SEAL SADM portable nuclear weapon - photo

[clavius]

I read a book that included some interviews with guys who had trained as SEALs in the use of these things, doing jumps with dummy bombs, toting them around and studying where to place them to do the most damage. Apparently the idea was that this cool new bomb could give a one or two man team the ability to utterly destroy and take out very large structures like dams or large bridges. I recall he said something to the effect that they were viewed as just extra powerful demolition charges by the top level planners, but that all of the guys like him training to deploy them knew that they would be being sent on a suicide mission but just chose not to talk about it.

Years ago worked with a guy who was in the army national guard in the mid 1970s. He was some sort of materials and logistics guy. He said that on the list of stuff issued to his unit was some sort of battlefield nuclear weapon that was mounted on a trailer to be towed into place with a jeep and detonated by use of a control box at the end of a really long wire. He said that he never actually saw the thing or saw anything that indicated where it was stored, nor did he know anyone in his unit (or maybe would admit to it) that had either but that they all agreed that it was probably not one of the better ideas that the army ever had.