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, are a special operations special operations force, force of the United States Ar ...

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 headgear, are a special operations force of the United States Army. The Green Berets are geared towards nine doctrinal m ...

have been conducting maritime operations and underwater operations since their founding in 1952. Currently, each company within the 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, subversion, or guerrilla warfare. This is typically done to avoid escalation into conventional ...

direct action Direct action originated as a political activist term for economic and political acts in which the actors use their power (e.g. economic or physical) to directly reach certain goals of interest, in contrast to those actions that appeal to oth ...

counter-terrorism Counterterrorism (also spelled counter-terrorism), also known as anti-terrorism, incorporates the practices, military tactics, techniques, and strategies that governments, law enforcement, business, and intelligence agencies use to combat or el ...

foreign internal defense Foreign internal defense (FID) is a term used by the military in several countries, including the United States, France, and the United Kingdom, to describe an integrated, and possibly multi-country, approach to combating actual or threatened i ...

, 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 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. It was the Army Special Forces that fielded the first true Special Operations Combat Divers with detachments conducting SFUWO in the early and mid fifties, nearly a decade prior to the creation of the Navy SEALs. Archival footage from this time period depicts Green Berets conducting advanced underwater operations including underwater infiltration, submarine lockout procedures and even 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, are a special operations force of the United States Army. The Green Berets are geared towards nine doctrinal mis ...

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 air ...

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

, and Air Force

pararescue Pararescuemen (also known as PJs) are United States Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC) and Air Combat Command (ACC) operators tasked with recovery and medical treatment of personnel in humanitarian and combat environments. These speci ...

men and combat controllers, CDQC was formerly a standard part of the Air Force

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 The Tactical Air Control Party, commonly abbreviated TACP, is a small team of military personnel who provide coordination between aircraft and ground forces when providing close air support. Australia Australian TACPs are provided by the RAAF ...

and

Special Operations Weather Technician Special Reconnaissance (SR)—formerly Special Operations Weather Technician or Team (SOWT)—is conducted by trained Air Force personnel assigned to Special Tactics Squadrons of the United States Air Force Special Operations Command who ope ...

s (formerly SOT-Weather and Combat Weather; now Special Reconnaissance) 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