SEAL Tactical Training
primarily focuses on the basics also, but takes the individual's skill levels to a higher plateau. Also the students start to learn how to operate as a team. The course is a little over four months in length and starts with classroom training in mission planning and intelligence gathering/reporting. Students then begin a series of "blocks" of training covering the major skills required to conduct SEAL missions. These include Hydrographic Reconnaissance, Communications, Field Medicine, Air skills, Combat Swimmer, Land Warfare, Maritime Operations (long range ocean navigation) and Submarine Lock-in/Lock-out.

During Air week the class can expect to conduct day and night static line jumps, a water jump accompanied by a "rubber duck" - a zodiac boat with motor and gear sent out of the back of a C-130 under canopy, followed by six frogmen to chase it to the water. Fastrope techniques whereby a SEAL slides down a nylon rope for 80 feet using only gloved hands to brake, and rapelling are taught. Finally, the "Special Insertion/Extraction" (SPIE) rig is introduced - allowing six to eight SEALs to be removed from an area too rugged or dense to land a helicopter.

During combat swimmer training the class will conduct over 25 day and night compass dives, starting again from the basics and progressing to full mission profile combat swimmer submerged ship attacks against Naval Vessels.

Land Warfare training is usually conducted at the Naval Special Warfare training facility at Niland, Ca. for the West Coast Teams or at Camp A.P Hill for the East Coast teams. This training lasts three weeks and is similar in content to the San Clemente Land Warfare - except at a much more advanced level. Students enhance their skills in patrolling, improvised booby traps, stalking, weaponry and military demolition. They begin to practice the fine art of live fire immediate action drills, which have the team firing and maneuvering in well choreographed sequences. These drills become quite interesting at night using pop up targets and pop flares and smoke grenades - all creating confusion and chaos - which emulates the "fog" of battle pretty well.

Often the squads get split up and disoriented - especially during the famed "gauntlet" at Niland where the squad patrols through a course with multiple and simultaneous "hits" that they must analyze and react to, suppress fire and get out of the kill zone! WOW what a rush these are - bullets flying all over the place, team members screaming to communicate over the noise, smoke grenades going off and pop flares lighting up the night sky then fizzling out - sweat and fear and exhilaration and confusions and the ever present desire to perform the drill better each time because you know that your life depends upon the level of competence of the team in a real firefight. The more you sweat in peacetime the less you bleed in war is constantly drilled into your heads. Train as you would fight - this is Navy SEAL Training at it's best folks!

One particularly memorable portion of my STT training was land navigation in Washington State. We parachuted into the pitch black night and landed on a pitch black Drop Zone lit only by four chemlights. Met by the organizer of this delightful event, First Class Petty Officer Jefferey Kraus (who by the way is the only military man to hold the distinction of having attended U.S. Army Ranger School, U.S. Army Special Forces School, and U.S. Navy SEAL training! WOW what a glutton for punishment Jeff is - a super great guy though and just a little devious too.)

Jeff handed us a coordinate of our destination - said to be there before 9 am the next morning, told us there were dogs lined up to trail us in one hour, then sent us on our way through the thick, pitch black forest. ALONE. Man was that spooky - no flashlights because it would blow your night vision - knowing you were being tracked by dogs and thinking that there were people out there looking for you - pretty close to what it was like in the jungles of Vietnam (well not really-but there is only so much you can do to simulate war in peacetime!).

That first night it was so dark that I read my Sylva Ranger Compass upside down and moved stealthily for six miles in the exact OPPOSITE direction I was supposed to move! When I finally figured this out I was in some farmers back yard with his dog barking at me and I remember thinking that I shouldn't have to climb over so many fences in this exercise! Well I had to find my exact starting point if I had any hope of finding the target by 9 am in the morning - a mere 7 hours away. So I ran with full rucksak - through the farmers fields and over fences and by Pure magic found my start point then started on my way in the right direction.

At about 0400 in the morning I was totally lost in the forest - so much for my navigation skills, a feeling of desperation was coming over me when I looked up at a tree about 100 feet in front of me and saw a white sign. My curiosity aroused, I wandered over to see my exact grid coordinates posted on the sign! God bless the Army! In the middle of the forest, lost with pretty much no hope of figuring out where the heck I was, the U.S. Army had the foresight to place a sign on a tree telling me EXACTLY where I was. What service!

The remainder of STT is filled with much adventure and excitement - much of which will be discussed in detail as this Awesome WEB site develops.