carrying Scouts close to enemy positions, underwater exhaustswere improved.'4The primary vessel used by the unit was the Landing Craft, Sup-port (LCS). The thirty-six-foot boats had gasoline and later dieselengines, armor plating on the sides, and twin fifty-caliber machineguns for defense against air attack. The Scouts had to build themounting arms for their battle lanterns. Usually three lights, aboutfive or six inches in diameter, were positioned on the boat for maxi-mum visibility. The men then covered the lights with colored filtersthat matched the color designation of sectors of the beach. They alsoused infrared filters to minimize the chance of being detected by theenemy.5Rehearsals for the Scouts' amphibious operations began aboutfive or six miles from shore. The men determined their attack posi-tions by landmarks provided for them by naval intelligence andreference vessels stationed at designated distances from thebeach. Approximately half a mile from shore rubber boats or kay-aks carrying army personnel, who were to infiltrate the beach, werelaunched. About 300 or 400 yards from shore, the Scouts tried tocenter themselves in the designated invasion lane so that the wavesof landing craft approaching the beach would parallel them. Once inposition, the men anchored and used their colored lights to signalthe landing craft carrying the invasion force.'6As June neared its end, an element of the invasion force began toassemble in the Bizerte area. The assault on Sicily would be thelargest amphibious operation, in terms of number of men in the ini-tial landing, in world history, and although Culver could not revealhis role in it, even to his family, he did write, "I can't say where I amor what I'm doing, but it's really a sight to see." His letters also indi-cate that his work left insufficient time for sleep, but no hint aboutthe nature of the Scouts' training or mission. He did tell his family,"A lot of lives depend on how well we do our task." He added, "I'mgreasy, dirty, wearing old G.I. shoes with the top slit to be more com-fortable, inch hair cut, no tie-well, 'this ain't no dress show!! nohow! !'"17Between June 18 and 26 Culver's team conducted four trial runsfrom LSTs off the Tunisian coast. Other evenings the Scouts andRaiders practiced approaching the beach from their LCSs andsmaller craft. Although movies were shown on shore most nights onbase, Culver noted, "Movie time is work time for us." His log indi-cates that Saturdays and Sundays were no different from weekdays; training was nonstop. Chow had declined in quality since the
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