is available at the National Navy UDT-SEAL Museum website, while the facility itself has an extensive collection of related artifacts on display. World War II By the time the United States became involved in World War II, Adolf Hitler and the Axis forces had control over a large portion of Europe, Asia and North Africa. If the Allied forces were to stand a chance, there would have to be several full-scale landings. The U.S. Navy decided that to do the job right required sending in their own. They needed men to reconnoiter the landing beaches, take note of obstacles and defenses and ultimately guide the landing forces in. Later, during the war, the Army Engineers passed down demolition jobs to the U.S. Navy. They were to clear any obstacles and/or defenses in the nearshore area, beginning a tradition that continues today. Scouts and Raiders The Navy Scouts and Raiders were created before the Navy Combat Demolition Units (NCDUs). The Scouts and Raiders were first formed 15 August 1942, nine months after the attack on Pearl Harbor, from the Observer Group, a joint Marine Corps–Army–Navy unit. The Observer Group was the first unit trained in amphibious reconnaissance. They trained in inflatable boat insertions from submarines around the Chesapeake Bay and at the Amphibious Training Base (ATB) Little Creek in Virginia and in Fort Pierce, Florida. They were training for an intense clandestine mission in North Africa. With US Marines limited to the Pacific Theatre of Operations, the Observer Group was disbanded, with the Marine Corps counterpart forming the Amphib Recon Company; the Army/Navy unit formed the Scouts and Raiders with the Army later leaving. The U.S. Navy began the Scouts and Raiders to provide reconnaissance and raiding missions to support amphibious landings. The unit could conduct raids and sabotage missions from a pair of men to platoon-sized operations. The unit continued its deployment to North Africa as planned, where they earned eight Navy Crosses. Robert Halperin, a former NFL football player and future Olympic medalist, received a Presidential Citation and the Navy Cross for his work during the amphibious landings in French Morocco. This was just the first of many war-time missions for the versatile Scouts and Raiders. First group The first group included Phil H. Bucklew, the "Father of Naval Special Warfare", after whom the Naval Special Warfare Center building is named. Commissioned in October 1942, this group saw combat