BUD/S

The official recruiting brochure states that: " as a prospective Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL student, you will participate in training that will challenge you both mentally and physically. You will also encounter obstacles that will develop and test your stamina and leadership. BUD/s training itself is extremely tough both mentally and physically, but through adequate preparation and a positive attitude, you can meet its challenges with confidence." Okay, sounds good. What exactly are these physical and mental challenges that you will face? That question is one of the corner stones of the Navy SEAL mystique - the almost unbelievable physical and mental training that the student is subjected to on a daily basis. It starts immediately upon checking into BUD/S and your assignment to the Fourth Phase.

FOURTH PHASE

Like many things in the military, the end comes before the beginning here. Fourth Phase of training varies in length depending upon when you go through training and when you check in. For many classes Fourth Phase is seven weeks in length and is a time to get physically and mentally prepared to START training! Currently it is two weeks in length - just long enough to find out which students are prepared to train and which are not. Those not prepared are sent back to the fleet to try their luck again at a later date. The length of Fourth Phase is at the whim of the Commanding Officer Du Jour who wants to make his mark on the training of new recruits. Basically, Fourth Phase is a time to get your feet on the ground and get to know the basic nuts and bolts of how BUD/S training operates. The trainees swim, pt, run and get dogged pretty hard - but you still know that training has yet to begin. During Fourth Phase, or indoctrination phase, the instructors decide who is ready to "class up" for the next BUD/S class. Prior to classing up - or commencing training, a class-up party is held at Gator Beach on the Coronado Strand where trainees paint helmets the First Phase green and shave their heads to prepare for the intensity of the ensuing 25 weeks of training.

FIRST PHASE - First Phase starts with a bang and ends with a boom. It consists of two mile and three mile timed runs, physical training (PT - or calisthenics), 1 -2 mile ocean swims with fins and a gut burning obstacle course that are almost daily delights. The minimum times required for pass become increasingly difficult for the timed evolutions, as does the intensity and difficulty of the PT and soft sand runs (yes the soft sand runs are in boots with fatigues on). During the first five weeks, students learn life saving, knot tying, underwater knot tying (a difficult skill which has claimed the budding careers of many a tadpole), basic first aid and surf passage in small inflatable boats. Underwater swims of 50 yards must be accomplished, and the student is usually revived when they pass out.

Drown Proofing - (see picture at left)came into being after an tragic accident in the late 60s when a Team member whose hands and feet were tied to simulate being a prisoneer was being transported in a small Vietnamese-style sampan. The boat rocked, tipped, filled with water, and the occupants were dumped overboard. The water was only a few feet deep (very similar to the canals and waterways in Vietnam), but the man whose hands and feet were bound was tragically drowned. It was determined that this situation should NEVER be repeated, and the concept of drownproofing was created as a solution. It was folded into the existing pool training that BUD/S students were undergoing, including rescue swimming, lifesaving, etc." (Thanks to SEAL Steve Robinson for this info) The training is very valuable in building confidence and relaxation skills in the water (also the small chance that it may come in handy some day. The evolution begins with students tying their feet at the ankles and hands behind your backs at the wrist then entering the pool for some bobbing followed by a 50 meter swim.

Another fun filled event during first phase is surf torture. Torture? You bet it is. It all stems from the theory that a frogman must be intimately familiar with the water. During BUD/S training, the student is wet and sandy for most of the six months. Even the classroom sessions often include a trip or two to the surf zone to facilitate an alert posture during the class. Periodically the instructors include a little "cold water conditioning" in the training schedule - hence the term "surf torture". Basically the entire class must wade into the surf zone to their waste line, then sit down with arms linked. Mind you that the water in San Diego never gets above 68 during summer months and 58 during winter.

Soon the insipid cold sucks all of your body's warmth and the whole class shivers in unison as the waves crash over your heads. The plan calls for submersion to the brink of hypothermia, then to pull you out for some calisthenics to warm up - then back in the drink for some more conditioning. The "training session" lasts for about an hour. It's been shown to be a very effective way to teach a prospective SEAL to mentally fend off the effects of hypothermia - which could likely save your life in the future.

Oh yes - almost frog-ot to discuss HELL WEEK! My favorite week of training during BUD/S. It occurs the sixth week of First Phase, after about 30% of the class has already rung out. Hell Week is the real make or break test during first phase - and a defining moment in the lives and careers of most SEALs. Five days and five nights of non-stop training - with a total cumulative sleep time of about 2 hours! The class is broken into boat crews, which run everywhere with their IBS (Inflatable Boat-Small) on their heads.

Hell Week starts with "break out" on Sunday night - which is a simulated combat experience with absolute chaos reigning.

After break out, the boat crews begin a series of well-choreographed training events that pit boat crew against boat crew, student against student and the individual against himself. The true enemy becomes the cold. Students are kept wet and sandy and cold and exhausted every minute of each day - the only respite coming in the warmth of the chow hall where about 5000 calories are consumed during breakfast, lunch, dinner and midnight rations.

The cold makes the weak quit and the determined seek strength through teamwork and helping their fellow students. Hell Week is a defining moment in the life of every SEAL because it makes them confident that they can endure and accomplish twenty times what they had previously thought possible. But it isn't easy. By the end of the week, the average BUD/S class is down to about 25 to 35 students - from well over 100 at the start. Some of the exciting adventures during the week include night rock portage on the rocks in front of the Hotel Del Coronado; an around-the-Coronado-Island boat paddle after three nights without sleep (15 miles); timed runs and swims; obstacle course running with the IBS and a trip down the strand (running with boats on heads) to a fun filled afternoon of low crawling through the famous mud flats, the demo pits, steel piers and many other exciting and tortuous games refined through the years by many a "creative" BUD/S instructors. Finally, on Friday afternoon a bleary eyed, torn, blistered, sunburned and scabby headed class- a fraction of the original size- is secured from Hell Week for a weekend of rest before resuming training on Monday for the Hydrographic reconnaissance training. For some more great insight on Hell Week and BUD/S in general, see Jeff Kraus' book "You Want Me To Do What?" He graduated from U.S. Army Special Forces Q course, The U.S. Army Ranger course and Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL School. 

The final three weeks of First Phase teach the students the basics of what the old Underwater Demolition Teams did during WW II, the Korean War and Vietnam - reconnoitering beaches to find underwater obstacles and to determine the feasibility of landing a Marine landing force on a particular beach. There are numerous ways to accomplish this task. The easiest is the daytime administrative recon - used when the beach is not considered to be a hostile beach. Nighttime combat recons are more common during times of conflict and are conducted covertly, often submerged. However they are conducted more effectively from a surface swimmer line methodically working its way into or along a beach testing the depths and diving for obstacles. A follow-on UDT mission (now a SEAL mission) is to return to the obstacle laden beaches a later night to emplace demolition on the underwater obstacles and blow them up, with the hopes of clearing enough room for landing craft to approach the beach. These underwater demolition skills are taught to the BUD/S student during Third Phase at San Clement Island. 

SECOND PHASE

During Second Phase, physical training becomes more intense as the qualifying times for the timed runs, swims and obstacle courses become more demanding. A four-mile open ocean swim and a 12-mile rucksack hump are thrown in as additional gut checks. Grinder PT's become more intense and the soft sand runs as grueling as ever. However, one major difference begins to become apparent in Second Phase: you are doing real SEAL mission training (on a much less intense scale than in the Teams, as you will see later). Diving is a critical SEAL skill and a Team member can expect to log thousands of dives during his career. At BUD/S you will start off with the basics - open circuit diving in a pool. In typical fashion, nothing is made easy. During week three of Second Phase "Pool Comp" is the next big hurdle to test the SEAL candidate. In Pool Comp you will assume full dive gear with double hose regulators on the dive tanks and swim along the deep end of the Combat Training Tank. Soon, as swift as a shark attack, you are tossed around like a rag doll and will have all of your gear and tanks torn from your body. The regulator hoses are tied in outrageous knots by the relentless underwater aggressor (instructor Psycho) You are in a precarious position and could easily panic and bolt for the surface. However, if you don't want to fail the test and be rolled from training, you find your source of air and untangle the knot to be able to breathe underwater. If you accomplish this you must re-don all of your gear properly and return to the surface. This is no small chore - just another day in the life of a Tadpole trainee.

Closed circuit dive training begins with Dive Physics and a sense that you are finally learning to be a Frogman! Students learn the ins and outs of the Draeger LAR V closed circuit, 100 percent oxygen diving system. This rig is worn on the chest and is a closed system - thus emitting no bubbles (when used with skill). You can appreciate how valuable a bubble less system can be to a Frogman trying to infiltrate an enemy harbor at night to blow up a ship or recon the area. However, diving the rig is the easy part. The hard part is learning how to get where you want to go underwater - at night - especially if you need to travel several miles underwater while facing currents, tides, obstacles, marine life (yikes!) and of course the enemy. This is the knowledge and courage that separates SEALs from ordinary military men. BUD/S students will learn the basics of underwater navigation in second phase - but many say that these skills must be honed over a period of several years before a level of competency can be reached that tilts the scale toward mission success. You will also learn about the limpet underwater explosive devise and how and where to attach it to the hull of a ship. You can expect to conduct close to fifty dives (both day and night) during this period of training.

THIRD PHASE

Third Phase of BUD/s is Land Warfare Phase. Utilizing the "crawl, walk, run" principle, students learn basic marksmanship with the primary SEAL weapons, the M-16 and pistol

(SIG Sauer 9mm and Colt .45). Basic Patrolling and Immediate Action Drills are taught in both the classroom and in the field (Immediate Action Drills: in a firefight the SEAL squad will execute a number of football play type maneuvers to out-gun and out-flank the enemy, often providing enough firepower to subdue a much larger force and extract from the danger zone). Heavy weapons like the M-60 machine guns, M-79 and M203, 40 mm grenade launchers, hand grenades and Anti-Tank weapons are taught. Basic field demolitions round out the commando training. The field explosives include drop off charges, the claymore mine, shape charges and improvised explosive booby traps. Hand to hand combat training continues at a higher intensity level. Of course the physical training picks up in intensity as well. The trainees, whose bodies and minds are already hardened from four months of non-stop physical training, are broken down once again to reach new limits. A 5.5-mile ocean swim and a 14-mile run mark the physical milestones of Third Phase. (Note: the swim and run are for completion, but are timed and superior performance, as usual, limits the post event verbal abuse by the instructor staff).

The first four weeks of Land Warfare Phase are spent on the Coronado Strand learning the basics. Next the class moves to San Clemente Island to Camp Billy Machen (named after the first SEAL killed in combat in the Vietnam war). Many SEALs remember Camp Billy Machen as a dust filled hell with a few Quonset huts thrown in to keep you dry when they were allowed to sleep. Where "nobody can hear you scream" is Camp Billy Machen, and some say an entire book could be written about what a student usually endures on that rock. In past times, this portion of training was considered the most grueling because the remote and isolated camp offers the SEAL instructors few distractions from conjuring up devious and painful "training" exercises. 

Today, San Clemente sports a brand new multi- million dollar training facility that offers all of the comforts of home. Still the students are put to the test. One of the more lighthearted training exercises are "flights" up a steep hill carrying a wooden pallet - the student must follow proper flight procedures such as staying in the flight pattern and requesting permission to land - or he goes back up for another "pass". Some students will log hundreds of hours in flight status and may even receive their wings on the rock!

At San Clemente, students learn the art of breath-hold diving to emplace demolitions on obstacle submerged in 20 feet of water. Utilizing the Hydrographic reconnaissance skills taught in First Phase, the class conducts a simulated night combat beach reconnaissance, prepares a hydrographic chart, then returns the following night to stealthily place demo on the obstacles and blow them up! Night patrols, ambushes and direct action raid skills are honed in preparation for the final battle problem. 

The Final Field Training Exercise (FTX) is held over a five-day/night period. Each squad enters isolation to begin the mission planning process and conducts four back-to-back night operations utilizing most of the commando skills taught during the six month BUD/S training. This is an exhaustive yet exhilarating time and brings to a culmination the long days and nights of the most intensive and comprehensive military training in the world.

Graduation Day - The day a budding tadpole could barely imagine a few short months previously. The 20 or so men who muster with stern faces and hardened bodies - sporting well earned BUD/s graduate "thousand mile stares," bear little resemblance to the wide eyed kids who arrived on the quarterdeck of the Phil Buckelew Naval Special Warfare Center six and one half months earlier to embark on the journey of a lifetime. The moment of reflection and rest is short lived though. It's off to jump school at Fort Benning, Ga., then assignment to a SEAL or SDV team on the East or West Coast. Once at the SEAL Team, training has just begun, for now you must prove worthy of wearing the coveted "trident" Naval Warfare insignia.