in November 1942 during Operation Torch on the North African coast. Scouts and Raiders also supported landings in Sicily, Salerno, Anzio, Normandy, and southern France. Second group A combined operations joint US-Australian unit, Special Service Unit No. 1 (SSU 1), was established on 7 July 1943. Its first mission, in September 1943, was at Finschafen on New Guinea. Later operations were at Gasmata, Arawe, Cape Gloucester, and the East and South coast of New Britain, all without any loss of personnel. Conflicts arose over operational matters, and the unit was dissolved. The US Navy personnel from SSU 1 became the basis of the 7th Amphibious Scouts. They received a new mission, to go ashore with the assault boats, buoy channels, erect markers for the incoming craft, handle casualties, take offshore soundings, blow up beach obstacles and maintain voice communications linking the troops ashore, incoming boats and nearby ships. The 7th Amphibious Scouts conducted operations in the Pacific for the duration of the conflict, participating in more than 40 landings. Scout landings were done at night during the new moon. The men were brought to a lagoon by submarine and came ashore with rubber paddle boats. (Goodyear invented inflatable rubber boats just for this purpose.) They would bury the boats in the sand and begin recon. Their mission was to clear the area prior to the main Naval landing which would then take over the island. They stayed from three days to as long as seven days engaging in covert operations and "taking no prisoners". They had learned martial arts (judo) and were armed with Thompson submachine guns, sidearms and knives. The entire Navy Scouts program was strictly volunteer, since it was considered too dangerous to order men to do this job. When the island was secured, they would transmit code to the sub, which would pick them up the next night. A typical loss would be 12 men going in and 3–5 coming back alive. Sometimes only one would come back. Third group The third Scout and Raiders organization deployed to fight with the Sino-American Cooperative Organization (SACO) in China. Admiral Ernest J. King ordered that 120 officers and 900 enlisted sailors be trained for "Amphibious Roger" at the Amphibious Roger school at Fort Pierce, Florida in order to support this mission. They formed the core of what was envisioned as a "guerrilla amphibious organization of Americans and Chinese operating