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SACO Goes Hollywood
SACO was featured in a few movies after World War II, including "The Frogmen" and "Destination Gobi," both starring actor Richard Widmark. I've seen both and here are my reviews. The Frogmen SACO was comprised of a mix of U.S. servicemen from different backgrounds, mostly from the Navy, including several who had been trained in underwater demolition teams (UDTs). Hollywood made a few movies after World War II about men in the UDT, who were also known as "frogmen" because of their unique gear and amphibious duties.
The Navy created the UDT program early in World War II to train an elite group of hand-picked men in underwater demolition and surveillance techniques. Their main goals were to clear barriers for beach landings and to secretly scout out the enemy's defenses prior to amphibious invasions. By 1944, the UDTs had been incorporated into the Navy's new special operations team called "Scouts and Raiders." My dad, along with several other SACO members in China during the war, had been trained in the Navy's Scouts and Raiders program in Florida before they were sent overseas. SACO's leader in China, Commander Milton Miles, was so impressed with the Scouts and Raiders guys the Navy had sent him, in fact, that he cabled Washington, D.C., asking the navy to send him as many of these specially-trained men as possible. After World War II, the Scouts and Raiders program became known as the Navy SEALs.
Probably the most prominent movie about Navy frogmen and underwater demolition teams was a 1951 black-and-white film starring Richard Widmark and Dana Andrews that was called, not surprisingly, "The Frogmen." This was the first movie ever made about scuba diving and thus it became something of a sensation. Indeed, many Navy SEALs claimed that watching "The Frogmen" when they were young inspired them to volunteer for the SEALs later in their lives. The phrase "Scouts and Raiders" was never used during the movie probably because the term " frogmen" was more recognizable (and would sell more tickets).
The plot involves a Navy Lieutenant Commander (Widmark) who is assigned to lead a group of experienced UDT Navy scuba divers in the Pacific during World War II after their previous commander had been killed during a mission. Widmark leads them in an amphibious invasion of an island – ostensibly Okinawa – that's heavily defended by the Japanese. But the team is wary of their new commander, partly because he likes to do things "by the book," in contrast to their previous UDT leader (gee, maybe that's why he'd gotten killed). In fact, some of the UDT crew become downright disdainful of the protocol-minded Widmark. They do blow up the underwater barriers on the island, however, which makes it easier for American forces to invade.
After that successful mission, Widmark leads his dispirited team – who are by now on the verge of rebellion – on another task, this time to destroy a Japanese submarine pen. He's stabbed during an underwater attack by Japanese divers but survives and, by the end of the movie, he has gained the trust and respect of the men in his UDT. Whew, that's a relief! No women were included in the cast, by the way, because the filming, with all the swimming and diving, was thought to be too strenuous for them. Yeah, tell that to Katie Ledecky.
Despite some corny dialogue, it's actually quite a good movie and illustrates many of the techniques used by the Scouts and Raiders and Navy frogmen, in SACO and other venues, during World War II. That includes "sneak and peek" surveillance, underwater demolition, and how divers deployed at a site from a high-speed boat (and then how they were picked up by a boat at high speed). It also illustrates other elements of the navy in World War II, like Higgins boats and how a breeches buoy was used. It almost makes you feel like you were there with the UDT, preparing to invade an island in the Pacific – but without all that "holding your breath" stuff.
If you're at all interested in what the UDT and Scouts and Raiders teams did and how they did it, you should definitely watch this movie. It's available, to rent or own, from various online sources, including iTunes.
Above left: Scene from "The Frogmen." This shows how UDTs deployed into the water from a high-speed boat. They first hopped on a raft that was tied alongside and then rolled into the water. This reduced the jarring shock of entering the water at high speed. It also kept them away from the boat's propellers, of course. Above right: In this scene, the divers are scouting out underwater barriers for demolition, writing notes on chalkboards that dangled from their necks.
Above left: And this is how the swimmers were recovered. They lined up in the ocean, many yards apart (note the bobbing heads in the distance). Then they grabbed onto a looped rope as the boat approached them at high speed and were pulled into the raft. Above right: The climatic scene of the movie as Widmark (with tanks) battles the Japanese by the anti-submarine net under the water. He was stabbed – but fortunately for the movie, it was just a flesh wound. Destination Gobi I believe the only movie that was ever made about SACO itself was "Destination Gobi" (1953), which starred that same fellow, Richard Widmark (Richard apparently had been typecast as the frogman/SACO guy in Hollywood). "Destination Gobi" had a considerable budget for the day of $1.3 million and was directed by Robert Wise, who went on to direct the movie blockbusters "The Sound of Music" and "West Side Story" in the 1960s. The movie was based on a true Navy story that was written during World War II called "Saddles for Gobi."
The plot of this seemingly far-fetched movie involves a Navy officer named Sam McHale (Widmark) who is inducted into SACO and is ordered to take command of a group of weary SACO weather observers in the desolate Gobi Desert of Mongolia in 1944. Their camp is destroyed by Japanese planes soon after he arrives, however. And so, overcoming much travail, along with the sneaky shenanigans of the Japanese army, he steadfastly leads his men across the desert to the coast. They travel past hordes of Mongols, through the Japanese lines, and then, via a captured Chinese junk, on towards Okinawa.
Why Okinawa? Why not?
I believe this was the first and only movie in which the word "SACO" was mentioned. As Widmark narrates in the opening scene of the movie, "Nobody knew much about SACO then except that it was big and secret, and they seemed to get what they wanted and when they wanted it. Right now, they wanted me."
I'm not sure if that's how SACO actually operated during the war, but what the heck, this is Hollywood. And by the way, 60 years later nobody still knows much about SACO – which is why I created this section of my website. To find out if Widmark reaches Okinawa, you can rent or buy this somewhat-silly movie on iTunes.
Interestingly, actor Ernest Borgnine said in a later interview that this film, and Widmark's role of Sam McHale, were the bases for Borgnine's role of Quentin McHale in the 1960s television sitcom, "McHale's Navy." And my dad told me that he was stationed briefly in the Gobi Desert with SACO during World War II – but I don't think he ever met Richard Widmark (or, for that matter, Quentin McHale).
Above left: Scenes from "Destination Gobi." This is at the beginning of the movie as Richard Widmark nervously approaches SACO headquarters in Pearl Harbor (SACO's headquarters was actually in Washington, D.C. – but hey, this is Hollywood). Note the "SACO" sign in the background. I believe this is the only time the word "SACO" ever appeared in any Hollywood movie. Above right: Widmark (left) meets with SACO's brass – neither of whom look remotely like Commander Milton Miles. Milton had hair, for one thing.
Above left: Widmark (with cap) gets filled in by his SACO colleagues in the Gobi Desert while tending to a wounded comrade. He doesn't have hair, either. (Is there a pattern here?) Above right: Quite likely the only time a weather balloon ever appeared in a Hollywood movie – or at least, a weather balloon in the Gobi Desert.
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