We know all about the BUD/S – what it takes to get there, how difficult it is to go through it, and how many actually end up finishing it. Graduation from BUD/S is truly an accomplishment and a momentous moment, but then – what now?
A truly highly-skilled and competent SEAL is a man five years in the making. BUD/S is but a tiny portion of those five years, albeit an essential one as it is where it all begins. At the BUD/S, the SEAL hopeful is transformed as an individual to become worthy of being called a SEAL.
At this point, the SEAL proceeds to SQT, or SEAL Qualification Training. For four months, the new SEAL will learn to operate as part of a unit, an elite team. It will primarily focus on the basics but will take the skill of the individual and take it up a notch. The training will begin with classroom instruction on mission planning and intelligence gathering and reporting. After that, they will begin learning the major skills required in conducting SEAL missions, among them hydrographic reconnaissance, maritime operations, field medicine and combat swimming.
SEALs will spend time training for skills required for missions in the air: daytime and evening static line jumps, fastrope techniques, rapelling, and using the Special Insertion/Extraction (SPIE) rig, which will allow SEAL extraction by air when an area is not suitable for a helicopter to land in.
Combat swimming – perhaps what the SEALs are most known for – will take trainees through over 25 daytime and evening compass dives, starting from basic skills then progressing towards embarking on full-profile mission mode.
Training in land warfare will allow new SEALs to hone their skills in patrolling, stalking and military demolition, among others.
The training is intense – it will not be a SEAL training program if it was not. After all, one of the things that are ever true for the SEAL is: “The more your sweat in peacetime, the less you bleed in war.” SEALs train hard in order to ensure that they are ready to take on whatever reality has to throw at them out in the field.
