Special Forces Advanced Skills
Photos here were taken while Tom
Commanded ODA 222 (SCUBA), ODA 232 (SCUBA) Ft. Devens MA
And ODA 3 (HAL0) Bad Tolz, FRG

Serving as a team commander  was the highlight of my career.
Click on photos to enlarge
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ODA 232 Above: Top-left to right–SFC Mike A. Nelson, intell; SSG Donald Miller, commo; SGT Coleman B. McEntyre, commo; SFC Ronald D. Brockelman, Team SGT, 1LT James E. Croall, XO; SP4 Jeffrey Prevey. Lt Wpns; SP4 Robert McKague, Lt Wpns (S4).
Bottom-left to right–SFC Kenneth Kilmer, Hvy Wpns; SP4 Jeffrey John, Med Ast; CPT Thomas H Davis, CO; SGT Bruce Hazelwood, Ast Intel; SP4 Brett Walker, Med Supervisor; SP4 Ronald Sheckler, Eng.
 
Helocast (CH47) and Underwater OPS
Surface Swimmer  OPS
Chopper Rappelling
Ground to Air Recovery OPS
Mountain OPS 
High Altitude Low Opening Parachute OPS
Left: Helocast ODA 222 Ft. Devens, MA
Right: Night dive ODA 232 off the MA coast.
Left: Brockelman and Davis suiting up for a salvage dive. Pawtucket Connecticut 
Right: Brockelman and Davis returning from salvage dive.
Left: Davis about to enter water. Ice dive Mirror Lake Ft. Devens MA.
Right: Brockelman and Davis returning from Ice dive.
Left: Water jump in February off the Massachusetts coast.
Right: Davis boarding the coast guard cutter after jump. Greeted by Ft. Devens post commander who was there on a boondoggle.
Left and Right: High speed cast off a Danish Coast Guard Cutter at the Danish Frogman School, Konsor Denmark where ODA 232 attended the Danish Combat Swimmer’s course. 
Left: Davis in a Viking Dry Suit attending Combat Swimmer's School.
Right: Davis and cousin Ben Ash in Copenhagen Denmark. Ben showed up at the school on his BMW motorcycle around midnight one night. That weekend we attacked Copenhagen. Hey, it was a dirty job, but somebody had to do it.
On Rappel Back in the old days (before Fast Rope), we used to rappel from UH1Hs using old 120 foot climbing ropes. Pictures were taken with a zoom lense.
Left see the Rappel Master kicking the bundle containing the coiled ropes. 
Right see two of us sliding to the ground during a 100 foot rapell. Ya gotta love it! 
On Rappel
The Grown-to-Air Recovery System is used to extract high priority personnel or equipment from a denied area using a specially equipped MC130 Aircraft.
Left: The balloon that lifts the rope that is attached to the extracted person is filled with helium.
Right: Three red flags are suspended below the balloon. The pilot must hit the middle flag with the nose of the aircraft.
Left: The person to be extracted is sitting on the ground in red thermal coveralls. One of the rope is attached to a harness on his back the other to the balloon.
Right: This is what the pilot sees. If you look closely you can see the lower of the three flags as he approaches the contact point.
Left: If you look close at the nose of the aircraft, you will see the large “V” protruding from the nose of the aircraft (you must click on the photo to enlarge it). When the rope is caught in the point of the “V” it is locked in and cut, releasing the balloon. 
Right: On the inside of the aircraft, men maneuver a large arm that catches the rope that now has the cargo on it and winch it in. Having fun yet?? 
Mountain Climbing in New England:
Left: Climbing to the top while snowing.
Right: On rappel off an over hang.
Below Left: Safety man in the snow.
Below Center: Team Sergeant setting up anchor point.
Below Right: Almost to the ground.
Left: Off the ramp ODA 3 Bad Tolz, FRG
Right: Under the belly of a C-130 ODA 3 with Danish SF in Denmark.
Below: MFF with O2 and Ruck ODA 3 Bad Tolz, FRG


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