Who Were The Scouts And Raiders?
The history of the Scouts & Raiders of World War II is the story of the original ancestors of today's elite Navy SEAL teams. As the Navy's first special warfare commandos these highly trained and boat crews conducted pre-assault recons of landing beaches, hydrographic recons, marked assault beaches, and guided in assault waves from 36-foot Scout boats, rubber boats, and kayaks at North Africa, Sicily, Salerno, Anzio, Southern France, and Normandy, earning numerous decorations for heroism, including 8 Navy Crosses (Including one for Robert Halperin).
In the Pacific, Scouts & Raiders served as Scout Intelligence Officers, Amphibious Scouts, Beachmasters, and with Underwater Demolition Teams with 5th and 7th Amphibious Forces from Kwajalein to Okinawa and in the Philippines campaign. They served in Admiral Milton Miles' U.S. Naval Group, China known as SACO (Sino American Cooperative Organization), training Nationalist Chinese guerrillas, participating in raids and ambushes and conducting behind-the-lines overland recons, disguised as coolies to escape detection by Japanese forces. Robert Halperin served as a member of SACO. (See SACO section on this site.)
ATB Ft. Pierce, 1944 Matt Komorowski (Kaye) second from left
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Highly trained, skilled and brave, the Scouts & Raiders were the Navy's first special warfare commandos. The first ten volunteers for the Scouts and Raiders were big, athletic men, many former college and professional football players (including Robert Halperin) from the Navy's Physical Training Program headed up by Commander Gene Tunney, the famous World Heavyweight Champion boxer. The Scout and Raider physical training course is now familiarly known as “Hell Week” which must be survived today by anyone wishing to become a Navy SEAL.
Even before the first men had come ashore for the Allied assault on Normandy on June 6th, 1944, Lieutenant Robert Halperin of the U.S. Navy had been at work on the beaches. Halperin was attached to Assault Force “U.” His job was to mark the landing sites for the assault infantry. Halperin successfully helped the boats avoid both allied bombing and enemy attack. He guided the first two boat waves from the transport area to the beaches where they were able to move inland. Read Full Article — ROBERT HALPERIN ON D-DAY
“Bob Halperin, former member of the Brooklyn Dodgers Football team, was among the first Americans - perhaps the very first - to go ashore.”
