Published 09 February 06
[Originally published at NavySEALs.com, 05 Feb 06]

Beyond the DropZone

W. Thomas Smith Jr.

"College-prep" for Navy SEALs?
A special school for Navy SEAL hopefuls is preparing candidates for the rigors of BUD/SEAL training

MORE THAN 2,500 YEARS AGO, Athenian General Thucydides said, "We must remember that one man is much the same as another, and that he is best who is trained in the severest school."

As I've said countless times, had Thucydides lived in the 21st Century, he almost certainly would have agreed that one of the world's "severest schools" is the six-months of absolute hell endured by young Navy SEAL candidates hoping to win - after an equally tough post-training period with "the Teams" - the coveted "trident" badge: emblem of the SEALs.

Tough to become a member. Equally tough to build membership.

Granted, the modern-day version of Thucydides' "severest school" has been producing what many in the international special operations community would argue are the world's best trained commandos. After all, SEALs are as much at home locking-out of a submarine in the middle of an unforgiving ocean as they are leaping from a jet in the dead of night. And they've proven to be indispensable intelligence gatherers and bad-guy headhunters in the global war on terror.

The problem is, transforming a good man into a Navy SEAL is not cheap - about $350,000 a copy - nor is it easy. Sure, there are lots of schoolyard scrappers, gym rats, competitive swimmers, and adrenaline junkies who believe they have what it takes to become SEALs. But few pack the gear to endure-to-completion BUD/S (Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL) training. Some are injured. Many fail to measure up during various training evolutions. Most simply quit, concluding that the wet, miserably cold life of a frogman is not for them.

None of this, however, changes the U.S. Defense Department's requirement for more special operators, including SEALs.

The Pentagon's just-released Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) is calling for a 15-percent increase in the number of U.S. special operations forces to fight terrorism and other unconventional threats worldwide. That's a huge demand for senior SEAL officers and petty officers who know that increasing SEAL numbers means proactive recruiting for fresh "talent" and getting a handle on the staggering 80-percent wash-out (attrition) rate without reducing standards.

Special operations experts contend that to lessen costs and to lower training standards would produce a commando that is not quite a SEAL in the purest sense.

Enter retired U.S. Navy Captain Drew Bisset, a SEAL officer who has held Navy Special Warfare commands at all levels. Bisset is currently overseeing a special pre-school for SEAL candidates - sort of a college-prep course for Navy commando hopefuls - that has the potential of turning-out "a better SEAL candidate on the front end and perhaps a better SEAL on the back-end," says Commander Mark Divine, a Navy SEAL Reserve officer and president of NavySEALs.com, who years-ago graduated top of his BUD/S class.

The program is known as SEAL Recruiting District Assistance Council (RDAC): Navy-speak for Bisset's pre-training "initiative," which falls under the Commander Navy Recruiting Command.

"Within the Council; reservists, retirees, and other high-level civilians can be of immense help to recruiters, says Bisset. "They can network with spheres of influence within the civilian community that benefits the Recruiting Command. We take it a step further and focus our efforts on the SEAL and special warfare combatant crewmen [SWCC]."

According to Bisset, SEAL RDAC focuses on helping recruiters recruit qualified SEAL and SWCC candidates and then mentor, evaluate, and prepare the SEAL candidates for BUD/S.

"Who knows better about what SEALs do than SEALs themselves," he says.

Who knows, indeed; and who better to address the recruiting and training concerns than the men who know what it takes to become a SEAL. "The real concerns are that there needs to be 500 SEAL graduates over the next two years to satisfy the demands of the Teams [and two brand-new SEAL Teams are slated to be stood up, and soon]," says Bisset. And with the release of the latest QDR, the 500-number is not going to decrease. If anything, new Pentagon requirements may cause it to increase.

"This is a huge task when you have such a high attrition rate," says Bisset who may have an answer to at least part of the problem. And that answer may come from the state of Connecticut. Interestingly, the highest percentage of SEAL graduates hail from Connecticut, the home state of one of America's earliest, best-known special operators, Nathan Hale. "Most would think they would come from the bigger states like California," says Bisset. "Not so."

Stamford-Greenwich, Connecticut is the home of Bisset's SEAL RDAC initiative. It is the only such program in the nation, but it's not just "a Connecticut thing."

"A lot of the kids do come from Connecticut because we are working closely with recruiters in the Connecticut area," Bisset says. "But we've had them from as far away as Ohio, Michigan, Florida, and a number of other states."

The program not only benefits the SEALs, it benefits the entire Navy in terms of building leaders: Many of Bisset's enlisted charges become boot camp honor graduates, and many of the officer candidates finish in the top 10 percent of their classes.

"Sixty percent of BUD/S candidates come from boot camp [and their post-boot advanced training]," he says. "The other 40 percent come from the fleet, inter-service transfers, etc. RDAC's focus is on the 60-percent boots. "We want to prepare them for the rigors of BUD/S before they go to boot camp."

The RDAC concept goes back to the 1970s. But the SEAL RDAC component, founded by Bisset, was established in 1994 after Navy officials briefly considered lowering physical entry requirements for SEAL candidates.

"They were reducing the number of entry level pull-ups from eight to six," says Bisset. "That concerned me. So I said the way to do this is not by lowering standards, but by pre-training mentoring."

SEAL RDAC is not an official Navy initiative, nor is it a government-contracted program. So who pays for it? "No one: It is all volunteer," says Bisset who maintains a pool of between 40 and 50 volunteers who may be called at various times to mentor a handful of between 30 and 50 candidates rotating through the RDAC program. And no one-candidate attends the program for any set period of time. They may receive two months worth of mentoring - not enough time for any substantive conditioning - or they may remain under Bisset's wing for up to a year.

"We set goals with them," he says. "We also try to determine if the candidates are truly committed to becoming SEALs. Do they have the determination and motivation to carry through?"

Nevertheless, Bisset concedes, "heart" is difficult to measure.

"Some of these kids will tell you to your face, 'Hey man, I'm committed. I'll go all the way. I'll never quit.' But then they quit," he says. "So we're looking for those who can overcome adversity. We'll set the bar higher on the physical requirements needed for a SEAL candidate."

The basic entry requirements for a Navy recruit entering boot camp with a SEAL contract, includes completion of a 500-yard swim in 12.5 minutes, 42 push-ups within two minutes, 50 sit-ups within two minutes, six pull-ups with no time limit, and a 1.5 mile run (in combat boots) in under 11.5 minutes. Those are minimums for enlisted men (and as most anyone in SEAL community will tell you, barely meeting the minimums won't cut it in the long run). Officer entry minimums are much higher. And SEAL RDAC sets the bar even higher.

RDAC requirements include 80 push-ups in two minutes, 80 sit-ups in two minutes, 15 pull-ups, less then 10 minutes on the run, and nine-minutes on the swim (side or breast stroke).

Swimming is critical for a candidate. "They have to be comfortable in the water," says Bisset who adds that the attrition problem is not only manifested during BUD/S training, but in boot camp where many of the improperly screened candidates fail the swim test.

"If they fail the test, the contract is not consummated and they don't get to go to BUD/S, they are sent to the fleet," he says. "Last year, only 39 percent of candidates were able to pass the initial screen test in boot camp. Fifty percent of those failing to pass the test were dropped due to failing the swim portion. Well, that works out okay for the Navy, but not the SEALs."

SEAL candidates who are fortunate enough to be mentored by Bisset and his staff certainly have an edge over their non-mentored peers going into SEAL training.

Those who meet the recommended SEAL RDAC physical fitness scores have a BUD/S graduation rate of 70 percent. The graduation rate of those who don't go through Bisset's program is between 20 and 25 percent.

Despite its enormous success, the program is not foolproof. Nothing is when it comes to training commandos for war. "Some kids are PT studs and they still end up quitting," says Bisset. SEAL training is extremely tough, "and it is just so hard to get into the heart and brain of the man who says he wants to be a SEAL."

— W. Thomas Smith Jr., a former U.S. Marine infantry leader, parachutist, and shipboard counterterrorism instructor, writes about military/defense issues and has covered conflict in the Balkans and on the West Bank. He is an award-winning author of four books, the co-author of two, and his articles have appeared in USA Today, George, U.S. News & World Report, BusinessWeek, National Review Online, CBS News, The Washington Times, and many others.

W. Thomas Smith Jr. can be reached at wthomassmithjr@yahoo.com.

© 2006 W. Thomas Smith Jr.

W. Thomas Smith Jr. story archive

"Hunt for the Somali Pirates" airs soon on the National Geographic Channel.
When Somali pirates hijack the Maersk Alabama -- and international headlines -- Navy SEALs launch a sneak attack to rescue the ship's American captain. Pirate Hunters recounts the harrowing five days from hijack to final fatal shots, and reveals sophisticated Navy SEAL training methods that prepare the world's most elite reconnaissance teams for daring missions with no second chances.