Was that recommissioning from UDT to SEAL retrograde back to Jesse’s time in service or those active duty at the time only ?
bad to the bone....I have seen that written a few times....:o)
Nope. UDTs were team members and frogmen, but they were not SEALs until the UDTs became STs in 1983.
They can rightly claim after about 1981 that the UDTs were “just like STs” in training, equipment etc, as the change was in the pipeline. But until then, UDTs were NEC 5321, and SEALs were NEC 5326. And that’s what was on the DD-214 and official records.
In my case, coming out of BUD/S in late 1979, the policy for officers was you would go to either a UDT or a SEAL team for 2 years (the ensign tour) and then switch to the other for the next 2 years, (the LTJG tour) to make you well rounded.
On my dream sheet, I just said I wanted to go to the east coast as my pref, either UDT or SEAL first. By the luck of the draw I went to ST2 first, then UDT-21, which by the time I arrived was already “virtually” another SEAL Team based on gear and training. But until the official change, new guys there who had never been assigned to a SEAL Team could not rightly say they were SEALs.
Up until the 1980s, the UDTs were structured in bigger platoons around their mission of conducting hydrographic recon for the fleet, and these “lead-line platoons” mainly deployed aboard amphib ships supporting the fleet and the USMC landing forces. SEAL platoons went from 14 guys (VN holdover, 2X7 man squads) to 16 guys (SAS model, 4X4 or 2X8).
SEALs got what were considered the more glamorous assignments, sometimes riding ships, but often jetting around Europe or Asia on cross-training tours with allied forces. Meanwhile, the “just UDT” guys were stuck on ships most all the time. Many strived to get a transfer to a SEAL Team, others were happy where they were. But in 1983, they all became SEALs, officially.