Inside SEAL Team Six(60)

You have to be able to live your cover. So you practice it and know it well.

Many SEALs have attended SERE School and are practiced in the techniques of survival, evasion, resistance, and escape. We know that if captured, we should try to escape as soon as possible. During SERE School, we’re taught how to resist interrogation. That’s one reason it’s very difficult, if not impossible, to get any worthwhile info out of a SEAL.

Typically, the corpsman briefed the search-and-rescue plan and the location of the nearest medical facility. Then the commo guy would brief the comms portion of the PLO. The point man would discuss the primary and secondary insertion and extraction routes; the team tactician the specific actions at enemy contact. We all prepared and briefed our specific portion of the mission to our fellow team members and to HQ personnel attending the PLO.

Specific equipment and clothing was also briefed. Were we going to wear ■​■​ gear, desert camo, or flight suits?

Then we specified the first-line gear we’d be carrying at all times for the specific mission. First-line gear usually included a sidearm, a knife, and an escape-and-evasion (E & E) kit—compasses, flashlights, maps of the area, local currency, and medical gear.

Second-line gear was defined as the equipment we were going to need for our first twenty-four hours of survival—water, MREs, and extra ammo. It was carried on a harness, a vest, or a belt, depending on the op. Second-line gear had to be worn at all times except when sleeping in a tent, barracks, or hotel, in which case it was kept at the foot of the bed.

Today, in operations in the Middle East, SEALs keep their second-line gear on a belt or in a vest and don’t leave the base or garrison without it.

Third-line gear incorporated the things needed for longer-time survival—we called them comfort items—and was usually carried in a backpack, a go-bag, or a bailout kit. It might include extra food and extra ammo, a weapon-cleaning kit, a large orange-colored air panel (to mark your location), a smoke grenade, Claymore mine, a larger medical kit than what you carried with your first-line gear, possibly a butane stove, and maybe a jungle hammock to keep you off the jungle floor.

If an operative was leaving the base or hotel in a car, third-line gear was usually kept in the backseat or stashed in the trunk.

First-, second-, and third-line gear were always prioritized according to the country we were going to and the mission. The gear could change during the mission based on the security level. All this was specified in the PLO. It was part of our planning.

Each SEAL also carried specialized equipment needed for his role in the platoon. So the commo guy carried the satellite phone and radio, and the medic was responsible for the more advanced emergency medical kit. I carried morphine and specialized medical equipment that enabled me to perform a cricothyrotomy, put in a chest tube, or do a cut-down if needed.

Crics, chest tubes, and cut-downs are essential parts of combat medicine. Crics are used to establish airflow when someone’s airway is blocked or damaged; I’d simply slice the person’s throat just below the Adam’s apple and insert a plastic tube to reestablish breathing. Chest tubes are needed for penetrating wounds to the thorax. And cut-downs are required when you can’t get an IV into someone who is wounded.

Once outfitted, the team assembled outside. Typically, every operator carried a blowout patch—a four-by-four-inch battle dressing used to control major bleeding—in his lower left cargo pocket. If that man was hit, everyone on the team knew to use his blowout patch.

Outside, we’d do a sound check, jumping around to make sure our gear didn’t rattle or create any noise during movement. Often, we had PJs (Air Force Pararescue) or CCT (combat-control technicians) accompany us through training and on missions. Combat-control technicians were experts at establishing and maintaining communications.

Then we’d do a weapons check by firing off several rounds to verify that each weapon was in optimum working order.

Next, we’d stage a rehearsal. We were sometimes able to plan ahead and create a mock-up building, ■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​ If we didn’t have time to mock up a building, we’d draw the floor plan on the cement.

We’d execute a walk-through first and review all the commands and procedures. When we worked with U.S. SWAT teams, we’d draw the room, house, or building plan in a parking lot, drive up to the structure, disembark from the vehicle, take cover, simulate the breach into the building, and rehearse actions on the objective.