America's First Frogman: The Draper Kauffman Story. Forew. by George H. W. Bush - Hardcover

Inhaltsangabe

• Intimate account of a pioneering U.S. `frogman’ •Draws on family papers and Navy documents •Foreword by former President of the United States George H. W. Bush Although bad eyesight kept him from receiving a commission in the US Navy when he graduated from the Naval Academy in 1933, Draper Kauffman became a hero of underwater demolition in World War II and went on to a distinguished naval career. Today Admiral Kauffman is remembered as the nation’s first frogman and the father of the Navy SEALs. His spectacular wartime service disarming enemy bombs, establishing bomb disposal schools, and organising and leading the Navy’s first demolition units is the focus of this biography written by Kauffman’s sister, Elizabeth Kauffman Bush. Determined to defend the cause of freedom long before the US ever entered the war, Kauffman was taken prisoner by the Germans as an ambulance driver in France, and after his release he joined the Royal Navy to defuse delayed-action bombs during the London blitz. After Pearl Harbor his eyes were deemed adequate and he was given a commission in the US Naval Reserve. With his experience, he was asked to establish an underwater demolition school in Fort Pierce, Florida. His men were sent to demolish the obstacles installed by the Nazis at Normandy, and Kauffman himself led underwater demolition teams in the Pacific at Saipan, Tinian, and Guam and later directed UDT operations at Iwo Jima and Okinawa. This is his legacy to the US Navy and his country.

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