Posted on 10/10/2005 1:25:49 PM PDT by neverdem
ASSOCIATED PRESS 1:07 p.m. PT
CORONADO, Calif. -- The Navy SEALs prefer to operate in the shadows, but the Pentagon's need to increase the ranks of the elite terrorist-hunting commando force is prompting an unusually splashy recruiting effort.
Navy SEAL Mitchell Hall, who won a Bronze Star in 2001 in Afghanistan, hopes to use the upcoming Ironman Triathlon in Hawaii to spread the word about the need for more recruits.
The competition will make the 31-year-old chief petty officer a spokesman for the community of self-described quiet professionals and put him in front of the cameras he spent years avoiding.
The change in recruiting methods comes amid the Pentagon's increasing reliance on special operations and the call for a 15 percent increase in SEALs over the next several years.
The SEALs have a legendary reputation as an elite, highly skilled fighting force, but it is hard to find candidates with the necessary physical conditioning.
Just to get a chance to try out, SEAL recruits must swim 500 yards, then breeze through a series of push-ups, sit-ups and pull-ups and run 1.5 miles - all within strict time limits. This year, 500 of the 823 SEAL recruits - or 60 percent - failed the test in the first days of boot camp.
"We can't survive on that any longer," said Master Chief Petty Officer Andy Tafelski, 51, who has a key role in the recruiting effort. "The pipeline has to become more efficient."
For the SEALs, who consider themselves the best of the best, lowering their standards is out of the question.
Hall, 31, will be competing in the Oct. 15 Ironman - a 2.4-mile swim, a 112-mile bike ride and a 26.2-mile marathon - wearing a blue jersey emblazoned with a Navy SEAL insignia. He won the Navy SEAL's Superfrog Triathalon in September and now his goal is to finish among the top 100 in Hawaii's Ironman.
"When I'm out there at hour five or whatever it is, and I feel like I'm hurting pretty bad, I've had experience with the same things doing activities in the SEALs," he said.
To boost the SEALs' ranks, the Navy is also working with recruiters to begin testing potential SEALs before they get to boot camp and making sure they have the physical skills. Mentors will work with those who qualify to prepare them for what comes next.
Every SEAL must finish one of the world's toughest entrance exams, a six-month training program that typically weeds out three of every four candidates.
The Navy also is creating a SEAL rating - a formal job description -that should allow candidates to more quickly begin formal SEAL training. Previously, SEALs - the name stands for Sea, Air, Land - had to attend school to learn traditional jobs held by Navy sailors.
Driving the changes is the need to add 400 men by fiscal 2008, bringing the total number of SEALs from 2,600 to about 3,000. Special operations units in the Army and Air Force also are planning to increase their ranks, and U.S. Special Operations Command is offering bonuses of up to $150,000 to keep the most experienced operators from bolting to the more lucrative public sector.
The SEALs are looking to the fill the grueling Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL training program at Coronado, outside San Diego, to its full capacity of 850 students - something that has never happened, Tafelski said.
On the Net:
http://www.navy.mil/seal
http://vnews.ironmanlive.com
Interesting. Thanks for posting this, neverdam.
After a few minutes, the seal recruits asked him what he was searching for.
In a growl, the chef responded, "a war."
God bless our warriors.
I didn't see anything in that article about a "public recruiting effort" on behalf of the SEALs. Terribly misleading headline.
Just as an FYI - there are two National Guard Special Forces Groups (and 5 Active Duty Special Forces Groups). The NG Guard Groups don't get any retention bonus monies...
If I were 15 years younger right now I think I'd go for it - but they wouldn't take me now. I think I'm stuck with being a digital warrior. ;-)
ping
if you're gonna join to fight.... join the best.
At least you're in a group of fellers that want the same thing you want..... to accomplish the mission, come home.............. and blow up as much sh#t as possible...hahahahahahaha
They should advertise here
http://www.ironmanusa.com/
"For the SEALs, who consider themselves the best of the best..."
Not counting Marine RECON!
And all of them pale when compareed to a certain, unpublicized US Army Special Forces detachment ;)
But they can dream, can't they?
For a group that prefers to "operate in the shadows", they sure show up on The Discovery Channel a lot ;)
Because today's men can't hack it anymore and would rather get feminized at some stupid liberal university.
Honestly, the SEALs should be seeking prison inmates serving time for bank robberies, auto thefts, and breaking and enterings. Not only do they got the physical conditioning from hours lifting weights, they got the street smarts and the mindset. And please don't flame me with stuff that they're not "honorable" and I should be ashamed of myself for mentioning this. The CIA recruited prisoners before; surely Bush could quietly pardon some harden prisoners or ex-cons and let them serve as SEALs.
the forces in charge will now bring on a recessiion to increase the ranks of potential recruits.
But they can dream, can't they?
An inter-service competition would be interesting, and probably more illuminating as to capabilities than the brass would allow.
In any case, it's two different organizations with separate (and somewhat overlapping) missions.
An interesting possibility.
There could be some potential recruits in that pool - people who f***ed up bad in their life - and who can be re-habbed into that lifestyle.
It's worth at least looking into the possibility.
They need to cowboy up and get Dick Marcinko to make some commercials.
Don't laugh. During WWII, 12 criminals were recruited for an important behind-enemy lines mission on the eve of D-Day in which they were tasked with killing a bunch of German officers and their French girlfriends. It worked because one of them, who looked kinda like Jim Brown, dropped some gernades down their air vents. Also, one of the criminals, named Donald Sutherland, got to play a general for a day.
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