Hell Week Explained

                                     "It pays to be a winner" - Every Navy SEAL

I feel that it's time for me to further explain the phenomenon that is Hell Week. Hell Week is the third week in BUDs* and it is 5.5 days of complete misery. The purpose of Hell Week is to "Separate the men from the boys" and in the process the trainees learn the values of teamwork, handling yourself under extreme stress, and the importance of paying attention to detail. One thing the trainees learn during Hell Week is that it,"Pays to be a winner." During the Surf passage races <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwJBD6kMP6k> the winning boat crews are granted 15 minutes of nap time--while the losers are forced to race again. This may not seem like much time, but it adds up-considering the trainees are only granted 4 hours of sleep during Hell Week. One of the hardest parts of Hell Week is the surf torture: the trainees lie in the shallow part of the ocean and have to lock arms and not move as waves of 58 degree ocean water hit them-repeatedly. But, as you might have guessed, there is more to Hell Week: candidates must perform not just survive. Their performance is measured by the 4 mile timed runs that they must endure during the week. If they don't make the 32 minute time limit, then the candidates may be "performance dropped". However, most of the candidates who don't make it through Hell Week are not performance dropped, rather, they just quit. When a candidate wants to quit all he has to say is, "I quit!" Once the instructors ask him if he is sure, the quitter is forced to ring the bell 3 times. They make the quitters do this because it lets the other candidates know that warm and comfort is only 3 bell rings away. On average 80% of candidates don't make it through this grueling week. Most of them can handle the physical rigors, but mentally they are just not strong enough. So my question to the reader is Can you survive Hell Week?

Thanks for reading. JG





* BUDs is the training that all Navy SEAL candidates must complete - It is six months and is broken into 3 phases- Typically 85% of the candidates do not make it the graduation day, however there has been one class with 0 graduates. BUDs stands for Basic Underwater Demolition School.