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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Stories of Special Forces Operators podcast. Listen to

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<v Speaker 1>some of the bravest and toughest people on the planet

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<v Speaker 1>share their stories. Sit back and enjoy.

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<v Speaker 2>Have you ever wondered what your fairy friend is really thinking? Well,

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<v Speaker 2>let me introduce to you my new book, Dog Psychology

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<v Speaker 2>by doctor Carlos Vasquez. As a psychology professor with over

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<v Speaker 2>ten years experience, I've unlocked the secrets of the canine psyche.

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<v Speaker 2>I will teach you how to understand your dog's body language,

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<v Speaker 2>to code their barks and wines, solve behavioral puzzles, and

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<v Speaker 2>strengthen your pond like never before. With Dog Psychology, you'll

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<v Speaker 2>see the world through your dog's eyes. Don't just be

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<v Speaker 2>a dog owner, become a dog whisperer. So go get

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<v Speaker 2>Dog Psychology by doctor Carlos Vasquez, available now on kindle

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<v Speaker 2>or paperback on Amazon. Look kind of interesting story today.

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<v Speaker 2>Upcoming weeks we're going to have over a half a

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<v Speaker 2>dozen interviews that we've done with Special Forces. But today

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<v Speaker 2>we bring you this week an interesting story that I

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<v Speaker 2>read about the Green Berets who parachuted with nuclear bombs

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<v Speaker 2>strapped to them for US Special Operations personnel conducting high

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<v Speaker 2>altitude parachute jumps are pretty much par for the course,

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<v Speaker 2>But what about doing it with a nuclear bomb strapped

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<v Speaker 2>between your legs. Well, now you're on a different level.

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<v Speaker 2>But a US Army Special Forces paratrooper is pictured free

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<v Speaker 2>falling during a training exercise with a special atomic demolition

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<v Speaker 2>munition or say DM, a form of automatic demolition munition.

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<v Speaker 2>Eight ms were man portable nuclear weapons, also known as

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<v Speaker 2>backpack nukes. These munitions were fitted into specifically or specially

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<v Speaker 2>designed hard cloth carrying cases for the transportation on the

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<v Speaker 2>backs or between the legs with special operators. The sadms

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<v Speaker 2>weighed in the region of about one hundred and fifty

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<v Speaker 2>pounds with their warheads, the W fifty four contributing around

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<v Speaker 2>fifty to fifty five pounds. Saa ems were extremely small,

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<v Speaker 2>about twenty four inches long and about sixteen inches wide.

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<v Speaker 2>But why would a special operation personnel train with these?

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<v Speaker 2>In order to unpack the question, we need to look

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<v Speaker 2>back about seventy years. Remember Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August

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<v Speaker 2>of nineteen forty five. Well, it imparted a level of

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<v Speaker 2>devastation never before seen, and of course, a few years later,

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<v Speaker 2>the Soviet Union de NATed it his first atomic bomb

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<v Speaker 2>in nineteen forty nine. While the US military conducted further

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<v Speaker 2>tests of such weapons into the early part of the

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<v Speaker 2>Cold War, a broader view emerged the smaller nuclear weapons

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<v Speaker 2>for limited tactical purposes would likely prove critical for operations

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<v Speaker 2>on the ground in future conflicts. Indeed, the idea of

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<v Speaker 2>using tactical nuclear weapons and a possible conflict involving the

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<v Speaker 2>Soviet Union became an important component of President Eisenhower's new look.

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<v Speaker 2>As such, scientists and technicians at Los Alamos nuclear Weapons

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<v Speaker 2>Laws began shrinking the size of the warheads. The US

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<v Speaker 2>Army was making news as well to acquire different sorts

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<v Speaker 2>of battlefield nuclear weapons. Roy coil less guns which fired

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<v Speaker 2>nuclear overheads they call it the Davy crocket, which fired

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<v Speaker 2>nuclear oriheads with a yield of roughly ten to twenty

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<v Speaker 2>tons of TNT, were part of the purchases. Part of

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<v Speaker 2>the push towards fielding and broad a range of nukes

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<v Speaker 2>by the Army included the development of atomic demolition munitions.

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<v Speaker 2>While we've been talking about the aightms, they were designed

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<v Speaker 2>to be used on over below the ground surface against

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<v Speaker 2>specific targets to block and deny enemy forces. The initial

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<v Speaker 2>objective of adms was to manage nuclear landscaping, creating great

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<v Speaker 2>craters or destroying mountain sides that could obstruct enemy forces.

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<v Speaker 2>The munitions first entered the US Army Arsenal And around

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<v Speaker 2>nineteen fifty four, with one of the first EIGHTM tests

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<v Speaker 2>taking place during Operation Teapot, part of a series of

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<v Speaker 2>nuclear tests conducted at the Nevada Test Site. During said tests,

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<v Speaker 2>an eight thousand pounds eight AM with a yield of

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<v Speaker 2>one point two kilo tones was detonated, creating a crater

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<v Speaker 2>three hundred feet wide and one hundred and twenty feet deep.

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<v Speaker 2>A whole family of adms was developed, as included the

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<v Speaker 2>tactical ad Atomic demolition munition sporting a W three W

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<v Speaker 2>W thirty warhead. The TDM TAADMS weighed around eight hundred pounds,

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<v Speaker 2>is a complete system and around three hundred produced between

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<v Speaker 2>nineteen sixty one and nineteen sixty six. Then they eventually

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<v Speaker 2>got to a much lighter version, man portable ADM. The

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<v Speaker 2>Army ended up producing around three hundred sadms between sixty

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<v Speaker 2>four to sixty six. Production on an interim W fifty

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<v Speaker 2>four Mod zero weapon started in April nineteen sixty three.

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<v Speaker 2>At the heart of the SADM system was the W

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<v Speaker 2>fifty four tactical nuclear warhead. W fifty four was developed

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<v Speaker 2>in the late fifties by a man named Lawrence Livermore

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<v Speaker 2>National Laboratory onto early nineteen fifty nine and thereafter by

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<v Speaker 2>the lowest alamost National lab Compared to the heavier ones,

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<v Speaker 2>the Army envisioned, these lightweight saadms can more easily be

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<v Speaker 2>used tactically for operations behind enemy lines. In this sense,

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<v Speaker 2>the munitions would be used for frustrate enemy forces by

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<v Speaker 2>blowing up fortified structures, tunnels, mountain passes, and viaducts along

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<v Speaker 2>alongside the deployment via land or sea. SAA and ems

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<v Speaker 2>were also designed to be sent behind enemy lines from

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<v Speaker 2>the air with two man parachute teams. One individual carrying

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<v Speaker 2>the disassembled weapon in a big bag made of canvas,

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<v Speaker 2>will descend to target points before setting up the devices

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<v Speaker 2>explosive timer. Owing to the US's nuclear doctrine dictating that

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<v Speaker 2>no single person ever have the means to employ a

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<v Speaker 2>nuclear weapon on their own, teams of at least two

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<v Speaker 2>would accompany the bomb, so the detonation code would be

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<v Speaker 2>split between two special operators. The idea of using special

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<v Speaker 2>forces known as green Light units to transport these ad

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<v Speaker 2>ms behind enemy lines had stretched red roots, stretching back

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<v Speaker 2>to nineteen fifty six special ops units to harass and

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<v Speaker 2>frustrate the enemy with the purpose of their mission. It

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<v Speaker 2>kind of coordinates with the historical origins of the special

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<v Speaker 2>forces in the Army in the nineteen fifties. It was

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<v Speaker 2>envisaged as the elite units would stay behind in rear

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<v Speaker 2>areas to target enemy forces and even mobilize local resistance. However,

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<v Speaker 2>the early eighty ms were too large and heavy to

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<v Speaker 2>be carried by one man or two, and so the

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<v Speaker 2>production of savm's moved the concept along quickly. To be

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<v Speaker 2>selected for the green Lights was a rare and highly

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<v Speaker 2>secret thing. In a book written by Annie Jacobson's Surprise

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<v Speaker 2>Kill Vanish The Secret History of CIA Paramilitary Armies, Operators

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<v Speaker 2>and Assassins, green Lights personnels were pulled from Army Special Forces,

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<v Speaker 2>Navy Seal units in the Marines. Units worked under pseudonyms

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<v Speaker 2>and were fatigues with no markings signed insignia. Training involved

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<v Speaker 2>learning infiltration techniques, including parachute launches and wet deck submarine launches. Overall,

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<v Speaker 2>the instruction of green Light units took a place over

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<v Speaker 2>the course of a week, consisting eight to twelve hours

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<v Speaker 2>a day of training. Parachute missions involving sadms were performed

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<v Speaker 2>over the sea as well as over land during the

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<v Speaker 2>sixties and seventies in order to train for their potential

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<v Speaker 2>detonation overseas. In nineteen seventy two, green Line units parachuting

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<v Speaker 2>near the White Mountain National Forests in New Hampshire. The

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<v Speaker 2>nuclear weapons used was the training dummy. Navy seals also

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<v Speaker 2>performed underwater training with them. Moreover, drills with the SAMs

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<v Speaker 2>also occurred outside the US and the Bavarian Alps. Timing

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<v Speaker 2>was everything. Billy Waugh you probably heard of him, recalls

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<v Speaker 2>of his time with the green Lights in the book

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<v Speaker 2>Surprise Killing Vanished. You had to jump quickly. You couldn't

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<v Speaker 2>afford to be spread out when you landed on the ground. Indeed,

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<v Speaker 2>the jumper's rigging was designed in such a way that

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<v Speaker 2>the nuclear component would fall to the end of the

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<v Speaker 2>seventeen foot long lowering line once outside of the aircraft.

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<v Speaker 2>Once the SADM were fixed in place and that nation

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<v Speaker 2>charges triggered, green Light personnel needed to retreat to a

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<v Speaker 2>safe location to avoid being caught in the explosion. This

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<v Speaker 2>would have been a difficult task given that the timers

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<v Speaker 2>could not be relied on for complete accuracy. As Army

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<v Speaker 2>field manuals from the time indicated, it was not possible

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<v Speaker 2>to state that SADM would fire at a specific time. Furthermore,

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<v Speaker 2>there was also the fact that green light teams would

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<v Speaker 2>also have had to make their way out of enemy

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<v Speaker 2>territory once the munition was detonated. According to Bill Flavin,

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<v Speaker 2>who commanded a Special Forces SADA team during the Cold War,

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<v Speaker 2>there were real issues with the operational wisdom of the program. Sadms,

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<v Speaker 2>in the long run, were never used in foreign soil

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<v Speaker 2>during the Cold War, those realities were thankfully never realized.

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<v Speaker 2>That the US military was training Special Forces personnel to

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<v Speaker 2>transport nuclear weapons personally behind enemy lines gained wider traction

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<v Speaker 2>publicly in nineteen eighty four thanks to an ex Army

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<v Speaker 2>intelligence officer, William Markt, and colleagues when they presented sketches

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<v Speaker 2>and descriptions of the mission where off the SADMS really

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<v Speaker 2>from there, the weapon was slowly phased out and was

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<v Speaker 2>officially retired in nineteen eighty nine. So was it true

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<v Speaker 2>that special forces jumped out with nuclear weapons? Well, yes

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<v Speaker 2>and no. They were planned to do it. They never

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<v Speaker 2>did it with an actual nuke, and they never did

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<v Speaker 2>it on foreign soil. But they were designing it to

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<v Speaker 2>be that way, and they had created a scenario for

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<v Speaker 2>them to be able to do it, but it never

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<v Speaker 2>came through fruition. That's it for now.