[Reitarou]

I think todays Seals likely consider themselves “Sons of UDT” in the same way they call themselves Frogmen paying homage to their forefathers.

The UDT (underwater demolition team) acronym was first used for US Navy's Pacific swimmers assigned to the pre-landing recon for the Island Hopscotch Japan offensive after Pearl Harbor.

Their mission was to ensure that the Marines did not peril before landing on the Islands as they had in first operations.

UDTs were the start of the philosophy and culture of today's SEAL teams. Their original gear consisted of a mask, swim trucks, K-Bar, Det Cord, para-cord, 38inch Bolt cutters and a clipboard around their neck giving rise to one of their first monikers - "Naked Warriors."

UDTs started the high-tech facet of the teams with the “swim-fin”, the rebreather for “scuba with no bubbles” and an underwater canoe they had liberated from their Brit counterparts - known as Sleeping Beauty - the first SDV.

The term Frogmen is also rumored to come from their British counterparts who wore green wetsuits - developed for their cold water environments. Another rumored source of Frogmen was the addition of the swim fin and how they looked and walked in them. Could be either or I guess- or both.

The SEAL's UDT forefathers trained in Florida and developed a program to simulate the conditions of “as close to combat as possible.” When the need to deploy came closer, a final accelerated phase was developed to sort out the "men from the boys" - a weeklong intense, sleep deprived, physically punishing test of will designed to identify weaknesses and exploit them. The candidates just called it "hell week" and described the worst part to be the sustained attack by the Florida Air Force's swamp fleet - mosquitos before DEET added to the torture of mental, physical and emotional exhaustion.

Hell Week, The Logs and others are still staples of BUDS and are practically unchanged from those developed in the preparation for WW2 operations in the Pacific.

So, I would say that when the graduates of BUDS get their trident, they consider themselves "Sons of UDT" having navigated the same right of passage established by their forefathers, the Naked Warriors (UDTs).