the opening of the USAF Combat Diver Course in Panama City, FL), and both Tactical Air Control Party and

Special Reconnaissance Special reconnaissance (SR) is conducted by small units, such as a recon team, made up of highly trained military personnel, usually from special forces units and/or military intelligence organizations. Special reconnaissance teams operate behind ...

(formerly Special Operations Weather Teams) have also attended CDQC to become qualified in special warfare maritime operations.

References

{{US Army badges Special forces groups of the United States Army

Special Forces Underwater Operations School

See also

References