Basic Underwater Demolition School

NAVSPECWARCEN Coronado, California

"Hoo-YAH feels good - Hoo-YAH �feels GREAT!"

Side-by-side, their arms linked, the snake-like row of men in green fatigues stood waist-deep in the murky water under the clear, midday sky. There was no emotion on any of the 24 faces - their chafed and battered bodies hurt too badly for that.

After four hours' sleep in five days, all the concentration they could muster was riveted on the man standing on the sea wall above them. Despite the fatigue, despite the pain, they stood poised to perform at his command.

The only sound was the lapping of wavelets against the wall. Suddenly, the man shouted: "Sing 'Gilligan's Island'!"

"It's Mind Over Matter Gentlemen - If I Don't Mind - It Doesn't Matter!" - A Favorite BUDS�Instructor's Saying

In perfect unison, but slightly flat, the men sang: "Now sit right down and you'll hear a tale, a tale of a fateful trip...." They droned on to a close: ". . . heeeere on Gilligan's liiiiisle."

Then silence fell again. Finally, the man spoke again: "BUDS Class 147, secure from Hell Week!"

The men were stunned. They had done it. Slowly the grim-faced trainees let the emotion well up from their water-logged feet to their hollow eyes. Some cheered, some laughed, some cried. Those who couldn't climb out of the water were lifted out by jubilant classmates.

"The Only Easy Day Was Yesterday." - A Famous BUDS "Motto"

Hell Week is the highlight of Phase One, the physical conditioning phase of Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL training. During the five-day whirlwind of non-stop action, the students are pushed beyond what they thought their limits were.

"During the first three weeks, we're conditioning them for Hell Week. That's the toughest week at BUDS," said one instructor, Lt. Steve Simet of Pierre, S.D. "We test their mental skills and physical conditioning, and we observe the student to see how much he can take."

From the mud flats of south San Diego Bay to the demolition pits at Camp Elliott to the punishing obstacle course within sight of the posh Hotel del Coronado, the would-be SEALs learn the value of cool-headedness, perseverance, and, above all, teamwork.

"There were times when I didn't even want to move anymore, but the other guys had the spark," said BUDS student SMSN James T. Ruppenthal of Concord, Calif. "We held each other together. If somebody was losing his wind in the boat, someone else would take care of him and the other four would bring up the stroke."

"Log P.T." (Physical Training/Physical Torture) - �if you've ever�been there, you'll swear it was "torture"

Class 147 was only the third BUDS class to earn the "no bell" prize, so named because any student can ring a brass bell three times if he wants to quit. "The class has to be really tight, with good leaders and good students, to win the 'no bell,' " said Simet. "In this class we had strong officers who the men looked up to a lot. That helped them pull through Hell Week without anybody quitting."

Officers and enlisted men go through the same training, Simet said, except the officers get more respect. "By this I mean we say, 'Yes, sir. No, sir. Sir, do this. Sir, do that. Sir, get wet. Sir, get down in the mud," he chuckled.

Simet said that when there is a question of leadership, the instructors actually come down harder on the officer students. "If you're in an emergency situation in a SEAL team, you want a guy who can react on a moment's notice with the right decision," he emphasized.

To an outsider, BUDS training in general and Hell Week in particular look like cruel punishment, but Simet said the students' mental and physical stress level is carefully calculated.

Ruppenthal described one confusing drill he went through. "We thought they were playing head games with us," he said, describing some very strange exercises. "They kept blowing the whistle, we kept falling down every 30 yards, covering our ears, opening our mouths and crossing our legs." The class later learned that this position will help protect them from a nearby explosion.

"They're always wondering what we're going to do next," Simet said. "That's good. It keeps them so sharp that we just snap our fingers and they're doing what they should."

Because he was taught how to react in all situations he could encounter as a SEAL, Ruppenthal said he trusts the instructors not to hurt him. "Crawling under the barbed wire in the demo pit with simulated charges going off and smoke everywhere, I thought how I could actually be doing this in some combat situation," he said. "You can't get up, you can't scream. You have to think of what you need to do to get out of that situation."

Thinking under pressure is a must for BUDS students, according to HMC Calvin A. "Andy" Dalton, the senior corpsman in Phase Two training. "They don't necessarily have to tolerate a terrible amount of pain, but they have to be able to think through a problem, whether they're under stress or not," he said.

Dalton said all Hell Week students are checked daily by a corpsman. "Their systems are pretty well stressed, so they're susceptible to infections," he said.

The biggest danger to BUDS students is stress fractures, according to Dalton. "The corpsmen are always after them to come in right away if they feel anything, because if it's caught early it can be handled," he said. "A lot of these kids wait, because they don't want to start over again. They'll try to run on an injury and it'll get worse."

That kind of attitude will not get a student through BUDS, Ruppenthal said. "The instructors tell us, 'Rambo types don't make it,' " he said.

According to Simet, the ideal BUDS student is between 5-foot-8 and 6-foot-1, weighing from 150-190 pounds. "He's got a medium build, and he's somebody who can just go and go and go," he said.

"The biggest difficulty is the mental aspect of BUDS - getting up the confidence to know you can make it through," Simet said. "If we see a guy 0 whose confidence is wavering, we can pick it out right away. I think we ought to be psychologists sometimes."

On Average, 70% of BUDS students choose to "ring-the-bell" and drop out from training on their own. They are then sent back to the fleet to finish their time with the Navy.

The Phase One instructors use "confidence builders" like 25-yard underwater swims. "Once they do that, their confidence starts building. If we can get them to do a 50-yard swim, and in most cases we can, their confidence is way up again," Simet said.

Ruppenthal said the 50-yard underwater swim was his low point in BUDS. "I kept quitting," he said. "I couldn't handle an evolution that I now feel isn't all that difficult." Ruppenthal was rolled back to the next class, where he had to face the same test.

"The instructors told me, 'Everybody else here has done it. We've done it. There's no reason why you can't do it.' My high point was passing the swim the first time I tried with my next class," he said.

"I'm getting it into my head that the limitations I used to carry were needless," Ruppenthal said. "Anybody can make it through here if they want to do it."

- Story By J02 David Masci, NIRA Det 5

Home
BUD/S Training
Email from SEALs (present and past)!
Official BUD/S Warning Order!
Navy SEAL Weapons (Basic Gunnery)