We went as far as refreshing water-based combat skills with another round of the combat swimmer course for the Navy SEALs platoon training yesterday. Once that is completed, the Navy SEAL moves on to another round of Land Warfare training.

Land warfare training is conducted at Niland, Camp A.P. Hill, or Camp Roberts in California. It is a program that will, in the same way as other programs do, start from basically a review of small unit tactics and builds up to Full Mission Profiles that are conducted simulating the environment that operatives encounter while in combat.

SEALs undergoing this training are practically on a 24-hour schedule. Breakfast is over by 6 in the morning and the day’s training activities commence almost immediately, lasting till midnight or even 1 the following morning. Yes, they do eat – lunch and dinner – and if it gets too hot outside for strenuous outdoor activities, the platoon is granted the comfort of the classroom through classroom-based instruction.

One of the activities that will be given focus in this part of platoon training is Immediate Action Drills. These are tactics that make the SEALs who they are – the elite and the best of the best – and it is in their best interest that these tactics are known only to those who actually employ them: the SEALs themselves. These are the techniques that can lead enemy forces dealing with SEALs to believe that they are dealing with a whole company composed of a hundred soldiers as opposed to the handful of SEALs that are present in the area at that point in time.

The culmination of Land Warfare Training will be a taste of what it will be like “out there” – a week-long Field Training Exercise. The platoon will be placed in semi-isolation, as if they have been thrust into hostile enemy territory on an actual combat mission.