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.