Navy SEAL FREDDIE the Frog Challenge Coin. Limited edition, serialized (028). Approximate size of 3″ x 2 1/4″, back of coin states common Navy SEAL quite, “the only easy day was yesterday”. From Tad Devine: SEAL Team 1’s first-ever commanding officer January1, 1962. Freddie the frog was created by Jack Tomlinson of UDT-2. Historical note, in the 50’s, each WEST PAC detachment would return with a different shoulder patch made to identify the wearer as a member of Underwater Demolition. Every design was different, seahorses, etc. We would continually get “flack” for wearing “salt-stained sloppy greens” over issued tan swim trunks, “boon dockers” sporting a green field cap with a fuse lighter dangling from the cap’s vent hole. It was the standard fashion of the day. Just who are you? Would be the sputtering challenge of crisply turned-out Marine officers in the chow hall and on the base. I thought it would be nice if the teams had a shoulder patch for ID. It might save some hassles. Then, of course, there was the “pride” factor. To teammates LTJG John Callahan and LTJG George Raines, I suggested that we design a patch. We’d use the “East Coast” design this might minimize resistance from teams 21 and 22 to a West Coast idea. It was a great design and reads Underwater Demolition. We would then add a banner under it reading Team 11, which, if the idea caught on, each team could add their own team number, but there would be a standard design for the’Teams.
