Beady, red eyes stare out over cheekbones etched in dark green and black scales. Gills flank a face that looks uncannily human, yet precisely reptilian. A plated chest leads to arms lined in fins, the webbed-fingers extending into claws.
And hanging around the neck, six words on a wooden plate instigate a daunting challenge: “So you wanna be a frogman.”
This life-sized, half human-half reptile is known as “The Creature.” And, while it is a replica of the character from a 1954 horror film, “Creature from the Black Lagoon,” it also sits at the front entrance of Naval Special Warfare Training Center in Coronado, daring SEAL recruits to prove their mettle.
The Creature is the first thing to greet recruits at the beginning of their Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL (BUD/S) training. It is also the last thing they see – a rite of passage as successful SEAL candidates take pictures with it upon graduation.
Yet the story of where the Creature came from is almost as infamous as the statue itself.
It is a tradition for graduating SEAL classes to present a gift to Naval Special Warfare, and Bill Reed – who was graduating with Class 63 at the time in 1971 – recalls his buddies wanting to come up with a unique offering.
Reed said it was about two weeks before graduation when a senior trainee told him he needed to check out something he found in Tijuana.
He and two other guys crossed the border at night in Reed’s red convertible Volkswagen Beetle. They arrived at a shop in Tijuana with “this thing” sitting out front with “all kinds of junk” on it – leather belts, souvenirs – a perfect gift.
So, they began bartering with the store owner, who initially didn’t want to sell the Creature because it was needed to hold displays.
“We came up with a dollar amount,” Reed said. “I think it was around 50 bucks, I don’t know, but it was a fair amount in 1971.”
“I put the top down, and the thing’s got its arms outstretched, so we stuck it facing out the back, with its arms hanging over the engine compartment on this Volkswagen Beetle. Feet were down on the floor, arms hanging over the back,” Reed said.
Once secured, it was time for the drive across the border, which Reed said went smoothly except for all kinds of weird looks from people.
Back in Coronado, the guys threw a sheet over the Creature and put it in a storeroom before the big reveal on graduation day. Reed made a trident — the Navy SEAL’s insignia – and painted the infamous words on it with their class number. (Today, the trident is gone and a wooden sign is in its place.)
Bill Reed, now a retired Navy commander, said he was amazed to see the Creature was still on the compound when he went back for his son’s graduation in 2003. In fact, everyone was taking pictures with it.
The Creature declined to comment for this story, but sailors say that grim statue is part of SEAL lore.
“It’s more than just the Creature from the Black Lagoon,” said retired Navy Capt. Brian Drechsler. “It encompasses who we are — 80 years of rich tradition.”
At the end of November, a replica of the statue was installed in a display case in downtown San Diego for the Navy SEAL Museum, which is scheduled to open in the summer/fall of 2025.
Drechsler, who is also the executive director of the museum, said that while the question on the wooden plate serves as a call to action, the creature itself has become a relic that represents the rapid adaptability of Navy SEALs — who were initially named “frogmen” for their performance in underwater demolition teams.
“SEALs, since Korea, got dubbed the frogmen,” Drechsler explained. “They were always operating in World War II in the water, but as they got into Korea, started getting their feet dry on operations.
“If you look at our history every 20 years, something occurred in the world causing the organization top to bottom to change to rapidly to meet the threat.”
And part of that change was the transition to operating on land, which The Creature depicts in its half-human, half-reptilian likeness.
“It’s been a total metamorphosis,” Reed said.
