Professor Mike Slattery writes
of experiences as a Navy SEAL
Campbell University Professor Mike Slattery has co-authored an article
describing the secret role of Navy SEALs in Operation Thunderhead, a top secret
mission that attempted to rescue two American POWs from North Vietnam’s infamous
“Hanoi Hilton” prison. Slattery, an assistant professor of government and
history, wrote the article, “Spence Dry, a SEAL’s Story,” with his Naval Academy
classmate, Capt. Gordon I. Peterson, U.S. Navy (Retired). It appears in the July
2005 issue of “Proceedings,” a publication of the U.S. Naval Institute.
Based on extensive research that included analysis of
declassified Navy message traffic and official government correspondence,
interviews, family records and other published open sources, the article focuses
on Lt. Spence Dry’s leadership, courage and commitment to a mission which
ultimately cost him his life. It also describes Dry’s father’s failed attempt to
obtain official recognition for his son’s sacrifice.
Slattery, who served two tours in Vietnam, began his
Navy career in 1961 by enlisting in the Naval Reserves during his senior year in
high school. He began active duty with the Pacific Submarine Force in Pearl
Harbor, HI, in 1963, and served aboard the U.S.S. TANG as quartermaster until
his appointment to the U.S. Naval Academy in 1964.
He later graduated from Basic Underwater
Demolition/SEAL (BUD/S) training and joined the Underwater Demolition Team
Thirteen (UDT 13) and was deployed to Vietnam as officer in charge of the
forward deployed detachment conducting combat operations out of Da Nang.
Subsequent assignments included two tours with SEAL Team One as a platoon
commander and later as executive officer, then returning to Vietnam as a SEAL
advisor, conducting maritime operations and clandestine actions ashore with the
Vietnamese SEALS in enemy occupied areas.
Slattery also served as the chief of staff for the
Joint Special Operations Command at Fort Bragg, N.C., and completed two tours of
duty at the Pentagon with the Strategy, Plans, and Policy Division of the chief
of Naval Operations staff and the chief of Naval Personnel as SEAL and Navy
Diver program coordinator.
A graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, Slattery earned a
master’s degree in political science from the University of South Florida. He is
a member of Phi Kappa Phi and Pi Sigma Alpha national honor societies and a
recipient of several military honors, including the Defense Superior Service
Medal, the Legion of Merit and the Bronze Star with Combat “V.”
He was featured in the video, “Prepared to Serve,”
produced by former Secretary of the Navy Jim Webb, used as a leadership and
development guide for Naval Academy midshipmen. Slattery has taught history and
government at Campbell since 1995. He and his wife, Dian, live in Pinehurst,
N.C.
The article can be accessed through the Naval
Institute’s Web site: http://www. usni.org/Proceedings/proceedings.html (click
on July 2005).
Photo Copy: Professor Mike Slattery of Campbell University’s Department of
Government, History, and Justice.
Bulletin 0029-7/18/05
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