Page 142 - Journal of Special Operations Medicine - Winter 2015

An Ongoing Series

“Follow Admiral William Halsey’s advice:
Look around and see what needs to be done. Then do it.“

—Frank Butler on serving the operational medicine community

Interviewed by John F. Kragh Jr, MD, 4 February 2014

What was your first SOF job? We also revised the purge procedure (a technique de-
Platoon officer – Third Platoon, Underwater Demoli- signed to remove nitrogen from the breathing loop) of
tion Team (UDT) 12 based in Coronado, California. the Draeger LAR V, the German-made closed-circuit ox-
Since then, the unit has been ygen underwater breathing apparatus (UBA). This UBA
renamed SEAL Delivery Vehicle is still in use in the SEAL teams today; it is now called the
Team ONE. Mark 25. Based on a question and a comment from SEAL
Master Chief Jimmy Johnson in 1982 (“Doc, why do we
How did you come to purge the Draeger LAR V the way that we do? The Ger-
SOF medicine? man SEALs don’t purge it at all, and it seems to work just
After my time in UDT 12 and a fine using it like that”), NEDU conducted an extensive
second tour as a platoon com- review of closed-circuit oxygen purging procedures and
mander in SEAL Team ONE, I found that the procedure then in use had not been well
Frank Butler became interested in medicine thought-out. After reworking the purge process and
and attended the Medical College of Georgia on a then conducting several dive series to confirm the ef-
Navy Health Professions Scholarship. I completed my fectiveness and safety of the proposed new procedure,
internship in family medicine at Naval Hospital Jack- NEDU recommended to NAVSEA that the purge pro-
sonville and then went through cedure be changed, and it was.
the Navy Undersea Medical Of- “Our country’s men and women The revised purge procedure now
ficer training course in Groton, consumes much less oxygen than
Connecticut. After graduating in uniform count on military the previous procedure. This both
from that course in December medicine to provide them with saves gas for the mission and al-
1980, I was assigned to the Navy the best care possible if they are lows for a lower fraction of oxy-
Experimental Diving Unit (NEDU) wounded in combat. We must gen in the breathing loop—one
in Panama City, Florida. that is high enough to keep the
live up to that trust every day.” diver from becoming hypoxic but
Most of my 5 years at NEDU was lower than that obtained with the
spent doing research on diving medicine topics that previous purge procedure. This significantly lowers the
were related to SEAL operations. One project was diver’s risk of suffering life-threatening central nervous
serving as the primary investigator on the largest series system oxygen toxicity events, such as convulsions.
of experimental oxygen dives in US Navy history. This
series of almost 900 test dives allowed for the Navy’s I also assisted in the development of new decompres-
oxygen exposure limits to be extensively revised. The sion procedures for SEAL Delivery Vehicle (SDV) opera-
results of this research were later incorporated into tions, as well as new atmosphere control procedures
the US Navy Diving Manual. Closed-circuit oxygen and medical emergency procedures for the SEAL Dry
rebreather operating limits at some depths were in- Deck Shelter system, which was just being introduced
creased by greater than 200%, and the ability to make into use in the fleet at that time.
a brief excursion to depths as deep as 50 feet was
added. Both of these advances significantly expanded After 5 years at NEDU, it was time to leave for my oph-
the capabilities of SEAL combat diving operations. thalmology residency, but my time at NEDU working

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