UDT Class 30 East Coast, Bill Langley

From: Bill Langley 
Date: 12JUL2012 

to: executive director
blast editor

Left to Right: The man bending over with his back to the camera and the other man with sunglasses were with John Wayne, next is Chester Coggeshall, PO1 Bob Auger, Ens Bill Langley (standing on a chair), Doc Meyers (hat), John “The Duke” Wayne, Fud Miller, Chief Gene Gayman, an Army Capt, PO3 Marshall, SN Stein, Jim Zultewicz, an Army Lt, Grossmouth (now a Navy surgeon), and Dwight Plumlee. Tom Winter was also with the UDT survey team but was not in the picture. 

The picture was taken in 1972 at a beach in Rio Hato, Panama. It was taken about two hours after the completion of a beach survey conducted jointly by UDT-21 and Panamanian frogmen. Sharks were spotted about halfway through the survey so it finished quickly and the Panamanian frogmen immediately left the area. 

The Panamanian president had a villa near the beach and the barracks that the UDT detachment stayed in was also near the beach. The night before the survey, President Omar Torrijos invited the Panamanian officer, Chief Gene Gayman, Ensign Bill Langley, and an Army officer to his villa for a brief visit. President Torrijos, while lying comfortably on a hammock in a screened-in porch, welcomed them to Panama, invited them to have tea, thanked them for coming to Rio Hato to conduct the beach survey, and told them that John Wayne was scheduled to visit with him the next day. An armed guard was stationed on each side of the hammock and several more were strategically located outside the villa. No doubt there were more armed guards on alert nearby.

 While drinking tea with the president as he relaxed in his hammock, one person at a time would come in from a line that had formed outside to informally express their problems or concerns. After listening to them, he would make a decision and tell his aid what to do. They would leave and the next person would come in. The president appeared to be very accessible to the Panamanian people that lived in the area. The next morning SN Stein conducted reveille by riding into the barracks on the back of a 4½ foot elephant that was trumpeting loudly; an unusual beginning of a very special day. During the survey a small plane flew over and someone commented, “There goes John Wayne”. 

President Torrijos must have told John Wayne who we were and what we were doing because as we were cleaning our gear, a large car pulls up and out steps John Wayne. He was a big man (6’5″) and he was extremely gracious, nice, and friendly toward everyone. He told us that he admired and respected the UDT/SEAL community and the U S military. He had a few beers, smoked a big cigar and partied with us in John Wayne style for at least an hour. 

We all remember the frogman tradition of throwing someone in the water for almost anything. I think it was Stein who said, “Let’s throw him in the water”, to which John replied, “I’ll bury you boy”. Everyone laughed and a few minutes later John’s party decided it was time to go. For that brief hour we all felt like we were on a movie set with “The Duke / Big John”.

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Left to Right: The man bending over with his back to us and the other with sunglasses are with “The Duke”, next is Chester Coggeshall, PO1 Bob Auger, Ens Bill Langley (standing on a chair), Doc Meyers (hat), John “The Duke” Wayne, Fud Miller, Chief Gene Gayman, army Capt, PO3 Marshall, SN Stein, Jim Zultewicz, army Lt, Grossmouth (now a navy surgeon), and Dwight Plumlee. Tom Winter was also with the UDT group but was not in the picture.