Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL (BUD/S) training is conducted
at the Naval Special Warfare Center in Coronado (San Diego, CA)
and lasts 26 weeks. Assignment to BUD/S is conditional on
passing the PST, which requires the following minimums:
- 500-yard swim using breast or side stroke in under 12:30
- At least 42 push-ups in 2 minutes
- At least 50 sit-ups in 2 minutes
- At least 6 pull-ups (no time limit)
- Run 1.5 miles in boots and long pants in under 11:30
- Members’ vision must be 20/200 uncorrected or
correctable to 20/20. SEAL candidates may qualify for
PRK or
LASIK surgery to correct their vision
- Asvab Requirements: GS+MC+EI=165 or VE+MK+MC+CS=220
- Age Requirements: 28 years or less (waivers for 29-30)
Again, the above are the minimum requirements necessary to
qualify for BUD/S. Prospective trainees are expected to far
exceed these minimums. Competitive scores are as follows:
- 500-yard swim using breast or combat side stroke in less
than 10:00
- 100 push-ups in 2 minutes
- 100 sit-ups in 2 minutes
- 20 pull-ups (no time limit)
- Run 1.5 miles in boots and long pants in under 9:30
Upon arrival at Naval Special Warfare Command, check-ins for
BUD/S are immediately placed into a pre-indoc phase of training
known as “PTRR”, or Physical Training Rest and Recuperation.
PTRR is also where all of the “roll-backs” are placed while
waiting to be put into a class. Once additional medical
screening is given, and after enough BUD/S candidates arrive for
the same class, organized physical training begins.
BUD/S consists of an" Indoctrination Course”, known as INDOC,
followed by three phases, covering physical conditioning (eight
weeks), diving (eight weeks), and land warfare (nine weeks)
respectively. Officer and enlisted personnel go through the same
training program, and it is designed to develop and test their
stamina, leadership and ability to work as a team.
First Phase (Basic Conditioning) - 8 weeks - First
Phase Trains, develops, and assesses SEAL candidates in physical
conditioning, water competency, teamwork, and mental tenacity.
This phase is eight weeks long. Physical conditioning
with running, swimming, and calisthenics grows harder and harder
as the weeks progress. You will participate in weekly four mile
timed runs in boots, timed obstacle courses, swim distances up
to two miles wearing fins in the ocean, and learn small boat
seamanship.
The first three weeks of First Phase will prepare you for the
fourth week, better known as "Hell Week." During this week, you
will participate in five and one-half days of continuous
training, with a maximum of four hours sleep total. This week is
designed as the ultimate test of one's physical and mental
motivation while in First Phase. Hell Week proves to those who
make it that the human body can do ten times the amount of work
the average man thinks possible. During Hell Week, you will
learn the value of cool headedness, perseverance, and above all,
TEAMWORK. The remaining four weeks are devoted to teaching
various methods of conducting hydrographic surveys and how to
create a hydrographic chart.
BUD/S is known for Hell Week. During this period, from Sunday
evening until Friday afternoon, trainees get a total of
approximately four hours of sleep, (exactly how much depends
upon the schedule set by the instructors, and how closely the
trainees can be kept to that schedule) while subjected to
intense physical stress. Trainees are almost always wet and
sandy and develop what is known as the “Hell Week shuffle”,
which is a way of walking that keeps salt-stained clothing away
from chafed skin. The last day of Hell Week is known as “So
Sorry Day”, during which the BUD/S students are made to crawl
and slither their way through scum-covered water in the “demo
pits” as automatic weapons fire blank rounds over their heads
and artillery simulators explode around them.
Second Phase (Diving) - 8 weeks - Diving Phase Trains,
develops, and qualifies SEAL candidates as competent basic
combat swimmers. This phase is eight weeks long. During this
period, physical training continues and becomes even more
intensive. Second Phase concentrates on combat SCUBA. You will
learn two types of SCUBA: open circuit (compressed air) and
closed circuit (100% oxygen). Emphasis is placed on long
distance underwater dives with the goal of training students to
become basic combat divers, using swimming and diving techniques
as a means of transportation from their launch point to their
combat objective. This is a skill that separates SEALs from all
other Special Operations forces.
Third Phase (Land Warfare) - 9 weeks - Third Phase
trains, develops, and qualifies SEAL candidates in basic
weapons, demolition, and small unit tactics. This phase of
training is nine weeks in length. Physical training continues to
become more strenuous as the run distance increases and the
minimum passing times are lowered for the runs, swims, and
obstacle course. Third Phase concentrates on teaching land
navigation, small-unit tactics, patrolling techniques,
rappelling, marksmanship, and military explosives. The final
three and a half weeks of Third Phase are spent on San Clemente
Island, where students apply all the techniques they have
acquired during training.
SEAL training and duty is voluntary. Many BUD/S students find
that they do not have the desire to continue to endure the
physical and mental strain of training, and subsequently Drop On
Request, or DOR, from the course. The tradition of DOR consists
of dropping one's helmet liner next to a pole with a brass
ship’s bell attached to it, and ringing the bell three times.
Classes typically lose around 70–80% of their trainees — either
due to DORs or injuries sustained during training. The Navy will
not release exact numbers, either percentages or raw figures, of
the attrition rate for BUD/S. Most trainees are eliminated prior
to completion of Hell Week and far fewer “brown shirts” (those
who have made it through Hell Week wear brown t-shirts instead
of white) quit the BUD/S program.
There is no way to predict what percentage of trainees will
DOR during BUD/S. SEAL instructors say that in every class,
approximately 10 percent of the students simply do not have the
physical ability to complete the training. Another 10–15 percent
will definitely make it through unless they sustain a serious
physical injury. The other 75–80 percent is “up for grabs”
depending on their motivation. There has been at least one BUD/S
class where no one has completed the program.
A trainee who DOR’s from First Phase before the completion of
Hell Week must start from the beginning of INDOC if they
subsequently reapply to the BUD/S program and are accepted. They
must complete Hell Week again. Trainees who rolled back after
completing Hell Week due to injury or another factor are rolled
into whatever day of training a board of instructors and other
individuals deem necessary. Some are back to day 1–1 of 1st
Phase, while others may be rolled into day 5–1. Any BUD/S
trainee who drops on request after Hell Week goes through the
same out processing as a trainee who quits before or during Hell
Week. If they reapply to BUD/S, they must also complete Hell
Week again.
There are many SEALs who have attempted BUD/S two or even
perhaps three times before successfully completing training.
There is only one person who has successfully completed Hell
Week three times. He completed training after his third
application to BUD/S.
After BUD/S, students must then attend the Navy’s Strategic
Air Operations (SAO) school in the desert outside of San Diego.
Until 2003, the Army trained Navy Special Warfare teams to
freefall. The new school allows more SEALs and Special Warfare
Combatant Crewmen (SWCC) to become free-fall and HALO
(High Altitude Low Opening) qualified than ever before. Upon
completion of the three-week SAO school, they receive their
Naval Special Warfare Classification (NEC) code. Finally, the
last requirement before going to a team requires students to go
through SEAL Qualification Training, or SQT, which is a 15-week
course. This course is also conducted in and around the Naval
Amphibious Base Coronado. After completion of SQT training and a
probationary period, students are then considered SEALs and are
awarded the SEAL pin, or Trident. Upon assignment to a team, the
new SEALs undergo more advanced training during the 18 month
work-up to their first 6 month deployment and are not considered
experienced until having completed at least three deployments.
Video
Links
http://www.seal.navy.mil/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navy_Seal
