PHOTOS OF FRANKLIN ANDERSON, including him at the time of his retirement from the U.S. Navy in 1977 and members of his SEAL Team 1 receiving the Presidential Unit Citation from President Johnson for their service in Vietnam, are seen in his Tiffany, Colo., home.
I n contrast to the tranquil life he leads here raising registered Arabian and quarter horses, Franklin Anderson knows intimately the derring- do of the nation’s counterterrorism strike forces.
FRANKLIN ANDERSON talks about being a Navy SEAL in his Tiffany, Colo., home.
When Anderson, now nearing his 78th birthday, retired as a Navy commander in 1977, he was in charge of the SEAL training center in Coronado, Calif., and the service’s commissioned officer who had served the longest in underwater demolition and the elite SEAL teams.
He discussed his career in a recent interview.
Exploits of the SEALs date to the 1970s, but the name became synonymous with high-profile missions from action in Grenada, Haiti and Panama in the 1980s and 1990s. In 2009, they rescued the captain of an American cargo ship that had been hijacked by Somali pirates; last year, they took down Osama bin Laden at his hideaway in Pakistan; and in January, they rescued an American aid worker and a Danish colleague held by rebels in Somalia.
Anderson, who was born and raised in Pagosa Springs, graduated from Pagosa High School in 1952. He studied at Fort Lewis College and then earned a degree in animal science at Colorado State University.
He enlisted in the Navy in 1956, and upon graduating from Officers Candidate School was assigned to underwater and demolition training at the Navy amphibious base in Coronado.
“Frank was one of the better officers,” Albert Winters, who was on a boat crew that Anderson commanded during underwater demolition training, said from San Diego where he now lives. “They would take some of his better men, but we’d still win (inter-crew) competition.”
Crew members made an extra effort for Anderson, Winters said.
As a platoon commander, Anderson was in charge of demolition and installation of submarine detection devices at numerous sites in the Pacific, including Kwajalein Atoll and Wake Island.
He also was in charge of clearing channels for Operation Dominic, the last of the nuclear test series in the Pacific.
In 1961, Anderson picked two officers and 21 men from an underwater demolition team who would become some of the first members of SEAL Team 1. The SEALs (training took place on the East Coast as well as in Coronado) in time became the go- to guys for assignments that require secrecy and allow little margin for error.
In 1964, Anderson volunteered to organize and train underwater demolition experts for the South Vietnam navy. The skills he taught were put to good use in an important battle at Vung Ro Bay.
“We sank a North Vietnamese trawler and then went ashore under fire to secure a foothold,” Anderson said. “We dove on the trawler and found intelligence data that proved conclusively that North Vietnam was secretly dropping supplies along the South Vietnam coast for the Viet Cong.”
The Viet Cong was a guerrilla movement trying to overthrow the government in South Vietnam.
Upon returning to the United States, Anderson was assigned to a special operations group to develop a career path for SEALs. Then, from 1966 to 1968, he was the commanding officer of SEAL Team 1.
The 25-week school — where the slogan is “The only easy day was yesterday” — took counterterrorism training to new heights.
Two- thirds of candidates wash out under intense physical conditioning and instruction in underwater demolition, use of small arms, combat medicine, Morse code, map reading, land navigation, tactics, reconnaissance and intelligence gathering.
The public was largely unaware of the SEALs until the Buzz Sawyer cartoon strip began to mention them. So at a news conference in 1967, Anderson officially introduced them.
Anderson would return to Vietnam periodically to accompany SEAL Team 1 in the field.
“When I had to talk to the higher-ups, I wanted to speak from experience rather than hearsay,” he said.
Anderson’s next assignment was Post Graduate School in 1968-69 to concentrate on defense intelligence. He then moved up again, spending three years with the command that controlled all branches of the military in the Pacific.
At the conclusion of that assignment, Anderson, who then held the rank of commander, was sent to the Pentagon (1972-73) as a special warfare officer to develop SEALs support craft, small submersibles to transport swimmers to their target and swimmer-detection systems.
“Some of my work is still in use today,” he said. “I also headed a joint-services group to eliminate duplicative programs such as the disposal of explosive ordnance, which we combined under the Navy school at Dam Neck, Va.”
The year before he retired, Anderson returned to Coronado to take overall command of the Basic Underwater Demolition Team/SEALs Training Center. He had come full circle.
Anderson, who won a Bronze Star and from Vietnam a Cross of Gallantry for heroism there, was recognized for his overall accomplishments when Lyndon B. Johnson, in one of his last official acts, awarded him a Presidential Unit Citation. He also received a Legion of Merit from the secretary of the Navy.
Anderson’s voice remains strong, and today he rattles off names, places and dates from 50 years ago with no hesitation.
Agent Orange exposure
But he has a bum ear and eye on his left side, which he believes is the result of exposure to Agent Orange in Vietnam in 1964.
“We were aboard a junk in an estuary on the Saigon River near the capital, resting after a night firefight, when they started spraying Agent Orange along the river,” he said.
Anderson, who broke an eardrum while diving in the polluted water, developed tumors in his ear and on the back of his eye that later required radiation treatment.
Anderson is married to the former Martha Kuhnel of San Diego. The couple have four children.
Anderson, who keeps his hair military-short, spends his time raising cattle and quality horses and organizing hundreds of newspaper clippings, articles, photos and official citations and commendations.
There are no regrets.
“I’d do it again,” Anderson said.
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