Advanced Training
Airborne school is meant to teach SEALs how to jump out of a perfectly good airplane at night with a full combat load. In the old days, the teams spent three days to teach this same skill. But as safety concerns overrode the Team's old ways, the Army was assigned basic jump training and they work hard to pack three days of training into three weeks! So prepare to be repetitious - because, as they say, repetition is the mother of perfection.
At the end of three weeks of ground school, tower training, and jumping from or bouncing in every type of contraption you could imagine, the students finally get to jump out of a REAL Airplane. Most claim it to be a hairy experience - so you might expect a few butterflies on your first jump. The standing joke is that your first jump will be a night water jump - because your eyes will be closed and you will pee your pants! However, most SEAL Airborne students learn to enjoy jumping and are eager to get to Free Fall school when in the Teams. Accruing over 1,000 free fall jumps and 50 - 100 static line jumps is not uncommon during a career in the Teams.
An Insert by Lieutenant Commander Mark Divine
One particularly memorable portion of my SQT training was land navigation in Washington State. We parachuted into the pitch-black night and landed on a pitch black Drop Zone lit only by four chemlights. Met by the organizer of this delightful event, First Class Petty Officer Jefferey Kraus (who by the way is the only military man to hold the distinction of having attended U.S. Army Ranger School, U.S. Army Special Forces School, and U.S. Navy SEAL training! WOW what a glutton for punishment Jeff is - a super great guy though and just a little devious too. )
Jeff handed us a coordinate of our destination - said to be there before 9 am the next morning, told us there were dogs lined up to trail us in one hour, then sent us on our way through the thick, pitch black forest. ALONE. Man was that spooky - no flashlights because it would blow your night vision - knowing you were being tracked by dogs and thinking that there were people out there looking for you - pretty close to what it was like in the jungles of Vietnam (well not really-but there is only so much you can do to simulate war in peacetime!).
That first night it was so dark that I read my Sylva Ranger Compass upside down and moved stealthily for six miles in the exact OPPOSITE direction I was supposed to move! When I finally figured this out I was in some farmer's back yard with his dog barking at me and I remember thinking that I shouldn't have to climb over so many fences in this exercise! Well I had to find my exact starting point if I had any hope of finding the target by 9 am in the morning - a mere 7 hours away. So I ran with full rucksack - through the farmers fields and over fences and by pure magic found my start point then started on my way in the right direction.
At about 0400 in the morning I was totally lost in the forest - so much for my navigation skills, a feeling of desperation was coming over me when I looked up at a tree about 100 feet in front of me and saw a white sign. My curiosity aroused, I wandered over to see my exact grid coordinates posted on the sign! God bless the Army! In the middle of the forest, lost with pretty much no hope of figuring out where the heck I was, the U.S. Army had the foresight to place a sign on a tree telling me EXACTLY where I was. What service!
At the end of three weeks of ground school, tower training, and jumping from or bouncing in every type of contraption you could imagine, the students finally get to jump out of a REAL Airplane. Most claim it to be a hairy experience - so you might expect a few butterflies on your first jump. The standing joke is that your first jump will be a night water jump - because your eyes will be closed and you will pee your pants! However, most SEAL Airborne students learn to enjoy jumping and are eager to get to Free Fall school when in the Teams. Accruing over 1,000 free fall jumps and 50 - 100 static line jumps is not uncommon during a career in the Teams.
An Insert by Lieutenant Commander Mark Divine
One particularly memorable portion of my SQT training was land navigation in Washington State. We parachuted into the pitch-black night and landed on a pitch black Drop Zone lit only by four chemlights. Met by the organizer of this delightful event, First Class Petty Officer Jefferey Kraus (who by the way is the only military man to hold the distinction of having attended U.S. Army Ranger School, U.S. Army Special Forces School, and U.S. Navy SEAL training! WOW what a glutton for punishment Jeff is - a super great guy though and just a little devious too. )
Jeff handed us a coordinate of our destination - said to be there before 9 am the next morning, told us there were dogs lined up to trail us in one hour, then sent us on our way through the thick, pitch black forest. ALONE. Man was that spooky - no flashlights because it would blow your night vision - knowing you were being tracked by dogs and thinking that there were people out there looking for you - pretty close to what it was like in the jungles of Vietnam (well not really-but there is only so much you can do to simulate war in peacetime!).
That first night it was so dark that I read my Sylva Ranger Compass upside down and moved stealthily for six miles in the exact OPPOSITE direction I was supposed to move! When I finally figured this out I was in some farmer's back yard with his dog barking at me and I remember thinking that I shouldn't have to climb over so many fences in this exercise! Well I had to find my exact starting point if I had any hope of finding the target by 9 am in the morning - a mere 7 hours away. So I ran with full rucksack - through the farmers fields and over fences and by pure magic found my start point then started on my way in the right direction.
At about 0400 in the morning I was totally lost in the forest - so much for my navigation skills, a feeling of desperation was coming over me when I looked up at a tree about 100 feet in front of me and saw a white sign. My curiosity aroused, I wandered over to see my exact grid coordinates posted on the sign! God bless the Army! In the middle of the forest, lost with pretty much no hope of figuring out where the heck I was, the U.S. Army had the foresight to place a sign on a tree telling me EXACTLY where I was. What service!
