THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, July 26, 1995 TAG: 9507250301
SECTION: MILITARY NEWS PAGE: A8 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: MY TURN
SOURCE: BY JACK DORSEY, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 71 lines
Ever since they were established, on Jan. 1, 1962, with President Kennedy performing the honors, the Navy SEALs have been a quiet bunch, as stealthy as the ``silent service'' of the submarine force.
Unconventional warfare, counter-guerrilla and clandestine operations in maritime and riverine environments - their primary missions - have forced them to be that way.
It is rare the SEALs go public.
But today the SEALs are screaming from the rooftops, from their headquarters in San Diego to their East Coast base at the Little Creek Naval Amphibious Base in Norfolk.
Four of their enlisted members - all from Little Creek - graduated last week at the top of their class in the Navy's new ``Seaman to Admiral'' officer candidate program.
The four were the only SEALs in the program.
There were 43 graduates from the Pensacola-based officer candidate school established last year by Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Jeremy ``Mike'' Boorda.
Boorda is the first CNO to have risen from the enlisted ranks. He went through a similar program before it was discontinued in the 1960s and he ordered it re-established after he became the Navy's senior man.
This first class had 1,132 applicants; 50 candidates representing more than two dozen enlisted specialities. The courses lasted 16 weeks, beginning in April.
The SEALs outshined everybody else. The hard chargers are: Ensign Matthew J. Burns, 27, a former quartermaster first class; Ensign Mark W. Ellingson II, 27, a former intelligence specialist second class; Ensign Francis G. Franky, 24, former hospital corpsman second class; and Ensign William R. Sutton, 26, former torpedoman's mate first class.
As ``distinguished graduates,'' they were awarded regular commissions and vice reserve commissions, and will have the opportunity to obtain an undergraduate college degree before returning to their SEAL teams.
``This is really neat and we're all really excited,'' said Lt. Will Tumulty, a public affairs officer with Special Warfare Group Two at Little Creek. ``We were excited initially when we got so many people into the program because, for the small number of people we have in the Navy, we had a large number that qualified for the Seaman to Admiral program.
``And for our guys to go there and graduate One, Two, Three, Four, is really pretty neat.''
More than that, said Capt. Steven Ahlberg, deputy and chief of staff for the Commander Naval Special Warfare Command at San Diego, they are a ``fantastic reflection'' of all of the enlisted members of the command.
Ahlberg believes they did so well because of their specialized training as SEALs.
``These guys, by virtue of their training and what they do on a daily basis, are goal-orientated people,'' he said. ``That is the frame of mind they work from. They are focused and mature and focused toward mission success.''
During basic SEAL training, officers and enlisted personnel go together through some of the toughest mental and physical endurance tests devised.
``The goal of becoming commissioned officers probably took on the same sort of focus for them,'' said Ahlberg.
Ahlberg doesn't want to brag - ``We're all part of the same service'' - but there's bound to be some of it going around.
He is convinced that all of his enlisted personnel could accomplish the same thing.
His biggest worry is that they will all want to try for the next ``Seaman to Admiral'' class.
It begins in April, captain, so watch the door. by CNB