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50S FROGS ZINE
Volume 13 Page 9
How PRU’s Got Started (Continued
from Vol. 12)
SEALs became involved
in the PRU Program primarily as a result of one: SK1 Bob Wagner
(Posthumously) advanced to SKC. Bob was a unique person to say the least and
many felt he had ties to the CIA. Bob graduated in Class 28 in 1962 as an SK2
and went directly to SEAL Team One at a time when
UDTRA graduates did not go directly to a SEAL
Team. Bob was regarded by many as driven, very knowledgeable and professsional, who clearly knew more
about intelligence tradecraft and the CIA than the average First
Class Perry Officer. He also spoke and wrote Vietnamese well. Bob had a
tour in DaNang and was eventually assigned to a detachment. In Nha Bein
1966, Bob Wagner and Ted Kassa
receive taking from Maynard Weyers,
the officer in charge of Detachment Golf in Nha Be to develop a training
program for Vietnamese personnel from the Counter Terror Program, which was
run by the CIA and had some problems and run a training program for
them and other Vietnamese personnel in order to establish a new program.
Initially the new program was to be called the Delta Reconnaissance Unit. But
later it became the Provincial Reconnaissance Unit. This turned
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out to be a difficult
job for a number of reasons.
The Army wanted the program and fought to get it. Also
the Australians wanted the program and at one time had actually moved into
the camp in Vung Tau created for this training. Finally Franklin Anderson, the Commanding Officer of SEAL
Team One needed formal tasking. Being the Commanding Officer, he knew that he
would have to provide personnel for this new
tasking, and he could not get additional billets unless he had formal
tasking. The CIA was slow to formally request SEALs
to be advisors, but eventually formal tasking
came. Bob and Ted got the camp in Vung Tau built and the Lessons Plans
written. Layton Bassett then became involved and helped with the first class.
Once the training started, Bob Wagner went back to SEAL
Team One where he developed and instructed training for SEAL
Team PRU Advisors. While the PRU Advisor was being….(can
not read end of sentence, type missing).
The Pru Advisor’s role in the unit was
different in each unit. Some PRU Advisors had a much more dominant
role that others. A lot depended on the
personalities of the advisor and the PRU Chief.
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