Thank you Johnny55, that does far more than just answer my question 
(so thank you too for sharing even more about yourself and your family with us)!
If it's ok with you , I'd like to share this part of your family history with my brother-in-law. He was a working historian until he retired a few years ago (he had the Pacific, European and finally World history commands with the AF, and although he is literally a living/walking encyclopedia, I know that he'd be interested in hearing what you just shared with us too, especially the personal side of the story .. I'm sure he knows the facts about the Navy's shift from UDT to Seals).
God bless you!! (Numbers 6:24-26)
~Deuteronomy (David)
That is fine with me. My father shared only a very FEW things about anything he did as the old tradition holds in SEAL culture of simply not talking. The main etiquette around SEALS is simply "Don't ask." He did however share that one job they did was recovery missions for the NASA Space program where they recovered the space pods and recovered the astronauts out of each pod. They did recovery missions for Gemini 9, Gemini 12 and another. My dad spoke of attaching the floatation devices around each pod. I grew up listening to those stories all my life. It was just normal family stuff back then. I never really placed a lot of value on it until later on as an adult who also served in the military and I told folks his story and they would look at me stunned and say things like; "WOW your dad was a part of HISTORY!". I thought, "OK I never looked at it that way before." It was all just sort of, I guess, Normal. For example, my late grandfather on moms side. He fought in WWII under General Patton and if I ever wanted to hear that man cuss up a storm all I had to do was bring up Patton! OH he hated General Patton! My grandmother would wap me over he head and yell, "Why did you bring up Patton? Now I gotta hear about that all DAY!" Hahaha! Every family reunion the entire hall we rented was full of nothing but war vets! Our entire family! Family like My uncle Ray being Marine Recon in Vietnam. He came back with SEVERE PTSD and had been exposed to agent orange! My uncle Carl, He was U.S. Army Special forces came back with SEVER PTSD and had been exposed to agent orange. My uncle Gary was U.S. Army Infantry and did a tour in Vietnam. Dad was a Navy SEAL having gone into Vietnam to blow up bridges underwater. Litterally you could not walk into that hall during our family reunion and not rub shoulders with anyone who had not served. Infact when I turned 17 years old back during the 1980s, My mother walked over, stood toe to toe with me and she said; "BOY you were lucky enough to have been born in the United States of America and you owe at least 4 years of your life to her!" and she then walked away. Serving in the armed forces for the men in my family was EXPECTED! It was a time honored family tradition that we kept. Now that did not come without, well lets just say "complications". My uncle Ray, lets just say reintegrating to civilian life didn't really seem to suit him very well. When I left to serve in the Army he was on his 7th marriage. Uncle Gary had been married some 9 times. There were times when Ray was over at the house and a truck blew a tire in front and while we kids ran to the window to see who blew the tire. The LOUD "BOOM!" had Ray scrambling as he dove behind our sofa screaming something about "Charly!" and his hands were litterally shaking. I paused dead in my tracks and asked my mother; "Um mom, whats wrong with Ray?". She warmly smiled and replied, "Oh don't mind Ray. He's having one of them flashbacks.". Plus, I have to ask what on EARTH do the Marines and the SEALS have against each other that they hate each other? Why is there this bitter rivalry. I have NEVER understood any of it. Ray, OH, being Marine Recon, he always wanted to challenge my father to an old fashioned fist fight. One time while my sister and I were young, Ray comes storming into the front door and start cussing and screaming at dad ripping off his shirt and challenging him to a duel, Of course dad, being a SEAL had a very different approach. The yelling suddenly stopped and dad seemed to go into this trained controlled mental sort of ZONE. He raised up, calmly looked at Ray and asked; "Are you sure you want to continue to do this?". My sister and I were firghtened. I looked at Ray and Ray looked at us, looked at dad and got real quiet. He walked out and did not return that day. So hmm, this to us was "normal". I was raised up around world-class warriors. Oh and I can't forget to also include how that while I was in Panama during Operation Just Cause in an Infantry unit going after Noriega, Dad made me promise him I would call home at least no less than once per month. Each month I was to call home and dad still had connections too. One month I missed my time to call him and our staff duty CQ runner walks into my barracks room and said; "The Batalian commander, BC told me to give you this note." I said thanks. I opened my note and it said; "Cakk home. Your father requests to speak with you.". I laughed. I pondered, "My father got ahold of our BC? Sp I called him up and he said; "Hows it going GRUNT!?". I smiled and replied; "Oh not bad SQUID!". We both laughed. I explained; "Hey I got a note from our BC to call home. You all OK?" "Dad simply said; "I just thought you needed a little reminder to call home son.". A little reminder? Man he went up my entire chain of command to get me that note. So dad still had connections. Ah, memories. He's been gone since 2014. The old emfazeema got him. He smoked since he was 14 years old. So there you go, some ramblings and a bit more family history from a family of military VETS. Most of those people I mentioned are all gone now.
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