Not For the Weak or Fainthearted
Recently, there was an unfortunate fatality at the US Navy’s BUD/S training course. This is where Navy Sailors become SEALs. It is, by reputation, some of the most demanding, challenging, and taxing training that exists in the military. It is designed to be exactly that, and for good reason.
High level training in the military is designed to push you to your limits, physically, mentally, and emotionally. As a student, you will learn where your weaknesses lie and how far you can push yourself. When fatalities occur at this type of training, and they do occur, it is often due to instructors or the structure of the course failing to address an immediate or ongoing issue. Sometimes, it is due to pure negligence. Sometimes it is just a plain old accident.
I am not here to pass judgement on the Navy, the instructors, or the students that were in the BUD/S course when that student died. This is about the necessity and quality of training and why, even with the risk of death, it MUST remain as challenging as it is. We cannot soften the training these warriors receive. It would do them, and their teammates, a disservice and put their lives at risk.
I went through US Army Ranger School in 1996. I was 23 years old, 192 lbs, and in the best shape of my life when I walked through the front gate. The next 89 days would be the most challenging experience of my life. Period. We were purposefully deprived of sleep and food. When I graduated, I was down to 155 lbs. Yes, I lost 37 lbs in 89 days. We averaged 4 hours or less sleep per day. Ask my parents what I looked like when I came home just a few days after graduation. It wasn’t pretty.
There is an Army sentiment, expressed a bunch of different ways, that says “you don’t get better at being miserable through practice”. It’s true. You may be able to tolerate more misery, longer but it is still miserable. We weren’t practicing being miserable at Ranger School, even with the food and sleep deprivation. What we were doing was learning how to push ourselves to LEAD and to FOLLOW under the worst conditions. You can’t fake those conditions. You have to live them. You cannot replicate exhaustion. You cannot replicate hunger on the verge of starvation. You have to live it. And then you have to learn to LEAD through it.
Why? Why would you volunteer for training like that? (Yes, every Ranger student is a volunteer)
Because that is the closest thing you can do in training to replicate some of challenges you will face in combat. I was confident after Ranger School that I could lead under the worst conditions, because I had done it. I knew how far my body could be pushed, because I had done it. I knew how long I could function without sleep, because I had done it. The time to find out where your limits are is NOT in combat, especially as a leader when you are responsible for more lives than just your own.
When you train like that, pushing yourself to your very limits, sometimes bad things happen. Sometimes, unfortunately, people are injured. Sometimes, more unfortunately, people die. I am not downplaying the loss of life. Not at all. But, there is a reason behind that type of training. It isn’t for the fun of it, I assure you. It is to SAVE lives in the long run. It is to SAVE lives when bullets start flying for real.
This type of training is the best our military has to offer. It cannot change for the sake of people’s feelings. It cannot become soft so that more people can attend and pass.
This training MUST continue to be what it is….Not For the Weak or Fainthearted.