European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - November 5, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Navy seals continued from Page 13 Navy trainees enrolled. By hell week the class had dropped to 58. About equal numbers quit became physically incapacitated or were dismissed for being unable to Hack it. Six men dropped out during hell week an unusually Low number officials said and one dropped out after it was Over. A hell week is extremely Safe. It s extremely High risk but because of All the supervision by medical personnel and qualified instructors we have very few accidents Quot said capt. Douglas Huth commanding officer of the naval special warfare Center. Before this hell week kicked off sept. 16,15 instructors gathered with Seal officers in the conference room at the special warfare command in Coronado for a Quot breakout  with the attentiveness of caterers planning a party they discussed the trials the enrollees would endure figuring in the nighttime water and air temperatures a 70 and 60 degrees respectively. Instructors All of them seals themselves work eight hour shifts in teams of six throughout the week. At 7 , sunday the 58 Young men gathered and were assigned to Black rubber boats. They carried these boats everywhere they went a including the mess Hall a during the next week. There were eight teams grouped by height. Boat Crew 8, whose members were the shortest in the class had already earned the dubious title that was to dog them throughout the week the smurfs. In a desperate unsuccessful Effort to impress their instructors the class gave the trademark shout a Hoo Yah Quot it is a War cry uttered Only by Seal trainees. Nobody seems to know what it Means but it is a Long maintained tradition nevertheless. The air rang with the yells of hopeful trainees wearing Green uniforms dry for the first and Only time during hell week. The men Learned quickly that every training exercise was a race in which the winning Crew was rewarded usually by being Able to rest. The losing teams repeated the exercises again and again. It. Cmdr. Tom Campbell a Seal training officer explained Quot if you Don t win you Are going to be miserable. And if you lose in combat you Are  balancing their cumbersome boats atop their Heads the eight groups ran and stumbled to the Ocean where they paddled one mile to the Rock jetty near the hotel Del Coronado. Concerned about disturbing hotel guests instructors ordered the trainees to keep quiet. After a series of races in the deep Sand class 172 was ordered Back into the water to paddle a mile Back to the naval special warfare come. They hauled out the boats and ran Back to the main Square in the unlit compound. The second the men reached the Square explosions rocked the compound setting off alarms in the cars parked outside. The noise was deafening the flares blinding. Men wearing earplugs crept out of the shadows firing machine guns loaded with Blanks. Thick smoke spewed from machines made it almost impossible to see. This was a breakout Quot another longtime Seal tradition. Instructors shouted orders to the Young men who had to do a series of push ups stomach crunchers and other exercises amid the smoke and noise As they Ware hosed Down with water. For one hour the chaos was Complete. At the end no Man had a dry item of clothing. At 10 ., the men were ordered to crawl on their bellies. For the next 90 minutes they alternated Between crawling and lining up  in  to immerse themselves in water. Quot when you Are wet Sand Sticks to your clothes it goes through the buttonholes. It rubs your elbows and Knees raw Quot said Brad Long a 19-year-old from Peoria Iii. Quot its like dragging yourself Over  they switched off Between lying in the Ocean at the surf line and kneeling so the Waves hit them at Waist level. The trainees Call it Quot surf  Quot you never get used to the cold a All this does is show its not going to break you Quot said one 30-year-old instructor from Nebraska. Quot but just about everything i went through in hell week was about 10 times worse in  Seal trainee Peter Vasely grimaces in pain As his teammates help him walk on the final Day of a grueling training week. Only about half of the applicants make it to the end of the training. Class 172 continued through the night. At 5 . Monday they ran. At 7 ., each Crew hoisted its boat overhead and marched to mess Hall. Even this Early in the week the men had come to loathe the boats which tended to pull the hair off their scalps. Asked later to sketch a picture of his boat one Man Drew a Hammer pounding Down on a Nail. The Hammer was labelled  the Nail  the hand holding the Hammer  Quot the boat bounces on your head. You Are completely disoriented it hits you so hard Quot said Whitted the most senior Petty officer of the class. Except for four one hour meals a Day class 172 was constantly on the move. Among the boat Crews the smurfs were taking a beating. Ordered to race Down the Beach with their logs they were the Only Crew to pick up the log with half the members pointed in one direction and the other half pointed in the opposite direction. By monday lunch class 172 was exhausted. Covered with Sand and still wet members lined up for their meal. Beginning with this meal staying awake was a Battle. Quot you blink your eyes once and they won t open again Quot said will Tumulty 21, of Annapolis my. Instead of using the bathroom during the 10-minute head break some men changed their socks Quot you get your dogs feet screwed up and hell week is Over Quot Whitted said. After lunch the men marched to the obstacle course. There they competed As teams a leaping from one stump to another scrambling up Walls climbing up ropes and walking across logs the instructors were rocking. Whitted tumbled As one instructor shoved the log on which he was balanced. At the fifth obstacle called Quot dirty name Quot three Telephone poles were elevated in the air like huge Steps. Machinist mate Jose Fernandez 20, was hoisted up to the top log by his team. He suddenly lost his balance and fell 10 feet to the ground. Face Down in the dirt he did t move. The ambulance truck that shadowed each of class 172�?Ts exercises drove up. Fernandez began to cry and his legs twitched in the dirt. As he hobbled into the ambulance his boat Crew yelled Quot Hoo Yah Fernandez Quot he later rejoined the class. The group left the obstacle course for More log races before dinner. Quot i cannot take this Quot one trainee muttered. Quot you have to decide if you want to be Here or not Quot an instructor barked. For Rich Cleveland the Day s events were familiar. Because this was his third try the men called him Quot grand  he knew he wanted to be Here. But he did not know if he could handle it Quot i think i am More stupid than anything a just too stupid to know when to quit Quot said Cleveland who made it through hell week on this try. Spirits were flagging when class 172 scored an important Victory. As they held their logs Well above their Heads an instructor yelled at them to race Down the Beach. A the did no to say we had to take our togs Quot one Man hissed. One by one the boat Crews dropped their togs and ran empty handed. The instructors laughed at their own goof. Monday bled into tuesday. The men had not slept yet. They ran crawled paddled dug a huge pit and sat in the surf. They spent the next 24 hours outside on the Beach. Boxed meals were brought to them on the strand. At dinner tuesday night each boat Crew had to perform for its meal. One group imitated Roseanne Barr singing another pretended to be helicopters. The men their faces drawn and covered with Sand sat in a Circle in a huge pit known As Camp surf. They had not slept for 48 hours. After dinner the men formed a line and walked into the surf. They Lay on their backs  in  with Only their Heads out of the water. Pelicans swooped into the Waves As the men shouted Quot Hoo Yah Quot for the next hour class 172 plunged in and out of the sea. The men began walking the Bow legged hell week walk. Though they wore special underpants that resemble bicycle shorts the Sand had worked its Way under the fabric rubbing areas of skin raw. At 7 45 . Tuesday class 172 was ordered Back to the Sand pit where a fire had been it. They jammed their wet clothed bodies up against one another for warmth. An instructor ordered them to sleep. Within seconds most men were sleeping three however tried to stay awake a watching their instructors with mistrust. Twenty five minutes later the instructors screamed and blew whistles. Class 172  into the water. Quot during hell week even sleep is painful a they get just enough to want More Quot explained one instructor. Quot in hell week its a matter of understanding your capabilities and limitations. Each Man will know there is a Point when he wanted to quit. You cry you puke. You have nothing to hide. After Helt week you Don t feel invincible a you know there Are times you wanted out. You have no false impression about How great you  at 8 50 ., class 172 alternated Between lying in the surf and crawling in the Sand. One Man a Brad Long a broke away from his group. After speaking with two instructors who tried to dissuade him he stumbled up to the leading officer. Is Fai i m la. Timas Dove Gotley 3 said Long 19, whose Stepfather had been a 2 years. It be alone with the officer. Unable to talk him into 3 group the officer told him to drink water and fire in the pit. A motivation. I did t expect to be in the water being so cold and wet. I kept thinking about a Shower and going to sleep. I regret doing it a i old have made it through Quot Long said later first thing is trying to figure out what to Tell my a i am depressed Quot who suffer medical ailments Are allowed to try again. But for men like Long there is no Lance. Myers of class 172 crawled on their bellies in Only Long a boat Crew realized he was be sat shaking Cross legged in front of the s Chin fell to his Chest and he wept. William  Whitted 28, a Virginia Beach va., resident Shivers in the surf. He endured Seal training with a stress fracture in each leg. The feet of a would be Seal illustrate the hazards of the rigorous training. E commandos Little nuts it needed Jor Zamichow Angeles times Hen u .3. Officials decided to topple panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega the Navy seals were chosen to prevent him from escaping the country last december seals air land commandos crippled Noriega a private Jet and liked into a tightly guarded Harbor to disable his High so patrol boats. Be Price of such Stealthy missions however is Steep. Of 150 special operation forces members involved in ration just cause 11 were killed and More than 200 i wounded. Among the rest of the 27,000 troops Ved there were 21 deaths and More than 200 need. A  is a vicious cruel Endeavor and seals Are in the Hast cruellest portion of any War. In the Navy there is Captain of a ship in his Nice White uniform and at the other end of the spectrum there is the Seal. We need them both Quot said retired rear . Gene la Rocque director of the Center for defense information in Washington. Quot seals Are a special Breed. Personally i think they Are a Little nuts but i am glad they Are witling to do  for seals the Mission is unconventional warfare. And the Range of skills is vast from demolition to free fall parachuting from diving to desert survival. While most branches of the military face shrinking budgets Navy seals and other special operation forces Are increasing in size. Quot if you put operation desert shield aside we will be Back to having to Deal with terrorism insurgencies narc terrorism and instability in third world countries. Those problems do not yield to the threat of nuclear Force Quot said Seth Cropsey principal Deputy assistant Secretary of defense. A people have known fora Long time that Small wars or what is called Low intensity conflicts is the Way we Are going to be  in Panama As Well As Grenada seals were the first to sneak into enemy territory. Though unwilling to provide details of the efforts officials said seals also Are expected to play a role in the current Middle East crisis. Seals Are a Small elite Community. Three Seal teams As Well As training Are based in Coronado calif., White four other teams Are based on the East coast. Their ranks include 1.547 enlisted men and 455 officers a 72 percent increase in size from five years ago. And they Are expected to keep growing. In 1981, $441 million was Agio rated to special operation forces the Navy received $93 million. In 1990, special operation forces received $2.8 billion the Navy s share was $333 million. Sea air land teams began in 1943 with volunteers culled from the naval construction battalions. Just before the invasion of Sicily they were assigned to prepare the Beach for the arrival of an amphibious Battle group. Months later formal training in combat and underwater demolition was established. Because of the War training efforts were accelerated. An intense period was called Quot motivation  today that period is known As Quot hell  those who survive hell week come away with a sense of brotherhood. Quot we do everything As a team Quot one instructor said. A the Guys you put through training Are going to be standing next to you one Day on a Mission. I know  and hell week also offers a boost of self Confidence officials said. Quot it tells the men something they would not have otherwise known a that they can take an extraordinary amount of abuse Quot said Cropsey who oversees special operations and Low intensity conflict. Quot if they can go through that they can go through  Page 14 the stars and stripes monday in ers,l99o the stars and stripes a a Page 15