The Water Is Never Cold

The Water Is Never Cold is a groundbreaking study of the birth of the U.S. Navy’s combat demolition teams. Naval Combat Demolition Units (NCDUs) and Underwater Demolition Teams (UDTs), little-known predecessors of the Navy SEALs, played a crucial role in the Pacific and European theaters during World War II. As the vanguard for amphibious assaults, they were tasked with beach reconnaissance, depth sounding, and clearing obstacles, mines, and unexploded ordnance so the troops could land – all while exposed to enemy fire. Their work was as hazardous as it was indispensable O’Dell’s history is based on painstaking archival research and inter-views with numerous veterans of the NCDUs and the UDTs, plus the people who influenced their development – the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Amphibious Scouts and Raiders, among others. He details the historical precedents that influenced the teams, as well as their innovation and experimentation with tactics, methods, and equipment. The reader will follow the NCDUs and the UDTs from their grueling training regimen through several of their key combat missions during the war. If not for the skillful work of these brave men, the successful landings at Iwo Jima, Okinawa, Normandy, and other critical battlefields might have been impossible.