I struggled in 2nd Phase BUD/S with my academics and during that stressful period was the single, only, one-time I ever, ever, ever shot-back at an Instructor.

Dive Physics was a bear for me and they even gave us a "Cheat Sheet" to solve the problems.

Depending on the problem, all you had to do was follow the Cheat Sheet and add, subtract, multiply or divide the problem through a maze of sorts on the cheat sheet.

I couldn't do it... and I wasn't alone...

The academics in BUD/S are not that difficult, but being so tired, a "Supreme Effort" needs made to find time to study and a lot of guys fail BUD/S because of academics.

2nd Phase offered a "Stupid Study," they called it, for knuckleheads like me.

Spending my weekends with the smart guys in the Class didn't help and neither did me attending every single stupid study late at night. The Instructor who ran stupid study was the Instructor who taught us Dive Physics and I had already earned a "Rockhead Award" from him once.

At each stupid study he'd highlight me for being stupid and he became frustrated with me as well.

I was a good all around BUD/S student, but Dive Physics was becoming a major downfall.

Exhausted from a tough day, a dozen of us endured insults in stupid study with me receiving the bulk of them.  "How F**kin stupid can one man be," he asked?

It sent me over the edge and I stood up and replied, " THE MOST F**KIN MATH I'VE DONE SINCE I JOINED THE F**KIN NAVY IS A F**KIN MUSTER REPORT..."

Looking at me HARD for a moment, he came back with, "Alright Ship... try it again..."

I was very lucky, and I don't ever recommend anyone ever try that with a BUD/S Instructor...

BUD/S is a school that teaches diving. When you're taught diving in the Navy you're gonna be taught Dive Physics. To the best of my knowledge... no Navy SEAL... on any Navy SEAL dive, has ever actually used dive physics to plan a dive. Dive physics is mainly used by Navy deep sea divers who endure very deep dives and extended periods underwater.

The deepest we normally dive as SEALs is under 20 feet. We attack ships and really have no reason to go deeper than the keel of a ship unless a Ship comes over the top of us and forces a "depth excursion" that has us holding the muddy bottom trying to attempt not being sucked into the Ship's screws.

50 feet for five minutes was all we had at that depth breathing pure oxygen...  20 feet and under we had 3 hours.

You take two dive physics tests in BUD/S and seated for my first test... I knew I was gonna fail it.

I was the senior enlisted guy in my Class or "Leading Petty Officer," and I was seated behind our Class Officer, an Ensign, who sucked at dive physics as well. Our Instructor passed out the tests and we began it when in through the door walked our Class Proctor.

An older SEAL, he was responsible for everything the Class did. We belonged to him and when we did well, or did poorly, it was a direct reflection on his duties as our Proctor.

He was our bestest, goodest buddy... as long as we didn't piss him off...

He strolled up and down the aisles of trainees and paused next to me. Looking at my test answers, he slowly moved his big, well-worn SEAL finger and pointed to a wrong answer on my test and then he pointed to the correct answer while I quickly erased it and made the corrections.

He did it again and again while looking at the answers he had concealed in his other hand. He moved to our Class Leader and did the same, and then returned to me. Back and forth he went between us until the test was over. He did this because we had a very tight BUD/S Class and he didn't want to lose me or the Class leader.

We entered the Classroom the next day for our test results and the Class was quickly dropped for a beating. The Instructor went "NUTS" because so many guys had failed the test and he kept repeating, "F**KIN SHIPLEY GOT 100% AND HE'S THE DUMBEST GUY IN THE CLASS... WHAT THE F**K IS EVERYONES PROBLEM?"

I was sweating bullets... I got 100%!

70% was a passing grade... why my proctor gave me all the right answers to score 100% I don't know, but we still have another test to take and I still don't know dive physics.

We took seats for test two a week later and began. My head was on a swivel watching the door for my bestest, goodest buddy to arrive and save me. Being caught for cheating was not a good thing and without his help... I was a dead man and would be sent packing.

He never showed up...

When the results were given for test two I wasn't anywhere close to even 70% and I failed the test miserably.  Our Dive Physics Instructor never said a word, but he knew I had cheated... he just didn't know how I did it.

No matter... he'd just leave it to the Captain, and I was quickly whisked into his office for a review board.

Captain S. was a really big SEAL; very powerful and intimidating, and he never talked... HE YELLED...

I tell guys that everything you do in BUD/S "WILL" come back to you in either a good way, or a bad one, and very few guys will escape a review board in BUD/S at some point for something they've done wrong.

Standing at attention in front of the Captain, he opened my BUD/S record... a complete history of EVERYTHING I'd done at BUD/S thus far.

Run times, o-course times, swim times, Instructor comments... you name it and it was all in there. If it's got a bunch of bad stuff... it's OVER and you're headed for a big, gray ship somewhere...

I had a good record and was a strong, well-liked student, but that didn't stop him from giving me an ass-chewing of epic proportions. "I'M GOING TO GIVE YOUR SORRY ASS JUST ONE MORE CHANCE SHIPLEY... YOU FAIL A RE-TEST AND YOUR ASS IS GONE..."

The next day I was seated alone and given a re-test of "Test Two." It was the exact same one I had failed the day before and my head was on a swivel again.

This was it, and I knew I'd never pass it... I needed a miracle and in through the door strolls my Proctor.

He gave me all the answers to the test while I confidently scratched them down... When I finished, I gave him the most heartfelt "Thank You" a person can give another person. He had saved my ass and my dream of becoming a SEAL was still intact while I was overcome with exhausted emotion like I've experienced very few times in my life.

My hero, my Knight in Shining Armor, my bestest, goodest buddy...

Unfortunately... the answers he gave me were to the first test we'd taken and not the second...

I got a 0%... I didn't even make a mistake and get one right... I WAS GONE...

I tell guys during the courses that "If they like you at BUD/S; if the Instructors can picture you in their own SEAL Platoon at a Team after BUD/S carrying a machine gun next to them in Combat, then there is very little they won't do to try and get you through Training, and that includes a little cheating."

On the same note... If they don't like you, there is very little they won't do to get you out of Training, and that includes a little cheating.

Knowing I'd be thrown out, a couple Instructors got together and figured out a way to sneak me another re-test and this one would be given by George.

George was the 2nd Phase Chief and he had better things to do running 2nd phase then f**king with Trainees.

I don't think I ever saw George drop a single student in BUD/S for push-ups.

George pulled me into his office and shut the door. We sat facing each other and George asked me, "Shipley... what happens to a balloon that I blow up on the surface and I take to the bottom of a pool?"

I replied... "It get smaller."

He asked... What happens to that balloon when I take it back to the surface?"

"It returns to its original size," was my response.

"If I blow up a balloon on the bottom of the pool and take it to the surface, what happens?"

"It pops," I said...

"Go join your Class, Shipley... we're done here... you passed"

I had a couple problems with Land Nav Calculations, but I passed, and the only other math was Demolitions Calculations during 3rd Phase which I was working very hard to pull together. If I failed another test, I was gone and the stress of writing down each answer was tough. Checking and double checking, while watching the clock was total endurance.

At San Clemente Island, I had just taken my final test for Demolitions and I nervously turned it in to my 3rd Phase Demolitions Instructor. He knew I had struggled a bit with math; he knew I came close to being thrown out for Dive Physics, and he also knew if I passed this test that I was a Navy SEAL.

We'd leave the Island soon and fly back to San Diego... all that was left to do there was a timed o-course and then graduate. The o-course was nothing... if I passed this one final test I was done...

I watched him grade the test through a screen door outside and he knew I was watching. He knew the importance of this ONE, LAST TEST, and each time he made a mark on my test with a red pen my gut tightened even more... This was it, and I could see him begin a slowwwww count of my incorrect answers while I counted with him at a distance. One, Two, Three...

Rolling his eyes up at me through the door, he paused for a moment as our eyes locked and he slowly threw me a thumbs up... I had made it. I was a Navy SEAL at that very minute and after all these years, remembering that moment still works me up with emotion...

All that was left to do was express my overwhelming joy with the rest of the Class hanging around outside and I put both thumbs up in the air, and alternating with each leg I kicked them out to my sides and began to skip down the road saying LOUD and PROUD, "I'M A F**KIN TEAM GUY, I'M A F**KIN TEAM GUY, I'M A F**KIN TEAM GUY..." 

Unfortunately... the most feared Instructor we had in 3rd Phase was coming around the corner and caught the full act and I was hammered for it... Good natured stuff, but I really paid for that one.

Arriving back in San Diego, all our previous Phase Instructors knew BUD/S was over for Class 131, but that didn't stop word spreading through the Cadre that Shipley has something funny you "ALL" need to see. 

I was summoned 24/7 for the entire last week of BUD/S by every SEAL Instructor from all the Phases to "Do the Dance," we all heard about... and then a pile of pushups followed... 

Our "Guest Speaker" at Graduation explained to us that our Instructors had been trying hard to get us through Training since day one, even though most of us had only felt they were trying to get rid of us.

A "Moment of Clarity" when he said that, I realized he was right even though we never felt that way through Training with some of the things they did to us.

At graduation you are called up for your certificate and a handshake while they announce your name and what SEAL Team you've been assigned to, then you walk past all the Instructors seated in their snazzy uniforms and piles of medals.

I smiled from ear to ear moving past them, as all made under their breath comments joking me one final time.

When graduation was over... my Dad remarked that I was the only graduate he saw that the Instructors did that for... A little extra attention... one last time

Pretty Cool Stuff...

Our Class Leader that suffered with me through Dive Physics didn't make it through Training, but he was replaced with a young Ensign that I worked very well with and Class 131 was as strong as they came.

Our Class Leader rang the "Bell" three times signifying that we were through as we cheered and hugged each other.

Six months of total ass-beating evolutions and stress were over, but another session of it that would last for many, many years waited at my SEAL Team next door.

I had just one other thing to do before leaving BUD/S that day, and that was to ring the "Bell" with all my Classmates.

I grabbed Diane and we both grasped the lanyard on the Bell together and gave it three hard whacks.

What I didn't know then, and neither did she, was the baby she was carrying in her belly would stand strong himself and ring that same Bell almost 20 years later... and we'd both be there to see him do it...

I hate to admit it, but a few years later I went to Dive Supervisor School and had to pass another Dive Physics test.

I copied all the answers off Willy's test and passed Dive Supervisor School and never once did I ever need to solve a Dive Physics problem in SEAL Team in all those years, and all those dives I safely conducted as a SEAL...

Below is a link to my latest YouTube video with my buddy "Willy."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpg8I0g3Gcg

Next Course begins September 4th.

Kick Some Ass...