Inside SEAL Team Six(97)

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Today’s ST-6 operators are very intelligent and have more combat experience than any unit in the history of the United States. They score far higher than average on standard military intelligence tests and are usually college graduates. Some even hold advanced degrees. In this era of unconventional warfare, they’re called upon not only to possess battlefield skills but also to think on their feet, overcome fear, operate sophisticated high-tech equipment, and plan for every possible contingency.

Like one team member told me, “Given the pace of operations and all the things we’re asked to deal with, mental toughness is more important than ever.”

Today’s SEAL training focuses on ways to rewrite primal and remembered fear. Researchers have discovered that once an animal learns to be afraid of something, that memory never vanishes from the amygdala, a part of the brain. But according to Dr. Gregory Quirk of the University of Puerto Rico’s school of medicine, a person can supersede those bad memories stored in the amygdala by forming new ones in the brain’s prefrontal cortex.

How? By repeating an action, any action, over and over, with the understanding that you are rewriting the bad memory.

Lieutenant Commander Eric Potterat, a Naval Special Warfare psychologist, compares the process to the making of world-class athletes. “Physically, there’s very little difference between athletes who win Olympic gold and the rest of the field. It’s like the SEAL candidates we see here. Terrific hardware. Sit-ups, push-ups, running, swimming, off the charts, superhuman. But over at the Olympic center, sports psychologists found that the difference between a medal and no medal is determined by an athlete’s mental ability.”

The elite athletes—the Wayne Gretzkys, the Laird Hamiltons, the Michael Jordans—know how to use the information they learn about how their body responds during a contest or a race. According to Lieutenant Commander Potterat, this is what separates them from the competition.

Just like some SEAL snipers I know, who, before lining up their targets, steady their hands by taking four very deep breaths to oxygenate their bodies as much as possible.

Of course, nothing prepares a warrior better than combat. And today’s ST-6 operators are conducting live-fire missions all the time.

Most of the recent ops that they’ve been engaged in are rarely talked about and don’t reach the press. But the pace is incredible, and the missions are highly dangerous.

Some of my ST-6 buddies played an important role in Operation Anaconda in Afghanistan during the U.S.-led coalition effort to rid that country of al-Qaeda terrorists ■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​■​