The Road To Becoming A Navy SEAL Officer

GoNavy

5-Year Member
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Dec 17, 2012
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Hello everyone hope everyone is healthy and happy,

So I have a couple questions I'm a Junior in HS now hoping I can be USNA class of 2018.

But I want to be a Navy SEAL Officer and I have wanted to be a enlisted Navy SEAL since 7th grade and this year decided on becoming a Officer.

I just want anyone's tips on what to do in my situation or how i can do better.

My grades are bad because i've been stupid and didn't try, my SAT is 1860.But im taking it again.

I'm in Army JROTC LET 3 -1 year drill team , 2 years Raider team with a Ironman award for highest PT score.Im on the Varsity Swim Team and Varsity Cross Country team.

I applied for NASS(haven't heard back yet)

I know I might not get in for 2018 but I will do whatever it takes to become a SEAL officer.If it takes going to NAPS , OCS , enlisting and applying to USNA again , Navy ROTC , whatever ill do it , because a long time ago i decided ill either become a Navy SEAL or die trying.

If your thinking oh look another fanboy, thats fine but this is what I do. Every weekday i wake up at 0355 and run to the 2 miles to the gym and workout 2 hours before school.I max out the CFA in all except maybe the shuttle run.

I don't want to bore you with my life story , but I flip 650lb tires , can do over 6ft high kicks , train myself in Capoeria ,Boxing , Muai Thai and others..I speak English , Russian , Ukrainian and Polish.I also read alot and know much history and weapons systems of the world.
As for leadership I have been in position of leadership and excelled.
My mentality is never give up and get up no matter what.

Just how do I show the Admissions who I am and what separates me from the rest,It's my fault that I didn't get my grades up and now I pay the price, I accept that.I'm working very hard to turn my academics around but how do I do I make sure I can prove myself.

Yet no matter what happens , I will become a Navy SEAL Officer or die trying.I know who I am and what I want , just interested in your suggestions and opinions.

Thanks for reading this , good luck to all the applicants and have a great day :thumb:
 
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I'm pretty good friends with a few Recon corpsman and BUD/s crossovers and what they have said is that the best thing to do is keep your goal in mind and stay focused. I'm sure there are plenty of folks that can give you a good pipeline breakdown on here. I'll just say that if you go in thinking you'll fail, it'll ruin you.
 
best of luck, keep your goal in mind

Hey, I'm a recent class of 2017 appointee, your data looks great, like the above poster said, the best thing to do is keep your goal in mind. To put my two cents in - work on your grades, your extracurriculars look good, but as you addmited, you've not played acadimics smart. Grades can cause you to sink or swim.

For example, I only have JROTC, no sports, no other community groups, just JROTC. I also came close to failing one event on the CFA because I was stupid, though it be easy to do and didn't practice. On the other hand I have a 5.38 out of a 5.0 weighted GPA and am ranked 10 out of a class of 830. The result, the MOC who nominated me told me that the day after he submitted my nomination they called to say that I was accepted. Grades matter.

Good luck and maybe all see you in a year or two at the academy.
 
Wet & Sandy ... GoNavy

If is the Seals you seek I have another book for you to read.

Lone Survivor - The LT was an NROTC grad out of PENN St. and a former hockey player. The start of the book will give "some" insight into BUDs and Hellweek...only some!

My sons have read both book I suggested to you, they will both get your attention.

Get wet and sandy!

Cheers!
 
Thanks everyone and will do.Iv'e read Lone Survivor It's fantastic Marcus Luttrell and his Redwings team was incredible.
 
If is the Seals you seek I have another book for you to read.

Lone Survivor - The LT was an NROTC grad out of PENN St. and a former hockey player. The start of the book will give "some" insight into BUDs and Hellweek...only some!

My sons have read both book I suggested to you, they will both get your attention.

Get wet and sandy!

Cheers!

Not to be a nitpicker but... well, ok I guess I'll be a nitpicker. Lt. Mike Murphy was not in NROTC although he was a graduate of Penn St. He went to OCS after graduation and then straight to BUD/S. I wish NROTC could lay claim to such an honorable and valorous individual.

I agree Lone Survivor is a great read. It was very hard to put down. It was also haunting and frightening, even terrifying. I also never cried so many tears reading a book. It made an impact on this old man.
 
You sound like you are doing pretty well, just to be honest. I hope everything works out. Those are high goals, I am impressed.
 
Hi. I suggest going to sealswcc.com, click on "SEAL" and then click on "Become A SEAL" and under "Enlisted" is the tab "Find SEAL Mentors" Find the mentor in your area and contact him, meet with him and start training with his cohort, at minimum. Being set on being an officer doesn't mean you can't train with a mentor. If you have access to open water, train in open water. Upper body strength is important, but focus on pushups and pullups because that is what you'll be tested upon to get a BUD/S slot. Don't get chronic injuries from overtraining. If you want to be a SEAL more than anything else (i.e., more than Navy, officer, USNA, etc.) consider becoming an enlisted SEAL and then becoming an officer. According to current statistics, becoming a SEAL then an officer is much more likely than becoming an officer and then becoming a SEAL (personally told this by SEAL Captain at BUD/S Coronado). BUD/S slots are very limited for officers, even for USNA grads. "Think about it, if you were an enlisted SEAL with 4 or 5 combat deployments do you want to be led by a USNA grad who was just pinned with his Trident or do you want one of your fellow enlisted SEALs who then became an officer to lead you?" (That was the question posed to me by the SEAL Captain) By the way, those BUD/S slots for Academy grads are highly prized and competed for at USNA. So, there is no assurance that you will ever get a BUD/S slot out of the Academy. Also, even Academy grads DOR.

Your best "guarantee" for becoming a SEAL based upon all the information publicly available is to enlist because there are more BUD/S slots for enlisted. You can compete for and get a direct to BUD/S SEAL Contract out of high school. But, you also want to mature as a person to be able to get through BUD/S -- as either officer or enlisted. Sweet spot for BUD/S is approx. 24-25 years old (again told this by SEAL Captain). 18 year olds make it through BUD/S, but on percentage basis, men who are a few years out of college have the highest percentage of success at BUD/S because of maturity. Bodybuilders, college football players with no body fat, and Division I track athletes have all rung out at BUD/S. Scrawny 5'2" skinny guys and even fat, chubby guys have graduated BUD/S. Its the stuff between your ears that seems to be the determining factor -- it's the thing that keeps you going at 3 am during Hell Week when you are jackhammering from hypothermia. I was told that on percentage basis, 75% of enlisted make it through SEAL training eventually (after rollbacks, etc.) but only 25% of officers. If an enlisted breaks his femur on the cargo net or obstacle course (happens a lot), he's probably rolled back to the next BUD/S class. If an officer does the same thing, he's probably done and his chance at BUD/S is over. That is why the difference in percentage. The enlisted will get rolled back because he came in as a civilian (generally) and the Navy doesn't have much invested in him. A USNA grad has $300,000 already invested in him; the Navy is not going to let the officer sit around doing nothing to heal up for three or four months for another chance at BUD/S.

Finally, why do you want to be a SEAL? Not SEAL officer, but SEAL. Ask around, but a SEAL officer has two combat deployments, then he's done in the field. Now he plans ops and watches the op he runs on tv screens in a dark tent. Enlisted SEALs will continue to be in the field being a pipehitter/doornocker (other things being equal) long after that. Don't take my word on any of this. Go out and talk to as many people as you can,verify what they tell you and make up your own mind on how you want to proceed based upon as much reliable information as you can acquire. God bless you for wanting to try and good luck in whatever you choose to do.
 
The above from ID Surf might be a good illustration of taking good information and misinforming with it. Let me explain.

Several things:

1. Stating that statistically it is "easier" to become a SEAL as an enlisted man is simply not proven. It may be true. Or it may not be. Why? Simple. Surf has no idea how many enlisted men are competing for that greater number of spots he contends are available.

2. Remember of any group of Mids at the Academy at any given point in time (approximately 4,400), give or take, 120 of these will be awarded SEAL try-outs. What is the same 4 year number from the total number in the Fleet? Betting it's not nearly so advantageous as being at USNA.

3. Furthermore, of those at USNA who seek a SEAL assignment, usually about 70 or so per annum, 30 will receive that opportunity. Those are pretty good odds, bettern 40% of those "applying" are accepted. Not bad.What is the % of enlisted given tickets from those applying? I'll bet it's far below 43%.

4. And it gets better. As we've learned from highly informed folks, the ODDS of USNA assigned SEAL candidates successfully completing is HUGELY better than the non-USNA candidates. Some indicated 75% of USNA candidates vs. 20-25% of those from enlisted and other ranks. And isn't THAT the end game? Not to be accepted to BUD/S but to make it to a SEAL community? Of course it is.

5. Now to a real reach made there. None of us knows the reality of his claim that it is "statistically" "much more likely" to be commissioned an officer from enlisted status than it is to become a SEAL from officer status. I'd bet that may well be some baloney, no matter who told Surf that. Show me those "statistics." The one we can extrapolate is simply this ... 70 (give or take) USNA Mids seek SEAL assignment; 30 are assigned; of those approximately 3/4 or 75% or about 23 or 24 men. That's pretty fair odds, far above even those who are appointed from the Fleet, and FAR FAR above those who WANT to be appointed from the Fleet as enlisted, ROTC, and/or OCS. It's not even close.

6. Lastly, . . . a contrived scenario that SEALs would be put into lesser circumstances with leadership with USNA commissioned officer vs. an enlisted-now-commissioned SEAL ... well this doesn't even merit a response.

7. But what this post MAY expose is the mind-set AND the logic and math capacity of some who might dream of being that macho SEAL and need to be more concerned with becoming critical thinkers and less concerned about becoming a tough guy. The Navy will take care of the PT stuff. The mental challenge is something that may be tougher to make "tough."

8. Anecdotally, the illustration of USNA assigned SEALs who are injured being somehow less allowed to heal when injured and continue doesn't fly either in my observation. I know 2 USNA men who were seriously injured and allowed to heal and go at it again. Both, btw, finished.
 
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And in addition to the two officers Whistle Pig mentioned, I (and actually you too) know of an OCS graduate who went on to BUD/S, was injured and rolled back, and went on to complete the course. He was later awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions in Afghanistan - Lt. Michael P Murphy.
 
Whistle Pig, hi. I would prefer not to say anything that can identify any individual on a public board. My information was provided by a SEAL Captain in charge of recruiting a few years ago. I tried to remember it verbatim as best as I could and certainly may be mistaken. I think everything you say has validity as far as making it through and as for serving SEAL officers. Could we agree, however, that the person that posted the question will have to go to BUD/S to be a SEAL? If so, based on the information we acquired when my son was in the position the poster was in was that the most sure way to get a slot to go to BUD/S was a direct enlistment SEAL contract. Turning down an Academy to do that was upsetting to my wife and I. If I appeared to be trying to convince the poster to direct contract instead of obtain an appointment to USNA and then try for a BUD/S slot, that was certainly not my intention. I think he has to decide what is most important (SEAL, officer, Academy or all of it together) and how he is going to acheive it. If anything I said in anyway suggested that a USNA grad will not make a SEAL officer or that they are not successful at it, that also was not my intent. Again, I hope the poster identifies what his actual goals are and then acquires as much information as possible as to go about achieving them.
 
Thanx. I understand. Never any need to ID anyone. I'm sure the captain was trying to make a point, and he apparently did. Of course he'll have to go to BUD/S. It's your next point where we part ways for the reasons and explanations I stated. Let me offer my main point again ... The optimal way to become a SEAL is to be selected as a candidate from USNA. Period. Imo, any young man declining an appointment to USNA in order to enlist and hope for an "on the come" SEAL success, well, he'd be outta his mind. One of the no-brainers of all time, imo. Better shot. Better pay. Better future. I'm with your wife, 100%.


My points are made in thoughtful response to your thoughtful post. I assume nothing beyond what is communicated. Like I trust you to speak and do your own things, I will trust the OP to do same. Good luck. Advise your son to keep learning and working out, physically and mentally! SEALs need both.
 
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You, my wife and I all agree. Unfortunately, or fortunately for my son, he graduated BUD/S quite a while ago so its all water under the bridge. We are indirectly acquainted with a former enlisted SEAL (if there is such a thing) who is a CEO of a company. So, anecdotally, enlisted SEALs don't allow themselves to be limited either. Its what's inside that matters. You probably know that better than I. Fair winds and following seas to you and the poster. God bless the young men that at least show up -- whether at USNA or at BUD/S or wherever they serve this country. They constantly restore my faith in this country.
 
The above from ID Surf might be a good illustration of taking good information and misinforming with it. Let me explain.

Several things:

1. Stating that statistically it is "easier" to become a SEAL as an enlisted man is simply not proven. It may be true. Or it may not be. Why? Simple. Surf has no idea how many enlisted men are competing for that greater number of spots he contends are available.

2. Remember of any group of Mids at the Academy at any given point in time (approximately 4,400), give or take, 120 of these will be awarded SEAL try-outs. What is the same 4 year number from the total number in the Fleet? Betting it's not nearly so advantageous as being at USNA.

3. Furthermore, of those at USNA who seek a SEAL assignment, usually about 70 or so per annum, 30 will receive that opportunity. Those are pretty good odds, bettern 40% of those "applying" are accepted. Not bad.What is the % of enlisted given tickets from those applying? I'll bet it's far below 43%.

4. And it gets better. As we've learned from highly informed folks, the ODDS of USNA assigned SEAL candidates successfully completing is HUGELY better than the non-USNA candidates. Some indicated 75% of USNA candidates vs. 20-25% of those from enlisted and other ranks. And isn't THAT the end game? Not to be accepted to BUD/S but to make it to a SEAL community? Of course it is.

5. Now to a real reach made there. None of us knows the reality of his claim that it is "statistically" "much more likely" to be commissioned an officer from enlisted status than it is to become a SEAL from officer status. I'd bet that may well be some baloney, no matter who told Surf that. Show me those "statistics." The one we can extrapolate is simply this ... 70 (give or take) USNA Mids seek SEAL assignment; 30 are assigned; of those approximately 3/4 or 75% or about 23 or 24 men. That's pretty fair odds, far above even those who are appointed from the Fleet, and FAR FAR above those who WANT to be appointed from the Fleet as enlisted, ROTC, and/or OCS. It's not even close.

6. Lastly, . . . a contrived scenario that SEALs would be put into lesser circumstances with leadership with USNA commissioned officer vs. an enlisted-now-commissioned SEAL ... well this doesn't even merit a response.

7. But what this post MAY expose is the mind-set AND the logic and math capacity of some who might dream of being that macho SEAL and need to be more concerned with becoming critical thinkers and less concerned about becoming a tough guy. The Navy will take care of the PT stuff. The mental challenge is something that may be tougher to make "tough."

8. Anecdotally, the illustration of USNA assigned SEALs who are injured being somehow less allowed to heal when injured and continue doesn't fly either in my observation. I know 2 USNA men who were seriously injured and allowed to heal and go at it again. Both, btw, finished.
One thing that ID_Surf mentions that is uneqivocally true, though, is that SEAL officers will have one or maybe two tours where they see action, then become REMFs. This is also generally true of Marine officers. If you think you want to see action over your whole career, enlisted may make you happier. Of course, you might change your mind about this after your first action.
 
I’m going to take a stab at where the miscommunications may have arisen. I’m not a SEAL, just a wife of one who’s been at it for a long time. We have a mini-fridge stocked with beer in our back yard, so I’ll admit that most of my observations will be based on discussions that have occurred within 15 feet of that fridge. I’m not speaking for my husband, nor the SEAL Captain you mention in your post who we’ve known for a couple of decades. Incidentally, when you want to not identify someone specifically on a public forum, it’s helpful to refrain from giving their rank & title with a time frame.

Hi. I suggest going to sealswcc.com, click on "SEAL" and then click on "Become A SEAL" and under "Enlisted" is the tab "Find SEAL Mentors" Find the mentor in your area and contact him, meet with him and start training with his cohort, at minimum. Being set on being an officer doesn't mean you can't train with a mentor. If you have access to open water, train in open water. Upper body strength is important, but focus on pushups and pullups because that is what you'll be tested upon to get a BUD/S slot. Don't get chronic injuries from overtraining. If you want to be a SEAL more than anything else (i.e., more than Navy, officer, USNA, etc.) consider becoming an enlisted SEAL and then becoming an officer.

SURF gives great advice about going to the sealswcc website and contacting a mentor. A lot of people don’t know that officer candidates can do that as well. Some of those sentences I’ve heard so many times from SEALs at BUD/S that he might as well have those in quotes.

According to current statistics, becoming a SEAL then an officer is much more likely than becoming an officer and then becoming a SEAL (personally told this by SEAL Captain at BUD/S Coronado).

I think it gets a little confused here. Becoming an officer and then a SEAL refers to a lateral transfer from another community. That happens but is a very difficult route that has to be accomplished in a short time frame. Becoming a SEAL and then becoming an officer may very well be more likely than becoming an officer and then a SEAL but it is also a difficult path. Only a small minority of SEAL officers are prior enlisted. The vast majority are commissioned through USNA, NROTC, & OCS and are selected for BUD/S prior to commissioning. Any of those are far more likely than either scenario you mentioned. I think you misunderstood the Captain.

BUD/S slots are very limited for officers, even for USNA grads. "Think about it, if you were an enlisted SEAL with 4 or 5 combat deployments do you want to be led by a USNA grad who was just pinned with his Trident or do you want one of your fellow enlisted SEALs who then became an officer to lead you?" (That was the question posed to me by the SEAL Captain)

This “quote” perplexes me. An effective enlisted SEAL with 4 or 5 deployments should be the Chief or LPO of the platoon. The OIC would be an O3 with 1 or 2 deployments already, not someone straight out of BUD/S. The Chief is supposed to be more experienced than the JO. I’m not sure why that would be a problem. There will be 1 or 2 junior officers under the OIC with no prior deployments just as there will be a few enlisted SEALs in the platoon with no prior deployments. For several reasons, I think this quote is a complete misunderstanding. That sounds more like something found in bad SEAL books, next to the chapter on the mythical 90% divorce rate.

By the way, those BUD/S slots for Academy grads are highly prized and competed for at USNA. So, there is no assurance that you will ever get a BUD/S slot out of the Academy.

True

Also, even Academy grads DOR.

True. But not common.

Your best "guarantee" for becoming a SEAL based upon all the information publicly available is to enlist because there are more BUD/S slots for enlisted. You can compete for and get a direct to BUD/S SEAL Contract out of high school. But, you also want to mature as a person to be able to get through BUD/S -- as either officer or enlisted. Sweet spot for BUD/S is approx. 24-25 years old (again told this by SEAL Captain).

I think he probably told you 22-25. Those are the figures I’m familiar with.

18 year olds make it through BUD/S, but on percentage basis, men who are a few years out of college have the highest percentage of success at BUD/S because of maturity. Bodybuilders, college football players with no body fat, and Division I track athletes have all rung out at BUD/S. Scrawny 5'2" skinny guys and even fat, chubby guys have graduated BUD/S. Its the stuff between your ears that seems to be the determining factor -- it's the thing that keeps you going at 3 am during Hell Week when you are jackhammering from hypothermia.

This sounds word for word except for the part about the fat, chubby guys.

I was told that on percentage basis, 75% of enlisted make it through SEAL training eventually (after rollbacks, etc.) but only 25% of officers.

It’s the opposite of this. My bet is the Captain said 75 % attrition rate for enlisted & 25 % for officers, not success rate. There is no way he said it the other way around.

If an enlisted breaks his femur on the cargo net or obstacle course (happens a lot),

(channeling Dwight from the Office here) False. Does not happen a lot. The Captain may have said that injuries happen a lot, but not broken femurs from the obstacle course (cargo net is part of the o course), that is not common. The Big Navy investigation on something like that would have been covered thoroughly in the chats by the fridge.

...he's probably rolled back to the next BUD/S class. If an officer does the same thing, he's probably done and his chance at BUD/S is over. That is why the difference in percentage.

I think the Captain probably mentioned here that after a DOR, not injury, an officer cannot get a second chance at BUD/S, whereas an enlisted sailor could. That’s a result of stiff competition for an officer spot at BUD/S, not finances. I think they may have tightened it up on enlisted as well since the time you spoke to the Captain, but I’m not positive.

The enlisted will get rolled back because he came in as a civilian (generally) and the Navy doesn't have much invested in him. A USNA grad has $300,000 already invested in him; the Navy is not going to let the officer sit around doing nothing to heal up for three or four months for another chance at BUD/S.

I can’t believe that any of this came from the Captain at BUD/S.

Finally, why do you want to be a SEAL? Not SEAL officer, but SEAL. Ask around, but a SEAL officer has two combat deployments, then he's done in the field. Now he plans ops and watches the op he runs on tv screens in a dark tent. Enlisted SEALs will continue to be in the field being a pipehitter/doornocker (other things being equal) long after that.

Not sure about the pipe thing, but door kicker is the term I hear often. As a wife, I prefer the term “door knocker” that you use since it sounds very polite and calm but I’m pretty sure that’s a phrase used by no SEAL ever. Your point, though, is that enlisted SEALs will be door kickers for a longer time than officers and there is no doubt about that. It isn’t quite the way you describe it but nevertheless the underlying point is true.

Bottom line is that both enlisted and officer SEALs are awesome, in my personal opinion. You and your wife did something right raising him and I think the parents all deserve the standing ovation they get at SQT Graduation. My absolute best to your son.

To the OP, I completely agree with SURF that USNA isn’t the only way to go. If you struggle with academics, that could be an issue at USNA. Don’t underestimate how difficult the academics are there. USNA does give the best preparation for those seeking success at BUD/S, which is why their success rate is so high, but the competition for a spot is also highest there.

NROTC is another good option if you are good at training seriously on your own and being proactive on tracking down what you need to do to get a spot at BUD/S. The military requirements on a daily basis are significantly less than USNA and, depending on the school, the academic requirements may be a lot less which could open up more time for training.

If your goal is to be a SEAL with a preference to be an officer, you should at least consider getting your degree first on your own dime and then applying for an OCS spot to BUD/S. If you don’t get selected the first couple of rounds, then you can enlist to go to BUD/S. That route at least keeps all your options open.

If you want accurate, up-to-date information about the SEAL Teams go to sealswcc.com and ignore pretty much everything else you read on the internet including this post.
 
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