This is Jocko podcast number 512 with me, Jocco Willink.

One of the few daytime operations we went on took place on Dung Island.

We got information that the VC were operating a factory that built junks.

We went there to blow the thing up.

Mike Thornton was driving the Boston whaler and as usual we wanted to get in there quietly

We were in this little bitty canal that went right down alongside the junk factory

We were running on a single engine to make less noise, but it was really hard to drive the whaler when you didn't have enough speed

They just didn't go where you wanted them to

We kept running into the brush and finally since we were making so much a racket we decided to gas it and get on down there we gassed it and we were just going balls to the

walls i saw the vc at the junk factory and they were not running for cover.

They were just looking up the canal like they heard something and they were thinking, what in the hell is that?

They were shocked when they saw us and started running everywhere.

But before we got out of there, we ended up in a big gunfight.

We detonated the explosives we had and just blew the hell out of everything there.

So that right there is an excerpt from a book called The Men Behind the Trident, which is a compilation of stories from seals in the Vietnam War.

That particular section was written by a man by the name of Hal Kirkendall, who was a member of SEAL Team 1, Charlie Platoon in Vietnam, which is a legendary platoon, including a legendary group of seals that greatly

contributed to the proud history and the feared reputation of the seal teams.

These are the stories that I grew up on.

This is when I was asked a little while during an interview, if I could go back in any

time in history and do anything in in history

Where would I go? And I said without hesitation I'd be a frogman seal in Vietnam

Well, that legendary history was written by guys like the guys in Charlie Patoon, SEAL Team One.

...