Navy SEAL Training - BUD/S and Beyond Congratulations: Youve passed the SEAL PST and have graduated

Boot Camp. You now proudly wear the uniform of the U.S. Navy and are on your way to BUD/S (Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL) training. The Navy core values of Honor, Courage and Commitment are a minimum expectation of every SEAL and trainee. Now is the time to adopt the SEAL ethos the mindset to never ever quit, and do whatever it takes to pull your teammates through. The BUD/S Instructors will be putting you through the very same training that they have gone through themselves. They will be testing and observing you to determine if they can trust you with their lives and your classmates. There is a good chance, given the small size of the SEAL community, that you will serve in future combat operations with some of your instructors. These veterans of Afghanistan and Iraq know firsthand that, the more you sweat in peacetime, the less you bleed in war. Do you have what it takes? Do you want it badly enough? To make it through BUD/S and Hell Week you will need great physical fitness and endurance, mental discipline, teamwork, character, mature judgment, and a fiery desire to be a SEAL. Young men of all physical builds, ethnicities, educational backgrounds, sports specialties and various ages have succeeded before you. With determination, you can too. Phases of SEAL Training BUD/S-Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL Training SQT-SEAL Qualification Training Advanced Training Ten Steps to Be A SEAL Operator 1. Sign up for the SEAL Challenge and make SEAL passing scores on the ASVAB test. 2. Train hard and consistently, and pass the Physical Screening Test (PST) for SEALs. 3. Attend Navy Recruit Training Command (12 weeks) and pass the SEAL PST again. 4. Take SEAL Indoctrination and Pre-Training (3-5 weeks) in Coronado, CA. 5. Enter BUD/S (6 months total) Phase 1 (8 weeks) Phase 2 (8 weeks) Phase 3 (9 weeks) 6. Complete U.S. Army Jump School (Ft. Benning, GA) or Naval Special Warfare Parachute Course (San Diego, CA) 7. SEAL Qualification Training (Coronado, CA) 8. Graduate w/your SEAL class and receive your Trident, the Navy's SEAL Insignia. 9. Start assignment to one of eight SEAL Teams or two SDV Teams in Coronado, CA, Virginia Beach, VA, or Pearl Harbor, HI. 10. Sharpen your war fighting skills in your SEAL Platoon or SDV Platoon. After a six-month work-up, deploy overseas to conduct Maritime Special Operations as

directed by senior military commanders in specified geographic regions overseas. BUD/S (Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL) Training BUD/S is a 6-month SEAL training course held at the Naval Special Warfare Training Center in Coronado, CA. Youll start with five weeks Indoctrination and Pre-Training as part of a Navy SEAL Class, then go through the Three Phases of BUD/S. First Phase is the toughest. It consists of 8 weeks of Basic Conditioning that peaks with a grueling segment called Hell Week at the midway point, where youll be tested to your limits. Hell Week is a test of physical endurance, mental tenacity and true teamwork where 2/3 or more of your class may call it quits or ring the bell . Physical discomfort and pain will cause many to decide it isnt worth it. The miserable wet-cold approaching hypothermia will make others quit. Sheer fatigue and sleep deprivation will cause every candidate to question his core values, motivations, limits, and everything hes made of and stands for. Those who grit it out to the finish will hear their Instructors yell the longed-for words, Hell Week is secured! There will be an exceptional few with burning desire who persevere when their bodies are screaming to quit, yet continue on. These men experience a tremendous sense of pride, achievement, brotherhood and a new self-awareness that, I can do anything!! The most outstanding among them -- that man whose sheer force of example inspires his classmates to keep going when theyre ready to quit is the Honor Man of the Class. These determined men will proceed on to Second Phase (8 weeks of Diving) and Third Phase (9 weeks of Land Warfare). Most men who have succeeded in Hell Week make it through these phases. If not, its usually due to academic issues (e.g. , dive physics) in the Dive Phase, or weapons and demolitions safety/competency issues in the Land Warfare (weapons and tactics) Phase. After BUDS is completed, trainees go through 3 weeks of Basic Parachute Training. At this point, training shifts from testing how the men react in a high-stress gut check environment, to making sure the trainees are competent in their core tasks. The men go through a final 8 weeks of focused SEAL Qualification Training in mission planning, operations, and tactic, techniques and procedures. Upon completion, they are authorized to wear the coveted Navy SEAL Trident insignia on their uniform. SEAL training ends with the formal BUD/S Class Graduation. Here the proud few in their dress Navy uniforms are recognized for their achievement in the presence of family and senior SEAL leaders. The Commanding Officers and senior enlisted advisors of the Naval Special Warfare Groups and SEAL Teams attend. The BUD/s graduates, as their newest Teammates, will be reminded of the special group they have entered, to be worthy of the sacrifices of the courageous Frogmen who came before them, and the great honor it is to serve as a U.S. Navy SEAL. BUD/S PHASES

Phase 1 Physical Conditioning (8 weeks) Running in the sand Swimming up to 2 miles w/fins in the ocean Calisthenics Timed Obstacle Course Four-mile timed runs in boots Small boat seamanship Hydrographic surveys and creating charts Hell Week Week 4 of Phase 1 5 days of continuous training Four hours sleep, total Swimming Running Enduring cold, wet, and exhaustion Rock Portage in Rubber Raiding Craft Doing 10 times what you thought possible TEAMWORK! Phase 2 Diving (8 weeks) Step up intensity of the physical training Focus on Combat Diving Open-Circuit (compressed air) SCUBA Closed-Circuit (100% oxygen) SCUBA Long-distance underwater dives Mission-focused combat swimming and diving techniques Phase 3 Land Warfare (9 weeks) Increasingly strenuous physical training Weapons training Demolitions (military explosives) Small unit tactics Patrolling techniques Rappelling and fast rope operations Marksmanship SQT-SEAL Qualification Training Tired yet? Well the fun is just beginning. It takes about five years to train a SEAL up to a high level of competence in all skill and mission areas. BUD/S is BASIC individual training. Now the prospective SEAL must check into his SEAL Team, assume the "new guy" role and start to learn how to operate as an elite commando unit. This mandatory four-month course is the first step. SEAL Qualification Training primarily focuses on the basics, but takes the individual's

skill levels to a higher plateau. Also, students start to learn how to operate as a team. The course is a little over four months in length and starts with classroom training in mission planning and intelligence gathering/reporting. Students then begin a series of "blocks" of training covering the major skills required to conduct SEAL missions. These include Hydrographic Reconnaissance, Communications, Field Medicine, Air Skills, Combat Swimmer, Land Warfare, Maritime Operations (long range ocean navigation) and Submarine Lock-in/Lock-out. During Air week the class can expect to conduct day and night static line jumps, a water jump accompanied by a "rubber duck" - a zodiac boat with motor and gear sent out of the back of a C-130 under canopy, followed by six frogmen to chase it to the water. Fastrope techniques, whereby a SEAL slides down a nylon rope for 80 feet using only gloved hands to brake, and rappelling are taught. Finally, the "Special Insertion/Extraction" (SPIE) rig is introduced - allowing six to eight SEALs to be removed from an area too rugged or dense to land a helicopter. During combat swimmer training the class will conduct over 25 day and night compass dives, starting again from the basics and progressing to full mission profile combat swimmer submerged ship attacks against Naval Vessels. Land Warfare training is usually conducted at the Naval Special Warfare training facility at Niland, Ca. for the West Coast Teams or at Camp A.P Hill for the East Coast teams. This training lasts three weeks and is similar in content to the San Clemente Land Warfare - except at a much more advanced level. Students enhance their skills in patrolling, improvised booby traps, stalking, weaponry and military demolition. They begin to practice the fine art of live fire immediate action drills, which have the team firing and maneuvering in well-choreographed sequences. These drills become quite interesting at night using pop up targets and pop flares and smoke grenades - all creating confusion and chaos - which emulates the "fog" of battle pretty well. Often the squads get split up and disoriented - especially during the famed "gauntlet" at Niland where the squad patrols through a course with multiple and simultaneous "hits" that they must analyze and react to, suppress fire and get out of the kill zone! WOW, what a rush! Bullets fly all over the place, team members scream to communicate over the noise, smoke grenades go off and pop flares light up the night sky then fizzle out. All this is going on while SEALs endure sweat, fear, exhilaration and confusion, along with the ever- present desire to perform the drill better each time because they know that their life depends upon the level of competence of the team in a real firefight. The motto the more you sweat in peacetime the less you bleed in war is constantly drilled into your head. Train as you would fight - this is Navy SEAL Training at it's best folks! Airborne Picture yourself standing in the side door of a C-141 cargo aircraft traveling at 120 knots. The windblast is deafening. Your stomach is churning, as you contemplate leaping out the door into the sky 1500 feet above the ground. Many things could go wrong - you

could trip and hit your head on the door, your static line could break, or, heaven forbid, your parachute could malfunction. Jump, two, three, four, five - check canpoy, look for other jumpers, uh oh, got a tear the size of the grand canyon and you are coming down fast. Through 1,000 feet, seconds tick away as the terror of the moment grips you. Finally, the three weeks of airborne training kick in and you remember instinctively your points of performance in this situation. Reserve deployment. Look, reach, grab and pull the reserve handles. Watch as it cuts away your main chute and deploys your reserve -1B parachute. 500 feet, not much room to spare as you drift to the ground preparing to do a PLF (Parachute Landing Fall) or land on your fifth point of performance (your butt). Grab your chute and report into the Army instructor - Congratulations! You have completed your first Airborne jump at Basic Airborne training in Fort Benning, Ga. Four more to go and you can pin on the lead wings and report in to your SEAL Team for SQT. Airborne school is meant to teach SEALs how to jump out of a perfectly good airplane at night with a full combat load. In the old days, the teams spent three days to teach this same skill. But as safety concerns overrode the Team's old ways, the Army was assigned basic jump training and they work hard to pack three days of training into three weeks! So prepare to be repetitious - because, as they say, repetition is the mother of perfection. At the end of three weeks of ground school, tower training, and jumping from or bouncing in every type of contraption you could imagine, the students finally get to jump out of a REAL Airplane. Most claim it to be a hairy experience - so you might expect a few butterflies on your first jump. The standing joke is that your first jump will be a night water jump - because your eyes will be closed and you will pee your pants! However, most SEAL Airborne students learn to enjoy jumping and are eager to get to Free Fall school when in the Teams. Accruing over 1,000 free fall jumps and 50 - 100 static line jumps is not uncommon during a career in the Teams. An Insert by Lieutenant Commander Mark Divine One particularly memorable portion of my SQT training was land navigation in Washington State. We parachuted into the pitch-black night and landed on a pitch black Drop Zone lit only by four chemlights. Met by the organizer of this delightful event, First Class Petty Officer Jefferey Kraus (who by the way is the only military man to hold the distinction of having attended U.S. Army Ranger School, U.S. Army Special Forces School, and U.S. Navy SEAL training! WOW what a glutton for punishment Jeff is - a super great guy though and just a little devious too. ) Jeff handed us a coordinate of our destination - said to be there before 9 am the next morning, told us there were dogs lined up to trail us in one hour, then sent us on our way through the thick, pitch black forest. ALONE. Man was that spooky - no flashlights because it would blow your night vision - knowing you were being tracked by dogs and thinking that there were people out there looking for you - pretty close to what it was like in the jungles of Vietnam (well not really-but there is only so much you can do to simulate war in peacetime!). That first night it was so dark that I read my Sylva Ranger Compass upside down and

moved stealthily for six miles in the exact OPPOSITE direction I was supposed to move! When I finally figured this out I was in some farmer's back yard with his dog barking at me and I remember thinking that I shouldn't have to climb over so many fences in this exercise! Well I had to find my exact starting point if I had any hope of finding the target by 9 am in the morning - a mere 7 hours away. So I ran with full rucksack - through the farmers fields and over fences and by pure magic found my start point then started on my way in the right direction. At about 0400 in the morning I was totally lost in the forest - so much for my navigation skills, a feeling of desperation was coming over me when I looked up at a tree about 100 feet in front of me and saw a white sign. My curiosity aroused, I wandered over to see my exact grid coordinates posted on the sign! God bless the Army! In the middle of the forest, lost with pretty much no hope of figuring out where the heck I was, the U.S. Army had the foresight to place a sign on a tree telling me EXACTLY where I was. What service! Platoon Training 18D SOF Medic SDV - SEAL Delivery Vehicle Platoon Training Platoon Training is where the rubber finally meets the road. Armed with a year of individual skill training, hardened by thousands of hours of physical training, diving, jumping, shooting and blowing things up, now the SEAL gets to put his fledgling talent to work with seasoned veterans of Naval Special Warfare. A SEAL Platoon consists of two officers, one chief and thirteen enlisted men. Responsibilities are divided into positions in a patrol (such as Point Man, Patrol Leader, Radio Man, 60 Gunner, Corpsman and Rear Security), department leadership (such as Diving Department Head, Air Department Head and Ordnance/Demo Department Head) and by rank. The senior officer is the Platoon Commander, the junior officer is his assistant, the senior enlisted is the Platoon Chief and the next senior enlisted is the Leading Petty Officer who is in charge of the day-to-day management of the enlisted platoon members. SEAL Platoons have a training cycle, which includes either a 12 or 18 month training work-up, then a 6 month deployment overseas in an operational combat ready status at a Naval Special Warfare Unit or Detachment. These platoons are incredibly highly trained and can accomplish most any task thrown at them. The training that must be accomplished during the year-plus training cycle is based upon several factors: Advanced individual and platoon level skills necessary for the conduct of all Special Operations Missions. The methods of delivery, insertion/extraction most likely to be utilized while on deployment. The geographic area of responsibility of the SEAL Team.

Wherever there are troops on the ground in the world, you can be pretty sure that the SEALs, along with their Green Beret counterparts, are either there now or were there first! For the first three months of the training cycle, it is usually back to the basics. Hydrographic reconnaissance is covered once again combined with underwater demolition of submerged obstacles. Next, air training lasts two weeks and builds upon SQT skills, including several -Duck- drops out of different aircraft, both day and night combat equipment parachute jumps, fast-roping, rappelling and SPIE rig, mission planning in a classroom environment followed by intelligence gathering and reporting. Next, is another Combat Swimmer course. It takes several years before a SEAL becomes an expert combat diver (expert is a relative term here, because compared to 99 percent of all the divers in the world, a BUD/S student is an expert after Second Phase of BUD/S!). Combat swimmer training in the platoon is a very arduous and intense training block. The platoon will conduct over 30 dives during three weeks - including a Full Mission Profile, where SEALs are inserted by aircraft or surface vessel for a 30 mile over the horizon transit in the CRRC, followed by a demanding turtleback (kicking on the surface toward the dive point in full dive gear), then a four hour, multi-leg dive into the enemy harbor to emplace limpet mines on the hulls of the target ships, then extracting after evading the anti swimmer measures put in place by the training cadre. Many SEALs say that the Combat Swimmer course is exhausting. The typical training day begins at seven a.m. , when you come into the team to set up your dive rigs and prepare you gear. The officers then brief the dive, and SEALs plan their dive profile for the day dive. The day dive takes place from about 10:00 a.m. until about 2:00 p.m. , at which time you return to the team to post-dive the dive rig, then set it up again for the night dive. You re-prepare all of your gear, plan the night's dive, then cut out for a couple of hours rest and much needed food. You return to the team at 6:00 p.m. , for another dive brief, make final preparations and depart for the night dive at 7:30 p.m. Insertion at 8:00 p.m. and dive until completion at about midnight. Then it is back to the team to post-dive the rigs and cleanup your gear. Finally, you de-brief the dive and go home for five hours of much needed sleep before doing it all over again the next day. Needless to say, divers don't have the energy to PT much during Combat Swimmer; however, some might say that swimming six to eight thousand yards underwater, often against the current, qualifies as exercise! Land Warfare training occurs again out at Niland or Camp A.P. Hill (sometimes at a different location like Camp Roberts in CA. , if the teams want a change of scenery). This starts with the basics, once again, in small unit tactics and builds to Full Mission Profiles conducted in a simulated combat environment. This training is as close to a 24-hour a day work schedule that you can get (besides being on a submarine). Training begins immediately after breakfast at 6:00 a.m. , and it continues until about 12:00 or 1:00 a.m. the following morning. There are breaks for lunch and dinner and, if it gets above 105 degrees during the day, the platoon will seek

shelter in the classroom for some academic classes. The platoon will shoot thousands and thousands of rounds during this training and will blow up more demolitions than you could imagine. Immediate Action Drills are again a favorite of the SEALs and are the most intense portion of the training. Navy SEAL tactics cannot be discussed in this publication, due to their sensitive nature and to protect the troops; suffice it to say that SEAL IADs are unique and have been said to mislead an enemy force into believing that they are up against a whole company (100 men) of Army GIs. There are some great books on the market by Vietnam era SEAL vets. Darryl Young's The Element Of Surprise is excellent as is Dick Couch's SEAL Team ONE. See the Navy SEAL Books section of this publication for a quick look at the other good been there, done that SEAL books. Land Warfare training ends with a week long Field Training Exercise where the platoon is put in semi-isolation in a simulated combat environment. Each squad will conduct several independent missions - usually a special reconnaissance, stand-off weapons direct action raid, body snatch, point ambush or combat search and rescue (CSAR-downed pilot rescue). The platoon combines to conduct a platoon-size direct action mission, which is supported by helicopter assets, Desert Patrol Vehicle (only if a Desert Platoon), and incorporates much of the training accomplished during the Land Warfare phase of training. This mission is very comprehensive and, if the platoon is detected by the training cadre, they are contacted with enemy fire from which they must utilize the fire and maneuver Immediate Action Drills learned during training and evade the pursuing force. Most SEALs say that this training is a great learning experience and superb conditioning for combat. It provides the platoon with the foundation from which to conduct the remaining year and one half (or so) of training. Some other training highlights are Jungle Warfare Training in Central America. In Navy SEAL lore, these jungles are said to be a living nightmare. The Army lost a man training there a couple of years ago - just flat out disappeared. Man-eating crocodiles and poisonous sea snakes are just two of your bedfellows as you patrol through the rivers and streams deep within the dense jungle foliage. The platoon learns the value of a pump action shotgun to clear foliage when contacted especially if you can't see your target and he may be only a few feet from the platoon. Jungle hammocks are mandatory - ask anyone who has attempted to sleep on the jungle floor - yikes! Patrolling one klick (one thousand yards) can take hours, as the point man cuts his way through the bamboo and vines - humidity of 100 percent will probably send a constant stream of sweat down your back. This training emulates, in many ways, the environment of the Vietnam era that SEALs endured and thrived in. Operators from SEAL Team FOUR have also found this very valuable in their efforts fighting alongside the DEA and foreign nationals in the war against drugs. SEAL Teams TWO and FIVE are responsible for regions of the world that are often blanketed in snow so their platoons conduct extreme cold weather training and winter

warfare training. Usually conducted in Alaska, Montana, Upstate New York and Norway, the training covers cross country skiing, snowshoeing, winter orienteering and mountain warfare tactics, building snow caves and fire and maneuver tactics on skis and snow shoes. Winter survival and escape and evasion are particularly arduous skills to master, and the winter warfare platoons become quite adept at this unique form of warfare. The remaining Teams that do not require a winter warfare background still attend cold weather training and cold weather maritime operations in Alaska. This Naval Special Warfare Detachment has a seasoned training cadre. The cadre's sole purpose is to train each platoon in the requirements of conducting commando missions in a mountainous environment, where the platoon needs to rope in and traverse steep cliffs and ravines in cold weather. Also, supported by a Special Boat Team detachment of two Rigid Hull Inflatable Boats (RHIBS), the platoons conduct long range maritime operations (over 60 mile open ocean transits in a Combat Rubber Raiding Craft, or CRRC) and the very high threat over the beach crossing in a cold weather environment, while utilizing dry suits to preserve warmth. SEAL Team TWO platoons often conduct joint training exercises with their Norwegian and German counterparts in the mountains of Europe. These men are quite adept at winter warfare, but the U.S. Navy SEALs hold their own and excel when put to the test - as usual. Submarine Lock Out/Lock In (LO/LI) and Dry Deck Shelter Mass Swimmer Lock Out/Lock In (DDS MSLO/LI) are another insertion skill practiced by the SEAL platoon during training work-up. Imagine being on a fast attack submarine at hover 100 feet below the surface of the ocean. You enter the escape trunk for a Lock-Out cycle with a 35 HP motor and some other SEAL gear. It's cold, it's dark and the escape trunk hatch closes while you flood the trunk with water. With just your nose above the surface, you then pressurize the trunk to depth until the outer door cracks open. You take a deep breath and submerge to push the door all the way open to reveal the dark and vast ocean depths. Returning to the trunk, you signal that you are ready to send the motor and gear to the surface on the tethered line set up by the two SEALs who went out before you. The gear goes up - then so do you - blow and go to the surface to prepare for a long, cold CRRC transit to your unknown fate on the enemy shore. That is a small taste of what working off a submarine is like - and SEALs do a ton of it. Sending a platoon of frogmen out of a large Dry Deck Shelter at the same time is a more time effective and endurance saving method than the escape trunk method - but both are taught because the DDS equipped subs may not be available when required. Soon the SDV teams will take delivery of the first Advanced SEAL Delivery System (ASDS). The ASDS is the first dry submersible owned by the SEAL community. It has a Submariner pilot and SEAL navigator, and it can carry a SEAL squad of eight men. The submarine will have a relatively long range and high speed (these figures are classified) and can hover above a mother submarine or the bottom and send the combat swimmers out of the pressure chamber. The chamber is pressurized with a well similar to the

Seaquest DSV TV series so the SEALs just slide into the water and swim out the bottom. This is hot stuff. You can bet that other services and government agencies (read CIA) are salivating and can't wait for their first free bus ride. Close Quarter Battle - this skill is a favorite and one in which Team guys take great pride in. Taking down a house room by room, or an airplane or bus in a hostage rescue, securing a vessel space by space after boarding from the sea or air - these all require an incredible amount of training and experience. Explosive Methods of Entry is a specialized skill taught in Close Quarter Battle training and other advanced courses. The focus is on room entry techniques utilizing MP-5 submachine guns, side arms and the CAR-15; mostly at night with MP-5 flashlight attachments, flash bangs (to stun any occupants). Technically, the regular Teams do not advertise target recognition in a room entry situation - everyone is expected to be a bad guy. CQB is a valuable skill when performing the fine art of Visit, Board, Search and Seizure (VBSS). An at-sea terrorist situation may call for the ship to be boarded, while underway, and taken control of through force. This is a very dangerous proposition - as learned by the SEAL Team FIVE platoon in the movie Under Siege. A typical VBSS mission includes a platoon of SEALs, a follow on force like a Marine Maritime Special Purpose Force (MSPF) to secure the ship after taking control, an insertion helo (either a H-53 or H-46). The insert bird is escorted by two UH-1s or MH-60s for spotter and sniper support. The Assault force is launched under cover of darkness from an amphibious vessel or Aircraft Carrier. At the target vessel, the SEALs can beon the deck in less than 15 seconds to set security. The sniper helos take up position and relay information to the assault team leader. The platoon begins movement through the vessel toward the bridge, utilizing Close Quarter Battle skills. Once on the bridge, they will secure and stop the vessel and call in the follow on force to secure the ship. By this time, the bad guys should have been rounded up and hog-tied for interrogation. Just another easy day in the life of a Navy SEAL! A related mission, called shipboarding, has the platoon board a vessel at berth. Mission Specific Training - Naval Special Warfare forces have five primary missions. These include Unconventional Warfare (UW) - which is basically behind the lines guerrilla warfare during times of conflict; Foreign Internal Defense (FID) - which includes the training of foreign nationals and relationship building during peacetime; Direct Action (DA) which involves any mission that a SEAL element may undergo against an enemy target including the use or potential use of force - these missions can consist of ambushes, stand off weapons attacks, hostage rescue, target assaults on maritime and land based targets, amongst others; Counter Terrorist (CT) - which is just what it sounds like and is the primary mission of DEVGRU; and finally Special Reconnaissance (SR) - which entails hydrographic reconnaissance and SDV Beach Feasibility studies, point and area recons, Indications and Warning missions and any other overt, covert or clandestine mission where the primary purpose is to gather information. Most SEAL platoon work-up time is spent training to hone skills, which are utilized regardless of the mission category - such as shooting, demo and insertion/extraction methods (diving, parachuting, SDV, patrolling, Desert Patrol

Vehicle, skiing etc). However, there are more specialized skills that must be learned in order to effectively conduct the broad range of missions that fall under the five categories mentioned above. Therefore, SEALs attend most of the entire advanced individual training courses offered by the Teams and other Special Operations communities. Some of these include: SERE school, Diving Supervisor, Parachute Rigger, Army Ranger school, Naval Gunfire Support, Sniper school, Breacher, Submarine trunk operator (OJT), Emergency Medical Technician, H & K repair, Free fall School and Free fall Jumpmaster, Static Line Jumpmaster, Target Analysis, Intelligence Photography, Stinger Weapon School, Cooper/Shaw shooting school, Hand to Hand Combat Fighting Course (formerly SCARS) 40 hour operator and 300 hour instructor courses, NSW Communications school and Applied Explosive Techniques, and more. 18D SOF Medic Navy SEAL Training - BUD/S and Beyond Congratulations: Youve passed the SEAL PST and have graduated Boot Camp. You now proudly wear the uniform of the U.S. Navy and are on your way to BUD/S (Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL) training. The Navy core values of Honor, Courage and Commitment are a minimum expectation of every SEAL and trainee. Now is the time to adopt the SEAL ethos the mindset to never ever quit, and do whatever it takes to pull your teammates through. The BUD/S Instructors will be putting you through the very same training that they have gone through themselves. They will be testing and observing you to determine if they can trust you with their lives and your classmates. There is a good chance, given the small size of the SEAL community, that you will serve in future combat operations with some of your instructors. These veterans of Afghanistan and Iraq know firsthand that, the more you sweat in peacetime, the less you bleed in war. Do you have what it takes? Do you want it badly enough? To make it through BUD/S and Hell Week you will need great physical fitness and endurance, mental discipline, teamwork, character, mature judgment, and a fiery desire to be a SEAL. Young men of all physical builds, ethnicities, educational backgrounds, sports specialties and various ages have succeeded before you. With determination, you can too. Phases of SEAL Training BUD/S-Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL Training SQT-SEAL Qualification Training Advanced Training Ten Steps to Be A SEAL Operator 1. Sign up for the SEAL Challenge and make SEAL passing scores on the ASVAB test.

2. Train hard and consistently, and pass the Physical Screening Test (PST) for SEALs. 3. Attend Navy Recruit Training Command (12 weeks) and pass the SEAL PST again. 4. Take SEAL Indoctrination and Pre-Training (3-5 weeks) in Coronado, CA. 5. Enter BUD/S (6 months total) Phase 1 (8 weeks) Phase 2 (8 weeks) Phase 3 (9 weeks) 6. Complete U.S. Army Jump School (Ft. Benning, GA) or Naval Special Warfare Parachute Course (San Diego, CA) 7. SEAL Qualification Training (Coronado, CA) 8. Graduate w/your SEAL class and receive your Trident, the Navy's SEAL Insignia. 9. Start assignment to one of eight SEAL Teams or two SDV Teams in Coronado, CA, Virginia Beach, VA, or Pearl Harbor, HI. 10. Sharpen your war fighting skills in your SEAL Platoon or SDV Platoon. After a six-month work-up, deploy overseas to conduct Maritime Special Operations as directed by senior military commanders in specified geographic regions overseas. BUD/S (Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL) Training BUD/S is a 6-month SEAL training course held at the Naval Special Warfare Training Center in Coronado, CA. Youll start with five weeks Indoctrination and Pre-Training as part of a Navy SEAL Class, then go through the Three Phases of BUD/S. First Phase is the toughest. It consists of 8 weeks of Basic Conditioning that peaks with a grueling segment called Hell Week at the midway point, where youll be tested to your limits. Hell Week is a test of physical endurance, mental tenacity and true teamwork where 2/3 or more of your class may call it quits or ring the bell . Physical discomfort and pain will cause many to decide it isnt worth it. The miserable wet-cold approaching hypothermia will make others quit. Sheer fatigue and sleep deprivation will cause every candidate to question his core values, motivations, limits, and everything hes made of and stands for. Those who grit it out to the finish will hear their Instructors yell the longed-for words, Hell Week is secured! There will be an exceptional few with burning desire who persevere when their bodies are screaming to quit, yet continue on. These men experience a tremendous sense of pride, achievement, brotherhood and a new self-awareness that, I can do anything!! The most outstanding among them -- that man whose sheer force of example inspires his classmates to keep going when theyre ready to quit is the Honor Man of the Class. These determined men will proceed on to Second Phase (8 weeks of Diving) and Third Phase (9 weeks of Land Warfare). Most men who have succeeded in Hell Week make it through these phases. If not, its usually due to academic issues (e.g. , dive physics) in the Dive Phase, or weapons and demolitions safety/competency issues in the Land Warfare (weapons and tactics) Phase. After BUDS is completed, trainees go through 3 weeks of Basic Parachute Training.

At this point, training shifts from testing how the men react in a high-stress gut check environment, to making sure the trainees are competent in their core tasks. The men go through a final 8 weeks of focused SEAL Qualification Training in mission planning, operations, and tactic, techniques and procedures. Upon completion, they are authorized to wear the coveted Navy SEAL Trident insignia on their uniform. SEAL training ends with the formal BUD/S Class Graduation. Here the proud few in their dress Navy uniforms are recognized for their achievement in the presence of family and senior SEAL leaders. The Commanding Officers and senior enlisted advisors of the Naval Special Warfare Groups and SEAL Teams attend. The BUD/s graduates, as their newest Teammates, will be reminded of the special group they have entered, to be worthy of the sacrifices of the courageous Frogmen who came before them, and the great honor it is to serve as a U.S. Navy SEAL. BUD/S PHASES Phase 1 Physical Conditioning (8 weeks) Running in the sand Swimming up to 2 miles w/fins in the ocean Calisthenics Timed Obstacle Course Four-mile timed runs in boots Small boat seamanship Hydrographic surveys and creating charts Hell Week Week 4 of Phase 1 5 days of continuous training Four hours sleep, total Swimming Running Enduring cold, wet, and exhaustion Rock Portage in Rubber Raiding Craft Doing 10 times what you thought possible TEAMWORK! Phase 2 Diving (8 weeks) Step up intensity of the physical training Focus on Combat Diving Open-Circuit (compressed air) SCUBA Closed-Circuit (100% oxygen) SCUBA Long-distance underwater dives Mission-focused combat swimming and diving techniques Phase 3 Land Warfare (9 weeks)

Increasingly strenuous physical training Weapons training Demolitions (military explosives) Small unit tactics Patrolling techniques Rappelling and fast rope operations Marksmanship SQT-SEAL Qualification Training Tired yet? Well the fun is just beginning. It takes about five years to train a SEAL up to a high level of competence in all skill and mission areas. BUD/S is BASIC individual training. Now the prospective SEAL must check into his SEAL Team, assume the "new guy" role and start to learn how to operate as an elite commando unit. This mandatory four-month course is the first step. SEAL Qualification Training primarily focuses on the basics, but takes the individual's skill levels to a higher plateau. Also, students start to learn how to operate as a team. The course is a little over four months in length and starts with classroom training in mission planning and intelligence gathering/reporting. Students then begin a series of "blocks" of training covering the major skills required to conduct SEAL missions. These include Hydrographic Reconnaissance, Communications, Field Medicine, Air Skills, Combat Swimmer, Land Warfare, Maritime Operations (long range ocean navigation) and Submarine Lock-in/Lock-out. During Air week the class can expect to conduct day and night static line jumps, a water jump accompanied by a "rubber duck" - a zodiac boat with motor and gear sent out of the back of a C-130 under canopy, followed by six frogmen to chase it to the water. Fastrope techniques, whereby a SEAL slides down a nylon rope for 80 feet using only gloved hands to brake, and rappelling are taught. Finally, the "Special Insertion/Extraction" (SPIE) rig is introduced - allowing six to eight SEALs to be removed from an area too rugged or dense to land a helicopter. During combat swimmer training the class will conduct over 25 day and night compass dives, starting again from the basics and progressing to full mission profile combat swimmer submerged ship attacks against Naval Vessels. Land Warfare training is usually conducted at the Naval Special Warfare training facility at Niland, Ca. for the West Coast Teams or at Camp A.P Hill for the East Coast teams. This training lasts three weeks and is similar in content to the San Clemente Land Warfare - except at a much more advanced level. Students enhance their skills in patrolling, improvised booby traps, stalking, weaponry and military demolition. They begin to practice the fine art of live fire immediate action drills, which have the team firing and maneuvering in well-choreographed sequences. These drills become quite interesting at night using pop up targets and pop flares and smoke grenades - all creating confusion and chaos - which emulates the "fog" of battle pretty well.

Often the squads get split up and disoriented - especially during the famed "gauntlet" at Niland where the squad patrols through a course with multiple and simultaneous "hits" that they must analyze and react to, suppress fire and get out of the kill zone! WOW, what a rush! Bullets fly all over the place, team members scream to communicate over the noise, smoke grenades go off and pop flares light up the night sky then fizzle out. All this is going on while SEALs endure sweat, fear, exhilaration and confusion, along with the ever- present desire to perform the drill better each time because they know that their life depends upon the level of competence of the team in a real firefight. The motto the more you sweat in peacetime the less you bleed in war is constantly drilled into your head. Train as you would fight - this is Navy SEAL Training at it's best folks! Airborne Picture yourself standing in the side door of a C-141 cargo aircraft traveling at 120 knots. The windblast is deafening. Your stomach is churning, as you contemplate leaping out the door into the sky 1500 feet above the ground. Many things could go wrong - you could trip and hit your head on the door, your static line could break, or, heaven forbid, your parachute could malfunction. Jump, two, three, four, five - check canpoy, look for other jumpers, uh oh, got a tear the size of the grand canyon and you are coming down fast. Through 1,000 feet, seconds tick away as the terror of the moment grips you. Finally, the three weeks of airborne training kick in and you remember instinctively your points of performance in this situation. Reserve deployment. Look, reach, grab and pull the reserve handles. Watch as it cuts away your main chute and deploys your reserve -1B parachute. 500 feet, not much room to spare as you drift to the ground preparing to do a PLF (Parachute Landing Fall) or land on your fifth point of performance (your butt). Grab your chute and report into the Army instructor - Congratulations! You have completed your first Airborne jump at Basic Airborne training in Fort Benning, Ga. Four more to go and you can pin on the lead wings and report in to your SEAL Team for SQT. Airborne school is meant to teach SEALs how to jump out of a perfectly good airplane at night with a full combat load. In the old days, the teams spent three days to teach this same skill. But as safety concerns overrode the Team's old ways, the Army was assigned basic jump training and they work hard to pack three days of training into three weeks! So prepare to be repetitious - because, as they say, repetition is the mother of perfection. At the end of three weeks of ground school, tower training, and jumping from or bouncing in every type of contraption you could imagine, the students finally get to jump out of a REAL Airplane. Most claim it to be a hairy experience - so you might expect a few butterflies on your first jump. The standing joke is that your first jump will be a night water jump - because your eyes will be closed and you will pee your pants! However, most SEAL Airborne students learn to enjoy jumping and are eager to get to Free Fall school when in the Teams. Accruing over 1,000 free fall jumps and 50 - 100 static line jumps is not uncommon during a career in the Teams. An Insert by Lieutenant Commander Mark Divine One particularly memorable portion of my SQT training was land navigation in

Washington State. We parachuted into the pitch-black night and landed on a pitch black Drop Zone lit only by four chemlights. Met by the organizer of this delightful event, First Class Petty Officer Jefferey Kraus (who by the way is the only military man to hold the distinction of having attended U.S. Army Ranger School, U.S. Army Special Forces School, and U.S. Navy SEAL training! WOW what a glutton for punishment Jeff is - a super great guy though and just a little devious too. ) Jeff handed us a coordinate of our destination - said to be there before 9 am the next morning, told us there were dogs lined up to trail us in one hour, then sent us on our way through the thick, pitch black forest. ALONE. Man was that spooky - no flashlights because it would blow your night vision - knowing you were being tracked by dogs and thinking that there were people out there looking for you - pretty close to what it was like in the jungles of Vietnam (well not really-but there is only so much you can do to simulate war in peacetime!). That first night it was so dark that I read my Sylva Ranger Compass upside down and moved stealthily for six miles in the exact OPPOSITE direction I was supposed to move! When I finally figured this out I was in some farmer's back yard with his dog barking at me and I remember thinking that I shouldn't have to climb over so many fences in this exercise! Well I had to find my exact starting point if I had any hope of finding the target by 9 am in the morning - a mere 7 hours away. So I ran with full rucksack - through the farmers fields and over fences and by pure magic found my start point then started on my way in the right direction. At about 0400 in the morning I was totally lost in the forest - so much for my navigation skills, a feeling of desperation was coming over me when I looked up at a tree about 100 feet in front of me and saw a white sign. My curiosity aroused, I wandered over to see my exact grid coordinates posted on the sign! God bless the Army! In the middle of the forest, lost with pretty much no hope of figuring out where the heck I was, the U.S. Army had the foresight to place a sign on a tree telling me EXACTLY where I was. What service! Platoon Training 18D SOF Medic SDV - SEAL Delivery Vehicle Platoon Training Platoon Training is where the rubber finally meets the road. Armed with a year of individual skill training, hardened by thousands of hours of physical training, diving, jumping, shooting and blowing things up, now the SEAL gets to put his fledgling talent to work with seasoned veterans of Naval Special Warfare. A SEAL Platoon consists of two officers, one chief and thirteen enlisted men. Responsibilities are divided into positions in a patrol (such as Point Man, Patrol Leader, Radio Man, 60 Gunner, Corpsman and Rear Security), department leadership (such as

Diving Department Head, Air Department Head and Ordnance/Demo Department Head) and by rank. The senior officer is the Platoon Commander, the junior officer is his assistant, the senior enlisted is the Platoon Chief and the next senior enlisted is the Leading Petty Officer who is in charge of the day-to-day management of the enlisted platoon members. SEAL Platoons have a training cycle, which includes either a 12 or 18 month training work-up, then a 6 month deployment overseas in an operational combat ready status at a Naval Special Warfare Unit or Detachment. These platoons are incredibly highly trained and can accomplish most any task thrown at them. The training that must be accomplished during the year-plus training cycle is based upon several factors: Advanced individual and platoon level skills necessary for the conduct of all Special Operations Missions. The methods of delivery, insertion/extraction most likely to be utilized while on deployment. The geographic area of responsibility of the SEAL Team. Wherever there are troops on the ground in the world, you can be pretty sure that the SEALs, along with their Green Beret counterparts, are either there now or were there first! For the first three months of the training cycle, it is usually back to the basics. Hydrographic reconnaissance is covered once again combined with underwater demolition of submerged obstacles. Next, air training lasts two weeks and builds upon SQT skills, including several -Duck- drops out of different aircraft, both day and night combat equipment parachute jumps, fast-roping, rappelling and SPIE rig, mission planning in a classroom environment followed by intelligence gathering and reporting. Next, is another Combat Swimmer course. It takes several years before a SEAL becomes an expert combat diver (expert is a relative term here, because compared to 99 percent of all the divers in the world, a BUD/S student is an expert after Second Phase of BUD/S!). Combat swimmer training in the platoon is a very arduous and intense training block. The platoon will conduct over 30 dives during three weeks - including a Full Mission Profile, where SEALs are inserted by aircraft or surface vessel for a 30 mile over the horizon transit in the CRRC, followed by a demanding turtleback (kicking on the surface toward the dive point in full dive gear), then a four hour, multi-leg dive into the enemy harbor to emplace limpet mines on the hulls of the target ships, then extracting after evading the anti swimmer measures put in place by the training cadre. Many SEALs say that the Combat Swimmer course is exhausting. The typical training day begins at seven a.m. , when you come into the team to set up your dive rigs and prepare you gear. The officers then brief the dive, and SEALs plan their dive profile for the day dive. The day dive takes place from about 10:00 a.m. until about 2:00 p.m. , at which time you return to the team to post-dive the dive rig, then set it up again for the night dive. You re-prepare all of your gear, plan the night's dive, then cut out for a couple of hours rest and much needed food. You return to the team at 6:00 p.m. , for another dive brief, make final preparations and depart for the night dive at 7:30 p.m.

Insertion at 8:00 p.m. and dive until completion at about midnight. Then it is back to the team to post-dive the rigs and cleanup your gear. Finally, you de-brief the dive and go home for five hours of much needed sleep before doing it all over again the next day. Needless to say, divers don't have the energy to PT much during Combat Swimmer; however, some might say that swimming six to eight thousand yards underwater, often against the current, qualifies as exercise! Land Warfare training occurs again out at Niland or Camp A.P. Hill (sometimes at a different location like Camp Roberts in CA. , if the teams want a change of scenery). This starts with the basics, once again, in small unit tactics and builds to Full Mission Profiles conducted in a simulated combat environment. This training is as close to a 24-hour a day work schedule that you can get (besides being on a submarine). Training begins immediately after breakfast at 6:00 a.m. , and it continues until about 12:00 or 1:00 a.m. the following morning. There are breaks for lunch and dinner and, if it gets above 105 degrees during the day, the platoon will seek shelter in the classroom for some academic classes. The platoon will shoot thousands and thousands of rounds during this training and will blow up more demolitions than you could imagine. Immediate Action Drills are again a favorite of the SEALs and are the most intense portion of the training. Navy SEAL tactics cannot be discussed in this publication, due to their sensitive nature and to protect the troops; suffice it to say that SEAL IADs are unique and have been said to mislead an enemy force into believing that they are up against a whole company (100 men) of Army GIs. There are some great books on the market by Vietnam era SEAL vets. Darryl Young's The Element Of Surprise is excellent as is Dick Couch's SEAL Team ONE. See the Navy SEAL Books section of this publication for a quick look at the other good been there, done that SEAL books. Land Warfare training ends with a week long Field Training Exercise where the platoon is put in semi-isolation in a simulated combat environment. Each squad will conduct several independent missions - usually a special reconnaissance, stand-off weapons direct action raid, body snatch, point ambush or combat search and rescue (CSAR-downed pilot rescue). The platoon combines to conduct a platoon-size direct action mission, which is supported by helicopter assets, Desert Patrol Vehicle (only if a Desert Platoon), and incorporates much of the training accomplished during the Land Warfare phase of training. This mission is very comprehensive and, if the platoon is detected by the training cadre, they are contacted with enemy fire from which they must utilize the fire and maneuver Immediate Action Drills learned during training and evade the pursuing force. Most SEALs say that this training is a great learning experience and superb conditioning for combat. It provides the platoon with the foundation from which to conduct the remaining year and one half (or so) of training. Some other training highlights are Jungle Warfare Training in Central America. In Navy SEAL lore, these jungles are said to be a living nightmare. The Army lost a man training there a couple of years ago - just flat out

disappeared. Man-eating crocodiles and poisonous sea snakes are just two of your bedfellows as you patrol through the rivers and streams deep within the dense jungle foliage. The platoon learns the value of a pump action shotgun to clear foliage when contacted especially if you can't see your target and he may be only a few feet from the platoon. Jungle hammocks are mandatory - ask anyone who has attempted to sleep on the jungle floor - yikes! Patrolling one klick (one thousand yards) can take hours, as the point man cuts his way through the bamboo and vines - humidity of 100 percent will probably send a constant stream of sweat down your back. This training emulates, in many ways, the environment of the Vietnam era that SEALs endured and thrived in. Operators from SEAL Team FOUR have also found this very valuable in their efforts fighting alongside the DEA and foreign nationals in the war against drugs. SEAL Teams TWO and FIVE are responsible for regions of the world that are often blanketed in snow so their platoons conduct extreme cold weather training and winter warfare training. Usually conducted in Alaska, Montana, Upstate New York and Norway, the training covers cross country skiing, snowshoeing, winter orienteering and mountain warfare tactics, building snow caves and fire and maneuver tactics on skis and snow shoes. Winter survival and escape and evasion are particularly arduous skills to master, and the winter warfare platoons become quite adept at this unique form of warfare. The remaining Teams that do not require a winter warfare background still attend cold weather training and cold weather maritime operations in Alaska. This Naval Special Warfare Detachment has a seasoned training cadre. The cadre's sole purpose is to train each platoon in the requirements of conducting commando missions in a mountainous environment, where the platoon needs to rope in and traverse steep cliffs and ravines in cold weather. Also, supported by a Special Boat Team detachment of two Rigid Hull Inflatable Boats (RHIBS), the platoons conduct long range maritime operations (over 60 mile open ocean transits in a Combat Rubber Raiding Craft, or CRRC) and the very high threat over the beach crossing in a cold weather environment, while utilizing dry suits to preserve warmth. SEAL Team TWO platoons often conduct joint training exercises with their Norwegian and German counterparts in the mountains of Europe. These men are quite adept at winter warfare, but the U.S. Navy SEALs hold their own and excel when put to the test - as usual. Submarine Lock Out/Lock In (LO/LI) and Dry Deck Shelter Mass Swimmer Lock Out/Lock In (DDS MSLO/LI) are another insertion skill practiced by the SEAL platoon during training work-up. Imagine being on a fast attack submarine at hover 100 feet below the surface of the ocean. You enter the escape trunk for a Lock-Out cycle with a 35 HP motor and some other SEAL gear. It's cold, it's dark and the escape trunk hatch closes while you flood the trunk with water. With just your nose above the surface, you then pressurize the trunk to depth until the outer door cracks open. You take a deep

breath and submerge to push the door all the way open to reveal the dark and vast ocean depths. Returning to the trunk, you signal that you are ready to send the motor and gear to the surface on the tethered line set up by the two SEALs who went out before you. The gear goes up - then so do you - blow and go to the surface to prepare for a long, cold CRRC transit to your unknown fate on the enemy shore. That is a small taste of what working off a submarine is like - and SEALs do a ton of it. Sending a platoon of frogmen out of a large Dry Deck Shelter at the same time is a more time effective and endurance saving method than the escape trunk method - but both are taught because the DDS equipped subs may not be available when required. Soon the SDV teams will take delivery of the first Advanced SEAL Delivery System (ASDS). The ASDS is the first dry submersible owned by the SEAL community. It has a Submariner pilot and SEAL navigator, and it can carry a SEAL squad of eight men. The submarine will have a relatively long range and high speed (these figures are classified) and can hover above a mother submarine or the bottom and send the combat swimmers out of the pressure chamber. The chamber is pressurized with a well similar to the Seaquest DSV TV series so the SEALs just slide into the water and swim out the bottom. This is hot stuff. You can bet that other services and government agencies (read CIA) are salivating and can't wait for their first free bus ride. Close Quarter Battle - this skill is a favorite and one in which Team guys take great pride in. Taking down a house room by room, or an airplane or bus in a hostage rescue, securing a vessel space by space after boarding from the sea or air - these all require an incredible amount of training and experience. Explosive Methods of Entry is a specialized skill taught in Close Quarter Battle training and other advanced courses. The focus is on room entry techniques utilizing MP-5 submachine guns, side arms and the CAR-15; mostly at night with MP-5 flashlight attachments, flash bangs (to stun any occupants). Technically, the regular Teams do not advertise target recognition in a room entry situation - everyone is expected to be a bad guy. CQB is a valuable skill when performing the fine art of Visit, Board, Search and Seizure (VBSS). An at-sea terrorist situation may call for the ship to be boarded, while underway, and taken control of through force. This is a very dangerous proposition - as learned by the SEAL Team FIVE platoon in the movie Under Siege. A typical VBSS mission includes a platoon of SEALs, a follow on force like a Marine Maritime Special Purpose Force (MSPF) to secure the ship after taking control, an insertion helo (either a H-53 or H-46). The insert bird is escorted by two UH-1s or MH-60s for spotter and sniper support. The Assault force is launched under cover of darkness from an amphibious vessel or Aircraft Carrier. At the target vessel, the SEALs can beon the deck in less than 15 seconds to set security. The sniper helos take up position and relay information to the assault team leader. The platoon begins movement through the vessel toward the bridge, utilizing Close Quarter Battle skills. Once on the bridge, they will secure and stop the vessel and call in the follow on force to secure the ship. By this time, the bad guys should have been rounded up and hog-tied for interrogation. Just another easy day in the life of a Navy SEAL! A related mission, called shipboarding, has the platoon board a vessel at berth.

Mission Specific Training - Naval Special Warfare forces have five primary missions. These include Unconventional Warfare (UW) - which is basically behind the lines guerrilla warfare during times of conflict; Foreign Internal Defense (FID) - which includes the training of foreign nationals and relationship building during peacetime; Direct Action (DA) which involves any mission that a SEAL element may undergo against an enemy target including the use or potential use of force - these missions can consist of ambushes, stand off weapons attacks, hostage rescue, target assaults on maritime and land based targets, amongst others; Counter Terrorist (CT) - which is just what it sounds like and is the primary mission of DEVGRU; and finally Special Reconnaissance (SR) - which entails hydrographic reconnaissance and SDV Beach Feasibility studies, point and area recons, Indications and Warning missions and any other overt, covert or clandestine mission where the primary purpose is to gather information. Most SEAL platoon work-up time is spent training to hone skills, which are utilized regardless of the mission category - such as shooting, demo and insertion/extraction methods (diving, parachuting, SDV, patrolling, Desert Patrol Vehicle, skiing etc). However, there are more specialized skills that must be learned in order to effectively conduct the broad range of missions that fall under the five categories mentioned above. Therefore, SEALs attend most of the entire advanced individual training courses offered by the Teams and other Special Operations communities. Some of these include: SERE school, Diving Supervisor, Parachute Rigger, Army Ranger school, Naval Gunfire Support, Sniper school, Breacher, Submarine trunk operator (OJT), Emergency Medical Technician, H & K repair, Free fall School and Free fall Jumpmaster, Static Line Jumpmaster, Target Analysis, Intelligence Photography, Stinger Weapon School, Cooper/Shaw shooting school, Hand to Hand Combat Fighting Course (formerly SCARS) 40 hour operator and 300 hour instructor courses, NSW Communications school and Applied Explosive Techniques, and more. 18D SOF Medic Navy SEAL Training - BUD/S and Beyond Congratulations: Youve passed the SEAL PST and have graduated Boot Camp. You now proudly wear the uniform of the U.S. Navy and are on your way to BUD/S (Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL) training. The Navy core values of Honor, Courage and Commitment are a minimum expectation of every SEAL and trainee. Now is the time to adopt the SEAL ethos the mindset to never ever quit, and do whatever it takes to pull your teammates through. The BUD/S Instructors will be putting you through the very same training that they have gone through themselves. They will be testing and observing you to determine if they can trust you with their lives and your classmates. There is a good chance, given the small size of the SEAL community, that you will serve in future combat operations with some of your instructors. These veterans of Afghanistan and Iraq know firsthand that, the

more you sweat in peacetime, the less you bleed in war. Do you have what it takes? Do you want it badly enough? To make it through BUD/S and Hell Week you will need great physical fitness and endurance, mental discipline, teamwork, character, mature judgment, and a fiery desire to be a SEAL. Young men of all physical builds, ethnicities, educational backgrounds, sports specialties and various ages have succeeded before you. With determination, you can too. Phases of SEAL Training BUD/S-Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL Training SQT-SEAL Qualification Training Advanced Training Ten Steps to Be A SEAL Operator 1. Sign up for the SEAL Challenge and make SEAL passing scores on the ASVAB test. 2. Train hard and consistently, and pass the Physical Screening Test (PST) for SEALs. 3. Attend Navy Recruit Training Command (12 weeks) and pass the SEAL PST again. 4. Take SEAL Indoctrination and Pre-Training (3-5 weeks) in Coronado, CA. 5. Enter BUD/S (6 months total) Phase 1 (8 weeks) Phase 2 (8 weeks) Phase 3 (9 weeks) 6. Complete U.S. Army Jump School (Ft. Benning, GA) or Naval Special Warfare Parachute Course (San Diego, CA) 7. SEAL Qualification Training (Coronado, CA) 8. Graduate w/your SEAL class and receive your Trident, the Navy's SEAL Insignia. 9. Start assignment to one of eight SEAL Teams or two SDV Teams in Coronado, CA, Virginia Beach, VA, or Pearl Harbor, HI. 10. Sharpen your war fighting skills in your SEAL Platoon or SDV Platoon. After a six-month work-up, deploy overseas to conduct Maritime Special Operations as directed by senior military commanders in specified geographic regions overseas. BUD/S (Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL) Training BUD/S is a 6-month SEAL training course held at the Naval Special Warfare Training Center in Coronado, CA. Youll start with five weeks Indoctrination and Pre-Training as part of a Navy SEAL Class, then go through the Three Phases of BUD/S. First Phase is the toughest. It consists of 8 weeks of Basic Conditioning that peaks with a grueling segment called Hell Week at the midway point, where youll be tested to your limits. Hell Week is a test of physical endurance, mental tenacity and true teamwork where 2/3 or more of your class may call it quits or ring the bell . Physical discomfort and pain will cause many to decide it isnt worth it. The miserable wet-cold approaching hypothermia will make others quit. Sheer fatigue and sleep deprivation will cause every

candidate to question his core values, motivations, limits, and everything hes made of and stands for. Those who grit it out to the finish will hear their Instructors yell the longed-for words, Hell Week is secured! There will be an exceptional few with burning desire who persevere when their bodies are screaming to quit, yet continue on. These men experience a tremendous sense of pride, achievement, brotherhood and a new self-awareness that, I can do anything!! The most outstanding among them -- that man whose sheer force of example inspires his classmates to keep going when theyre ready to quit is the Honor Man of the Class. These determined men will proceed on to Second Phase (8 weeks of Diving) and Third Phase (9 weeks of Land Warfare). Most men who have succeeded in Hell Week make it through these phases. If not, its usually due to academic issues (e.g. , dive physics) in the Dive Phase, or weapons and demolitions safety/competency issues in the Land Warfare (weapons and tactics) Phase. After BUDS is completed, trainees go through 3 weeks of Basic Parachute Training. At this point, training shifts from testing how the men react in a high-stress gut check environment, to making sure the trainees are competent in their core tasks. The men go through a final 8 weeks of focused SEAL Qualification Training in mission planning, operations, and tactic, techniques and procedures. Upon completion, they are authorized to wear the coveted Navy SEAL Trident insignia on their uniform. SEAL training ends with the formal BUD/S Class Graduation. Here the proud few in their dress Navy uniforms are recognized for their achievement in the presence of family and senior SEAL leaders. The Commanding Officers and senior enlisted advisors of the Naval Special Warfare Groups and SEAL Teams attend. The BUD/s graduates, as their newest Teammates, will be reminded of the special group they have entered, to be worthy of the sacrifices of the courageous Frogmen who came before them, and the great honor it is to serve as a U.S. Navy SEAL. BUD/S PHASES Phase 1 Physical Conditioning (8 weeks) Running in the sand Swimming up to 2 miles w/fins in the ocean Calisthenics Timed Obstacle Course Four-mile timed runs in boots Small boat seamanship Hydrographic surveys and creating charts Hell Week Week 4 of Phase 1 5 days of continuous training Four hours sleep, total

Swimming Running Enduring cold, wet, and exhaustion Rock Portage in Rubber Raiding Craft Doing 10 times what you thought possible TEAMWORK! Phase 2 Diving (8 weeks) Step up intensity of the physical training Focus on Combat Diving Open-Circuit (compressed air) SCUBA Closed-Circuit (100% oxygen) SCUBA Long-distance underwater dives Mission-focused combat swimming and diving techniques Phase 3 Land Warfare (9 weeks) Increasingly strenuous physical training Weapons training Demolitions (military explosives) Small unit tactics Patrolling techniques Rappelling and fast rope operations Marksmanship SQT-SEAL Qualification Training Tired yet? Well the fun is just beginning. It takes about five years to train a SEAL up to a high level of competence in all skill and mission areas. BUD/S is BASIC individual training. Now the prospective SEAL must check into his SEAL Team, assume the "new guy" role and start to learn how to operate as an elite commando unit. This mandatory four-month course is the first step. SEAL Qualification Training primarily focuses on the basics, but takes the individual's skill levels to a higher plateau. Also, students start to learn how to operate as a team. The course is a little over four months in length and starts with classroom training in mission planning and intelligence gathering/reporting. Students then begin a series of "blocks" of training covering the major skills required to conduct SEAL missions. These include Hydrographic Reconnaissance, Communications, Field Medicine, Air Skills, Combat Swimmer, Land Warfare, Maritime Operations (long range ocean navigation) and Submarine Lock-in/Lock-out. During Air week the class can expect to conduct day and night static line jumps, a water jump accompanied by a "rubber duck" - a zodiac boat with motor and gear sent out of the back of a C-130 under canopy, followed by six frogmen to chase it to the water. Fastrope techniques, whereby a SEAL slides down a nylon rope for 80 feet using only gloved hands to brake, and rappelling are taught. Finally, the "Special Insertion/Extraction" (SPIE) rig is introduced - allowing six to eight SEALs to be removed from an area too

rugged or dense to land a helicopter. During combat swimmer training the class will conduct over 25 day and night compass dives, starting again from the basics and progressing to full mission profile combat swimmer submerged ship attacks against Naval Vessels. Land Warfare training is usually conducted at the Naval Special Warfare training facility at Niland, Ca. for the West Coast Teams or at Camp A.P Hill for the East Coast teams. This training lasts three weeks and is similar in content to the San Clemente Land Warfare - except at a much more advanced level. Students enhance their skills in patrolling, improvised booby traps, stalking, weaponry and military demolition. They begin to practice the fine art of live fire immediate action drills, which have the team firing and maneuvering in well-choreographed sequences. These drills become quite interesting at night using pop up targets and pop flares and smoke grenades - all creating confusion and chaos - which emulates the "fog" of battle pretty well. Often the squads get split up and disoriented - especially during the famed "gauntlet" at Niland where the squad patrols through a course with multiple and simultaneous "hits" that they must analyze and react to, suppress fire and get out of the kill zone! WOW, what a rush! Bullets fly all over the place, team members scream to communicate over the noise, smoke grenades go off and pop flares light up the night sky then fizzle out. All this is going on while SEALs endure sweat, fear, exhilaration and confusion, along with the ever- present desire to perform the drill better each time because they know that their life depends upon the level of competence of the team in a real firefight. The motto the more you sweat in peacetime the less you bleed in war is constantly drilled into your head. Train as you would fight - this is Navy SEAL Training at it's best folks! Airborne Picture yourself standing in the side door of a C-141 cargo aircraft traveling at 120 knots. The windblast is deafening. Your stomach is churning, as you contemplate leaping out the door into the sky 1500 feet above the ground. Many things could go wrong - you could trip and hit your head on the door, your static line could break, or, heaven forbid, your parachute could malfunction. Jump, two, three, four, five - check canpoy, look for other jumpers, uh oh, got a tear the size of the grand canyon and you are coming down fast. Through 1,000 feet, seconds tick away as the terror of the moment grips you. Finally, the three weeks of airborne training kick in and you remember instinctively your points of performance in this situation. Reserve deployment. Look, reach, grab and pull the reserve handles. Watch as it cuts away your main chute and deploys your reserve -1B parachute. 500 feet, not much room to spare as you drift to the ground preparing to do a PLF (Parachute Landing Fall) or land on your fifth point of performance (your butt). Grab your chute and report into the Army instructor - Congratulations! You have completed your first Airborne jump at Basic Airborne training in Fort Benning, Ga. Four more to go and you can pin on the lead wings and report in to your SEAL Team for SQT. Airborne school is meant to teach SEALs how to jump out of a perfectly good airplane at

night with a full combat load. In the old days, the teams spent three days to teach this same skill. But as safety concerns overrode the Team's old ways, the Army was assigned basic jump training and they work hard to pack three days of training into three weeks! So prepare to be repetitious - because, as they say, repetition is the mother of perfection. At the end of three weeks of ground school, tower training, and jumping from or bouncing in every type of contraption you could imagine, the students finally get to jump out of a REAL Airplane. Most claim it to be a hairy experience - so you might expect a few butterflies on your first jump. The standing joke is that your first jump will be a night water jump - because your eyes will be closed and you will pee your pants! However, most SEAL Airborne students learn to enjoy jumping and are eager to get to Free Fall school when in the Teams. Accruing over 1,000 free fall jumps and 50 - 100 static line jumps is not uncommon during a career in the Teams. An Insert by Lieutenant Commander Mark Divine One particularly memorable portion of my SQT training was land navigation in Washington State. We parachuted into the pitch-black night and landed on a pitch black Drop Zone lit only by four chemlights. Met by the organizer of this delightful event, First Class Petty Officer Jefferey Kraus (who by the way is the only military man to hold the distinction of having attended U.S. Army Ranger School, U.S. Army Special Forces School, and U.S. Navy SEAL training! WOW what a glutton for punishment Jeff is - a super great guy though and just a little devious too. ) Jeff handed us a coordinate of our destination - said to be there before 9 am the next morning, told us there were dogs lined up to trail us in one hour, then sent us on our way through the thick, pitch black forest. ALONE. Man was that spooky - no flashlights because it would blow your night vision - knowing you were being tracked by dogs and thinking that there were people out there looking for you - pretty close to what it was like in the jungles of Vietnam (well not really-but there is only so much you can do to simulate war in peacetime!). That first night it was so dark that I read my Sylva Ranger Compass upside down and moved stealthily for six miles in the exact OPPOSITE direction I was supposed to move! When I finally figured this out I was in some farmer's back yard with his dog barking at me and I remember thinking that I shouldn't have to climb over so many fences in this exercise! Well I had to find my exact starting point if I had any hope of finding the target by 9 am in the morning - a mere 7 hours away. So I ran with full rucksack - through the farmers fields and over fences and by pure magic found my start point then started on my way in the right direction. At about 0400 in the morning I was totally lost in the forest - so much for my navigation skills, a feeling of desperation was coming over me when I looked up at a tree about 100 feet in front of me and saw a white sign. My curiosity aroused, I wandered over to see my exact grid coordinates posted on the sign! God bless the Army! In the middle of the forest, lost with pretty much no hope of figuring out where the heck I was, the U.S. Army had the foresight to place a sign on a tree telling me EXACTLY where I was. What

service! Platoon Training 18D SOF Medic SDV - SEAL Delivery Vehicle Platoon Training Platoon Training is where the rubber finally meets the road. Armed with a year of individual skill training, hardened by thousands of hours of physical training, diving, jumping, shooting and blowing things up, now the SEAL gets to put his fledgling talent to work with seasoned veterans of Naval Special Warfare. A SEAL Platoon consists of two officers, one chief and thirteen enlisted men. Responsibilities are divided into positions in a patrol (such as Point Man, Patrol Leader, Radio Man, 60 Gunner, Corpsman and Rear Security), department leadership (such as Diving Department Head, Air Department Head and Ordnance/Demo Department Head) and by rank. The senior officer is the Platoon Commander, the junior officer is his assistant, the senior enlisted is the Platoon Chief and the next senior enlisted is the Leading Petty Officer who is in charge of the day-to-day management of the enlisted platoon members. SEAL Platoons have a training cycle, which includes either a 12 or 18 month training work-up, then a 6 month deployment overseas in an operational combat ready status at a Naval Special Warfare Unit or Detachment. These platoons are incredibly highly trained and can accomplish most any task thrown at them. The training that must be accomplished during the year-plus training cycle is based upon several factors: Advanced individual and platoon level skills necessary for the conduct of all Special Operations Missions. The methods of delivery, insertion/extraction most likely to be utilized while on deployment. The geographic area of responsibility of the SEAL Team. Wherever there are troops on the ground in the world, you can be pretty sure that the SEALs, along with their Green Beret counterparts, are either there now or were there first! For the first three months of the training cycle, it is usually back to the basics. Hydrographic reconnaissance is covered once again combined with underwater demolition of submerged obstacles. Next, air training lasts two weeks and builds upon SQT skills, including several -Duck- drops out of different aircraft, both day and night combat equipment parachute jumps, fast-roping, rappelling and SPIE rig, mission planning in a classroom environment followed by intelligence gathering and reporting. Next, is another Combat Swimmer course. It takes several years before a SEAL becomes an expert combat diver (expert is a relative term here, because compared to 99 percent of all the divers in the world, a BUD/S student is an expert after Second Phase of

BUD/S!). Combat swimmer training in the platoon is a very arduous and intense training block. The platoon will conduct over 30 dives during three weeks - including a Full Mission Profile, where SEALs are inserted by aircraft or surface vessel for a 30 mile over the horizon transit in the CRRC, followed by a demanding turtleback (kicking on the surface toward the dive point in full dive gear), then a four hour, multi-leg dive into the enemy harbor to emplace limpet mines on the hulls of the target ships, then extracting after evading the anti swimmer measures put in place by the training cadre. Many SEALs say that the Combat Swimmer course is exhausting. The typical training day begins at seven a.m. , when you come into the team to set up your dive rigs and prepare you gear. The officers then brief the dive, and SEALs plan their dive profile for the day dive. The day dive takes place from about 10:00 a.m. until about 2:00 p.m. , at which time you return to the team to post-dive the dive rig, then set it up again for the night dive. You re-prepare all of your gear, plan the night's dive, then cut out for a couple of hours rest and much needed food. You return to the team at 6:00 p.m. , for another dive brief, make final preparations and depart for the night dive at 7:30 p.m. Insertion at 8:00 p.m. and dive until completion at about midnight. Then it is back to the team to post-dive the rigs and cleanup your gear. Finally, you de-brief the dive and go home for five hours of much needed sleep before doing it all over again the next day. Needless to say, divers don't have the energy to PT much during Combat Swimmer; however, some might say that swimming six to eight thousand yards underwater, often against the current, qualifies as exercise! Land Warfare training occurs again out at Niland or Camp A.P. Hill (sometimes at a different location like Camp Roberts in CA. , if the teams want a change of scenery). This starts with the basics, once again, in small unit tactics and builds to Full Mission Profiles conducted in a simulated combat environment. This training is as close to a 24-hour a day work schedule that you can get (besides being on a submarine). Training begins immediately after breakfast at 6:00 a.m. , and it continues until about 12:00 or 1:00 a.m. the following morning. There are breaks for lunch and dinner and, if it gets above 105 degrees during the day, the platoon will seek shelter in the classroom for some academic classes. The platoon will shoot thousands and thousands of rounds during this training and will blow up more demolitions than you could imagine. Immediate Action Drills are again a favorite of the SEALs and are the most intense portion of the training. Navy SEAL tactics cannot be discussed in this publication, due to their sensitive nature and to protect the troops; suffice it to say that SEAL IADs are unique and have been said to mislead an enemy force into believing that they are up against a whole company (100 men) of Army GIs. There are some great books on the market by Vietnam era SEAL vets. Darryl Young's The Element Of Surprise is excellent as is Dick Couch's SEAL Team ONE. See the Navy SEAL Books section of this publication for a quick look at the other good been there, done that SEAL books. Land Warfare training ends with a week long Field Training Exercise where the platoon

is put in semi-isolation in a simulated combat environment. Each squad will conduct several independent missions - usually a special reconnaissance, stand-off weapons direct action raid, body snatch, point ambush or combat search and rescue (CSAR-downed pilot rescue). The platoon combines to conduct a platoon-size direct action mission, which is supported by helicopter assets, Desert Patrol Vehicle (only if a Desert Platoon), and incorporates much of the training accomplished during the Land Warfare phase of training. This mission is very comprehensive and, if the platoon is detected by the training cadre, they are contacted with enemy fire from which they must utilize the fire and maneuver Immediate Action Drills learned during training and evade the pursuing force. Most SEALs say that this training is a great learning experience and superb conditioning for combat. It provides the platoon with the foundation from which to conduct the remaining year and one half (or so) of training. Some other training highlights are Jungle Warfare Training in Central America. In Navy SEAL lore, these jungles are said to be a living nightmare. The Army lost a man training there a couple of years ago - just flat out disappeared. Man-eating crocodiles and poisonous sea snakes are just two of your bedfellows as you patrol through the rivers and streams deep within the dense jungle foliage. The platoon learns the value of a pump action shotgun to clear foliage when contacted especially if you can't see your target and he may be only a few feet from the platoon. Jungle hammocks are mandatory - ask anyone who has attempted to sleep on the jungle floor - yikes! Patrolling one klick (one thousand yards) can take hours, as the point man cuts his way through the bamboo and vines - humidity of 100 percent will probably send a constant stream of sweat down your back. This training emulates, in many ways, the environment of the Vietnam era that SEALs endured and thrived in. Operators from SEAL Team FOUR have also found this very valuable in their efforts fighting alongside the DEA and foreign nationals in the war against drugs. SEAL Teams TWO and FIVE are responsible for regions of the world that are often blanketed in snow so their platoons conduct extreme cold weather training and winter warfare training. Usually conducted in Alaska, Montana, Upstate New York and Norway, the training covers cross country skiing, snowshoeing, winter orienteering and mountain warfare tactics, building snow caves and fire and maneuver tactics on skis and snow shoes. Winter survival and escape and evasion are particularly arduous skills to master, and the winter warfare platoons become quite adept at this unique form of warfare. The remaining Teams that do not require a winter warfare background still attend cold weather training and cold weather maritime operations in Alaska. This Naval Special Warfare Detachment has a seasoned training cadre. The cadre's sole purpose is to train each platoon in the requirements of conducting commando missions in a mountainous environment, where the platoon needs to rope in and traverse steep cliffs and ravines in cold weather.

Also, supported by a Special Boat Team detachment of two Rigid Hull Inflatable Boats (RHIBS), the platoons conduct long range maritime operations (over 60 mile open ocean transits in a Combat Rubber Raiding Craft, or CRRC) and the very high threat over the beach crossing in a cold weather environment, while utilizing dry suits to preserve warmth. SEAL Team TWO platoons often conduct joint training exercises with their Norwegian and German counterparts in the mountains of Europe. These men are quite adept at winter warfare, but the U.S. Navy SEALs hold their own and excel when put to the test - as usual. Submarine Lock Out/Lock In (LO/LI) and Dry Deck Shelter Mass Swimmer Lock Out/Lock In (DDS MSLO/LI) are another insertion skill practiced by the SEAL platoon during training work-up. Imagine being on a fast attack submarine at hover 100 feet below the surface of the ocean. You enter the escape trunk for a Lock-Out cycle with a 35 HP motor and some other SEAL gear. It's cold, it's dark and the escape trunk hatch closes while you flood the trunk with water. With just your nose above the surface, you then pressurize the trunk to depth until the outer door cracks open. You take a deep breath and submerge to push the door all the way open to reveal the dark and vast ocean depths. Returning to the trunk, you signal that you are ready to send the motor and gear to the surface on the tethered line set up by the two SEALs who went out before you. The gear goes up - then so do you - blow and go to the surface to prepare for a long, cold CRRC transit to your unknown fate on the enemy shore. That is a small taste of what working off a submarine is like - and SEALs do a ton of it. Sending a platoon of frogmen out of a large Dry Deck Shelter at the same time is a more time effective and endurance saving method than the escape trunk method - but both are taught because the DDS equipped subs may not be available when required. Soon the SDV teams will take delivery of the first Advanced SEAL Delivery System (ASDS). The ASDS is the first dry submersible owned by the SEAL community. It has a Submariner pilot and SEAL navigator, and it can carry a SEAL squad of eight men. The submarine will have a relatively long range and high speed (these figures are classified) and can hover above a mother submarine or the bottom and send the combat swimmers out of the pressure chamber. The chamber is pressurized with a well similar to the Seaquest DSV TV series so the SEALs just slide into the water and swim out the bottom. This is hot stuff. You can bet that other services and government agencies (read CIA) are salivating and can't wait for their first free bus ride. Close Quarter Battle - this skill is a favorite and one in which Team guys take great pride in. Taking down a house room by room, or an airplane or bus in a hostage rescue, securing a vessel space by space after boarding from the sea or air - these all require an incredible amount of training and experience. Explosive Methods of Entry is a specialized skill taught in Close Quarter Battle training and other advanced courses. The focus is on room entry techniques utilizing MP-5 submachine guns, side arms and the CAR-15; mostly at night with MP-5 flashlight attachments, flash bangs (to stun any occupants). Technically, the regular Teams do not advertise target recognition in a room entry situation - everyone is expected to be a bad guy.

CQB is a valuable skill when performing the fine art of Visit, Board, Search and Seizure (VBSS). An at-sea terrorist situation may call for the ship to be boarded, while underway, and taken control of through force. This is a very dangerous proposition - as learned by the SEAL Team FIVE platoon in the movie Under Siege. A typical VBSS mission includes a platoon of SEALs, a follow on force like a Marine Maritime Special Purpose Force (MSPF) to secure the ship after taking control, an insertion helo (either a H-53 or H-46). The insert bird is escorted by two UH-1s or MH-60s for spotter and sniper support. The Assault force is launched under cover of darkness from an amphibious vessel or Aircraft Carrier. At the target vessel, the SEALs can beon the deck in less than 15 seconds to set security. The sniper helos take up position and relay information to the assault team leader. The platoon begins movement through the vessel toward the bridge, utilizing Close Quarter Battle skills. Once on the bridge, they will secure and stop the vessel and call in the follow on force to secure the ship. By this time, the bad guys should have been rounded up and hog-tied for interrogation. Just another easy day in the life of a Navy SEAL! A related mission, called shipboarding, has the platoon board a vessel at berth. Mission Specific Training - Naval Special Warfare forces have five primary missions. These include Unconventional Warfare (UW) - which is basically behind the lines guerrilla warfare during times of conflict; Foreign Internal Defense (FID) - which includes the training of foreign nationals and relationship building during peacetime; Direct Action (DA) which involves any mission that a SEAL element may undergo against an enemy target including the use or potential use of force - these missions can consist of ambushes, stand off weapons attacks, hostage rescue, target assaults on maritime and land based targets, amongst others; Counter Terrorist (CT) - which is just what it sounds like and is the primary mission of DEVGRU; and finally Special Reconnaissance (SR) - which entails hydrographic reconnaissance and SDV Beach Feasibility studies, point and area recons, Indications and Warning missions and any other overt, covert or clandestine mission where the primary purpose is to gather information. Most SEAL platoon work-up time is spent training to hone skills, which are utilized regardless of the mission category - such as shooting, demo and insertion/extraction methods (diving, parachuting, SDV, patrolling, Desert Patrol Vehicle, skiing etc). However, there are more specialized skills that must be learned in order to effectively conduct the broad range of missions that fall under the five categories mentioned above. Therefore, SEALs attend most of the entire advanced individual training courses offered by the Teams and other Special Operations communities. Some of these include: SERE school, Diving Supervisor, Parachute Rigger, Army Ranger school, Naval Gunfire Support, Sniper school, Breacher, Submarine trunk operator (OJT), Emergency Medical Technician, H & K repair, Free fall School and Free fall Jumpmaster, Static Line Jumpmaster, Target Analysis, Intelligence Photography, Stinger Weapon School, Cooper/Shaw shooting school, Hand to Hand Combat Fighting Course (formerly SCARS) 40 hour operator and 300 hour instructor courses, NSW Communications school and Applied Explosive Techniques, and more.

18D Medic Those that have made it through the gauntlet of BUD/S and SQT and have the disire to be SEAL medics will be sent to Ft. Bragg, North Carolina for an additional six months of advance medical training known as 18D (pronounced "delta"). This course provides indepth training in conventional and unconventional medical skills ranging from diagnosis and treatment of nearly every known condition, to advance emergency medicine and battlefield trauma life support. This is not your standard school book training, much of what is learned in the classroom is practiced in the field under realistic conditions of war on each other. By the time SEALs are ready to graduate 18D they can start an IV in the smallest of veins with one arm tied behind their back, blindfolded. One important thing to remember is that every SEAL is a warrior, and in war the best preventative medicine is superior fire power. 18D SEALs are shooters first, medics second. 18D is a joint SOF course where the student and instructor staff is made up of Army SF, Marine Corps Recon, Air Force PJs, and Navy SEALs. SDV - SEAL Delivery Vehicle SEAL Delivery Vehicle School: BUD/S graduates who receive orders to SEAL Delivery Vehicle Team ONE in Hawaii or TWO in Little Creek, Va. must attend the three month SDV School in Coronado, Ca. This course teaches the students how to dive the MK-16 mixed gas dive rig and to pilot and navigate the MK-VIII SEAL Delivery Vehicle. The SDV is a "wet" submersible, which SEALs use to conduct 100 percent long-range submerged missions; they also use it to secretly deliver SEALs and other agents onto enemy territory from a submarine or other vessel at sea. It takes a formidable amount of training to be able to pilot and navigate the SDV well, and the best SDVers usually stay at an SDV Team for the bulk of their SEAL careers. We discuss the SDV more in the equipment section of this site. Since this training is highly technical and very dangerous, it is considerably more relaxed and is a refreshing transition for the BUD/S graduate from the harassment of BUD/S training to the professional attitude at the SEAL Teams. Still, SEALs are expected to perform at a high level; it is not unheard of to be expelled from this training. Also the new SEALs reputation starts while he is at BUD/S, and reputation is the cornerstone of the professional SEAL's career. To be known as a good "operator" is as highly coveted in the Teams as a six-figure paycheck is on Wall Street! Many aspects of the SEAL Delivery Vehicle program are classified and beyond what we can discuss here - so you will have to join the Navy to find out.