Has Navy SEAL training become too difficult?
The Navy finds "a near-perfect storm" of factors led to the death of a 24-year-old SEAL trainee.
It’s not easy to become a Navy SEAL. It’s not supposed to be easy.
Historically, only three out of 10 make it through the brutal selection course held several times a year at Naval Special Warfare Command in Coronado, California.
But the results of a long-awaited Navy investigation raise a question: Has it become too tough?
David Phillips of The New York Times reports:
The notoriously grueling Navy SEAL selection course grew so tough in recent years that to attempt it became dangerous, even deadly. With little oversight, instructors pushed their classes to exhaustion. Students began dropping out in large numbers, or turning to illegal drugs to try to keep up.
Unprepared medical personnel often failed to step in when needed. And when the graduation rates plummeted, the commander in charge at the time blamed students, saying that the current generation w…