After a deliberate pause, and looking into the eyes of the junior officers, he continued:
One last thought concerning Somalia. In Mogadishu, we put men at risk and remained in harm’s way to bring back the bodies of those we could. We have to bring them back; it’s part of who we are. It’s the right thing to do for ourselves and for the families of our fallen comrades, but it also affects policy. If we are involved, it’s a tough mission and we are on the world stage. The bodies of those Americans they dragged through the streets of Mogadishu changed American policy for more than a decade. It will always be a judgment call, risking lives to bring home the remains of our own, but it’s something we must do if at all possible. Someday it may be your call. Think about it ahead of time, because if that decision falls on you, it will be in the heat of battle under the worst possible conditions. Good luck to all of you. Take care of your men.
Little did anyone in that classroom realize that Admiral Olson’s words were not only reflective, but prophetic as well.
The final week was field based, at the NSW La Posta training facility, conducting leadership quick-reaction drills. These fast, hard-hitting drills were designed to teach tactical decision making in a simulated combat environment. The training was essentially continuous for five days, with the officers eating and sleeping in the field.
While Ensign Murphy finished the JOTC with great anticipation of SQT, he had to complete three more courses before getting there.
Range Safety Officer Course
The range safety officer (RSO) course taught the essentials of using firearms in a safe and effective training environment. Conducted over a one-week period on multiple firing ranges, the training was designed to familiarize the students with all NSW shooting and training regulations and instruct them how to comply with those standards.
Dive Supervisor Course
This one-week course emphasized compliance with all NSW training and diving regulations. While actual diving was an important aspect of this course, Michael and each of his fellow classmates also had to establish and supervise a diving evolution. This involved making sure that all of the students under their charge were properly checked out before entering the water.
Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape (SERE)
Established by the Air Force at the end of the Korean War, SERE was extended during the Vietnam War to Army and Navy personnel. A course common to nearly all SOF operators, it is conducted by the naval aviation community at Warner Springs, California.
Survival and Evasion
The majority of the SERE training focused on survival and evasion. Woodcraft and wilderness survival techniques in all types of climates were taught, including emergency first aid, land navigation, camouflage techniques, methods of evasion, communication protocols, and the making of improvised tools.
Resistance and Escape
This segment was designed based on the experiences of former prisoners of war. It included training on how to resist the enemy and survive in the event of capture. The majority of this training is classified.
After spending five days in the classroom learning survival skills, assisting rescuers in the event they are caught behind enemy lines, and learning the U.S. military code of conduct as it pertains to prisoners of war (POWs), Michael and his class were placed in the field. There, for five more days, they applied the skills they had learned in the classroom. In a simulation of an actual event, they engaged in combat and were captured and detained as as POWs. Through this both physically and psychologically demanding course, Michael and his classmates got a small glimpse as to what might be in store for them as POWs.
SEAL Qualification Training (SQT)
Considered the capstone course, more money, time, resources, and talent are given to SQT than any other program conducted at NSW. As such, the pace and schedule are elevated several levels. Successful completion of all training up to this point does not guarantee a student his Trident. Only after succeeding in the fifteen-week SQT course is a student awarded the coveted Trident, the symbol of the SEALs.
For Michael and his classmates, after PT, the first evolution was combat medicine, called tactical combat casualty care, or TCCC. Here they learned how to treat combat casualties, prevent additionial casualties, and still complete their assigned mission. Overall, the best battlefield medicine is superiority in firepower. TCCC required the SEAL trainees to use BATS, a procedure that focused on bleeding, airway, tension pneumothorax, and shock, rather than the civilian ACLS (advanced cardiac life support) protocol. After Michael and his class successfully completed their classroom instruction and passed a written examination, they were placed in simulated combat positions under simulated fire conditions with single as well as multiple combat casualties with varing degrees of injury. The skills Michael Murphy learned during this training would serve him well in the years ahead.
Next was the land-navigation evolution, which began with two days in the classroom learning map reading and land-navigation techniques that include the use of a compass. During this phase of their training, Michael and the other students were also taught how to classify their equipment.
First line gear was what they wore: camouflage uniforms (known as cammies), boots, hat, and whatever they carried in their pockets, which should include a pencil, a notebook, a waterproof penlight, a map, a compass, a pocketknife, a strobe light, emergency rations (usually a PowerBar or two), and a survival kit. Primary and backup weapons were also considered first line gear.
Second line gear, also known as operational gear, was all the equipment carried on their H-gear. This included ammunition and grenades, a personal medical kit, a PRC-112 survival radio, twenty-four hours’ worth of rations, and two quarts of water. Also on the H-gear should be a weapons cleaning kit, insect repellent, water purfication tablets, a snap link, an IV pouch and extra field dressings, and a battlefield knife.
Third line gear consisted of their rucksack and its contents, which should include a sleeping bag, a ground pad, rations, water, socks, extra ammunition, demolitions, and grenades.
The students were taught to pack and secure all three levels of their gear to ensure it made absolutely no noise when walking, running, or jumping. Each of them was issued a basic set of first, second, and third line gear.
Following land navigation, they headed off to the NSW Mountain Warfare Training Facility in La Posta, California, to become combat shooters. Sight picture (properly aligning the target within the weapon’s sights) and trigger control were stressed, as well as the combat stance: feet apart, knees bent slightly, arms straight, shoulders rolled forward, elbows in tight. Thousands of rounds were fired by each student as he learned to get rounds downrange and on target.
From La Posta they traveled to the firing range at Camp Pendleton, California. Here they learned marksmanship for five days. Again, thousands of rounds were fired by each student, with minimum scores required.
After these evolutions the students moved on to Close Quarters Defense (CQD) training back at NSW. During this phase of their training, only a few hours were spent in the classroom; this training was all hands-on. Here they learned to manage and utilize aggression for self-protection in what are called Box Drills. Box Drills were one-on-one training exercises utilizing the hand-to-hand combat skills they had been taught. The action continued until one of the contestants was knocked out of the box. This training was all about the student dominating his space and fighting to win in a tactical situation. The instruction also included several sessions on prisoner control. Following their week of CQD, Michael’s class prepared for the next evolution, at Camp Billy Machen, NSW’s Desert Training Facility, located about 135 miles east of the Special Warfare Center. Camp Billy Machen is a Navy SEAL desert training facility located at the edge of the Chocolate Mountains in southern California named after the first Navy SEAL killed in Vietnam.
At Camp Billy Machen, Michael and his classmates began a three-week evolution that required them to demonstrate sound judgmen
t, teamwork, and physical stamina. The first week was spent at the range for weapons training. During week two the men engaged in night evolutions, practiced hand and arm signals, and had a day of rocket firing training, They also had to survive the combat conditioning course, which included a thirteen-mile run that began at 3:00 AM, with full gear and weapons. Several days of practice with military demolitions were followed by immediate-action drills, or IADs. Combat search and rescue (CSAR) was also covered. The last three days were devoted to the final mission problem, or final field training exercise.The final field training exercise was a full-scale exercise that required Michael to use all of the skills he had learned.
Camp Billy Machen was followed by the two-week Combat Swimmer Course (CSC). In a stark change from the desert heat, the students now endured the 60° waters of the Pacific. Here, they would learn about the placing of mines and the vulnerabilities of a ship’s hull, master underwater navigation, and hone their knottying and diving skills. To successfully complete this evolution, a dive pair swam into a harbor, attacked two ships with limpet mines, and exfiltrated to a pickup point without being detected from the surface.
On April 4, 2002, Ensign Michael P. Murphy acknowledged and signed his SQT Fitness Report and Counseling Record. The report noted Michael’s “solid performance as a student in SEAL Qualification Training (SQT) learning the full spectrum of Naval Special Warfare tactics, techniques, procedures, and equipment. He had participated in Medical Training, Land Navigation, Parachuting, Live-fire Weapons and Demolition Scenarios, Combat Diving, and Maritime Operations. He performed well in all aspects of this training and successfully completed all graduation requirements and was recommended for full duty at a SEAL team.”
SQT Graduation
With his family present, Ensign Michael Murphy graduated from the Naval Special Warfare Command Center wearing his golden Trident, the symbol of a Navy SEAL. It had taken him nearly six years of education, dedication, and training to get here.
No one graduated from SQT without the the approval of the officer in charge, Chief Warrant Officer 2 Mike Loo. At SQT he was referred to as “the Warrant.” Before graduation he provided each student with a handout that was headed “Rules to live by in Naval Special Warfare.”
1. Congratulations. You guys have completed a major milestone in your Special Warfare career. Here at the Naval Special Warfare Center you have completed BUD/S, Army airborne training, and SQT, and you have been awarded the NSW SEAL insignia, the Trident. SQT has taught you the SEAL tactics, techniques, and procedures required to successfully integrate into a SEAL platoon. You are now prepared to go in “harm’s way” as an operational SEAL. This course has laid the foundation of warfighting knowledge and skills you will use for your entire Special Warfare career. Mastering these skills should be your primary mission. Your lives and the lives of your teammates depend on it.
2. Don’t forget that Special Warfare is the number one maritime Special Operations Force in the world and arguably the number one Special Operations Force in the world. Being number one in the world in anything means paying a very high price. You have to be more focused, smarter, work harder, and have more desire than anyone else in other SOF units. Accomplishing the many tasks and difficult assignments that are thrown our way requires great effort, dedication, and persistence.
3. When you get to your team you need to work extremely hard to prepare yourselves for real-world operations. You must be physically and mentally prepared—trained to win the gunfight and accomplish the mission. Stay focused, train hard, and be the professionals we expect you to be. Always maintain your own integrity and the integrity of the teams. This handout contains, in no particular order, a list of lessons learned and rules to live by in Naval Special Warfare. Some of these are my personal rules for success and others are from great leaders in NSW who have been mentors and role models in my life. Keep this handout! Refer to it now and then. Never forget that you are the future of Naval Special Warfare. Talk is cheap; action is everything. Put out the effort and take the action needed to keep our force the best in the world.
a. Master the basics and you will be a good operator. Take care of your equipment and always have your operating gear complete, in good working order, and ready to go to the field. Forgetting a flashlight or having a dead battery in your strobe may cost lives and/or the mission. Pay attention to the basics, in training and real-world. Be the consummate professional whether in the water, in the air, or on land. Practice good noise discipline and situational awareness—360-degree security. Know your duties and responsibilities.
b. Never make the same mistake twice. You are your best critic! When you make a mistake or do something wrong, take it onboard and take it seriously. Be hard on yourselves. Do what you have to do in order to not make the same mistake twice.
c. Strive for perfection. You’ll never get there; perfection doesn’t exist for SEALs, but we can ALWAYS do better. Being number one in the world is a heavy burden. You will often feel that you are not ready—that you haven’t trained enough in a certain area or you’re not in top physical shape or there are shortfalls in your gear. Take action. At anytime you could have to risk your life on a dangerous, real-world mission. Knowing this will happen in advance, like right now as you read this, will make you train that much harder to get to the highest possible level of readiness. Put out 110 percent in every endeavor. Identify your weak points, tackle them aggressively, and make them your strong points.
d. The SEAL work ethic. Our job is not eight to five. You cannot be number one in the world and not put in extra hours. Don’t be lazy; it is infectious. If some part of your platoon’s training is not working, perhaps it’s a matter of command and control or a gear problem or a tactical maneuver; fix it now! Don’t let it go or put it off to the next training day. As a new guy in the platoon you have the right to speak up and take action on issues like this.
As a new guy, you’ll find the learning curve more steep and difficult. You will be required to know and perform a number of tasks to a high operational standard. You will have to master specific assigned duties in the platoon organization. This means working overtime to get the job done. This will not end, even when you have a deployment or two under your belt. It is the SEAL work ethic.
e. Responsibility/Accountability. Ultimately, you have a responsibility to the chain of command and to this country to be prepared to risk your life and the lives of your teammates as you go into harm’s way to successfully complete the mission. You are accountable to do what is necessary to make this happen. That is the big picture. On a smaller scale, take your responsibilities seriously and be accountable for your actions.
f. Be a subject-matter expert in your field. We are a small community and we rely on in-house subject-matter experts in communications, ordnance, air operations, diving operations, intelligence, etc., to accomplish our missions. Strive to be the “go to” guy in your field—the one they come to for the right answer. Know all the references, know what other service/units are doing in your field; strive to know everything there is to know about your department or area of expertise.
g. Train as you would fight. An old Army saying but a good one. When possible, train with all the gear you will use in real combat. Train as hard and as realistically possible. That means don’t cut corners. During your platoon training, if you accomplish everything successfully, then the training needs to be more challenging. Never say, “If this was real, I’d have this piece of gear with me, or we’d do it this way.” Train as you would fight. Use Simunitions as much as possible in urban, CQC, VBSS, and land-warfare training. Whenever possible use role players and other SEALs to oppose you. You may learn that tactics you used for shooting paper targets or bullet traps in the kill house may have to be changed or modified.
h. Don’t get cocky; stay humble. Remember the disadvantages we always face:
• Fighting in an unfamiliar foreign country—someone’s backyard.
• Bad guys who are highly trained.
They may have a lot more real-world combat experience than you do, have top-of-the-line gear, and may know our tactics.
• Bad guys who are passionate about their cause and want to kill you in the worst way.
• Remember, wearing a Trident doesn’t make you invincible.
i. Think ahead and stay organized.
j. When you have a good idea that benefits your platoon/team, share it with other teams.
k. Officers and petty officers need to be administratively savvy; be proficient with awards and evaluations; take care of your men.
l. Look out for your buddies on and off duty.
m. Stay physically fit; be just as smart as you are tough.
SEAL of Honor Page 15
