One hundred and forty four men from all over the United States have come to Coronado Island in San Diego, California to undertake a quest to become part of one of the most exclusive clubs in the world. It is December of 1996, and they have just begun an eight month journey to become part of an elite team of men known as the Navy SEALs (SEa Air and Land.) The members of Class 211 have voluntarily signed up to be run almost non-stop, to do push ups, pull ups and abdominal exercises beyond anything imaginable, and to be colder longer than ever thought endurable. In preparing to be ready for anything a SEAL could possibly have to face during his career, each student will have to confront his physical and emotional limitations.
SEAL training is generally known as BUDS (basic underwater demolitions) training and is divided into three parts of 10 weeks each. The first phase, during which 95% of the students drop out, consists of physical and team training. Phase 2 is underwater training, and phase 3 is tactical and weapons training.
Phase 1: The first 5 weeks of training are unending days of physical exercise, including running, push-ups, pull-ups and abdominals. A day in which 500 push ups are required is not unusual, particularly for a trainee who is having trouble or who is unfortunate enough to have caught the attention of the instructor. He may even be required to do double that number of push-ups. The group is broken down into teams of seven, each of which is issued a rubber dinghy that must be carried on their heads while they run wherever they go. With waves sometimes breaking as high as 12-15 feet (3-5 meters) they must learn to launch and land these boats. Working as a team is mandatory, and the price for not doing so is what is known as “cold water conditioning”, where candidates are made to lie on their backs in 50 degrees Fahrenheit (10 degrees Celsius) water. Cold water conditioning is experienced often by just about every member of the class and lasts for twenty minutes at a time. The fifth week of training begins what is known as “Hell Week” during which the recruits must stay awake for five days and nights and perform all of the tasks they have been learning during the previous four weeks. They experience the pure misery of 5 long days of exercise, boat carrying, cold water torture, and team work. A trainee who makes it through these 5 days successfully will most likely finish the program with success.
Phase 2: During the second stage of training, the men learn to SCUBA dive and use alternate breathing apparatus. Pool competency is determined by a trainee’s ability to stave off underwater attacks. The instructors, who play the part of attacking forces, tie knots in air hoses, rip off diving masks, and generally try to disorient the team underwater. A student has to be able to defend himself from the attack before running out of air and surfacing. Only one failure is allowed for each trainee. A second failure means being dropped from the program.
Phase 3: All of the training in this stage takes place on San Clemente Island and is made up of learning SEAL tactics and the use of weapons. In addition to the by now normal daily activities of running, swimming, and physical training, the students learn to use navigational skills, land and sea explosives, and to shoot more machine gun rounds than entire companies of marines.
Class 211 began with 144 men. By August 1997 at graduation, only 19 of the original class were left.
