For background, I'm retired Navy, and while I never worked with any seals, I hear a little more than most...

Anyway, it seems that the Seals suffer from the same problem that the Nuclear Power program "used"* to have. It's tough to even get in, and they have a high attrition rate. They take more pride in the latter.

That being said, while I've heard stories of steroid abuse of people actually in the Seals, it surprises me that they would be taking performance enhancers -during- training. I would have thought that:

1) it couldn't happen because of screening anything the trainees have.
2) Drug screening during training
3) A feeling that those -in- training need to prove how "tough" they are on their own.

Apparently I was wrong...

Still, with an outsiders perspective, no one should be dying or getting seriously injured from training. Sure, the occasional accident will occur, but it is happening way too often. Those on the "inside" however, will probably bitterly fight any attempt to change things.

*I put "used" in quotes because I heard a recruiting talk being given to a bunch of engineers at my company. The officer giving it had said that while attrition used to be about 30%, the yhad decided that it wasn't cost effective (or necessarily "fair" to quickly discard anyone who might have had a different learning style, or had anothe undiscovered issue. Especially if the Navy had already spent tens of thousands of dollars on them... I have no idea how how honest he was being though, and I have no way of fact checking it. He seemed sincere, though... or at least was good at faking sincerity.