What should a woman know before going to BUD/S?

If the OP is serious, then she should concentrate on about a hundred things other than aiming at SWCC. One at a time: like enjoying one’s HS years without doing anything stupid and making a habit of staying fit.

I’ve been struggling to express my thoughts on this thread. I don’t have the eloquence to do anything other write bullet points.
  • Any female who makes it through any SOF pipeline has my mad respect
  • To any female who aspires to the goal, you have my respect as well. Don’t think the deck is stacked against you. The minute one starts thinking about one’s gender (either way) during qualification will be the beginning of the end of your quest
  • One would hope that we’re at a place where each candidate only has to think about his/her own performance as an individual or as part of team.
  • I’m sick of hearing about badasses
  • Now, let me tell you about a bad ass: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shannon_M._Kent
  • First hand account: First female Army SF Officer always finished in the top 25% of her rucks and runs. Outwardly, doesn’t consider herself a badass.
 
While I don’t throw around the bad*** term often, I do think it was mentioned here with the utmost respect and admiration. Anyone who completes these trainings is beyond the average human and their mindset to suck it up and do the hard things.
Senior Petty Officer Kent did hard things and did them well. Her death was a huge loss to her family and team.
In many ways she was a trailblazer for her time and I applaud her and other soldiers, sailors and airmen who try to do hard things, and excel. I would refer to her as a bad *** with absolute respect and in homage to what she accomplished. It isn’t said as blasé or cool. It is reverent.
 
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A Female in class of 2020 passed SOAS (Seal Officer Assessment Screening) and was highly encouraged (bordering voluntold) to service select NSW SEALS. She instead choose EOD as she did not want to be the Navy's test case and simply wanted to serve her Nation. I had the pleasure to speak with this individual who was both overflowing in both physical ability and character.
 
Devil Doc said:
Not SEAL but SWCC, pronounced swick, ain’t nothing to sneeze at.

apnews.com

1st female sailor completes Navy special warfare training

For the first time, a female sailor has successfully completed the grueling 37—week training course to become a Naval Special Warfare combatant-craft crewman.
apnews.com apnews.com
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Her classmates are telling people that she got special treatment and lowered standards...
Harbor1 said:
A Female in class of 2020 passed SOAS (Seal Officer Assessment Screening) and was highly encouraged (bordering voluntold) to service select NSW SEALS. She instead choose EOD as she did not want to be the Navy's test case and simply wanted to serve her Nation. I had the pleasure to speak with this individual who was both overflowing in both physical ability and character.
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Test case?
 
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I guess test case because she could possibly be the first successful woman who could pass and the attention paid to her, good and bad could be overwhelming. No everyone wants to be the first person in anything because too much will be expected of them. Sure it makes for great PR and all the little girls out there will look up to her but sometimes people don't want to be the role model. They want to apply, do the same crap as the guys and succeed and fail on their efforts, and not worry about the first female. That's my opinion, i could be 100% wrong.
 
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Titania said:
Her classmates are telling people that she got special treatment and lowered standards...

Test case?
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There WILL always be someone you can find who will speculate about lowered standards and special treatment any time a barrier comes down, casting speculation as truth. There will be some of her classmates who will be her allies and supporters, and some who won’t. The media loves to find the gripers. I suspect she just wants to be left alone to do her job the best way she knows how. She knew very well the sniping that would occur, because we have seen it with every iteration of people who haven’t been allowed to do something in the past now doing it. The first ones through the ceiling get hit by the flying glass and it stings.

I got muttered about enough with the way I supposedly earned number one rankings or competitive jobs along the way, that I know this is the knee jerk response for some (I emphasize that) humans. I know precisely what I did and didn’t do to make my way up the ladder.

As I am fond of working into my posts, performance, performance, performance is the key, and giving no one any leverage for professional criticism, and having an Oscar-worthy game face and thick skin, is the way to prevail in the end.
 
Titania said:
Her classmates are telling people that she got special treatment and lowered standards...
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I'd like to see "her classmates" go public with the accusations. I'm reading here that she got special treatment and the standards were lowered.

Which standards? All of them? I've read these comments on other forums from men who've never attended Ranger school, SFAS, or the Marine Corps' Infantry Officer Course say the same thing. The standards were lowered, otherwise "She" would not have passed.

Those conspiracies would have to run deeper than the CO walking in one day and telling the cadre, "Today, we will lower the standards and give "Her" special treatment." Everybody below the CO would have to be onboard with that for it to be successful.

I'm not buying the special treatment story these days. Either they will or they won't pass and most of us just don't care.
 
According to what some BUD/S dropouts told me, one female SEAL candidate broke her legs in Basic Orientation (BO) which is just the first three weeks of BUD/S, another female SEAL candidate broke her legs in BUD/S Prep and a third female SEAL candidate got rolled back in BO for stress fractures. A woman made it to first phase of BUD/S for the first time ever this year but she quit on day one. It all seems hopeless.
 
Titania said:
According to what some BUD/S dropouts told me, one female SEAL candidate broke her legs in Basic Orientation (BO) which is just the first three weeks of BUD/S, another female SEAL candidate broke her legs in BUD/S Prep and a third female SEAL candidate got rolled back in BO for stress fractures. A woman made it to first phase of BUD/S for the first time ever this year but she quit on day one. It all seems hopeless.
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Are you in high school? If so, what year?
 
Titania said:
According to what some BUD/S dropouts told me, one female SEAL candidate broke her legs in Basic Orientation (BO) which is just the first three weeks of BUD/S, another female SEAL candidate broke her legs in BUD/S Prep and a third female SEAL candidate got rolled back in BO for stress fractures. A woman made it to first phase of BUD/S for the first time ever this year but she quit on day one. It all seems hopeless.
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Hopeless? What does hope have to do with it? No branch of the military, much less Special forces, has any business hoping for anything other than the deadliest MFers on the planet. Placing gender above lethality endangers missions. Winning is supposed to be the one and only goal.
 
Physicsguru said:
This is the definition of a rumor. Either cite your sources or drop it.

Too many wardrooms are destroyed by people who think they know the gouge but really don't have all the information.
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If you want proof of lower standards, look no further than the PRT. Women are naturally weaker and smaller on average. Nothing against women, but in war, the only thing that matters is the ability to do your job. In certain jobs physical strength is not as important, but there are some (like NSW) where the standards must not be compromised.
 
FiveByFive said:
Exactly.
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I remember a handful in 26 years. There were probably more but in a member's health record is/was a page for history of assignments where I would stamp or write in the ship's name when a new crew member checked in, so I would see from where they came. On one ship we had a BM3 go to BUDS, drop, and then return to us all in about two months. Dropouts from BUDS probably aren't rare, but really, how many has the average person ever met?
 
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