SEAL Target Geronimo: The Inside Story of the Mission to Kill Osama Bin Laden Read Online Free

SEAL was to be proficient in all aspects of special ops. Each trained to jump, dive, do underwater demolition, navigate small boats, and operate in all environments— jungle, swamp, and glacier. From the outset, SEALs took on missions that were beyond the Army’s capability—maritime sabotage and submarine-based reconnaissance. Because their training is so much more expensive, the SEALs have always been a considerably smaller outfit. By 1964, there were thousands of Green Berets. In 1965, the Navy had fewer than one hundred SEALs.
    In Vietnam, SEALs appeared where no enemy thought possible and struck with a ferocity far out of proportion to their number. The Vietcong called them “the men with green faces,” and put bounties on their heads.
    Basic Underwater Demolition SEAL (BUD/S) training takes place on the Naval Amphibious Base in Coronado, California. A mile or so down from the picturesque Hotel del Coronado, and nestled among the whispering dunes of California’s Silver Strand State Park, it’s ironic that one of the most beautiful places in the state of California is the epicenter of so much misery. BUD/S is considered to be the toughest school in the United States military. The course of training is so difficult that there have been classes where no one graduated—everyone quit. It is especially daunting for SEAL students when they remember that BUD/S is not the end of their selection and training as Naval special warfare operators—it is only the beginning.
    Of a thousand volunteers who want to become SEALs, only about two hundred will actually be placed into a class. Before the first day of training, a would-be frogman is subjected to medical, psychological, and academic testing. Immediately disqualified are applicants with police or juvenile records, domestic violence convictions, substance abuse problems, bankruptcies or excessive debt—even being a suspect of a crime is enough to disqualify a candidate. Students selected for a BUD/S class must have perfect hearing and meet stringent vision requirements. They must pass the Navy’s comprehensive aviation and diving physicals. Trainees are poked, prodded, X-rayed, CAT scanned, interviewed by shrinks, and then examined again. All of this is done, not to keep people out of SEAL training, but to make sure that the students admitted to the program are highly qualified and therefore most likely to succeed.
    The Navy has spent millions of dollars on testing and psychological profiles to identify what type of man is most likely to hold up under the stress. But the truth is, they don’t know. Olympic athletes, NFL players, survivalists, and fitness gurus have all numbered among the dropouts. And among the graduates the Navy can count surfer dudes, carpenters, computer geeks, and farm boys from Iowa who’d never before seen the ocean. No one can tell if a man has what it takes to become a Navy SEAL. There is no way to quantify desire.
    To be selected for SEAL training, one must already be in the Navy. A small handful of students might come directly from Navy boot camp, but most are petty officers and officers who have undergone at least a year or so of training. All, of course, are volunteers.
    The youngest sailor in a BUD/S class might be seventeen and a half, a rare occurrence, as this would assume that his mother signed a note allowing him to join the service. The oldest student in a SEAL class would be age thirty-three, positively ancient. Such a candidate would likely be a chief petty officer or a Navy lieutenant with as much as eight or ten years of sea time. Older students are expected to emerge as class leaders—if not physically, then morally. This double burden makes it even harder for an old dog to be taught new tricks. It is possible to receive a waiver to attempt training after age thirty-four, but that sort of paper is about as worthless as Confederate money.
    BUD/S is a six-month-long ordeal that is blithely described by the Navy as being