Roy H. Boehm was a mustang officer who rose through the ranks, fought in 3 wars, several clandestine ops and went on to be a legend.
In 1941, at the age of 17, his first duty with the Navy was salvaging the sunken USS Arizona and diving to recover corpses and ammo. Boehm confessed that he found the job of recovering dead sailors so distressing that he actually vomited inside his diver's helmet the first time he was required to do it.
In 1942, at the Battle of Cape Esperance, his ship, the USS Duncan, was hit over 58 times at point blank range before going down. With shrapnel embedded in his head and body, he saved one of his shipmates from burning to death by plunging into the ocean. Subsequently, he had to literally fight off sharks, who killed the sailor he tried to save.
After being rescued, he continued to fight the Japanese fleet till the end of the war.
He then went on to fight in Korea and in 1955 Boehm went through UDT training at the age of 31.
In 1960, after receiving his commission, developed, designed, implemented, and led the US Navy's SEALs, becoming the first (OIC) of ST2.
He felt that his men should have a variety of training to give them an edge in unconventional warfare beyond diving, shooting, demolitions, martial arts, and parachuting and expanded the curriculum to include photography, intelligence gathering, and sailing. He even sent SEALs to train in prisons to learn skills such as lockpicking, safecracking, and hotwiring cars from professional criminals.
During Vietnam, he trained and led his SEALs in various succesfull missions against communist forces and causing havoc behind enemy lines.
When Boehm passed away in 2008 at the age of 83, he had explicitly said to his wife that he wanted his death to go unpublicized. He wanted no obituary, no funeral service and no fanfare, just to go in peace. #stayzero #zerofoxtrot #seal #hardcore