Basic SEAL training is six months of long, torturous runs in the soft sand, midnight swims in the cold water off San Diego, obstacles courses, unending calisthenics, days without sleep and always being cold, wet and miserable.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
To me, basic SEAL training was a lifetime of challenges crammed into six months.
What the SEAL teams do, what our training does, is it chips away the outer that layer and shows you what you're capable of and not capable of.
You have to really want to be a Navy SEAL. The passion you need to endure the rigors of training, to become the best of the best... It's admirable.
SEAL training was a great equalizer. Nothing mattered but your will to succeed. Not your color, not your ethnic background, not your education and not your social status.
People think SEALs are cold-blooded, heartless, wound-up, brainwashed killers. They imagine you can just point a SEAL in a direction and say, 'Go kill.' The truth is you're talking about a bunch of kind-hearted, jovial guys. The only thing that separates them is mental toughness.
All SEALS in my mind are equally elite. It doesn't matter if you're SEAL Team Two, One, Six, 10, it doesn't matter. All SEALS are equally elite.
I made that decision back in 1985. I was out here getting certified in SCUBA with Garcia in Kona and I thought to myself, this is a place to wake up in in the morning.
I'm a scuba diver but not certified.
I want to share some insight into why someone would want to be a SEAL. A lot of us faced obstacles growing up. I didn't have any type of real nurturing as a kid. I hope people will relate to my story and go, 'Hey, if this guy can do it, so can I.'
To be a Navy SEAL, it's three and a half years training before you're ever put into harm's way the first time.