Info Remembering the World War II Frogmen Who Trained in Secret off the California Coast

[Rat Diver]

Interesting story in Atlas Obscura about a training base on Catalina.

Here is a summary. Details are in the link to article.

Remembering the World War II Frogmen Who Trained in Secret off the California Coast

Recruits learned the arts of infiltration, sabotage, and survival at a hidden base on Santa Catalina Island.

www.atlasobscura.com

A forerunner to the CIA, the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) was created in June 1942 to conduct espionage activities behind enemy lines. Training was conducted at 16 bases nationwide, with the facility at Santa Catalina specializing in maritime raids and infiltration. The commandos who trained on Catalina Island were primarily attached to the OSS’s Maritime Unit, assigned to insert into enemy territory by sea for reconnaissance and sabotage.

 

[Akimbo]

Here is a related article:

Photos: Museum exhibit looks at Catalina Island during WWII

After Pearl Harbor, WWII had arrived not just in Hawaii, but all the way to the California coastline.

archive.kpcc.org

Here is another connection to the OSS (Office of Strategic Services)

An extraordinary pioneer in rebreathers, Dr. Christian Lambertsen

Dear friends: It is my privilege to present to you the extraordinary story of Dr. Christian Lambertsen, a pioneer in Rebreathers and very notable figure in our beloved sport of scuba diving. Please enjoy it and marvel at what was done by this extraordinary human being. Compressor

scubaboard.com

The family tree of the UDT (Underwater Demolition Teams), that later became the SEALs, is more complex than the media's simplistic version of Frogmen leads us to think.

 

[BWes]

Very interesting links that have helped me connect the dots regarding my uncle's WW2 involvement. When I first started diving, I remember bragging to my uncle about how I could dive to 100 feet. I remember him replying that he never went deeper than 30 feet. For a long time I thought it was because the 'old' guy didn't have very good gear. But I believe he was refering to an oxygen rebreather.

Later, I learned from my mother, his sister, that at the start of the War he volunteered for a job that was neither destructive nor constructive. He became a Navy Beach Jumper. According to my mom, his early assignments were to map military positions on Japanese held islands. It makes sense that he would use a rebreather for ingress and egress to and from an island. Later he worked with Tito's partisans in Nazi held Yugoslavia. He never told me anything about his War experiences but obviously confided in his sister.