That happens even to the most physically prepared of us. Sure, you might fail or be ejected from the training for some performance inadequacy. You have to get your mind to that place in which quitting is an impossibility. The physical preparation alone will not guarantee you success. That is a necessary condition to making it through, but not a sufficient condition. You have to reach a certain level of physical preparedness to allow your body to complete that journey. The physical preparation is important - critical, even. Navy photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Michael Russell) SEAL candidates for basic underwater demolition cover themselves in sand during surf passage on Naval Amphibious Base Coronado, Calif. Still, you never really know until you do it. We each knew that if our father, brother, and cousin could do it, we could do it too. We suspected we did, since we had the same genetic make-up as those who had come before us. Each of us set out not knowing if we had that ability to put mind over body. Three of my blood relatives made it through BUD/S before me. That is the mental state one must achieve to make it through the training that state in which the primeval mind overcomes the objections and weaknesses of the fragile body. Those that make it through do so because they find their way to that state of consciousness in which the brain overrides the assault on the body, and that all-powerful and mysterious mass of grey matter residing inside our skulls takes over and drives the machine of blood and bone known as our bodies forward in a state of semi-autonomy. Some will eventually give in to the effect of this relentless physical tribulation.
Navy photo by Photographer’s Mate 3rd Class John DeCoursey.) 31, 2003) – As an instructor monitors a training evolution, Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL (BUDS) Class 244 receives instructions on their next exercise as they lay in the surf. Naval Amphibious Base Coronado, San Diego, Calif. And the training is designed to figure out which of us will not quit, even when our physical selves want nothing more than warmth, blessed dryness, and physical comfort. We do it grim-faced and resigned to another onslaught of sandy wetness because we want to make it through the training. They know they are making a bad pun while also telling us that all of this, in effect, is for our own good.
“This will make you hard, gents,” they growl, tongues firmly in cheeks.