Hell Week is one of the most well known parts of Navy SEALs training, as it is the week where most SEAL recruits end up quitting their training. This phase, which lasts for 5.5 days, pushes each and every SEAL recruit past everything they thought they would be capable of. To an outsider, this grueling week looks a lot like torture. What we don’t think about, however, is that even Hell Week has a very important purpose to a Navy SEAL soldier. It is designed to free them from all of their limitations.
A human body is capable of achieving nearly anything, which is one of the reasons that the Navy SEALs were created. With a team of soldiers who are able to leave a normal person’s physical and mental reservations behind, much can be achieved. The endurance alone which a Navy SEAL will perform would not be possible unless that SEAL went through Hell Week. This is because, during those grueling 5.5 days, all of the mental weaknesses which a person carries will be broken. If a SEAL can train themselves to keep pushing through Hell Week, their bodies will be capable of performing nearly any feat at the end.
To be sure, Hell Week is only possible when a body is in the top physical condition in the first place. The SEAL recruits are kept constantly moving during this entire period, tapping into their immense pools of inner strength and energy. At the conclusion of Hell Week, all of those recruits who have survived and made it this far should have the determination to make it the rest of the way!
November 15th, 2009 - 9:28 am
You have several quotations in your article which identify NAVY SEALS as “soldiers”. One such quotation is as follows:
“…Hell Week has a very important purpose to a Navy SEAL soldier”
Members of the US Navy are SAILORS!
You incorrectly refer to HELL WEEK as a PHASE of SEAL Training in your quote:
“This phase, which lasts for 5.5 days, pushes each and every SEAL recruit…”
There are three PHASES in SEAL Training; 1st Physical Conditioning, 2nd Diving, 3rd Land Warfare. the First Phase (Physical Conditioning) is culminated by HELL WEEK.
Your motivations for providing this information appear to be directly tied to your efforts to market goods related to the SEAL Teams for a profit. You offer “FREE SEAL TEAM CHALLENGE COINS to WEBSITE MEMBERS…” with no apparent concern or consideration for the possibility that such items will be used by persons engaged in perpetrating military charades and masquerading as Navy SEALs. Those who might consider engaging in such a charade don’t even need to PURCHASE a coin… you’ll give them one FREE, just for joining your website. I’m sure you’ll justify this by saying that those same coins can be purchased elsewhere (and that it true… but it doesn’t make it “right”), and that they are “collectors’ items”. They are indeed collectors’ items… if left in a display case. But when ‘casually carried in a pocket’ they are all too often used to convey or imply that the bearer is a credentialed US Navy SEAL.
It seems obvious that your primary concern is in making a profit, not in providing accurate information to the public regarding the US Navy’s SEAL Teams. Making a profit is an admirable goal, but if you are going to present information about Navy SEALs and SEAL Training, at least take the time and effort to get it right… and to correctly refer to Navy SEALs as SAILORS… not “soldiers”!
I strongly urge you to contact the NAVAL SPECIAL WARFARE COMMAND (Coronado) PUBLIC AFFAIRS OFFICE for accurate quotations and summary information related to Navy SEAL Training, rather than continue to use inappropriate terms/terminolgy and ‘best guess’ wording to describe a training program with which you have no personal, first-hand experience. Your misuse of terms and faulty descriptions do a tremendous disservice to those who are seeking ACCURATE information regarding training and duty in Naval Special Warfare.
Respectfully,
Steve Robinson
USN 1970-1978
SEAL Team ONE
Inshore Undersea Warfare Group ONE
Defense Analyst – Soviet Threat specialization 1981-1993
UDT-SEAL Association – Member
POW Network Board of Directors
Naval Special Warfare Archives – SOF Analyst/Contributing Journalist
Disabled American Veterans – Life Member
FORMER Special Investigator – SEAL Authentication Team
CyberSEALs.org – Webmaster
Author – “NO GUTS, NO GLORY – Unmasking Navy SEAL Imposters”