Inside SEAL Team Six(49)

Meanwhile, a second team entered the shooting house through the other entrance, spotted a threat target set up on the other side of the hallway wall, and opened fire. Two rounds hit the paper target at the center of mass, passed through the wall, and hit Rich between the one-inch gap in his body armor. They damaged his lungs, liver, and spleen. Rich died a couple of days after.

He wasn’t the only brave warrior we lost in training. We trained like we fought and said that our SOPs were written in blood, so none of our teammates who died in training died in vain.

Training-based scenarios helped us identify our individual strengths, weaknesses, and vulnerabilities. The goal was for each of us to learn how to stay in control and remain confident when faced with life-threatening situations.

Through BUD/S and SEAL training we developed a combat mind-set, and that strengthened even further during ■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​ We understood that all human beings responded to threat with a fight-or-flight response. Typical reactions included muscle tension; headache; upset stomach; tunnel vision; increased heartbeat; shallow breathing; anxiety; poor concentration; feelings of hopelessness, frustration, anger, sadness, and fear; and auditory occlusion.



Visualization (picturing ourselves in dangerous scenarios), anticipation mind-set, and contingency training were some of the techniques we learned and practiced. If such-and-such happens, what’s the best way for me to respond? The idea was to develop well-thought-out, sound actions in advance of possible threats. We always said, “Plan your dive and dive your plan.”

We all learned the importance of developing situational awareness. According to Colonel Boyd’s OODA loop, this involves observation, orientation, decision, and action. In other words, always find the threat before it finds you, orient yourself to your surroundings, trust that your conscious mind will offer the action with the highest probability of success based on your previous training and experience, and act on your plan. Because a poor plan poorly executed is better than no plan at all.

At ■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​ we were evaluated constantly—during work and on liberty. We were graded on whether or not we went drinking at night with the guys, how early we got up for PT, how effectively we cleaned our weapons, how neatly we packed our parachutes, and how well we got along with the others.

During the last week of my training, without any warning, an officer and two enlisted men were pulled from ■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​ and told, Pack your bags and go, you’re not going to an ST-6 assault team.

■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​ ST-6 ■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​

■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​;■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​after the team extracted. And the coxswains spent most of their time in the water, traveling in cigarette boats at seventy miles an hour, in all types of weather—rain, snow, hailstorms, lightning—training and chasing down ships.

■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​