Posted on 05/08/2011 5:20:44 AM PDT by stevie_d_64
As soon as Jack Walston heard that bin Laden had been killed, he guessed a Navy SEAL pulled the trigger.
Walston, 45, of Shore Acres, retired from the Navy SEALs in 1996. He now runs a fitness company, Original Navy SEAL P.T. Course Inc., which offers military-style workouts to civilians in Houston and New York City.
"These guys are mentally and physically tough men," he said of SEALs. "These aren't guys that come handing out flowers and bandages and candy. When they show up they mean business, and they're not there to console you. They're there to take you out. And I'm glad that we have tough men who are willing to do that job."
Two dozen commandos from the secretive, "all-star" SEAL Team 6 raided bin Laden's compound on May 1 and left with the terrorist mastermind's body, along with documents, computers and other evidence. Interest in Navy SEALs has spiked ever since, driving a 1,000 percent increase in traffic to Walston's website.
'Tougher, meaner' The acronym SEAL stands for Sea, Air & Land. President John F. Kennedy founded the elite force in 1962. Prominent former SEALs who live in the Houston area include Iraq and Afghanistan veteran Marcus Luttrell, co-author of Lone Survivor, and Vietnam veteran Michael Thornton, who earned the Medal of Honor for saving the life of another SEAL in 1972.
Walston spent three and half years serving as a Navy corpsman assigned to the Marine Corps before he decided he wanted to become a SEAL.
"I really liked the nature of the work and I heard the grass was greener, and there was a group of guys who were supposedly a lot tougher, meaner and stronger," Walston said. "I wanted to find out if I'd be able to make it through their training."
(Excerpt) Read more at chron.com ...
Delta Force was involved in the raid on Bin Laden’s compound?
Wow, that’s the first I had heard. I thought it was an all-Navy SEAL operation.
“Sheesh. No wonder they say their’s is the toughest in the military, probably in the world.”
From what I’ve read, the tests necessary to become part of the US Army’s Delta Force are incredibly strenuous too. Eric Haney detailed a lot of it in his book “Inside Delta Force”.
Regardless of whose testing is toughest, I’m so very glad we have people like that protecting us!
DEVGRU and the Army's Delta Force train together and deploy together on counter-terrorist missions usually as part of a joint special operations task force (JSOTF).[3][7][15][16]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DEVGRU
De oppresso liber.
That was the UDT teams. They didn’t specialize in direct action roles until JFK created the SEALs.
FWIW, I took my 78 year-old neighbor shooting this Saturday. He was with UDT 2 at Inchon. Loved shooting my CAR-15 and Glock.
It’s a lot more than just the # of pushups etc. It’s a lot of other stress and phobia testing. Fear of heights, claustrophobia etc to ANY degree means a drop from BUD/S. BUD/S trainees (I was one) swim laps in a pool with feet tied together and hands tied behind the back. And get stuff off the bottom of the deepend with their teeth, while so bound. That’s just one example in one area. You can be an olympic athlete. That does NOT mean you can do all of the many many stress and phobia tests in every area you can imagine.
See 47, and let me add to your comment. The BUD/S screening physical is hard but not too hard, deliberately. A lot of sailors are coming from a destroyer or sub etc. To start them off on day one at a third-month pace (in any activity, running, swimming etc) would mean that the sailors who just spent months in shore duty working out all day would have way too much of an advantage, but really proving nothing but that they started in better shape. The run/swim/o-course times decrease weekly, while the calisthenic reps increase. It’s more mental than physical, if by physical you mean run/swim times. It’s the heart and the mindset that cound much more. And not having an phobias or weaknesses. They must be well rounded. A olympian stud with an achilles heel will NOT make it.
Special Forces training is just as arduous as SEAL training. The reason for the higher fail rate in SEALs is twofold primarily.
1) Special Forces recruits historically come from Ranger, Airborne and Infantry units, where they have already been exposed to some of the physical/mental toughening that they will encounter in SF Training.
Conversely, Naval SEAL recruits don’t have the “training ground” of units that will prepare recruits for the unbelievably tough training they will encounter in SEAL Training.
2) Although SF has swimming and scuba training, much of this happens in the Teams. In SEAL training, due to task niche, SEALs have much more endurance swimming and SCUBA which deselects people not familiar or comfortable with the water and underwater environment.
Needless to say, our Special Operations guys are the best in the world, especially with our technological advantages of time sensitive intel, entry and extraction and communication, command and control.
Yes, the Israelis, Germans and Brits are right up there...but I’ll take our guys any day of the week. I like the American fighting man and his creativity today and everyday.
They must be well rounded. A olympian stud with an achilles heel will NOT make it.
Yep...
My achilles heel was that I found out I was a little clostraphobic (sp?)...
They were interested in how it made me feel, I simply told them I felt like I always needed to know I had a way out of something...I could take getting into something tight, but I just needed a way out...
Its another reason I didn’t go to Subs...
I still felt like I had a great career though...Learned a lot, experienced a lot, served with some great people all up and down the chain...
If they ever could create a pill for clostraphobia, my career could have taken a different path...
You must be one of those ‘Amish’ fellows we hear so much about on the FReerepublic! 8)
Maybe you were one of those warriors that were covering MY a$$ in nam?
Cheers!
Good one — circulated.
Id imagine swimming while hogtied would wash out a considerable percentage, as would all the other deliberate phobia enhanced training requirements...
LOL...I wish I could take credit for that, I can’t remember who posted it, but I laughed for a couple of days every time I thought of it. I just liked the “US Navy SEALS like this...” at the bottom...:)
All of the military Sec Ops (Army, Navy, Air Force & Marine) branches are tough as hell, and the entrance qualifications are pretty much the same for all. Those that can survive the cut, then then go on to their individual specialties, but none of them who are any tougher then the others. They are all tough, physically and mentally.
Still ugly, but I have your back. ;^) Thank you, Sir for you for your service and God bless you and all the military teams.
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