Defense
Senior Chief Petty Officer Jayme Pastoric/US Navy/DVIDS
A member assigned to Naval Special Warfare Group 2 conducts military dive operations of the East Coast of the United States
- In a recent interview with PBS, retired SEAL Adm. Bill McRaven said, "SEAL training really doesn't have a lot to do with how big and how strong and how fast you are. There's only one thing you have to do in SEAL training. And that's not quit."
- McRaven was head of the Joint Special Operations Command when US Navy SEALs raided Osama bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan in 2011.
- SEAL candidates go through a rigorous training process, including a "Hell Week" in which recruits sleep only about four hours per night.
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In an interview with PBS News Hour's Judy Woodruff, retired Adm. Bill McRaven, the former SEAL who oversaw the 2011 raid on Osama Bin Laden's compound as the head of Joint Special Operations Command, told Woodruff that there's only thing a SEAL recruit has to do during their grueling training: "Not quit."
"So, the one thing that defines everybody that goes through SEAL training is that they didn't ring the bell, as we say," McRaven said. "They didn't quit. And that's really what you're trying to find in the young SEAL students, because, in the course of your career, you're going to be cold, wet, miserable. You're going to kind of fail often as a result of bad missions, bad training."
McRaven started out his Navy career as a SEAL, rising through the ranks until he was charged with overseeing the entire special forces community as the commander of the US Special Operations Command (USSOCOM).
While tenacity is an essential part of being a great SEAL, there's a lot of training that goes into being a part of the Navy's most elite fighting squad.