Being A SEAL?

[gregposey]

Is 16 to early to start thinking about becomming a SEAL. I am already 100% sure that i will be going to college through the Naval Immediate Schoolarship Decision program but im not sure what to do after that. I would like to be a seal but im not sure how to go about preparing for bud/s training or what i should focus education wise?

[Doug]

Never too early to prepare and/or think about your future. Going to college, especially the Academy is a good choice. To prepare for BUD/S and SEALs, to find out if you really want it - research the hell out of this site and the Navy's "official" SEAL recruiting site. Find out all you can through researching and that way you can make an educated decision on whether or not SEALs are something you would like to pursue. If you come up with any specific questions you can not find answers to by researching on your own, please post them here and we will help you out as best we can. But do the research on your own first. There is TONS of information out there and we often see the same questions posted over and over again that answers can easily be found on the internet through research.

As for what to study at the Academy, research there also. See what is available and pick whatever you would enjoy doing. Any and all prospective BUD/S students should have a back-up plan in place in case they dont make it through the program. Even if you are tough enough to not quit, sometimes injuries can not be avoided, etc. Anyway - give it some serious thought - do what you find interesting. Good luck with it and HAVE FUN when your doing this research. Remember it is about YOUR future!

[ndrober]

I definately second what Doug said. I did alot of my own research before and after I joined DEP. In fact Doug is the one that helped me to know that Recruiter wasn't exactly telling me the truth about the SEAL challenge program and just opting for it in Basic training. Because of the information I recieved from Doug I was able to get the waivers I needed after 4 months of battling the reluctant recruiters and finally got SEAL Challenge added to my contract. I ship out in 18 days to boot camp. I can't wait to get this ball rolling finally. Thanks again for all your help Doug.

Nicholas

[Elwood2020]

ndrober-
What exactly was the problem with your recruiter not telling you all about the SEAL challenge contract?(if you dont mind me asking). It just seems that Iam stuck in the same position you were in. My recruiter keeps telling me that even though I dont have the SEAL challenge contract, Iam still going to get my shot at BUD/s after "A" school, which I really just dont believe. I told him that I hear they make you wait a while, and he keeps saying that they might make you wait a few months at the most. He then said I might get in even faster because my source rating is HM. I hope thats true, but how exactly did you convince your recruiters to give you the SEAL contract?

[ndrober]

My recruiter keeps telling me that even though I dont have the SEAL challenge contract, Iam still going to get my shot at BUD/s after "A" school


Elwood-
That is exactly what my recruiter told me. He told me right now SEAL challenge contracts aren't being offered and tht all I have to do is go down to basic and on my fourth day volunteer to go SEAL and take the physical fitness test. Well yes that is one way you can do it, but after your A school it is the needs of the Navy and if there is a spot open at BUD/s for you. Remember this is information I have been gathering for the past 4 months. I have been eating and sleeping all of this information. I contacted recruiters that were SEALs, I talked with friends of my father that were SEALs, I went to sealchallenge.navy.mil website, I also bought Stewart Smiths SEAL fitness book. All of it was pointing to the same thing. The fact remains that the NSW community is constantly changing and recruiters have to believe the info that they have at their disposal. Can't blame them for that really. It is up to us as wannabe tadpoles to take it upon ourselves to put some effort into getting what we want and finding out exactly how to do that. I printed out a copy of the SEAL challenge contract from the sealchallenge.navy.mil website and also brought Stewart Smith's book with me to my recruiters office. We had a nice loud conversation about how he had misinformed me and that I wanted the SEAL challenge contract and was willing to do anything I had to to obtain it. He just told me how that website is not an official site. I used to be a web developer so I informed him how upper level domain names work and how they are controlled. Especially the .mil upper lvl domain name and the fact is that any sub domain of a domain on that upper lvl domain name would have to be controlled by a united states military organization. This one being navy.mil. After all when you are interested in joining the Navy you do go to Navy.mil so any subdomain would have to be made by someone in control of the navy.mil domain name. So anyway after about 3 weeks of weekly arguments he finally started to believe me that the information he had was wrong. He also stated at one time that they were (they being MEPS) offering SEAL challenge contracts at this time. He only finally told me that when I contacted a recruiter in Utah and the recruiter told me that he just put two guys in the Navy that month with the SEAL challenge contract. He told me to contact MEPS myself or another recruiter in my area to find out if MEPS was offering it. So while my recruiter was out of the office on vacation. I talked to a recruiter that I had become pretty good friends with, but he was in the same office as my recruiter and my recruiter is also his boss. He went to MEPS and talked to the job classifier and found out that at the time that I went in to DEP in that SEAL challenge was definately being offered and that it is being offered now as well. So my recruiter called me a week later asking how I was doing and I told him what my recruiter pal told me and he retorted oh well yeah it was being offered but no waivers were being accepted for it (dunno if that is true or not). He said that they were taking waivers now, but he doubted I would get a waiver. I told him well try anyway and he told me nah I don't want to. So I told him fine I want out of the Navy then if you aren't willing to help me. He then went on about how I signed a contract and blah blah blah. He also relieved me of my command as RPOC for my recruiting station and told me to shred all my phone number sheets of all the DEP memebers. So I complied. He then told me he wasn't going to let me out. So I went and talked to an Air Force recruiter and he informed me that I could indeed get out and the worse thing my recruiter could do is hold me till my ship date. He also stated that I could contact my congress woman if the need arose whereas my recruiter still would not let me out in a reasonable amount of time. So I asked my recruiter nicely to let me out. He told my fine, just wait till the first week in Feb and I will let you out. He stated that it would mess up his recruiting numbers and couldn't make me up in the month of Jan. So I said fine, but I want my letter saying I am out the first part of Feb. He agreed with me. Two weeks go by of me tring to get ahold of him. Finally I do and he tells me he was frustrated when he said that and wasn't going to let me out. So I told him I would contact my congress woman and he told me to do it. So I did. Her office had me type up a letter and sign some documents so they could take up my case and do an investigation. A few days later he calls me up and says I am going to do the waiver for you. A week later my recruiter friend calls me up and says my waiver came back and I got my SEAL Challenge program guarantee added to my contract. I already had the Hospital Corpsman program in my contract. So I went down to MEPS yesterday and signed my new contract. Long story I know, but I just wanted to show you that it took alot to get what I wanted. In fact took me 4 months. I couldn't be more happy though. So basically what I am saying is if you want to be a SEAL and you prepare every day for that one thing. Don't lose sight and don't let anything stand in your way. I may not have went at this situation the best way possible, but I did it the best way I knew how. I strengthened my resolve and I will tell you one thing. After going through everything I had to to get this in my contract, I assure you it will be very hard to make me ring out. So fight for what you want, don't let your recruiter push you around. If you need anymore information feel free to email me at nicholas@mydigitaltech.com Take it easy.