SWCC: Making an Operator - Full Length Documentary | SEALSWCC.COM

they're fast sound and extremely lethal special Warfare combat crewmen are our nation's Elite Maritime Mobility operators but to join their ranks takes a special breed of warrior for 37 weeks Swift candidates are pushed to their absolute limits both physically and mentally to ensure only those with a special mix of character cognitive and Leadership attributes make the cut we take you inside the swick assessment and selection process in the subsequent training to show you what it takes to become a part of the most exclusive small booat unit in the world welcome to swick making an operator after completing boot camp and Naval special Warfare prep reparatory programs swick candidates prepare to begin Alpha phase known as the selection phase at the swick Training Center Alpha phase consists of selecting and assessing candidates based off competence character and Leadership attributes the morning kicks off with a uniform inspection as a candidate for the first day of initial training in Alpha phase you can expect your nerves to be high adrenaline to be pumping your blood pressure will be out the roof 9 8 the smallest art of place thread is directed by instructors just a dick the standards are extremely high things will only get more difficult from here making this the phase of training with the highest attrition rate only roughly 35% of candidates will make it to graduation we don't care who you are we don't care where you're from we care about what you bring to the table and what you bring to this training C hurry up hurry up without a moment to catch their breath candidates are rush to their Barracks for room inspections hurry up with the purpose hurry up move with a purpose hurry up move with a purpose hurry up you have 30 seconds to get in your room open up your lockers be standing by where you're at right now go go go oh my goodness gracious have you ever lived alone I've already inspected about five rooms this is the worst one I've seen so far how much time you guys spit on your rooms oh we got no you didn't no you didn't they just came in there very meticulous about how they looked at our stuff if you uh put in the time to clean it you passed if not you failed down down once we're done assessing you physically we're going to check your barracks rooms ensuring that you guys can maintain a nice clean tidy space shows that you have the character abilities to be professionals in cleaning your rooms and making your beds and folding your sheets push-ups ready ready down one down two down three down four down 5 down 6 down s down the inspection is followed by our run to the beach where the candidates will begin a grueling three-hour training session with their instructors so this is 11 one day for uh first phase of Swig training uh guys have to show up physically you know above above what the minimum standard is but more than anything they also have to be mentally ready putting the students in a state of being uncomfortable physical stress a little mental stress as well seeing if they can push through it and be comfortable being uncomfortable go you know what that means that me dragged your facing the sand head down I'm wet Sandy cold I didn't expect not to be that but uh we're just out here having fun as Sandy as you can be that's all I want you it's a dream I love every second of it Embrace of pain oh yeah this isn't YMCA Camp School House act like you want to be here that's some physical great great one we're in the the first day and essentially we're testing their grit and whether or not they're willing to look past their own pain and suffering that they're going through right now to put out for the team oh yeah this is this is awful for them but they're working through it one foot in front of the other keep moving forward high intensity quick moving doesn't stop wet and Sandy cold uncomfortable sandpaper all over your body just makes everything 10 times harder legs hurt it's a work the sand Works your legs pretty tired legs are smoked every second of the assessment and selection is done for a reason the instructors are looking for more than physical grit they are evaluating candidates for integrity honor selflessness and teamwork candidates must push through the pain to prove themselves worthy of continuing down from the beach candidates run back to base for a long Long Cold swim in the Coronado Bay as the temperatures drop and the rain Pours Down they must show their instructors they're willing to push through adversity to accomplish the task at hand swix operate in the water in the ocean in a very unforgiving environment we put them through Evolution after evolution in the water we stress their bodies to their limits this helps them understand how to stay calm and work in this environment after nearly 3 hours in the frigid water they head back to the grinder for their first taste of Hower PT all the way down so this is our Hower PT right here the objective as you can see is communication and team ability [Applause] we pretty much pick up this this rope as a group we pick it up all together we do everything lunges from squats to crushes to everything it's pretty damn heavy that's six you're good you're good you're good take a bunch of ropes tie them up make them heavy make them wet and then you have a good time that's not the line that you have it's your mindset it's you unwilling to push past your pain and suffering it's you that do not belong is evident that some of you do not belong here through your performance today start holding each other accountable or this next s weeks is going to go much much worse up up a little tired tired for sure sore yeah very sore like everything's just TI tight cramping up yeah ready to attack it though yeah I'm I'm I'm not trying to kid myself and say it's going to be easy so kind of know it's coming yeah we know it's going to be hard but it's just one of those things you know you just work hard enough to get here so you just don't want to stop you can't stop as they move through Alpha phase candidates must pass additional performance tests which prove to be difficult for the sore and exhausted class what they're conducting right now is a student Fitness test they know coming in this is that Baseline what they need to pass to continue on in the training Pipe One open up this R please I can already tell it's already going to be a w should be this is what's going to save your life in the event that you need to have some type of flotation do you think would you entrust that right now absolutely not did you leave this in there after the con swim yesterday yes you did and so you didn't even look at this after at all zero R here yesterday a swick operator must keep their equipment in good working order at all times if a candidate fails to do this during training the whole class pays for their mistake hey maybe if you all it down under remediation you would actually pass the SF know we don't care about where you come from we just hold that standard and here they're going to learn exactly what that standard is there attention to detail and doing everything correctly how they were taught you know since they've joined the Navy now they're putting it all to standard here at the sake training center in Alpha phase we're well versed in high-risk evolutions and we understand everything that we do here is highrisk we put candidate Safety First and we ensure that we test the mental and physical grit of each candidate within our special priers that we have here at the training center some days are composed of physical Evolutions throughout the entire day uh other days are composed of physical Evolutions either in the morning or afternoon and then the other half of the day is uh composed of academics yeah mental also you got to learn there's information being put out and it's very much a lot of this is uh see it do it teach it so you you really got to kind of pick stuff up fast like you know I hadn't used long division since I was in high school you know had calculators for you know every other Math course and back to the basics here I had to brush up on my own MTH skills it takes a strong swimmer to make it through Alpha phase the candidates will spend much of their time in the water becoming experts at Water survival and water rescue I would say 90% of the time uh swix are operating on the water in Open Seas Anything Could Happen out there a boat could go down someone could get shot blown off a boat uh that swick operator needs to be comfortable with jumping out in that water and going to rescue somebody or swimming ashore if need be the swick pipeline has an attrition rate to roughly 65% as a voluntary program candidates have the right to drop on request or do and disenroll from training at any time this is the first drop for this class yeah so he had started his water rescue attempt and once he got down to his victim started Towing his victim he elected to do drop on request it's not easy you got to train hard you got have the right mindset there some maturity H definitely not worth it tell you that right now it's not worth it not worth quitting uh it sucks once they do former candidates are given the opportunity to pursue other Navy jobs this job's not for everybody at the end of the day so they that it's not for them more power to them and I hope they find something down the road um outside of outside of swick just realize like this is the stuff that happens when you deploy right it doesn't always go cookie cutter perfect it's not always what you think's going to happen but you need to be prepared that's why we give you guys this course so with that we're going to go ahead and kick off and we'll start with tle C stands for tactical combat casualty care the last week week seven uh we'll go into some of the more specifics of corwik skill learning uh one of them being uh T C tactical combat casualty care we do operate with with Medics Andor Special Operations combat Medics however we also operate in small teams and because of the nature of our job uh boats may not be close in proximity to to each other so all the operators need a baseline knowledge of combat casualty care me mechanism injury uh gunshot wound to the to his left chest so the reason that we have to teach all the crew members these skills is because a the medic could be the one that goes down and B once again if he's overwhelmed with multiple patients we need everyone to be able to respond and to be able to help treat the patients to get them to a higher Echelon of care Pati one patient equipment um right now they're doing Bo Rel paddling through the Bay to get you uh Turner Field where we're convince another CRC PT boats on shoulders low carries basically just doing a whole bunch of Bo races the whole point is it is so the boat Crews get on the same page they start working as a team keeping heavy boat on our shoulders enjoying a good day in the sun some water it's fun can see a lot of uh physical exercising throughout the day throughout the afternoon we're assessing candidates individually also as what how well they can work with the team teamw work's a big aspect of the selection process so physical movements the around about million pound work as a team one guy's not feeling weight the whole team suffers the purpose is for us to really pull their character out in order to do that we put them through very stressful situations they're wet they're cold we put them through continuous Evolutions in order to test their grit and their perseverance we're looking for candidates that have the skills to be problem solvers to think intelligently even when they're feeling uncomfortable you guys are forgetting where you're at you better move with the purpose the training is physically demanding and intense but the goal is always to build unit cohesion candidates are taught the proverb if you want to go fast go alone if you want to go far go as a team in order for candidates to begin training they need to be physically fit and ready to train however it doesn't matter if you're the fastest swimmer fastest runner or you can do a thousand push-ups if you're not a good teammate then you're not going to make it through this program you are a healthy down man do you understand this healthy down man that's move to complete Alpha phase and begin the next phase of the pipeline Bravo phase known as the training phase the candidates have one last hurdle to overcome I don't know if you have what it takes a 72-hour Crucible event known as the tour you guys haven't even got to the fun part yet they're fast silent and extremely lethal special Warfare combat recuitment are our nation's Elite Maritime Mobility operators but to join their Reigns takes a special breed of warrior for 37 weeks swi candidates are pushed to their absolute limits both physically and mentally to ensure only those with a special mix of character cognitive and Leadership attributes make the gut we have all we take you inside the swick assessment and selection process and the subsequent training will show you what it takes to become a part of the most exclusive small booat unit in the world welcome to swick making an operator inside this tent the 29 remaining candidates from class 117 for the final Crucible event of alpha phase for the next 72 hours they will push the limits of their mental and physical Readiness during what's known as the tour the tour kicks off with a bang during what's known as the breakout a challenging Evolution where candidates must prove their grit under the added stress of simulated gunfire and smoke grenades let's go move let's go keep up with me's let's go let's go let's go let's go let's go about right now it's probably a pretty good reality check they just came off the weekend they're probably hanging out you know nothing too chaotic and it's uh it's almost a slap in the face of physical ability here so i' imagine they're pretty tired at we're only an hour in but they're still still hating or guess what we can send you somewhere where we can sandbag okay it's not going to be here I promise you that we will not allow it it's my job to make sure it's not allowed okay who yeah the tour is designed for them to push past what they thought was their limits and find new limits and that's what makes a great operator is someone that knows their limits and knows how far they can push past their limits in order to get Mission success so ultimately Mission success for a candidate in the tour is to perform throughout the tour be there for their teammates and persevere at the end the real purpose of the tour is to put candidates in stressful situations they feel uncomfortable the entire time they have very little rest they're sleep deprived and the only way they can make it through tour is if they're there for their teammates go after the breakout they carry their boats to the beach for surf passage right now they're about to take these small boat and do what's called surf passage we're going to paddle out pass the surf flip the boat get back in and paddle back into the beach we're going to do that multiple times just working our way down the beach until the next Evolution the class continues this process for hours slowly moving down the beach with their boat Crews the tour focuses heavily on teamwork if a candidate isn't pulling their weight for their team instructors will pull them aside for a reality check if a candidate is willing to take shortcuts to lighten their load at the expense of their teammates they aren't cut out for this line of work you realize every single day you're here as a job interview you're assessed and your tenacity your mental aptitude and your physical grit you realize we have days left we're an hour in 1 hour in We Ready the morning continues with boat races up and down to steep sandb burs on the beach after hours of non-stop physical challenges the candidates get their first short break to eat lunch it's just non-stop go there's uh not really any breaks he's kind of put out hope to get a hydration break and then uh turn around and do it again that's all we've done so far so we'll uh see what what else they have in store for us just got to put out and hopefully they'll eventually leave me alone but it is what it is it's going to be a rough 3 days I'll tell you that when you're hydrating when your walk around here whether you're running doing push-ups pull-ups situps whatever you're doing you're going to give 110% doeses that make sense yeah this we're day one doing the conditioning run it's easier to keep up than it is to catch up we have all there let's go close the gap close that Gap yeah I'm talking to you you guys haven't even got to the fun part yet during the run the class gets its first do of the tour uh normally the first 24 hours will get U roughly 3 to five um but it's all kind of just dependent on you know the class size um so this this is definitely not uh not new get up here go as instructors and staff we genuinely want all of our candidates to succeed but it's ultimately their decision in most cases the candidates that are willing to stay uncomfortable for their teammates are the teammates that we want they generally find the will to push through and that's who we're looking for D your legs drive your legs out the water next comes the dreaded brick tread Evolution keep your brick out of the water your brick will stay above the water keep the brick out of the water it should not be touching the water yeah so we're we're at the CTT and uh we're doing brick tread Evolution uh the purpose of this evolution is to put the students into a stressful situation uh basically mentally stressing them out some of them some are fish in the water not going a hard time with it but a lot of times most of the students are going to have a very hard time Treading Water uh are we are we doing this to test them at Treading Water no are we doing this to see how good they can tread bricks no all this is is a mental block that we're trying to see if they're willing to push through in a stressful situation want to give it all up you want to give all this work up get your asses get in there you want to give it all up all this time uh what we don't want is guys who are going to go to the team maybe get into a bad situation bullets start flying and that guy wants to run we don't want that so we want to kind of cut that out and find those people here and uh kind of keep them from moving forward and training pipeline if they going to be that type of person that's going to going to run in a stressful situation so this is the most stress we can basically put on them without actually shooting at them Rockets fine whatever um you know it's all it is is holding a brick above the water you touch the wall again you touch the wall again you're done you understand me you touch the wall again you're done I think right now two students have do so they've taken themselves voluntarily out of the program today straight you're young you got a lot of growing a lot of matur to do it's fine as you mature as you get some more life experience you're going to get stronger right you're mentally going to grow you're going to come back through here and I think you're crush this thing right I'm sorry hey no hard feelings it's not the end of the world right you're not the first and you're sure as hell not going to be the last right It's just tough some of these guys honestly are are built a little more musly so they they sink but that doesn't really make I've seen guys who build like rocks who can do this and guys who build soft can do this too so I think it's a mental thing you know they don't do this that often so it's a big it's a big gut check the first time they do it hurry up 9 8 7 6 5 4 AS nights candidates rely on their navigation skills as they Rod their inflatable boats to a nearby base for More PT okay it's currently 21:30 night one of the tour students have been at it since 07 in the morning uh we just got done piloting on the nsw ribs over here to MCRD we're planning on doing some more piloting and other things tonight feel sore Little Sandy and uh little [Music] cold students have been good um they're starting to come together work together starting to do the little things right like moving with a purpose passing the word so that I think that they're doing well oh go after they return to the swick Schoolhouse late that night the candidates carry their boats to the beach for one of the most challenging evolutions of the tour surfy Merion yeah so right now they're at uh probably about our 16 of the tour and we are doing what we call water immersion or a water table where we they're basically just testing their mental mental fortitude and their ability to be comfortable with being uncomfortable basically you want to see if the students can handle the cold and the wet being a swick operator you're wet and cold all all the time walk forward to I tell you to stop they're basically just laying in the surf and uh it's kind of slowly lowering their Core Body temp to a point where that's pretty uncomfortable and they have to make basically the decision of whether they want to be in this program or not I mean honestly it's just uncomfortable probably I mean for yeah you can just imagine being the coldest that you've probably ever been and then be that way for you know 45 minutes help your bu up and having a hard time let's go stand up walk forward walk forward let's go uh yeah to this point during this table we've had two people not uh continue training decided to not continue training so medic's going to check you guys out make sure you're good to go uh you feel like you need to see a psych or counselor or anything like that good to go together R this is the first of you know three nights and it doesn't make a whole lot of sense if they know they're going to quit later to continue we see winter classes come through here when it's actually cold right we see winter classes come through and do the exact same thing when it's actually cold it's summertime the water's warm the air temp outside's warm right now we know what you should look like up because we do this every year wake up uh people are pretty zoned pretty tired I think we're hitting early morning so yeah we're kind of losing it a little bit we got to [Music] reather as the first night comes to an end exhaustion sets in in for the remaining candidates get on the boat I mean it sucks but we all knew going into it that was going to suck you're just going to have to suck it up and make it till Thursday morning the worst part of it is just a constant like all day grind and you don't know when you're going to be able to actually settle down for a second unless you're you're eating it's been rough but like it's a cool experience at the same [Music] time Dawn breaks on a new day as the exhausted candidates face the reality that the tour isn't even halfway over for some this is fuel to keep pushing but for those already having trouble keeping up with the class it's a wake up call what week are we in five week five it's been five weeks I want you to go through that growth moment to say you know what I don't have what it takes right now and I'm aware of that but you know what I'm going to come back stronger the next time that I go through this I'm not going to do the same stuff that I'm doing here I'm going to prove to people that I care I'm going to prove to people that I want to be here not just you two saying it I feel fine my body was just not I just got not keeping up and when you can't keep up anymore you just can't keep up anymore so it is what it is don't go in just meeting the standard you got to be be pretty above the standard I have no shame I'm proud of how far I made it just didn't work out this time we we do find that some students just don't are not physically prepared or or mentally prepared as well to carry their own weights and that causes a safety hazard for the rest of the students in a boat crew another long day of physical training ends on the beach with more surf immersion for the candidates luckily instructors follow this with an opportunity for them to warm up by a fire unfortunately this reward comes with the price a 2-hour Hower PT session start working as a team typically if students do well and they get to warm up by the fire but if they don't then continue on with the Hower Evolution which lasts up to about 2 hours so it's a long Evolution definitely a memorable one too get it off your head your whole boat crew suffering because of you your whole class is waiting on you get it up get it up get the line up get the line up get it up 3 2 one up8 down s six seven seven eight eight seven s six six s another day of brutal non-stop physical training follows where candidates must continue to push through their fatigue and soreness to prove themselves [Music] worthy get in the water get a [Music] head later that night they're taken into the ocean all small boats to test their navigation and basic seamanship skills so what they're doing is is they're swimming down following the line once they get down to the bottom of the line they have a light the Anchor's lit and they're actually making sure that the anchor is set and it's tight and we're able to trust that that anchor is going to hold us at this station you want to get out three too three yeah they're tired but that water keeps them awake after a night submerged in cold water instructors give the candidates a chance to warm up on the beach the following morning hey this they've been running pretty hard um at this point you can see they're pretty gassed out first two stand wet cold Sandy sleep deprived calorie intakes depleted but you're proving to yourself that you absolutely have more in the tank you absolutely have more um than what you thought you ever had before SE what did you call the oakor I want you to tell Seaman jungle gym did you hear that yeah you get to play on a jungle gym hang out with some of your best friends huh not bad jungle gy Today Sandy jungle JY s Sandy jungle the class gets another chance to prove themselves to be a cohesive team as the instructors put them through the final in the longest Hower PT session of the tour address so Hower PT is is all about teamwork you know there there is that you know we want to make sure that you're tough enough you have the grit determination to push through the the physicality portion of it but ultimately what we're looking for is is to build you know team cohesion and when you're in that boat crew working as a boat crew someone taking charge of that boat crew disseminating information and you know the the entire boat crew working as a team when boat crew start arguing with one another it just makes the situation worse for them let go get it up get it up get it up get it up under your arms go under the Hower your arms go under the Howard oh my god get back up why half you not down and half you up all right up two two two two all right get it back into a chest car 3 2 1 up up right we're going left foot now one one 1 two two 3 three four one the exhausted candidates spend the rest of the afternoon and evening swimming laps in the pool followed by navigation drills in the ocean on this side we come down right it starts to become apparent that you know students are are tired fatigued and and and that's where we want them uh some students perform well some students are you know start to make some mistakes here and there get in the water honestly uh the brain's not doing bad given the little amount of sleep but the body you can definitely tell is starting to break down hey shower off use the hioc shower off again medical staff keeps a close eye on the candidates throughout the tour ensuring there are no serious injuries among the class by doing in periodic medical checks the energy with the class is pretty the the morale is pretty high so it's easy to have good energy when the morale is high and with the finish line so close in sight I think that was a class um people starting to come together I'm at this point you're you're so tired you're so hurt that you got the guy to the next to the left right of you don't good man it's last EV though let's do it and I think that's the whole purpose of this tour is to really just get everyone to to work on one level one unit let's go SAR we see your great come on get up there get up there it's frustrating is might good at times but it's a cool experience I hope that I always remember it that's for sure still got some more time to go but 45 how many are left we lost more than 50% more than 50% let's go prove they y'all need y'all deserve to be here come on come on [Music] go following their final Ruck run class 117 is ready to move on from alpha phase at class 117 started with 45 men at the beginning of selection after 5 weeks of physical and mental challenges more than half of those men have quit they're gone they didn't have what it takes to be an unconventional Warf fighter you men do be proud of that accomplishment cuz many people have tried and far fewer have succeeded in making it to this point best of luck to each of you throughout the remainder of your training and on at the teams have these 20 men earned the right to continue in our training program yes sir tour secure class 117 tour secure candidates who complete the tour change out their white undershirts for brown shirts a symbol of Pride within the assessment and selection pipelines of Naval special Warfare feels amazing it's uh kind of unreal honestly we've been working towards this all of us for a long time uh a lot of hard work a lot of effort put in a lot of literal Blood Sweat and Tears and uh it's all worth it feels great just nonstop I mean he let's go up tough It's there's no other word to describe it it's a it's it's hard through and through but it's a rewarding experience you go through with these guys and you build these connections and it's amazing when swick candidates graduate the tour they've only completed onethird of our entire pipeline training they'll move on to the next phase of training at this point we still expect them to be physically fit however we're testing them more on their performance and their aptitude baby [Music] they're fast sent and extremely lethal special Warfare combat crewmen are our nation's Elite Maritime Mobility operators but to join their ranks takes a special breed of warrior for 37 weeks swi candidates are pushed to their absolute limits both physically and mentally to ensure only those with a special mix of character cognitive and Leadership attributes make the cut we take you inside the swick assessment and selection process and the subsequent training will show you what it takes to become a part of the most exclusive small booat unit in the world welcome to swick making an operator get down on your stomach turn away from me completing the tour is not the end of the swick pipeline the candidates now move into Bravo phase known as training phase Bravo phase is a completely different challenge than Alpha phase gone are the days of non-stop physical intensity instead Bravo phase instructors act as teachers and mentors while guiding the candidates through the important technical aspects of the job imagine your from now on we're going to be dealing with weapons okay Small Arms then following up with the heavy weapons uh culminating in live fire uh next week at the range just small arms and after that heavy weapons of a camp Pelon Twix are trained on heavy weapons and Small Arms we train on small arms because not only do we operate our big weapons on our craft but we also have missions where we may do a small boat interdiction or we may have to come off the boat um in order to do that we need to be trained in Small Arms candidates come from all over the world some of them may have grown up in a place where they didn't shoot weapons um they start Small Arms um with a very light understanding of weapons and then uh we train them to a point where they're tactically moving and shooting at the range live with their teammates on call you'll drop take two shots scan assess and Holster your weapon stand by as soft operators I think that weapons are inherently important to our job you're not always going to have the heavy weapons on the boats you're not always going to be on the boats uh it's important to have this tool in your toolbox yeah there is a very steep learning curve it is a lot of information but just like with any other course of instruction there's a method to the madness the curriculum is set up the way that it is for crawl walk run we take our time with the candidates we work them in dep spend countless hours with them in order to get them to today we're actually on the Range shooting you have to start using your brain again you have to learn different ways to do different things and that's what makes it all of a sudden difficult in a different way we just did at clearance safe disassemble symbol and then uh clear and then malfunction check and then C safe weapon we just did that and there are certain time lims that we have to meet and pass the first one a swix Primary Weapons creu served heavy weapons such as 50 caliber and m240 machine guns and mark 19 grenade launchers to graduate Bravo phase candidates must become experts on these weapons and learn their functions inside and out it's inherent that they need to be comfortable shooting and manipulating these weapons while the training and evaluations are still very straight Bravo phase instructors take their time and walk the candidates through new information insuring candidates develop an understanding of the basic skills of the S profession failure to perform still results in candidates being set back in training or even removed altogether left right all right so you you did the procedures fine but does it feel when you racked it did it feel like two good racks okay so you did do it fine right you with one cck and two racks but it doesn't mean it's always going to work like right now I mean look at you can come right here and look at your Bolt the instructors are trying to train you trying to shape you into a good teammate because most of the time those instructors are going to go back to a team and you may be the the Gunner on their boat so they're more focused on training you opposed to beating you down to see if you're tough enough during the pipeline the average swick candidate will fire anywhere from 18 to 20,000 rounds okay so last week we started off with heavy weapons dry fire manipulation in preparation for this week as to get to the teams today is the first live fire day that we started here we're focusing on safe weapon manipulation and also accuracy too I you finally get to shoot the gun This Is Why We join the Navy to do stuff like this and here we are having that amount of Firepower at your fingertips it's incredible it's exhilarating it's it's a rush adrenaline it's a lot of fun talk me through Jam feed proed out Amo reloading reloading reloading rack it back safety no that's a that's a slap be who we are stays forward all right once you finally start shooting these guns and you get out in the boats it becomes real in order to be a swick operator you you have to be a jack of all trades you understand the basic skills of Special Operation soldiering however you have to be a master of your craft yeah your engine oil cooler moving on no when you're a swick uh there's no mechanic out in the boat with you because you are the mechanic out in the boat with you so you just have to be ready to uh complete the mission at all costs which means you know fixing your engine fixing your boat making sure that everything's uh Greening up and ready to go all right so if your electric priming pump wasn't working you come back here and use your manual priming pump here in the schoolhouse we get very in-depth with uh every aspect of all the uh mechanics as far as the boats go our main job is to be you know masters of our craft and our equipment if we're out there on a mission on the water and something breaks something goes wrong you have to know how to fix uh everything cuz no one's going to come out there and help you first shift to neutral shift to back flush and then when you rev your throttles up water will then again be going in addition to heavy weapons a swick must be an expert on the water not only piloting small craft but also navigating and communicating at Sea navigation is a core skill of a swick operator we teach them navigation at the Baseline level and then by the end of training they're very good Navigators we also utilize state-of-the-art simulators in order to help the candidates get more repetitions before they get on the water and It prepares them for navigating at night at the high speeds that we travel with our combatant craft yeah check there's long days of what they call drinking from a fire hose cuz it's just a lot of information you need to not only understand but be able to implement into action the information doesn't slow down there's only more CM Che Chief I have you lima charlie how me at the end of the day this job isn't for everyone just because you're a a physical stud and you can get through the selection portion doesn't mean you're cut out to be on a boat behind a gun they need to find the correct people you have to think um and act and you think ahead all the time so in my opinion it's harder this is I have you loud and clear how me some guys in class they just catch on really fast and but there's some guys like me for example I have to work on it all the time example today this afternoon we're going to be going out you're going to be running between four different stations on base at each station you're going to be required to program different radios and get com checks with other instructors on base so it's just a culminating event of what we learned here in the classro and now applying it to a more tactical environment we operate in remote areas all over the world it's imperative that our candidates understand the core basics of communication skills and they know how to talk on Military Communications gear um and then they move into more advanced gear when they go to the special boat teams instructor SE radio check comms is everything in a mission and so if you're not able to troubleshoot if you're not able to correct things on the Fly then it's your dead weight at least with this at the end of the day everybody can program a radio everybody can troubleshoot a radio everybody can make coms so that way everybody can contribute to the team radio check you in crypto mode yeah after 7 weeks the candidates are ready to move into the Final Phase of training Charlie phase known as the qualification phase during Charlie phase candidates learn intermediate seamanship and navigation waterborne patrolling and how to execute full mission profiles at which time we will set one either Charlie or Bravo in and another one either here depending on uh tra obviously a lot of improvement over the last couple weeks since we introduced the rockrill we introduced the oport guys in craww walk run all the way through the whole process now you guys are here you're going to go to your teams and you're going to continue to build these skills as you progress in your career all right so uh good job you guys obviously showed that you care and that you've uh you've worked real hard to get to this point so I appreciate the hard work all that's left to do now is prep for tonight we're going to go out and we're going to crush it all right once we pull lines everything's just like second nature we already know what to do the easy part is actually executing the mission definitely I definitely think everyone in this class is prepared charie phase culminates in one final test a field training exercise where candidates plan a mission entirely on their own brief it to their instructors and then execute it using their knowledge of small craft navigation and politin communicating heavy weapons training and of course physical and mental grit the candidates set out to accomplish their mission a Rescue of a prisoner from hostile territory after reaching their target the candidates recover the prisoner who gives them Intelligence on the location of enemy forces goal is to have 100% 100% destruction of all Vics and Personnel 063 this is India 54 we have visual of four technicals and 12 armed Personnel at the Target all boats you are cleared hot and all Targets to the South the exercise is a success the candidates headit back to base uh it's pretty briti sweet for me I think I really enjoyed the all the people in the schoolhouse and then learning everything was really good but I'm ready to get back to a team started learning like real stuff and putting everything I've learned to work students make one more stop before they graduate survival training swix operate in denied environments all over the world in small teams it's imperative that they have survival skills in the event they were captured so well-designed it's it's designed to make that operator at the end of the training that's that's what this school was made for and the instructors do a very good job at that with 37 weeks of training under their belts the graduating class consists of only 14 candidates down from an initial 45 who showed up on the grinder for day one of alpha phase upon receiving their swick pin they will have officially completed one of the most difficult assessment and selection pipelines in the US Military Naval special Warfare is highly reliable because we reinforce an uncompromising standard which you have met then today we'll pin the swick Warfare insign to your chests gentlemen welcome to Naval special Warfare and to the boat teams make us proud I trust that you will when a candidate arrives day one they they may not know it yet but they've just entered one of the most elite communities in in the world feels amazing you know we put in a lot of work to just be here um but you got to understand that's a start of our career you know it was a job interview and now we got the job so it's ready to you know get down and dirty and get to work graduation marks the end of the swick training pipeline but only the very beginning of their careers upon graduation the new swick operators will be assigned to special boat teams around the country there they will operate as experts in clandestine insertion and extraction utilizing their unique combination of capabilities with weapons navigation engineering parachuting and Special Operations tactics they will spend years honing their skills to ensure the US Navy's continued Maritime dominance for the graduates here today they'll look back on this training and they'll realize that every cold night everything that was hard every evolution that they went through was completely worth it if I had the opportunity if I was in their shoes I'd do it again in a [Music] heartbeat [Music]

Channel: NAVAL SPECIAL WARFARE CENTER

Views: 408,536

Keywords: navy, seal, swcc, training, workout, become, apply, how to, be, physical, guide, pst, bud/s, buds, prep, hell week, nsw, combat sidestroke

Id: jJ-H8Mpt04c

Length: 55min 9sec (3309 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 16 2023