SQT - SEAL Qualification Training

Land Warfare training is usually conducted at the Naval Special Warfare training facility at Niland, Ca. for the West Coast Teams or at Camp A.P Hill for the East Coast teams. This training lasts three weeks and is similar in content to the San Clemente Land Warfare - except at a much more advanced level. Students enhance their skills in patrolling, improvised booby traps, stalking, weaponry and military demolition. They begin to practice the fine art of live fire immediate action drills, which have the team firing and maneuvering in well-choreographed sequences. These drills become quite interesting at night using pop up targets and pop flares and smoke grenades - all creating confusion and chaos - which emulates the "fog" of battle pretty well.

Often the squads get split up and disoriented - especially during the famed "gauntlet" at Niland where the squad patrols through a course with multiple and simultaneous "hits" that they must analyze and react to, suppress fire and get out of the kill zone! WOW, what a rush! Bullets fly all over the place, team members scream to communicate over the noise, smoke grenades go off and pop flares light up the night sky then fizzle out. All this is going on while SEALs endure sweat, fear, exhilaration and confusion, along with the ever- present desire to perform the drill better each time because they know that their life depends upon the level of competence of the team in a real firefight. The motto the more you sweat in peacetime the less you bleed in war is constantly drilled into your head. Train as you would fight - this is Navy SEAL Training at it's best folks!