Path to Becoming a US Navy SEAL: Narrative Essay

By joining the military, it was a huge commitment for me to make it finally cementing myself into what is going to turn into a career and a lifestyle. I always knew that the military was going to be my choice for me, and on June 28, 2019, it became a reality. For my parents, college was always their dream for me, but for me, the sound of serving my country was just more appealing and approachable to me. When it came to choosing my branch, I was going back and forth between the Air Force and the Navy, and it was the most difficult decision I had to make as a young adult. But I narrowed it down and made my decision to join the United States Navy because of its job programs and special operations.

When I joined the Navy, I thought to myself is this for my parents or myself but it was more than anything for my country. I plan to be a part of the most elite of the Navy in preparing for Navy SEAL training after high school. Becoming a SEAL is a little more than just being a part of that elite group, it is about proving to the people that don't have faith in me that I can do it and get the gold Navy SEAL trident pinned on me. The path I am going on is a lonely road that I will embark on and go through about a whole year of physical training and mental training. In that year I will be going through 3 months of boot camp and another 6 months of BUDS which is 'Basic Underwater Demolition SEAL School', and finally 'SQT', SEAL Qualification Training, in which most people fail and will never become a Navy SEAL.

When joining the Navy, it is more so of a long process than just signing up and not taking any test. Now you have to qualify for the Navy with a score of 31 obtained from taking the AFQT (Arm Forces Qualification Test), which allows you just qualify no guarantee of a job. The AFQT is composed of 4 different sub test such as Arithmetic, Word Knowledge, Paragraph Comprehension, and Mathematical knowledge, these are only 4 of the 9 portions of the ASVAB. After passing your AFQT the recruiter will then schedule you for the ASVAB which can be either in a week or a couple of days, my personal experience took a couple of days after so which then I could get my job by 'mission day' which is the day most future recruits are put in and get their job. When taking your ASVAB, you will arrive at the MEPS (Military Entrance Processing Station) where you will have 2 hours and 45 minutes to take the test. The ASVAB is composed of 9 different subtests, such as General Science, Arithmetic, Word Knowledge, Paragraph Comprehension, Mathematical Knowledge, Electronics Information, Auto Information, Shop Information, and Mechanical Comprehension. These subtests will allow you to get your job either if you get the line scores you need for your future job in any branch of the military.

You will get your test scores immediately after your test, and your recruiter will tell you yes or no if you qualified for the job you wanted. After taking your ASVAB, you will go back to MEPS in either a week or a couple of days to go back to see if you are physically fit for the military, and will choose your job and swear on that day. The day before you swear in, you will spend the night where all MEPS applications are and must be awake for chow at 3 a.m., be loaded on the bus by 4:45, and be on the way to start your processing. Going for the physical, it's an extensive doctor visit of checking your eyes and hearing, a urine test, blood samples, and a hernia check, and if all pass through, you will go see your career counselor downstairs. As you see your career counselor, your recruiter is there with you, they will go over your contract and your ASVAB scores to see what jobs you can get. To qualify for the jobs, there has to be an opening for it, and you have to get your line scores which makes you able to apply for it. I was already dead set on what job I was going for and it was Navy SEAL 'SO'. When choosing my path for SEAL, it was to be a part of that community, but I will also prove that I can be that 20 percent that makes it through SEAL training and by serving my country while doing it.

Every second week of each month, DEP applications meet and train with their recruits, which results in physical training and boot camp marches and learning your boot camp commands before you ship out to boot camp. When you ship out to Navy boot camp, you are going to Great Lakes in Illinois for 3 months in preparing for graduation and becoming a United States Sailor, which some do not make it. Boot camp consists of a PT (physical test) in which you do push-ups, sit-ups, a one, and a half-mile run, and in 2020 they will be implementing planks for 1 minute. When going to be a SEAL, boot camp changes for you in which you will be in a higher division such as the 800 division, but the lower the rank, the lower the division you are placed in. With SEALS at boot camp, you will be physically testing more often than everybody else and swimming a lot more. After completing graduation from Navy boot camp, you will be sent to your rate school, in which SEAL candidates are sent to Coronado, California for BUDS to begin a 6-month long training that 70 to 80 drop out of.

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BUDS is the training ground to become a Navy SEAL and begin the rigorous training and path ahead if you pass it. Within BUDS there are three phases and INDOC, according to sealswcc.com, there is a three-week introduction period into BUDS which introduces the obstacle course and other calisthenics. If you passed through INDOC, you will start phase 1 of BUDS, which is 7 weeks long. During this phase, you will endure long days in the 'grinder' which is extensive amounts of calisthenics and physical training, and you will also be doing surf training which is loosely called 'surf torture' in which you will get wet and sandy all day. During the third week of the first phase, you will start a 'hell week', which is 1 week and you will run over 200 miles in a week get a minimum of 4 hours of sleep in a week, and most of your BUDS class will be dropping out in that week. After hell week, the men that make it through are the ones that pass through, if not, they will drop out towards the end of the first phase. With the first phase coming to a close about 30 to 40 guys are left, and with that there are 4 weeks left in the first phase, and you will transfer over into the dive phase, which is the second phase.

When the second phase starts, it is of water competency test. In doing that you will be swimming more and more every day and will still be running and physically testing to get the non-hackers out of BUDS. Through the second phase, you will be swimming 2-mile swims in the ocean with fins and without fins and getting used to swimming the naval combat stroke. Most guys will be going through a lot of mental weakness in that part of training because of the fact of swimming an underwater 50-meter test, in which most will not pass and get rolled back into the beginning of phase 2 or the end of phase 1. In the second phase, SEAL applicants will be learning the Navy's scuba training, during which they will be learning to breathe with a closed-circuit air ratio and an oxygen tank. Candidates who are not comfortable in the water during this phase tend to drop out and will either be reassigned or rolled back into another phase.

Your last and final stage of BUDS is land warfare where you will be incorporating all the necessary skills learned from the first phase and the second phase and incorporate it into one. With the third phase started, your BUDS instructors are going to be the worst they can be on you because of how close you are to achieving the title SEAL where they don't want any no hackers in their brotherhood. In the third phase, you will be getting hands-on training with guns and explosives and will be conducting land missions on Coronado Island. In those scenarios at BUDS, you will be swimming two miles running and then incorporating land navigation. With making it your last phase, your pt times will be increasing and increasing, in which you will be in the best shape of your career. The men who are in the third phase are the ones who will become SEALs, and your BUDS class is in its lower 20 to 15 students which, if they drop out, get rolled back they are due to medical complications and will continue training. What comes out of the third phase for SEAL applicants is the way of teamwork and what they instill in you for what is to come for SQT (SEAL Qualification Training). With that classwork is more instilled in training your teams to become more efficient and reliable of each other, which is required in SEAL Qualification Training and out in deployment. The instructions are not beating you just to beat you for 6 months, there is that purpose, and if you can't handle it, there is no place for you in the SEAL community. With the long hours finally coming to an end, your last week of BUDS comes and now you practice and march for your ceremony. When graduating from BUDS, you have obtained the title SEAL, but you have not proved to others that you are one yet. So, from the completion of BUDS, you are on another journey to prove to yourself that you are ready to become a SEAL at SQT.

After completing BUDS, new Navy SEALs are on their way for training in which they will be qualified to get deployed and put in a team in which they will start SQT (SEAL Qualification Training). SEAL Qualification Training is a long course which is 26-week course in which you will go from a regular civilian to a Navy SEAL. In this part of the training, you will learn how to survive and become a weapon in earning a spot on a SEAL team. You will be sent to Fort Benning to learn how to parachute and basic airborne skills After further completing this, you will be sent to Alaska and be sent in with a team for your final task and survive out in the wild for a week. When completing the survival of our SERE, you are a graduate of SQT and will be sent back to where it all started Coronado, California for your graduation and pinning of your Navy SEAL trident. After graduation, you will be sent to either any SEAL team that is needing new members and will begin preparing for your first deployment.

The knowledge I gained from the senior project, further excites me to be sent off for boot camp 2 weeks after graduation and start my journey to become a Navy SEAL. I know what lies ahead of me, and thinking about it drives me to achieve and attain my goal. I have been enlisted in the Navy since June 28, 2019, and doing my senior project in the Navy excites me. Reading and researching my rate as SEAL pulls me and gravities me towards it and has me more and more eager to leave. When asked what I want to do in the future, I say Navy SEAL people are always cautious and surprised by it because they know what the training initials are. But the doubt that I know people have in me of not achieving it fuels me and pushes me towards it more and more. Imagine this saying you went to BUDS and saying you didn't pass just brings disappointment to yourself and you proved the people that doubted you right. So, finally, I will become a Navy SEAL and be the first-ever in my family and be that 20 percent that gets the trident pinned on their chest, Hooyah Navy.