Navy Seal trainees forced to soak in 50 degree water for hours at a time

I guess it’s because Jake is going away imminently to blow things up (see previous post) that the military has been on my mind lately.

The other week, we watched this three part Discovery documentary about what it takes to become a Navy Seal. (I had put it on my Netflix queue mainly because there was nothing else to watch. Is it just me, or do most movies seem to kind of suck anymore?)

It was an interesting film, and I recommend it for anyone going through tough times right now, whether financially, professionally, romantically, agriculturally, psychologically, whatever!

It’s not that it’s such a great piece of film making, but it offers a glimpse into a mindset that most of us will never experience. In the Seals, the world is neatly divided into winners and losers. If you come in second place, you’re a loser. If you succumb to cold, dehydration, hypothermia, exhaustion, or even negative thinking, you’re a loser. I guess I understand why this is.  In a real combat situation, second place equals death (you lose bigtime, buddy!!!).  And Navy Seal instructors are on hand to berate such “losers” in an attempt to goad them to quit. In fact, that’s the whole point of Navy Seals basic training: To excise the weak from the strong as quickly as possible.

There was one memorable scene in which a trainee had to swim for 30-60 minutes in 50 degree water, and by the time they pulled him out, he was deep into the first phases of hypothermia. In the real world, this man would have been rushed to the hospital. In the Seals, the instructor got in his face and taunted, “Ahhh, you have a tummy ache? You want me to call your mommy? Should I burp you now?”

It was excruciating to watch!  All the PC lessons we learn in our polite society about “doing the best you can,” allowing yourself to have a bad day, the importance of TLC, compassion, even rudimentary medical attention are thrown out in the Seals.

As the film progresses, you see very vividly the mental deterioration of 3/4 of the soldiers.  The vast majority quit within the first 3 weeks of training. (I think the school started out with 180 recruits; only 27 made it to graduation.) And for me, that was the biggest takeaway of the film: Those who manage to keep a positive outlook, or at least manage to remain sanguine, throughout the insufferable pain and torture go on to become Seals. Those who are shown on camera complaining even a little bit about cold, hunger, exhaustion — and, um, rightly so! — inevitably drop out.

We play a lot of lip service to the “power of positive thinking,” but slogging through this uncomfortable documentary showed just how true it really is.  The mind is the muscle that wears out first.  Once it goes—game over, dude.  Adios, muchachos.  The trainees who are mentally equipped to extract a sliver of bright side, no matter how dark the day  – “well, at least we don’t have to swim in 40 degree water” — go on to reach their goal.

I’ll try to bear this in mind next time I get attacked by Adolph the rooster.