Wooden platform and ropes setup for military training exercises against blue sky with clouds.

Navy Seals

IMAGES ARE PART OF MY PUBLISHED BOOK "THE ONLY EASY DAY WAS YESTERDAY: MAKING NAVY SEALS" WHICH ENTAILS THE INSPIRING STORY OF YOUNG AMERICAN SAILORS CONFRONTING THE CHALLENGE OF A LIFETIME. THESE SERIES OF PICTURES CAPTURES HUMAN ENDEAVOR IN ITS MOST ELEMENTAL FORM THE DAUNTING PHYSICAL CHALLENGE OF BUD/S TRAINING. MORE IMPORTANT CAPTURING THE MENTAL AND EMOTIONAL STRUGGLES WHICH TEST THE HEARTS AND SOULS OF BUD/S STUDENTS. TRAINEES DON’T JUST FACE OCCASIONAL CHALLENGES; THEY’RE IMMERSED IN THEM LIKE THE SEAWATER THEY LIVE IN FOR 30 WEEKS.

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Silhouettes of soldiers standing in formation against a dusky sky.

Darkness falls: Class 246 lines the crest of a sand berm to salute the sun. This tradition serves to accelerate the DOR process by reminding students that after the sun sets, the punishment gets worse. After nightfall,

students have a harder time staying awake, outside temperatures drop, the ocean feels colder, and the nastiest instructors take over.

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Military trainees navigate through ocean waves during water survival training.

A distant storm kicks up swells near

the Coronado base providing instructors with a new way to challenge students: IBS drills on the ocean rollers.

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Military personnel in uniform work together to carry a heavy log during beach training exercises.

A wet log tests the strength, patience, and resolve of a struggling boat team.

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Swimmers in lanes performing swimming drills with caps and goggles.

Synchronicity: BUD/S trainees await instructions in the CTT. From sunrise to sunset, Class 246 will move as a

flock in the water and on land. On the first day of Indoc, students pair up with a swim buddy. Straying more than six feet from a designated partner is one of the more serious infractions at BUD/S.

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Night training exercise with flares illuminating dark sky over water.

An instructor signals the commencement of breakout, or the beginning of Hell Week, with mock machine gun fire, flares, and flash grenades. Fire trucks parked outside the compound dowse the grinder with heavy spray as trainees abruptly wake from an uncomfortable sleep. The Guns and Roses anthem “Welcome to the Jungle” blares from speakers surrounding the compound, shaking the ground beneath the feet of startled tadpoles.

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Group performing pushups in formation during intense military training.

Before Class 246 proceeds to Third Phase for demolitions and tactics training, Second Phase instructors offer them a going away present: one last beat-down session on the grinder.

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Divers in black wetsuits training in blue water with swimming gear.

A student labors through a 5.5 nautical mile (nm) swim. As the ocean floor drops off to 300-foot depths, the water turns black and frigid and the four- to six-hour swim becomes numbing and exhausting.

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Military training exercise conducted at dusk with red lighting conditions.

An instructor reprimands a weary student who failed to cross the rope bridge course—one of the very last obstacles in Hell Week—on time. As punishment, his entire team must cross the grimy pit again.

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Navy SEALs practice underwater combat training exercises in a pool with scuba gear.

The vagaries of underwater survival and safety terrify some students who never quite get used to depending on oxygen tanks or handling submarine stress. Class 246 loses 15 students during the first three weeks of Second Phase.

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Military training facility interior with long hallway and columns.

Psychologically and physically, the drop-on-request, (DOR) bell is ever present for BUD/S Class 246. Students who call it quits signal their departure with three rings, a sound which serves to constantly remind survivors that they’ve outlasted one more of their colleagues. It also reminds them that there’s an easy way out of the guaranteed pain and misery ahead. This student is standing near the bell for some “remediation,” and was not dropping out.

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Swimmers perform coordinated underwater drills in a bright blue swimming pool.

Students practice a combat swim stroke, a low-profile movement used to avoid detection by sentries. SEALs keep both arms at least 3 inches below the surface of the water at all times to prevent ripples and wakes. This style of swimming is slow but uses very little energy.

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Military personnel traverse a rugged hillside terrain during a training exercise at sunset.

San Clemente Island, or “The Rock,” is Class 246’s playground during the final weeks of Third Phase. Between IAD and demolitions training exercises, the students jog through the island’s golden hills and grit their way through the O-course, the toughest course in BUD/S.

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Military personnel lined up in formation during training exercises.

Steely determination: With each passing day, the men of BUD/S Class 246 grow more confident and a little closer to becoming U.S. Navy SEALs

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Exhausted military trainee covered in mud and sand during intensive training.

Just when class 246 thought it couldn’t get any sandier, an instructor introduces a “mouth wash drill”, which is fairly self-explanatory

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People running across an empty concrete plaza casting long shadows.

Two swim buddies decked out inneoprene dive suits cross the grinder, or blacktop training area. Throughout

BUD/S, movement between exercises always occurs at a running pace—even trips to the bathroom and mess hall.

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Military personnel conducting nighttime training exercises with red lights visible.

During Hell Week, trainees carry their 185-pound IBS with them nearly everywhere. After surf torture, the class breaks into teams and heads out for a six-mile elephant run to Imperial Beach. Just two minutes into the run a boat crew loses a man to the temptation of the DOR bell, forcing the team to shoulder his share of the boat’s weight.

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Military personnel conducting stealth training exercises in tall grass.

Moment of reflection: Wandering through alpine meadows and forested glens, students can’t help but notice nature’s quiet beauty. Blossoming fields of Queen Anne’s Lace and poppies provide a stunning distraction from the day’s tactical drills in the Laguna Mountains.

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Individual tumbling through rough ocean waves during maritime training exercise.

After second breakout, a student barrels back into the surf for a mandatory wake-up bath..

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Red emergency flares illuminate a dark scene with military silhouettes in combat formation.

Flares serve as tiki torches at the End of The Island party held on the final evening of Third Phase. Students and instructors unwind with kegs of beer and a barbeque. It’s the first time in seven months that instructors and students interact as equals, and maybe even friends.

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Large group of military trainees posed together on beach during sunset.

Back on the familiar sands of Coronado Beach—the site of their harrowing Hell Week ordeals—Class 246 poses before their last physical evolution of BUD/S, a “Hooyah run” with the Skipper, Captain Smethers.

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Military personnel in white naval uniforms stand in formation during a ceremony.

Class 246 has the final word at their

graduation ceremony: “Hooyah!”

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