While in San Diego earlier this month, I had a awesome privilege of touring the Navy Seal Base! Growing up in the military, reading "No Easy Day", and just loving all that our military does for our country and "me", it was so cool to be there. Some of you will just have to take my word for it, it was GREAT!
This was our itinery for the U.S. Navy SEALs visit. SEALs stand for Sea, Air, Land.
The bus dropped us off in front of this building. As we walked inside it had a small lobby which we walked through to inner open compound. You can see below the frog footprint. That is where each soldier stands in formation. The blue table you see across the compound had lots of weaponry on it. At the end of the tour we ended up at that table and because we all had undergone extensive background checks to just be on this tour, anyone who wanted to could hold up these weapons and have a picture of them taken (with their own camera). The guys in the love all did this!!! Macho men???
They had just completed class 300 with hell week. That was the weeding out process of who was going to become a SEAL. All the guys were sleeping (they had been kept up pretty much from Sunday to Friday am).
Every graduating class presents a trophy or plaque of some kind to the school. The frogman above was from class 63 (not year 1963). They apparently got it from Hollywood, it was used in a film! It has now become a symbol of the SEALs.
We were taken into a big instruction room and given an overview of what the SEALs do. What kind of missions they do, where are they based, how does one get in, etc.... This is the final slide that shows the general command of what each area covers. It didn't turn out real great, but you can see - there are lots of divisions.
As a soldier goes through BUDs (Basic Underwater Demolition) and their SEAL program, if at any time they want to quit, the soldier goes to a bell and rings it and then takes off his green helmet and places it along the side of the compound. This is just some of the ones that quit in class 300. There is no shame in quitting, they just get reassigned to somewhere else within the Navy. If an enlisted man quits, he has two years to reapply and try again (but competition is really stiff). If an officer quits, he gets no further chance at being a SEAL.
This is inside one of the classrooms where they receive knowledge and training on diving and other instruction.
As we were leaving, I turned around and looked up. This amazing plaque (from class 243) was above the door. I think this could be applied to each and every one of us. I have applied that concept in my life (probably grilled into me by my Air Force dad) but the words made it crystal clear!
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