Thaindian News

Washington, May 4(ANI): The US Navy SEALs who carried out this week’s capture and kill raid on Al-Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden’s compound in Pakistan are some of the most physically fit and mentally equipped soldiers on the planet.

According to Fox News, these men, known as the Navy’s Sea, Air, Land commandos, are put through what many experts regard as the toughest and most rigorous training in the world.

It involves a seven-week course known as BUD/S, which stands for Basic Underwater Demolition/SEALs, which includes an indoctrination course, followed by a conditioning phase and land warfare phase.

It also has the infamous ‘Hell Week’ which is 32 hours of continuous physical training and less than four hours of sleep.

They also have to endure parachute jumps, cold weather training, combat swimmer training and SERE (Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape training).

According to Dr. Mark Russell, a former Navy psychologist and U.S. Marine, the Hell Week requires 90 percent mental and only 10 percent physical strength and capability.

“They expose these guys to very arduous physical exercises to see how well they can tolerate these conditions both physically and mentally, and while some ‘wash out’ during this process, the ones that are more mentally tough make it,” Dr. Russell told Fox News.

It is estimated that as many as 75 to 80 percent of SEAL recruits ‘wash out’, or fail, during training.

The SEAL units are part of the US Navy’s principal special operations force, the Naval Special Warfare Command (NSWC) and the US Special Operations Command (USSOCOM). (ANI)