SEALs push their way through rugged training

Washington Post:

As Navy Ensign Brandon lay slapped by wave after black wave of frigid Pacific surf, his arms linked with a row of other would-be Navy SEALs, a cold but comforting thought surfaced from his murky consciousness: "No matter what," he reassured himself, "they're not going to kill me."

Shaking uncontrollably in the cold brine, the slight, 22-year-old from Ohio dreaded the nighttime "surf torture" as one of the toughest ordeals of the SEALs' aptly named Hell Week, designed to break down the bodies and wills of all but the steeliest young men.

Today, one of the Pentagon's main dilemmas is how to get more candidates such as Brandon to outlast the trials of selection -- without lowering standards -- as it tries to expand the ranks of SEALs and other elite U.S. military forces for critical missions in the war on terrorism.

Facing their biggest deployments in history, as much as 80 percent of the combat forces of the 53,000-strong U.S. Special Operations Command -- including Navy SEALs, Army Green Berets and Rangers, and Delta Force operatives -- are committed in Iraq, Afghanistan and surrounding countries. That leaves too few for other vital missions, many of them clandestine, such as intelligence gathering and partnering with forces in nations where the United States is not at war, according to senior military officials.

Stepped-up war-zone rotations are cutting into training time, and shortages in the force mean hundreds of Special Operations jobs are unfilled, leading to more reliance on civilian contractors, they said.

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Of all the elite forces, SEALs pose the biggest recruiting challenge. The Pentagon's goal is to add 500 new SEALs in the next two years. Maguire says 2010 is more realistic. But the number of SEAL applicants has dwindled by hundreds in recent years. This year's goal is to bring in 1,400 to try out, but by late April, only 364 had been sent to boot camp, according to Navy statistics. "We're behind the power curve," said Ed Kearl, a Navy recruiting official.

Ground zero for the push to create more SEALs is the rugged beaches and pounding surf off Coronado, where the young men of Basic Under Water Demolition/SEAL (BUD/S) Class 259 found out who had "the right stuff."

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A lengthy description of the tough training follows. Of all the Special forces, the SEAL training is probably the toughest. Even if they could find all the recruits they wanted, it would probably still be a problem getting enough of them to pass the rugged training program. I know they have to do a lot of things I could never do in my prime. I think another reason they do not attract as many recruits is that the potential for leading a large force of men is not as great in a unit tha specializes in small clandestined operation. Those who have ambitions for leading large units choose other careers in the Navy.