Pre-BUDS | BUDS | Airborne | SDV | SQT | SEAL Platoon

So you want to be a frogman, and think you have what it takes?
Or you have a friend who has a friend whose brother was a Navy SEAL and you don't think he's that tough? Lots of rumors and legends have been spurned by the training that occurs during the dark hours on the cold, wet beaches of Coronado, CA and underwater in the San Diego Bay and San Clemente Island. These are places where the term "nobody can here you scream" sends a shiver up a new tadpole recruit's spine. Navy SEAL training is designed to be tough - reputedly the toughest military training in the world. Why so? SEALs are modern day warriors who volunteer to fight as commandos, doing the dirtiest, toughest and most miserable jobs you could imagine - jobs that no one else in the military wants to even look at. These missions - such as reconnoitering an enemy beach from the surf zone, taking down a moving vessel at sea, laying awake in ambush for three days and nights up to your neck in mud - all require a stamina and threshold for pain so enormous that the average man wouldn't attempt it. Most can only imagine what a SEAL endures- and then you could multiply it by ten to come close. There is no fame, fortune or public recognition for what a SEAL commando accomplishes - most of it is classified. Quiet, professional job satisfaction is the norm for the seasoned frogman. With that in mind, let's take a look at what it actually takes to become one of the elite - a U.S. Navy SEAL Commando.

FAQs about BUD/s Training.

Insert by Tracy Warrington Special Forces
MILITARY ORIENTEERING
Or: What the recruiters didn't tell you about Special Operations.

Tracy-Paul Warrington
CWO (retired), US Army Special Forces

Introduction
All Special Operations organizations throughout the world share many common traits: elite, dedicated, physical studs and they have some really cool toys. Unfortunately, there is always talk about which Special Operations Force is the toughest, hardest, smartest, etc. Because their missions vary so much, the question of who's 'Numbah One' will never be answered. There is, however, one very critical skill that can be used to evaluate the effectiveness of any Spec Ops Unit in the world. It doesn't matter what the job is, how many people, how much they're carrying or how long it takes to do the job; if they don't master this skill, they're toast in the real world. That skill is navigation or orienteering.

Military Orienteering is the ability to start at one known location and move somehow to another location without compromising the integrity of the mission. Most people on the planet can move from point to point with no problem; that's what roads, maps and questions are for. Moving from point to point undetected, is another entirely different set of circumstances. Normal people when moving tend to follow "Lines of Drift": natural or man-made features which tend to channel people and animals in a certain direction. Sometimes a line of drift is necessary to facilitate ease of movement. Examples of this are bridges, game paths through dense underbrush and super highways. As humans we lose some freedom of movement in exchange for faster or more convenient ways of going places; that's why bridges are more popular than stream crossing sites for cars and trucks. Special Operations personnel, however, don't follow lines of drift; or sometimes they make their own for a short period of time. 

Background Information
Natural Lines of Drift (LOD) usually dictate where man-made features, including their LODs, will be placed. Natural examples are rivers, valleys, ridgelines, game trails, mountains, cliffs, etc. An obstacle (something that impedes movement) is a feature, which promotes the use of an LOD; be it natural or man-made. The relationship between LODs and obstacles influences everything from how we organize to where Special Operations Forces (SOF) looks for bad guys. 

Consider this: Why do we have an Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine branch? Answer: mode of transportation. As yet, engineers have not developed a vehicle that can fly, crawl, float, dive under water, carry a company of grunts, shoot and communicate. Because of the different types of military obstacles we face (Earth, Wind, Fire and Water; to name a few), we need different types of vehicles to negotiate these obstacles. It makes even better sense to group these vehicles together by type so we can train, equip and maintain them better. Let's face it, an Infantry Captain wouldn't know the first thing about the care and maintenance of the Mark I, Mod I Aircraft Carrier; and as soon as the Marines learn how to walk on water, the 'Gator Navy is out of a job! 

What does this have to do with LODs? All of these disparate vehicles are actually miniature man-made lines of drift! Think about it, we have obstacles (ground, water and air) that we need to negotiate around or through using a line of drift. It's a stretch, but an aircraft carrier is a portable LOD designed to transport steel and death through the largest obstacle in world: our oceans. Even better, this LOD, when controlled properly, can dominate other obstacles so no one else can use their portable LODs. The carrier fits the criterion for an LOD: it channels movement in a certain direction. We can't walk anywhere on water, nor park our aircraft on it; so we accept the inconvenience of concentrating 5000 people and 100 aircraft on a big, fat, juicy floating target in exchange for the convenience of speed and control of other areas or obstacles. 

Special Operations Forces and Lines of Drift 
From a Special Operations point of view, LODs and obstacles are one way of separating them from other conventional units. There are very few units in world that can create a line of drift for their use. Consider a regular infantry company confronting a cliff along their line of March. Under normal circumstance this obstacle would be bypassed through the use of a LOD: a road or trail. A Ground SOF unit can create an additional LOD by going straight up the cliff using special equipment; therefore they have at least one more option to negotiate the obstacle than a regular unit. 

Many units are constrained to using Lodes because of the speed and convenience they offer; as well as the vehicle type they possess. This makes SOF's job easier because it cuts down on the amount of area they have to look over to find their targets. If a coastline is one flat, continuous strip of beach for 2000 miles without a break, Maritime SOF units would spend a lot of time looking the boat they want to sink. If there are harbors, inlets, bays or wharves; they can start looking there first for their target before looking elsewhere. 

Because people and their military units like LODs, SOF units are more effective than their size indicates. As stated before, LODs channel movement; which in turn creates a funnel or 'choke point' that a small amount of firepower can disrupt with major consequences. All SOF Units (SEALS, Special Forces, Rangers and Force Reconnaissance) are essentially light infantry units with the ability to get into places a regular unit could not and accomplish a mission. The firepower carry with them is miniscule compared to a regular combat unit with the same amount of personnel. There isn't a sane SOF gunslinger in the world that would stand up and fight a straight infantry unit; however, there are many who would (and do) go after their supplies moving on their LODs. 

SOF units are harder to eliminate because they don't need, or use, natural lines of drift the way others do. If you look at any topographic map, you can see a pattern that looks similar to the grain pattern of wood; these are Lines of Drift. Normal people follow the lines; SOF goes across those same lines; or sometimes against them. That's why they're so hard to pin down and destroy. Many units tasked with hunting SOF units fail because they can't, or won't, leave their LODs for fear of getting lost. Probably the most convenient aspect of a line of drift (or an obstacle) is that it makes a great reference point you can find on a map. This is where orienteering comes into play: it uses basic navigation techniques to travel against or across lines of drift to an objective. Military orienteering does the same thing only it takes advantage of the masking and camouflage effects of terrain to conceal the presence of a unit. 

Ever wonder why the physical requirements for SOF units are higher than others? Much of it has to do with the operating environment for a particular unit. Swimming underwater (SEALs) or walking 100 miles (Special Forces) requires going against the grain of LODs. Riding in a boat or car goes with the grain; it's more convenient, and more dangerous for that unit. That's not to say SOF doesn't go with the grain; quite often they ride as close as possible without detection, then get out and use their legs. 

Situational Exercise
Consider the following scenario: Your SOF unit is tasked with destroying a microwave relay tower located on a small mountain 10 miles from the coast. For now, let's ignore the obvious solution of calling in an air strike and assume the CINC wants it done 'quietly'. The tower is ten meters wide on a side and slightly taller than the trees surrounding it. It's nighttime. Your only ride is a rubber boat. This small mountain is part of a whole chain of mountains paralleling the coastline. Being intellectual studs, your military orienteering skills are the best around; so you can go against the grain of the LODs instead of following them and risk unwelcome enemy contact. 

If your unit moves at an average speed of 4 miles per hour, how long will it take to go from the boat, to the objective and back to the boat? Assume you only need 15 minutes to actually do the job. Answer: a minimum of 5 hours, 15 minutes. Five hours of movement and 15 minutes of fireworks. 

Question: What is the significance of this scenario as it relates to military orienteering? Hint: look at the time spent doing things. 

Answer: The entire mission segment took 315 minutes; 95 percent of the time was spent on movement! The remainder had the smoke and noise associated Hollywood special effects. How popular would the movie "Navy SEALs" be if they showed the actual ratio between movement and actions at the objective? Many outsiders (and some insiders) think it takes longer to save the free world than it does to get there. FALSE. 

Many of you will say that the scenario is unrealistic and goofy and therefore not an accurate measure. It is unrealistic in two regards: The movement to and from the target is way too fast. Usually a unit moves at about 1 mile per hour. Second, if your unit takes 15 minutes to blow a stupid tower, you need to find a new line of work. 3 to 5 minutes on the objective is typical of most SOF missions. So if we use these more realistic standards, the total time now is now 20 hours and 3 minutes or 1203 minutes. In other words, 99% of the mission segment was spent on movement. 

As far as being goofy, every gunslinger in US SOF can recall participating in goofier scenarios than this one. From the outside looking in, every mission SOF performs is pretty damn stupid; considering all the other gizmos we have to look at, pulverize or capture targets. Right now the DoD and the President has a need for people who are adept and willing to do goofy stuff; and there's a BIG demand for it. 

Training 
All this begs the question of why do we spend more time doing objective-related tasks and less time with navigation? There are four parts to the answer: Time, Money, Space and Glamour. Any mission that SOF performs has a priority of what to practice: First priority is actions on the objective. Second priority is actions on enemy contact. Third priority is movement to and from the objective. No commander has the time he wants to get the job done. There are so many different targets to study and so many ways the enemy can attack you that there's hardly any time left to practice movement. Yet I claim that it's the movement that distinguishes SOF from the rest of the food chain. 

Money and Space are also in short supply. In a perfect world, the commander (time permitting) could contract somebody to run day and night orienteering courses over a 100,00 acre preserve none of the gun-slingers have seen before. Familiarity breeds contempt; this is the hallmark of most military orienteering exercises because the SOF ninjas always use the same area to practice movement. Pretty soon they know everything about the place and it's not a challenge any more. The real danger is that some SOF personnel start to think they're expert navigators because they walked over the same territory for years. Good orienteering needs a large, strange area to be effective. 

Movement is NOT glamorous. Where's the glory in a three hour boat ride puking your guts out in six foot seas; followed by a lovely 20 hour walk in the park? The only interlude is three minutes of noise and light designed to bring the Wrath of God, Allah and Buddha down on your team for the last 10 hours of your stroll back to the boat (and more puking). What if your navigation skills aren't that good? Now the job is a lot longer and tougher, if not impossible. 

Placing a demo charge on the target or squeezing a trigger is not physically demanding. Yomping (a British Commando term for long distance military orienteering) for hours on end carrying that demo, rifle, survival gear, radio and other sundries is the Aerobic Workout from Hell. 

War Stories
In 1978, during Operation Zeus-78, I served on a maritime reception party near Thessoloniki, Greece. A platoon of SEALS were going to do a "Rubber Duck" (parachute jump with inflatable boats; no, the SEALS were not IN the boats) operation into the Aegean Sea. "Ruptured Duck" was probably a better term for this operation. First, their IBS-15 (Inflatable Boat, Surface, 15 man) flipped over during its descent. Ordinarily this is not a problem; except when the SEALs decided not to waterproof the equipment. Now those rucksacks which usually weigh 100 pounds dry; now weigh close to 200 pounds wet. It was rather amusing to watch through night vision goggles the SEALs trying to right their boat and not let the rucksacks take them on a tour on the bottom of the Aegean. 

Finally, everybody got on board with the equipment only to find they lost the outboard engine and half their paddles. So some of them got out, made a "Budweiser line" (tow rope), put on swim fins and towed the boat to shore; while the rest paddled in assistance. When they finally came ashore, we exchanged passwords and secret handshakes to identify each other as friendly. We stayed mum on watching them out in the water; they had a bad day already. We asked if they needed help with anything, to which they said no-thank-you. After wringing out their gear and throwing away their dead, water-logged batteries, we set off for the Rhodope Mountains to the north; about 70 kilometers (42 miles) away. 

During the trek the platoon commander remarked to us that "You Greeks speak damn good English!" and how lucky they were not to have a language barrier. It dawned on us that they thought we were Greek Special Forces, not US SF! We grinned and kept our mouths shut. Being SOF we naturally started to cut across all of the lines of drift (LODs). The Rhodope Mountains are a branch of the Balkan Mountains. Cutting anything there usually means massive gains in altitude; in English: we went straight up the sides of the mountains. 

By the time we reached a mile above sea level, the SEALs looked like shark bait. They could barely put one foot ahead of the other. We took over all navigation and security for them so they could focus on movement. Incidentally, we were traveling right through bandit country and places very sympathetic to the outlawed Greek Communist Party. Everybody was armed. We picked up an escort from the local Greek Commando unit to tag along also. The Greeks were shocked at the condition of our fellow Americans, and asked if they were American SF. We replied (in Greek) that no, they were SEALs like their OYK units (Greek UDT teams). The Commandos suddenly understood why they were beat. In the Greek SOF all SEALs in the world are called "Sea-Level Soldiers"; because the altitude can kick their ass more rapidly than the personnel living in "them thar hills." 

We held a Chinese Parliament (impromptu meeting) with the Greeks to figure out what to do. We decided to risk going on an LOD, a mountain road in this case, using mules borrowed from a farmer. We put the rucks on the mules and told the SEALs to simply hang on to a mule harness a walk alongside the critters. At daybreak the Platoon Chief Petty Officer came over to thank us when he stared at our nametapes; the ones that said "US ARMY". His eyes got real big, followed by a silent "Oh Shit!" Without a word he spun around went back to his mule. We stayed on the road until we reached a jump-off point to our base camp. 
The Navy Lieutenant in charge of the platoon came over, gave us a sheepish grin and asked why we didn't identify ourselves sooner. We replied that after seeing their boat flip over, they had enough problems without worrying about witnesses and jibes. Now the Lieutenant's eyes got real big and he mouthed an "Oh Shit" also. He didn't realize that we saw everything; which meant he might have to explain to his bosses why he didn't bother to secure and waterproof his unit's gear better. We calmed him down by explaining: 1) He owes us, big time. 2) For a 'small' amount of alcohol, we can be bribed. And 3) Just remember to help us out when we "screw the pooch". 

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