{"id":86953,"date":"2019-05-13T11:35:49","date_gmt":"2019-05-13T15:35:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=86953"},"modified":"2019-05-13T11:38:54","modified_gmt":"2019-05-13T15:38:54","slug":"86953","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=86953","title":{"rendered":"WWII Group That Was Predecessor to SEALs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/frank-bellotti.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-86954 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/frank-bellotti.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"366\" height=\"515\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/frank-bellotti.jpg 366w, https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/frank-bellotti-213x300.jpg 213w, https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/frank-bellotti-237x333.jpg 237w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 366px) 100vw, 366px\" \/><\/a><br \/>\nThe <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bostonherald.com\/2019\/05\/12\/ex-pol-bellotti-led-wwii-squad-that-was-predecessor-to-seals\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">BostonHerald.com writes<\/a> about former Massachusetts Attorney General Frank Bellotti, who led a WW II group of men that were the predecessor to the modern day Navy SEALs.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cI joined in May 1942 when I was 19 years old,\u201d Bellotti said. \u201cWe all had to be in great shape. I applied for the Scouts and Raiders and completed the physical training that included swimming two lengths of a swimming pool underwater in full uniform with my boots on.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Bellotti was then sent to the Pacific theater to places like India and China where he commanded a small guerrilla unit that gathered intelligence and specialized in bombings and sabotage against the Japanese.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut don\u2019t make me out to be a hero,\u201d he insists. \u201cThere were guys in Normandy and other places who did a lot more under terrifying conditions.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Like most WWII vets, he believes that his greatest accomplishment was simply surviving the war. For him that meant coming home to Massachusetts where he launched a legendary career in politics and raised 12 children with his wife Maggi.<\/p>\n<p>For years, he and other members of his unit conducted a roll call every three months to see who was still alive. The calls got shorter and the group got smaller until there were only two men left on the telephone, Bellotti and close friend Richard Lyon, the first Admiral of the Navy SEALs.<\/p>\n<p>Lyon died two years ago, leaving Bellotti to carry on their legacy alone.<\/p>\n<p>Bellotti is proud to serve as a bridge between the little known Scouts and Raiders and today\u2019s Navy SEALs, whose high profile operations include the killing of Osama bin Laden in 2011. SEALs are also treated like superheroes on television and the big screen.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Read more about it at:\u00a0 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bostonherald.com\/2019\/05\/12\/ex-pol-bellotti-led-wwii-squad-that-was-predecessor-to-seals\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">BostonHerald.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The BostonHerald.com writes about former Massachusetts Attorney General Frank Bellotti, who led a WW II group &hellip; <a title=\"WWII Group That Was Predecessor to SEALs\" class=\"hm-read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=86953\"><span class=\"screen-reader-text\">WWII Group That Was Predecessor to SEALs<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":663,"featured_media":86952,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[119,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-86953","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-navy","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86953","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/663"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=86953"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86953\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":86956,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86953\/revisions\/86956"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/86952"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=86953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=86953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=86953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}