America's First Frogman

"Although bad eyesight kept him from receiving a commission in the U.S. Navy when he graduated from the Naval Academy in 1933, Draper Kauffman became a hero of underwater demolition in World War II and went on to have a distinguished naval career. Today Admiral Kauffman is remembered as the nation's first frogman and the father of the Navy SEALs. His spectacular wartime service disarming enemy bombs, establishing bomb disposal schools, and organizing and leading the navy's first demolition units is the focus of this biography written by Kauffman's sister, Elizabeth Kauffman Bush. Mrs. Bush, who is also the aunt of President George W. Bush, draws on family papers as well as navy documents to tell Kauffman's story for the first time." "Always leading by example, Draper Kauffman established underwater demolition traditions of perseverance, teamwork, and a lasting brotherhood of men of extraordinary courage that are carried on by Navy SEALs today. Mrs. Bush records her brother's legacy to the U.S. Navy and the details of his life with a historian's attention to detail and a novelist's flare for storytelling."--Jacket.