Being a Navy Seal in the United States Army means a few things, but it definitely means you are one of the hardest men on the planet.
If you’ve ever played Modern Warfare or seen any movie about being in the army, then you’ll know that being a Navy SEAL means you are one of the few elite super-soldiers in the world that the army top brass trust to pull off any mission.
Whether it’s infiltrating an enemy stronghold or saving hostages from some kidnappers, a Navy SEAL is the man for the job be it on SEa, Air or Land (SEAL).
You can catch the latest SEALs movie Zero Dark Thirty before anyone else by entering our competition over here, an action thriller about the crack squad of Navy SEALs who were tasked with finding Osama Bin Laden, released nationwide on Friday the 25th of January.
But if you want to join this elite squad in real life, then you need to be the best, both mentally and physically. Here’s a quick look at what training to be a SEAL is like.
The SEALs are in training for 30 months, with tasks that are completely brutal. The thinking behind such a long training regime is to get them to experience every possible situation they could face in the field, and to weed out those who aren’t strong enough to make the grade.
Tasks are designed to make the recruits break while their lives aren’t under pressure, and less than a quarter of those in training make it through.
Your training starts with basic conditioning, where you will have to do daily swims in the ocean of around two miles, as well as get around a huge obstacle course, which is timed every day, and you have to constantly improve your time to stay in the program. You also learn to swim with your hands and feet tied, which is known as “drown-proofing”.
Navy SEALs demonstrate a parachute training exercise
The worst part is, of course, Hell Week. SEALs train for five days and five nights, and can only sleep for a total of four hours in those days, doing constant training exercises throughout.
During Hell Week, any and every trick in the book is used to break you. According to former SEAL Howard Wadsin when interviewed on theweek.com he was doused with freezing water to the point of hypothermia, then forced to swim two miles. When he got out, his instructor handed him a mug of hot chocolate to warm him up, but only if he offered to drop out. He didn’t take it.
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