This is Part 3 of my report on Navy SEALs and their watches. It's time to look at the Seiko dive watch worn by a recently-retired SEAL today. 

Still in his Forties, my most-recently-retired SEAL friend is named Derrick. A 26-year veteran of the US Navy and SEAL Teams, he served in every United States military Combatant Command as a SEAL. The European Command in the former Yugoslavia during the Bosnian War; the Southern Command, Pacific Command, Africa Command; and the Central Command with multiple tours in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Derrick is a founding member of a group that trains West Coast SEALs for combat, and developed Land Warfare and Special Reconnaissance curriculums. He was Senior Enlisted Leader (Troop Chief) for a 120+ Task Unit deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq simultaneously, lead contingency operations planner for all Special Operations Forces in Europe, and senior SEAL career specialist responsible for shaping the SEAL force to meet the challenges of our changing world.

He has received Bronze Star Medals, Defense Meritorious Service Medals, a Joint Service Commendation Medal, Navy Commendation Medal, Army Commendation Medal, Navy Achievement Medals (6), and multiple other awards and decorations. Married over 20 years, with 4 children and a new granddaughter, he can't afford to spend a fortune on watches that don't stand up to a beating. 

Here is Derrick with John Voight at a Walmart Veteran's recognition event.

Derrick says he and his pals tended to wear Casio G-Shock watches on operations. Or Seiko divers. Or even maybe the Luminox. 

But this is his long-time wrist companion - a 200M Seiko diver:

 

I've fixed it a few times and replaced the strap(s). Like the other SEALs I've known, Derrick is a very active guy and his wrist-wear gets no special treatment or coddling.

Here's a photo from the movie Act of Valor, where Derrick (on the left playing the role of Senior Chief Otto) tells the bad guy that his life as a drug lord is now over.  Act of Valor 2 is in the pipeline, and Derrick will be Sr Chief again.

I told you earlier that SEALs can tell endless stories, and here's one of Derrick's stories from an upcoming book, the SEAL's Book Of Man.

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Living Out in the Wild - Rabbit Holes

Rabbit holes are the ghetto of all shelters. They are easy to make but awful to live in. 

Let's say you're in the wilderness -- a high desert kind of area with sagebrush. Find yourself the densest bush in the area; if it has thorns that's even better because it will keep the animals out. Cut a few branches of the bush, starting at the ground level. Cut into the bush until you have an entryway, then expand the hole as you get far enough into the bush to make a living space. Everybody who has made a fort as a kid knows what I'm talking about. 

BTW - if you ever see a SEAL and he is at a plant nursery, he's not buying roses for his wife or girlfriend, he's buying high-quality rose shears for a reconnaissance mission.  

We had to make a series of rabbit holes, so we could observe some sensitive sites. Unfortunately, the only cover available was bushes interlaced with poison oak. It was a five-day mission, and we lived inside poison oak for the whole time. It was absolutely horrible.

I don't know if you have ever been exposed to poison oak, but at a really high level, strange things start to happen to your body. Your eyes swell shut, you can't breathe very well, and your manly equipment swells to immense proportions. (I can just see a bunch of dudes running out to look for poison oak right now... )

During this training mission, we had to evacuate two guys out of the field because they could no longer breathe. We were concerned that they were going to die because of the exposure. 

My lieutenant, on the other hand, decided to tough it out. Being medic, I did everything I could. I gave him antihistamines and an inhaler. I also gave him corticosteroids, which help with inflammation in your throat. Still, the lieutenant could hardly breathe. At this point, his privates were, I kid you not, the size of a cantaloupe. I had never seen anything like it before. 

"Hey man, we have to get you out of here," I said.

"No, I'm going to stay with the guys," he insisted.

"You're in charge and you get to make the decision, but you are now a burden,” I continued. “You can't walk; you can't see anything; you're a mess.”

No matter what I said, he refused to be evacuated. He thought that that was showing leadership. 

When you're leading people, you need to be adding value and benefit and taking them somewhere you want to go collectively. If you are slowing people down, or retarding the movement, then you are no longer leading.

We were still able to complete our mission, but I was not happy with the lieutenant. After we were extracted, we got to a Naval Hospital for treatment. The medics went ahead with our LT. When we got to the emergency room, we discovered they had outfitted him with a “Bellevue bridge,” which is essentially a towel that runs between your thighs. You sit with your legs spread open with your stuff on this towel, and it prevents it from sticking to your legs. It's a medical thing; look it up. 

Anyway, here's our lieutenant sitting behind a little curtain, spread eagle, private parts swollen huge as a cantaloupe, and his puffy eyes nearly shut.  

On that trip, we realized once we got on location that the only place we could live for five days in order to accomplish the mission—which meant not being seen by anybody—was inside this poison oak. We knew that it was going to wreck us. It was difficult, but we had a task that needed to be accomplished, and, because we said we were going to do it, we did it. If more people actually did what they said they were going to do, I think we'd be a lot better off.  

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Thank you for the object lesson Derrick, and where did you say that poison oak was growing?

As you can tell, he's a very serious guy. I've seen him carve the Thanksgiving turkey with a knife like a bayonet. Here he is cutting an official celebration cake with a sword:

I'll try to get a few more photos of Derrick in action for this post; in the meantime can you please read the fourth installment?

Cheers,

Cazalea

Navy SEALs and their Watches, Part 2

Navy SEALs and their Watches, Part 3

Navy SEALs and their Watches, Part 4

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