January 2011 Navy
By LTJG Leslie L. Hubbell - Naval Special Warfare Center Public Affairs Office
With its favorable weather conditions and beautiful beaches, Coronado, CA, attracts tourists from all over the world. Throughout the year, vacationers can be found filing in and out of gift shops on Orange Avenue, and sunning themselves in front of the world famous Hotel Del Coronado. However, it is not only to vacationers that the island calls, but also to young men from across the country and from all walks of life with one common goal: to become members of the United States Navy’s elite fighting force, the Navy SEALs.
The U.S. Navy SEALs are the maritime component of U.S. Special Operations Command and are trained to conduct a variety of operations from the Sea, Air and Land. The journey to become a Navy SEAL is unlike anything these young men have ever attempted before, and they must sacrifice nearly everything to complete what is considered to be the most intense military training in the world. For nearly five decades, the Basic Underwater Demolition/ SEAL school (BUD/S) has been forging young men into the finest warfighters our country has to offer.
BUD/S is 21 weeks of arduous training designed to instill the very basics into each man what will be required of him to operate as a warfighter in the SEAL teams.
The BUD/S training pipeline is broken down into several phases designed to teach the students different skill sets and push them beyond their mental and physical limits in each area of concentration. Upon completion of BUD/S, students will advance into a more technical and tactical training course lasting for 26 weeks called SEAL Qualification Training.
In order better to prepare students for the intense physical and mental demands of BUD/S, Naval Special Warfare established the BUD/S Preparatory Course (BUD/S Prep) in Great Lakes, Illinois.
BUD/S Prep is eight weeks long and focuses on three separate areas of development: mental toughness, physical conditioning and nutrition. Through the instruction of former National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) athletes and coaches, the students spend much of their time developing proper swimming techniques, improving run times, and optimizing good nutritional habits.
During the seventh week of training, officers and fleet returnees selected to attend BUD/S are integrated into the BUD/S Prep class, and the class’ chain of command is established. For most of the young enlisted men, this will be their first experience working with officers. It allows them the opportunity to build rapport with the class student leadership prior to their arrival at BUD/S. Once they pass final exit testing, students will travel to the Naval Special Warfare Center (NSWCEN) in Coronado.
Upon arriving at NSWCEN, the class begins a three-week phase of training known as BUD/S Orientation (BO). Under the instruction of active duty and former SEALs, BO is where students get their first taste of the standards they will have to meet throughout their careers in Naval Special Warfare.
During BO, instructors impart their knowledge of how to succeed in training through mentorship on evolutions such as navigating the obstacle course, tying knots underwater, and properly maneuvering inflatable boats through the surf.
After completion of BO, students will move on to the first phase of BUD/S, also known as the “selection” phase. In the first phase, the pace of training will increase to a much higher intensity and each student will be continuously tested to determine his commitment to the program.
Throughout the entirety of first phase, students will be pushed to their physical and mental limits through various team-building exercises and labor through days that seem to have no end. Day one of first phase begins with an intense physical training (PT) session in the middle of the NSWCEN compound on the paved courtyard known as the grinder. The session consists of various calisthenics led by an instructor, which is meant to set the tone for the rest of first phase. If an instructor feels the class is not working together and needs a little initiative to increase teamwork, he may send them on an all-out sprint to the surf zone over 100 yards away, where the Pacific Ocean and its 62 degree average water temperature await the class. After a thorough soaking and covering in sand, the students sprint back to formations and the PT exercises continue.
BUD/S always has been 100% voluntary. If at any time a man feels being a SEAL is not the job for him, he can cross the grinder and stand before the first phase office, ring the bell three times, and lay down his helmet. A student who drops will be reassigned to another job in the Navy.
First phase is referred to as the selection phase for a reason: by the end of its seven weeks, approximately 70% of the men who began will have dropped on request. There is one week of training that, above all others, is responsible for weeding out those individuals who are not completely dedicated to the program, and weighs on the mind of every student from his very first day of training. That week is Hell Week.
Hell Week is five straight days and nights of around the clock physical and mental challenges that test each student’s ability to work as part of a seven-man team. The students will go without sleep for 120 hours and will have to reach deep within themselves to remain motivated. After completing Hell Week, the students are ready to start the second phase, where they will learn how to dive.
Second phase spans seven weeks in length during which the students are taught basic operating principles of both open and closed circuit breathing apparatuses.
Students first learn open circuit diving familiarization and train with twin 80 dive tanks. Primary topics taught during this block of training include proper procedures for water entry, basic subsurface navigation, emergency procedures and problemsolving skills under stress, free swimmer ascents, and tactical underwater combat operations.
Second phase commences in a classroom environment, but the physical intensity of training does not falter. An average day in second phase can start with a two nautical mile ocean swim followed by classroom work, a group workout, more classroom work and a pool workout, with three meals served in a Navy galley.
As second phase continues, the students will become familiar with the DRAGER Mk25, a closed circuit breathing apparatus. This “re-breathing” apparatus uses a chemical compound which allows exhaled air to be scrubbed of carbon dioxide and re-circulated through the system as breathable oxygen. Without gas escaping the unit and rising to the surface in the form of bubbles, a diver can remain undetected in shallow-water operations and avoid enemy contact.
Upon completion of second phase, students will next transition into the third and final phase of BUD/S, known as the “land warfare” phase. Third phase also lasts for seven weeks during which students will receive basic training in small arms weapons, demolitions, land navigation, and tactics.
The majority of third phase takes place away from San Diego, on San Clemente Island, where the students will train for five weeks without a day of rest. On the island, an average day begins around 5 a.m. and will typically last until midnight.
At this point in training, the students have proven that they want to be a part of the SEAL community. One of the common sayings in the SEAL teams is that you must “Earn your Trident every day.” With that philosophy as guidance, the instructors continually push and test the students.
Upon the successful completion of third phase, students graduate from BUD/S training and move onto SEAL Qualification Training. In SQT, students experience a more advanced degree of training in land navigation, maritime operations, static line and free-fall qualifications, combatives, close quarters combat, small arms weapons and land warfare, along with survival and cold weather mountain training. The training throughout SQT continues to be fast paced and full of technical information.
SQT training not only takes place in San Diego, but also in other areas of the country. Throughout the course of SQT, students will travel to several Naval Special Warfare detachments in Alaska and the deserts of California.
At the end of SQT, students will finally see graduation day and be awarded the coveted Trident, along with acceptance into one of the most respected brotherhoods in the U.S. military.
Graduation day is tremendously important not only for the students, but also for their families. NSWCEN opens its doors to family and friends six times a year as students graduate on the very same ground where they first began BUD/S training. On graduation day, the grinder transforms into a place of celebration as families witness their son’s transformation into a U.S. Navy SEAL.
The graduates standing before their family and friends are forever changed by the obstacles they have overcome throughout the course of their training, and by the knowledge imparted to them by their instructors. Keeping with the SEAL ethos, the graduates remain humble in their accomplishment, understanding that this is only a small step in their careers as Naval Special Warfare Operators.