The Men with Green Faces
55 years ago today, 7 May 1969, in Norfolk, Virginia: “Members of SEAL Team TWO participate in a ceremony to award them nearly 60 medals, most of which were earned in combat in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam.”
Remember that the awards are likely just for a platoon or two (12-24 men) returning from a rotation.
The Brown Water Navy, including the rotating SEAL Platoons, in 1968 alone earned an impressive “one Medal of Honor, six Navy Crosses, four Legions of Merit, 24 Silver Stars, 290 Bronze Stars, 363 Navy Commendation Medals, and more than 500 Purple Hearts, with one out of every three Sailors being wounded,” as noted by the NHHC. Of note, the MOH was earned by LTjg Joseph Robert (Bob) Kerry, USNR, of Team ONE.
First heading to Vietnam in 1962 in small groups to help train the locals in the ways of the frogman, by 1968 all-up 12-man SEAL platoons, rotating from both Coronado-based Team ONE and Little Creek’s Team TWO, had switched to full-scale direct action in the Vietnamese marsh and littoral, supported by mobile support team (MST) boat elements (the forerunners of today’s SWCC guys) as well as the Seawolves of HAL-3.
As noted by the UDT SEAL Museum:
SEAL platoons carried out day and night ambushes (but much preferred night operations), hit-and-run raids, reconnaissance patrols, and special intelligence collection operations. Calling them the “men with green faces” because of the face camouflage they used, the VC feared SEALs and often put bounties on their heads.
The last SEAL platoon departed Vietnam on 7 December 1971. The last SEAL advisors left Vietnam in March 1973. Between 1965 and 1972 there were 46 SEALs killed in Vietnam. They are forever remembered on the Navy SEAL Memorial at the Museum.
I remember reading story about the SEALS/UDT in a collection of Vietnam stories. They mention that occasionally the teams would help out on Operation Phoenix that went after the Viet Cong. A thing that scared the crap out of the Vietnamese in the areas the teams were in was waking up one morning and finding out that someone who had been sleeping in their shack/dwelling/hut had vanished without a trace. One guy who survived one of those snatch ops said he woke with knotted sock being shoved in his mouth and being nose to nose with a green faced devil holding a hand grenade with the pin out. Around them was his sleeping family and one other green face at the door with a silenced pistol. He went without a struggle and as soon as he was outside a hood went over his head and got hit with a cosh knocking him out.