Looking back on a long U.S. Navy career and a slew of honors and medals, Franklin Anderson received one last surprise from his military peers this summer.
In August, he received an award from Vietnam-era SEALS and members of underwater diving teams honoring his exemplary service during the Vietnam Conflict.
"I was honored to receive this," he said, noting that the plaque from his Navy compatriots was a surprise. He had no idea it was coming.
The former SEALS and members of the Navy's Underwater Demolition Teams meet every summer. When Anderson was haying in August on his farm in Allison, he couldn't always attend the reunions. Now he leases his land and is able to travel some more.
He received the award on Aug. 18 at the Coronado Yacht Club in California.
Anderson joined the Navy in February of 1957. After growing up in Pagosa Springs, he had received a draft deferment while attending what is now Colorado State University, but at the time was Colorado A&M. After graduation, he got his draft notice and said he met with some Army officers who were bossing him and other potential officers around, so he found the Navy office and enrolled in Officer Candidate School. His first interest was in becoming a Navy pilot, but he was a half-inch too short. He'd always liked swimming in rivers and had a snorkel and fins, so underwater training was his second choice, and looking back, he feels fortunate he wasn't a pilot. Many planes in that time were shot down in North Vietnam.
"A lot of flights took off from Bangkok or ships, and it was just a shooting gallery," he remembered. "The good Lord was looking after me when he put me where he did."
Anderson moved up the ranks in the Navy, and in 1961 was among the first group of officers to create the elite Navy SEAL teams, which stand for SEa, Air and Land. There was one on the East coast and one on the West coast, he remembered.
He received the Legion of Merit for his role as the commanding officer of SEAL Team One. In bestowing the honor, Admiral Francis Blouin said Anderson "took a group of sailors and made them into one of the best fighting forces in Vietnam."
Anderson also trained a Vietnamese SEAL team. In an account he wrote of his military career, Anderson said he and the team received word that a North Vietnamese trawler was unloading weapons at Vung Ro Bay. He accompanied the Vietnamese SEAL team to the bay, where they went ashore under heavy fire and secured the area. The trawler was sunk, and he dove down into it to recover documents that proved the North Vietnamese and Communist Chinese were importing war materials. For his actions, he received the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry.
Initially, the SEAL operations were kept secret, but stories of "men with green faces," referring to their facial camouflage, kept surfacing. Late in 1966, Anderson gave the first press conference acknowledging the existence of SEAL teams.
On Jan. 14, 1969, he and members of SEAL Team One received the Presidential Unit Citation at the White House from President Lyndon Johnson, in what happened to be his last official act as president.
From 1969 to 1972, Anderson was assigned to a group to plan and conduct special operations against the North Vietnamese. He said some of his recommendations were followed, while some were not. For that service, he received the Meritorious Service Medal from Admiral John McCain, the Commander in Chief of the Pacific.
He then was assigned to research and development of equipment for use by special warfare forces. When he retired in May of 1977, he had spent more time in Naval special warfare than other officer in the U.S. Navy.
He then came home to Southwest Colorado to spend time with his father, who had been diagnosed with lung cancer.
Although he is admittedly proud of his Navy career, he gives much of the credit for his success to his wife Martha, whom he met while he was stationed in San Diego. They raised four children together.
After returning to Southwest Colorado, he farmed and joined several organizations, including the Southeast Planning District for La Plata County, the Pine River Canal and Farm Bureau. In the mid-1980s, he was named Colorado Outstanding Agrarian of the year.
Although he has few personal regrets, Anderson, like many military members of his generation, was disheartened by the U.S. pulling out of Vietnam. He and other officers recommended bombing Radio Hanoi, as well as strategic dams and harbors in North Vietnam, to finally take the territory from Communist forces.
"We could have won that thing hands down if they'd turned us loose," he said. The North Vietnamese "admitted if we had kept up bombing, they were ready to surrender," he said. "It's just like with ISIS and all this stuff we got today. There are too many politicians running the war," and not enough experienced military personnel.
