Death in Navy SEAL Training Exposes a Culture of Brutality, Cheating and Drugs
Source: New York Times
Death in Navy SEAL Training Exposes a Culture of Brutality, Cheating and Drugs
The elite force’s selection course is so punishing that few make it through, and many of those who do resort to illicit tactics.
By Dave Philipps
For this article, Dave Philipps interviewed, among others, 17 active-duty Navy personnel, including senior leaders, active-duty SEALs and current and former trainees and instructors.
Aug. 30, 2022
Updated 11:03 a.m. ET
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The SEAL teams have faced criticism for decades, both from outsiders and their own Navy leadership, that their selection course, known as Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL training or BUD/S, is too difficult, too brutal, and too often causes concussions, broken bones, dangerous infections and near-drownings. Since 1953, at least 11 men have died.
For just as long, the SEAL teams, who perform some of the military’s most difficult missions, including lightning-fast hostage rescues and the killing of high-level terrorists like Osama Bin Laden, have insisted that having a bare-knuckle rite of passage is vital for producing the kind of unflinching fighters the teams need. Without BUD/S, they argue, there could be no SEALs.
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After Seaman Mullen died, the SEAL teams appeared to try to deflect blame from the course and frame the incident as a freak occurrence. Though Seaman Mullen had coughed up blood for days and had needed oxygen, the Navy announced that he and the man who was intubated were “not actively training when they reported symptoms,” and that neither “had experienced an accident or unusual incident” during Hell Week.
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Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/30/us/navy-seal-training-death.html
Non-paywalled link: https://news.yahoo.com/death-navy-seal-training-exposes-120332307.html
