Seal support: the team

All Hands, August, 2004 by Antoine Themistocleous

TO BE SUCCESSFUL, a SEAL must bring his entire focus to the mission before him. He thinks. He moves. His equipment responds. When free-falling from 15,000 feet, he doesn't have time think about who packed his parachute. When underwater, he can't wonder if his equipment will allow him to breathe or not. While he concentrates on the mission, a separate team of mission specialists has his back.

For Naval Special Warfare (NSW) Groups in the Little Creek, Va., area, those specialists are called Logistics Support Units (LOGSU). LOGSU staff are the teammates SEALs can't leave home without.

LOGSU's eight departments provide communicators, Seabees, engineers, parachute riggers, supply personnel, medical staff, divers and ordnancemen in support of SEAL Teams 2, 4, 8 and 10-the Navy's Special Warfare East Coast teams. LOGSU San Diego supports SEAL teams 1, 3, 5 and 7. Although they don't complete the arduous SEAL training courses, their support and expertise are critical to a successful mission.

LOGSU's Seabees make sure SEALs have a place to stay in the field. Thanks to the transportation and construction capabilities of the Seabee teams, mobile quarters offer SPECWAR teams the flexibility to take their stealth and their talents to any of the world's environments.

Not only do the Seabees build a camp, they also climate control it--a seeming luxury--but a necessary environment for the technical communication aspect of a field tactical center the teams pack with them. A second benefit this environment offers is the ability to recuperate and re-supply if the mission requires it. A protected environment dose to the mission area and a hot meal prepared by a culinary specialist mean a SEAL can be sharper, stay longer and be more effective.

"We make sure that we have planning facilities, and that they can go in and take the time to plan their missions, and get out there and complete them," said Chief Storekeeper (SW) James Patterson. "And gym facilities. Those guys need to continue with their physical fitness when they are out there for a long period of time--like two or three months. We feel that we are really impacting their mission by providing them the best facilities possible."

Operating in hostile, unfamiliar terrain, often under cover of darkness, a SEAL team relies on its ability to communicate quickly. The mobile communication detachment is there to make sure that happens. A SEAL team is blind without good "comms," and whether securing a remote communications station or rescuing a downed pilot, they rely heavily on a wide array of radios, satellite lines and computers to keep them connected with each other and the outside world.

"If you can't communicate, you can't operate," said Electronics Technician 2nd Class (SW) Michael Shaw.

Shaw, who served previously on carrier duty, said the demands of a SEAL team means he has to be the expert in his field.

"To work alone at LOGSU as a communicator, you have to pull from within yourself and meet the needs of your platoon," said Shaw. "Unlike in the carrier, where it's more of a team effort, you are pretty much alone or with one other person. A lot of times, there aren't two people. It's just you, and you are solely responsible for that platoon. You have to know your material before you go out the door."

For SEALs, air operations adds the "air" capability to their Sea, Air, Land name. Air ops makes sure SEALs can have absolute faith in their parachute. Aircrew Survival Equipmentman 1st Class (AW/FPG) Brian Munos and the other nine parachute riggers who work with him understand the importance of their job. The lives of their teammates are literally in their hands as they pack chutes.

"All the riggers here know our role is crucial," said Munos. "The SEALs have a job to do, and that is to accomplish any mission placed in front of them. It's important to have the gear they might need ready, fully capable and fully loaded out for them to do whatever they have to do."

Like the air operations team, the underwater diving department shares similar responsibilities for life support equipment--just in a different environment.

Supporting six platoons--each platoon loaded with 18 sets of diving rigs, dive team members have their work cut out for them. The equipment includes sets of scuba gear with high-pressure compressors oxygen charging stations and low-pressure compressors for running oxygen-charging pumps. That the complex equipment has to work in extreme conditions and "under pressure" describes not only the submerged environment for the SEALS and the equipment, but also the need for the support techs to flawlessly prep, maintain and repair this equipment.

"We take care of anything to do with diving for all the SEAL teams," said Hull Maintenance Technician 1st Class (DV) Michael Bailey, the diving department leading petty officer.

Like every other LOGSU support department, Bailey and his team are responsible for packing all the gear the SEALs need. More than 100 pallets of gear are deployed with a single team.