I was reviewing the SEALs physical standards and requirements, are they the most physically demanding or is there another elite unit which has openly published a more demanding set of guidelines?
– IG
I’m not sure what you were reviewing, but there’s a lot of nonsense or out-of-date information out there about criteria. (I recently overheard some jerkwad sitting next to me at a bar how he’d just completed S.E.R.E. training up at Vandenberg AFB, and they had to eat live bugs, blah blah blah. Uh, no, dipface, the Air Force doesn’t do S.E.R.E. at VAFB, and nobody eats live insects, and clearly you’re not a flyer, so shut the hell up before someone who has actually done survival training and been out in the field walks over and hands you your head.)
I’m not a SEAL, or indeed, even in the military, but back when I knew a few folk who were, the consensus seemed to be that the British Special Air Service and Special Boat Service (roughly equivilent to U.S. Army Delta and Navy SEAL SpecOps) were the standard against which other special operations/counterterrorism units were measured; this was more than two decades ago, however, so that really says nothing about standards today.
So, a totally useless answer for you. I’m not even sure why I bothered offering it, but there you have it.
Stranger
Share the link to what you’re looking at, please.
Th unpublished standards are apparently pretty hard as well. In the U.S. military, SFOD-D (aka Delta Force) is modeled after the British SAS, who along with the SBS are arguably the gold standard for elite miltary units. Delta selection is probably at least the equal of SEAL BUDs training, and maybe even worse. After prescreening PT tests and during the actual selection, they’ll have to undergo stress tests and marches that they’re never told the standards of, just “do it, we’ll tell you if you pass or not.” The standards themselves are a carefully kept secret and never revealed, even after one passes. Those participating in selection are usually already Airborne, Green Berets, or Rangers, and only a small fraction of them will make it.
This is what I was looking at. It does not suggest that they are the most physically demanding, just to be clear. I was simply wondering.
http://www.navyseals.com/community/navyseals/navysealworkout_main.cfm
– IG
You haven’t given us any definition of “physically demanding”, so your question has no answer. Generally the training process for these folks encompass far more than mere trials of physical endurance anyway.
In the 80s the Seals were rated the #1 overall effective special unit in the world. This did not however mean the most physically grueling training program. What made Seals #1 was a very tough physical training combined with both top notch combat skills, diving & swimming skills, jumping out of helos, hand to and combat training, sniper training, and at least one highly specialize rate along the lines of Combat engineer, underwater demo, Corpsman, electrician, etc.
The Israeli’s had the #2 unit at the time, but I do not recall the name of the unit. I do not believe it was Massad, but some other Special Forces group.
I have no clue to the current #1 Special Forces unit; it could well still be the Seals.
When I was in the service, SEAL teams used to practice taking out ships in docks. I do not have the exact details, but one night when I was on duty in DC central, a SEAL teams swarmed over the sponsons, effectively got past all but one sponson watch who manage to squeak out a short word of warning before being subdued.
The first two SEALs had apparently already secured MarDet* by this point and they got the bridge before they were able to secure it. In DC central, I got permission from the EDO to rig casualty power cables to the 2 hatches into DC Central** so the hatch would have to be blown open. Meantime the Waterking***, was standing by with a fire axe. We successfully held DC central past the SEAL teams time window and so partially foiled their assault. I was told that it was only 7 SEALs in the assault team. The ones that took out MarDet went on to simulate blowing up two ammo lockers.
I understand that in a similar test, the Connie did worse.
Jim
- The Marine Detachment
** Damage Control Central: Below decks, central control area for Engineering Watches. The (EDO) Engineering Duty Officers oversees the Water King, Oil King, Load Dispatcher, Duty Election Mate, and others for ships operations and damage control.
*** A Senior Hull-Tech in charge of coordinating Fire fighting, Pumping water and Ballast
The pushups and chinups don’t look terribly challenging compared to the insane swimming.
Damn SEALS.
Which is why it is in IMHO and not GQ. If I had a factual basis on which to research, I would have put it there. This question was one of general musing and I welcome any metric by which to rate the special forces or military units.
– IG
It takes a lot of effort to balance a beach ball on one’s nose.
I spend a lot of time as a Seal and it doesn’t seem so bad. In fact, I just went 8 and 1 in a respawn match. And I’m not in shape at all!
Seal Richard Marcinko, author of Rouge Warrior, said other teams were good. but the only group he thought were true brother warriors were the Grenzschutzgruppe 9 (GSG-9)
The thing I never understood about special forces training was the demand that recruits get by on almost no sleep. I think the Rangers go 30 days with two hours of sleep a night. The other stuff I can understand. Probably anyone who has done a triathalon in competitive time could do the SEAL stuff (with the exception of the ball balancing 
) but how can anyone, no matter how motivated or well conditioned get by with so little sleep? Anyone know anything about this? Are they allowed to sneak in little naps as long as they don’t get caught? Are the standards much different than what I heard?
I never knew about the sleep deprivation, but I can see the usefulness of training to operate under such conditions. If they are dropped into an extremely hostile environment, they may not have the luxury of sleep. Going through this ahead of time could same lives on a real mission.
It is not as extreme but during some underway Sea periods, I went 2-3 weeks on 2-4 hours sleep and a few catnaps. We were doing engineering and damage control exercises while I was training for a more advance watch. It was tough, but I had the luxury of unlimited bad coffee, coca cola and the occasional Vibrum.
I would not want to go 30 days on two hours sleep, but I suppose it is possible and might save lives or allow missions to be completed. I would guess this is one of those worst case training scenarios, that they desperately hope would never be called upon in a real situation.
Jim
Well, the girls down at the beauty salon are no slouches, either.
I just want to point out that the google ads are currently for “rubber seals and gaskets” and “bonded seals–standard and metric in stock”
I suppose those are really tough seals…
(Me, I just use duct tape.)
A friend of mine who was a sergeant in the Rangers said his unit went through all the Special Forces training on a kind of exchange program; he felt the Seal training was the most challenging because the swimming requirement (particularly the underwater drills) totally kicked his ass.
Which for me would be the easiest. I don’t seem to get some of the swimming and times. From the SEALS link, there was a 1200 meter swim in 45 minutes. I would think that almost anyone could do that, and it was in a pool. Though finding a meter pool in the US is a bit odd, I guess they have them on base. But then it goes to the one mile in a bay in 50 minutes. If you can’t do the 1200 meters in 45 minutes then you’re not going to make the other 400 meters in the next 5 minutes. Then they add 20 minutes for the next 1/2 mile.
I would think a lot of people wanting to be SEALS would come from some sort of swimming background, even if it’s just playing in the pool all summer. Maybe I should join as I can do all the swimming except the 50 meter underwater swim, and still have time left over, which I would need for the run.
Qualifications:
- My USAF experience is well over a decade out of date
- I was never qualified for flight duty (hell, I spent my 4 years on bases without an operational flight line - that’s how far away they kept me from the flyie-thingies.)
- I did not personally undergo survival training
Having said that, I met quite a few people who did have to do survival training (i.e. flight personnel), and living off the land (including using insects for protein sources) was a common thread for all of them. Unless this was a grand hoax perpetrated by the survival school and all of its attendees, I’m liable to believe it. And yes, that was the most asked question from any ground-bound zoomie to any flying zoomie; “Did they really make you eat bugs?”
Capt. Scott O’Grady who was downed in Kosovo back in the late 1990s mentioned how survival training, including insect-eating, helped him survive six days on the ground with leaves, ants and rainwater, in his book, Basher Five-Two.
Still, SERE school is at Fairchild AFB in Washington (I had to look it up - I remembered Washington only, which eliminates Vandenberg), so it was likely the dude was nothing but hot air.
I went to survival school a couple of years ago. We didn’t eat any bugs because they said it was too cold to find any out (it was late December. They’re the reason why I now hate snow with a passion), but the SERE instructor did say that if there were any out, that he would have made us eat them.
Oh, and they made me roll around in mud. I do not like to get dirty!