Challenges After Service: Special Warfare Combat Crewmen

by Anthony Smith

It was sometime around midnight; we were sitting in the dark, blacked out, with no lights and no movement. We were watching our objective. All of a sudden, we were compromised, and machine guns started ringing out. We pushed down the throttles, and a giant rooster tail kicked up behind us as the 80-foot cigarette boat took off in the night. Two boats in tandem, blacked out, running fast. Sixteen 50 caliber machine guns between the two boats, rang out as we returned fire.

We were hitting speeds of 65 mph at night with no visibility. We would often run without NODs [Night Observation Devices] because the extra weight would cause severe whiplash as the fast boat would slam into waves, crashing with g-forces likened to motor vehicle accidents. Sitting in the back seats were some F-18 pilots we had done some CAS [Close Air Support] training with earlier in the day, along for the ride. Suddenly, the lead boat stuffed into the back of a swell, off San Clemente Island. The impact of the wave crashed in the front of the canopy and broke the front right engineer seat. 9000 gallons (20,000lbs) of water filled the cockpit within two seconds. If the engineer had been in his seat, it would have crushed him. The aluminum canopy crashed in at 65 mph; the windows hit the driver in the face, and the pilots in the back took the glass in the face.

We were lucky; no one was killed. On another similar incident on the East Coast, a fellow SWCC [Special Warfare Combatant-Craft Crewmen] broke his sternum and punctured his lung as he stuffed a smaller and faster boat in a similar fashion. For us, this would become a long and painful night. Due to the nature of our crash, we would have to tow the boat back to San Diego; the training mission was over, and we were injured. It took over six hours of limping into the daylight to make it back. We had been up for over 24 hours.

There were many times when it was so violent that I believed we were all going to die. At 65 mph, the boat slams into a wave about once every second. 3,600 impacts happen in an hour. The impacts can be as hard and severe as 125 rotational g-forces on the head and neck, producing severe whiplash and sub-concussive impact. Often, it’s only about 35 or 40 g. Pretty typical.

I became a Special Warfare Combat Crewman (SWCC) in 1996 and served in the United States Navy from 1986 to 2010. I completed eight six-month deployments and several fly-away trips, two to three months each. In all my travels, I visited 42 countries thanks to the Navy and Naval Special Warfare. I accumulated over 12,000 hours of fast boat time, contributing to several million sub-concussive impacts at speeds up to 65 mph and g-forces up to 125 g’s. Today, at the age of 58, I have an injury, it seems, on every part of my body, and my brain continues to degrade, likened to some retired football players. However, they only take 1,500 concussive impacts a season, and a SWCC can experience up to 3,600 impacts per hour. Repetitive sub-concussive impacts of this nature are linked to Encephalopathy (CTE).

When I retired from the Navy, I was already in total body pain. At the eight-year mark of being a SWCC, I had a grand mal seizure. Soon after was the anxiety, depression and about four major joint surgeries. Today, at 58, I’ve had 12 major joint surgeries and still need probably seven or eight more, including replacing both knees. The eight-year pattern for SWCCs has surfaced over and over again; as I have talked with other SWCCs, most experience some sort of cognitive changes at about that mark.

As time passed, I needed to find answers to why I seemed to be losing my memory, unable to find words, and getting angry and agitated over nothing. I learned of Tulane and their TBI clinic and went there for evaluation and treatment. Tulane gave me a constellation of injury and co-morbidities I had to contemplate.

All the persistent issues led me to wonder, what was happening to me, and was it common with other SWCCs? I started asking questions, conducting interviews, did two online surveys, and compiled two years of research.

From the data emerged a dark and tumultuous reality, here is a summary of the SWCC TBI survey:

Electronic survey-based study conducted between 01MAR – 04APR 2023.

Sent to 1,000 individuals through social media platforms with 314 respondents.

299 of the 314 were verified SWCC operators, representing 3,584 years of SWCC experience. Of the fifteen (15) who were not SWCC, two (2) were SEALs, two (2) were fleet officers who had served in the Special Boat Teams, one (1) was a USCG Warrant Officer, and nine (9) were NSW combat service support personnel. 

The median age was fifty (50), and median number of years served as SWCC was eleven (11), while most completed five (5) deployments. 

100% of respondents had service time on SWCC fast boats and are now living with long-term effects of traumatic brain injury (TBI), whiplash-associated disorders (WAD), and musculoskeletal disorders (MSD), including cognitive impairment, neuroendocrine dysfunction, sleep disorders, chronic pain, and psychological disorders.

28% of respondents were currently experiencing or have previously experienced suicidal ideation. Several respondents communicated afterward that they answered no for fear of reporting, indicating the number is likely higher. 

99.98% experienced concussion symptoms during fast boat operations indicative of repetitive sub-concussive as well as concussive impacts.

99.99% experienced whole “body slamming” on fast boats, which are connected to TBIs, MSDs, and WADs.

84% experienced what they perceived as whiplash which is associated with WADs and TBIs.

53% of respondents report over 3 million career blast overpressure exposures related to heavy weapon systems use or close proximity to heavy weapon systems use in training and on missions.

In addition, two patterns that have emerged in my research which are SWCC operators begin experiencing cognitive issues within the eight (8) year mark of being on fast boats and wave slamming, and there is a pattern of SWCCs passing away in their mid-60s to cancer-related illnesses. I myself started having seizures after being SWCC for 8 years and was medically disqualified to deploy. Although I fought the medical board and stayed in the navy an additional six years.

All this reminds me of a story, we flew down to New Orleans, picked up two 80-foot speed boats, and headed toward Va Beach… over 1,700 miles away, on fast boats running 65 mph, for at least eight hours a day. While enroute, we encountered a hurricane, ended up shooting out to sea, to avoid high winds and big waves. We ended up getting our asses kicked pretty badly, and all of us were urinating blood when we stopped in North Carolina. But, as good operators, we finished what we started.

Years have gone by; I’m now 58 instead of a young 30-year-old SWCC operator. Collectively, I probably have over 50 medical issues because of fast boat wave slamming. I’ve communicated with over a thousand SWCC operators and researchers around the globe and seen the common diagnoses we all get from TBI clinics. I sought help from doctors who specialize in TBI and Allostatic Overload (Operator) Syndrome. I’ve also found tremendous support and guidance from non-profits like the SEAL Future Foundation and Task Force Dagger Special Operations Foundation, who are committed to helping Operators access innovative solutions for the complex set of injuries related to service.

Through my own experience and the experience of other SWCC veterans, I’ve learned that hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT), Stellate Ganglion Blocks (SGB), red light therapy, vagus nerve stimulators, and Dr. Mark Gordons Brain Rescue and Brain Care products have been making a big difference. There are numerous other products, services, and technologies that I’m still learning about, and a variety of different treatments I need to take advantage of – especially around hormone balancing, sleep apnea treatment, and digestive health – that I believe will make a difference. The future looks promising.

Moving Forward!

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This first appeared in The Havok Journal on October 23, 2024.

Anthony Smith is a retired Special Warfare Combat Crewman (SWCC). He served in the United States Navy for 24 years, most of which was in Naval Special Warfare (NSW). SWCC primarily conducts maritime special operations missions in conjunction with Navy SEAL platoons. He deployed overseas over 11 times and was involved in hundreds of Maritime Special Operations Missions in the Middle East. In his Special Boat Service, he accumulated over 12,000 hours of SOF fast boat time, suffering several million sub-concussive impacts. This led to his eventual medical disqualification to deploy as a Special Warfare Boat Operator. Anthony spends several hours each week researching SWCC fast boat (TBI) Traumatic Brain Injury and often publishes his findings on the lived experiences of former SWCC operators.

As the Voice of the Veteran Community, The Havok Journal seeks to publish a variety of perspectives on a number of sensitive subjects. Unless specifically noted otherwise, nothing we publish is an official point of view of The Havok Journal or any part of the U.S. government.