A few years ago, the Discovery Channel did a great episodic documentary on SEAL training where they followed a class through the start of BUD/S (Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL) training. It was pretty brutal. One hour-long episode centered on the infamous “Hell Week”, a week during which sleep is minimal. Although popular myth seemed to be that Hell Week was a week entirely without sleep, that’s not wholly true; one group’s reward for good performance was a half-hour “standing nap”. And, they did get a few hours periodically, usually after being driven to the point of exhaustion.
The training instructors, as I recall, made the point that the idea of sleep deprivation is not to torture the trainees without reason; in SEAL training, everything happens for a reason. One goal, of course, is to evaluate their performance under combat stress situations. Instructors want to see how individuals’ attention to detail, which can cost lives in real combat, suffers when they’re under extreme stress. To that end, instructors try to create situations where the performance of certain tasks becomes automatic and unthinking. They want soldiering tasks to truly become second nature. Also, they wanted to train them so that when they do sleep, it’s a light sleep from which they can be roused quickly and easily back to full readiness.
They rerun the documentary periodically on the Discovery Military Channel. Look for “BUD/S Class 234”. Or buy it here on sale for twenty bucks. And watch for “Old Misery”.
One of the women I work with is married to an instructor for survival training. He teached Canadians, Americans and the Brits in arctic, jungle and desert survival.
She says that althought the trainees do not have to eat insects, the instructors do take the time to point out edible plants and insects in case they should find themselves needing to survive on it.
One of the women I work with is married to an instructor for survival training. He teaches Canadians, Americans and the Brits in arctic, jungle and desert survival.
She says that althought the trainees do not have to eat insects, the instructors do take the time to point out edible plants and insects in case they should find themselves needing to survive on it.
You made me go back and look, and even though it doesn’t say handcuffed, I’d be willing to say I could still do it since they are allowed to use fins. I have no intention of trying though.
I have heard (of two cases) where these 'elite" units have actually screwed things up!
In the Falklands War: a unit of SAS commandos were tasked with capturing the island of South georgia from the Argentine forces. Going against the advice of scientists and locals, the team decided to land on a glacier! They almost froze to death, and their rescue (by regulkar soldiers), set back the battle plans.
In the invasion of Grenada (US operation), several SEALS drowned because they underestimated distance and currents, as they swam to the beach-the others got lost, and slowed down the landing of the regular troops.
So, even though these guys are trained to be “rambos”-they still make mistakes!
Strangely enough I do not recall. I think it was in an article from Jane’s. I did a lot of war gaming when I was in the Navy and these discussions happened often. I did mention it was back in the Eighties I think. You will have to pardon my lack of recall. It was around the same time that the Navy Fighter Pilots were rated #1. These were popular factoids on board a carrier stationed near the SEAL base in San Diego.
I understand if you cannot, but do you have any reference for this? I never heard of that connected to Granada. I understood the SEALs did quite well and had no losses.
I just want to jump into say that all of you interested in this type of survival training should watch the series *Man vs. Wild * on the Discovery Channel. The star is a former British Special Air Service member. He basically gets dropped off in a secluded part of the world with absolutely nothing. He uses his survival skills and knowledge to get by. I’m not into outdoorsy-type stuff, but I find this series fascinating.
Thanks – not doubting, I was just curious about who would generate such rankings. For a second I thought that maybe *US News and World Report * was trying to diversify beyond their college rankings.
Buh? All the lap pools that I’ve seen in the US (read: rectangular with the lines on the bottom, not the amoeba shaped ones in your backyard) are measured in meters. We call them Olympic pools, and they’re typically 25m or 50m long.
And… it’s been a loooong time since my days on the high school swim team, but our coach would regularly assign me to the 500m race (god I hated those), and I’m pretty darn sure I managed to finish in under 15 minutes, so 1200m would be doable. 50m underwater, it’d take some practice; I used to be able to do 1.5 laps without coming up for air in my best shape.
But the bay/ocean swims would kick my ass. :eek: I hated fins because I always got foot cramps.
No, the majority of pools in the US are 25 yard pools. There are some 50 meter pools, many times in colleges. The majority of races in the US are also done in yards, though they are starting to move into meters as well. If you look at the USA Swimming you will see races for short course yards and long course (50 meters).
Outside of the US though they are all either 20, 25, or 50 meters. Also there is no such thing as an Olympic pool, people use the term to mean almost any pool. There is an Olympic distance, which is 50 meters. FWIW I am a competitive swimmer.
It doesn’t matter how much of a superman you are in other ways, nobody can withstand sleep deprivation forever. If you take a guy who’s had 8 hours sleep in the last 7 days, and you put him out on an ambush watch, he will fall asleep. Or worse, fall into a semi-waking dream state and maybe shoot some friendlies by mistake. This is the reason for sleep deprivation in military training… it is a limiting resource to plan and ration, like food or ammunition, and leaders need to know how to manage it. Of course, that being said, nobody in Ranger school has learned this yet, so yeah, a lot of sleep loss.
