CHAPTER 2

No Bad Teams, Only Bad Leaders

Leif Babin

CORONADO, CALIFORNIA: BASIC UNDERWATER DEMOLITION/SEAL
TRAINING
“It pays to be a winner!” shouted a much-feared blue-and-gold-shirted
Navy SEAL instructor through the megaphone. It was night three into the
infamous Hell Week of SEAL training. The students, in camouflage
fatigues, were soaked to the bone and covered in gritty sand that chafed
them until they were raw and bleeding. They shivered from the cold
ocean water and cool wind of the Southern California night. The students
moved with the aches and pains as only those who have suffered through
seventy-two hours straight of nearly nonstop physical exertion can.
Exhausted, over the previous three days they had slept for less than one
hour total. Since Hell Week had begun, dozens of them had quit. Others
had become sick or injured and were pulled from training. When this
class had started Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL Training (known
as BUD/S)—the SEAL basic training course—several weeks before,
nearly two hundred determined young men had eagerly begun. All
dreamed of becoming a U.S. Navy SEAL, prepared for years, and came