Extreme SEAL Experience Blog Archives
Marines only like other Marines...
Added: Saturday March 09th 2013By: Don Shipley
Marines only like other Marines...
I've worked for some great Officers in my time. I really can't think of a bad officer I ever served under. One of the finest Officers I ever work for was a Marine Colonel in Liberia, Africa. 8 SEALs and a few hundred Marines were involved in Liberia when our Embassy was attacked and we all worked for the Colonel.
He was a big man, cut, defined and a total Marin...e. Everything you'd think a Marine Officer would look like, and he never smiled which is standard operating procedure for Marines.
He commanded respect.
Anything that anybody though might help the Mission, the Colonel was all ears. He took time to listen to everyone and he kept an exhausting schedule. The coolest thing about the Colonel was his matter of fact way he had commanding, as in, "You won't win a firefight throwing a rule book at the enemy."
He assembled all the Marines...
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R.I.P, Warrior...
Added: Saturday March 09th 2013By: Don Shipley
I was little, but I remember all the kicks my Aunts and Grandmothers would give my Uncles and Grandfathers under the Thanksgiving table in a desperate attempt to shut them up when they’d speak about the War.
They told a lot of stories, really good ones, and it was the only time I ever chewed my food slowly so I wouldn’t miss a word. I was a set of eyeballs and ears at meal t...ime…
My Grandmother traced our family back to the Revolutionary War. My descendants and family have been involved in every conflict this Country has had since then.
Some of my best memories was my Uncles vacation home on Lake Erie, where we’d often spend a few weeks in the summer. Under his bed was a box filled with captured German Lugar pistols and knives with Swastikas on them that I’d marvel at.
My...
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Secure from Hell Week!
Added: Saturday March 09th 2013By: Don Shipley
Secure from Hell Week!
It’s a sad fact that nobody ever hears anything good about BUD/S (SEAL Training). It’s also a fact that most of the horror stories come from guys that don’t make it through. I wouldn’t want to spend five more minutes...... at BUD/S, but I can honestly say BUD/S holds my fondest memories from my SEAL days and I had a great time in training.
I spent six-months there. I cried for three months and I laughed hysterically for the other three months.
BUD/S (Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL Training is SEAL school, and it’s the "Big Boys Club." We were given a lot of rope to run with and we had few rules. Nobody told us when to go to bed, where we could go, how much we could drink. We were just expected to show up on time and ready to perform each day.
Training was where we had rules; a dull knife, a dirty weapon or a life jacket that wasn’t maintained...
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Bottom of the Barrel...
Added: Saturday March 09th 2013By: Don Shipley
Bottom of the Barrel...
We receive a lot of gifts from guys who attend the courses and all are appreciated, and mean a lot to Diane and myself. It means a lot that guys take the time to send a small token of the time they spent here and a simple "thank you." We’ve received knives, glass from the World Trade Center, tee-shirts, hand crafted arts, coins, books, flowers, cakes, booze, cookies, coffe......e, cards and native ornaments from their Countries, and all mean much to us…
Today… I received a case of crappy wine that means a TON to me. I don’t know who sent it, but I know they heard the story behind the wine from me and it brings back decades worth of my fondest memories in SEAL Team…
Beaujolais Nouveau… The bottom of the barrel wine…
Young Officers in SEAL Team MUST earn respect and more so than young Enlisted men. All New Guy SEALs struggle to earn the respect of their peers...
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The Water Fountain Incident
Added: Saturday March 09th 2013By: Don Shipley
Everything in SEAL Team BITES. From the minute you walk through the door everything around you is dangerous. The parachutes, dive gear, weapons and demolitions all have a nasty nip if you aren’t being careful. And the end result of doping o...ff for even a brief second can be "Catastrophic."
Outside of killing yourself, or worse yet, a buddy is the potential trouble, (punishment kind of trouble) you can find yourself in using that equipment. And I always said SEAL Team is the "Most Forgiving" unit in the Military because we’ve all had run-ins and made mistakes using our equipment.
All our Admirals and Master Chiefs have been "Spanked" a few times for doing something that seemed like a good idea at the time... Do something right and you learn nothing, do something wrong and you are educated by VOLUMES in SEAL Team... We learn from mistakes...
Hopefully the trouble you find yourself in is contained to SEAL...
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Kick Some Ass, Nick. Thank you, Bro
Added: Saturday March 09th 2013By: Don Shipley
I graduated BUD/S training and was assigned to SEAL Team ONE, Foxtrot Platoon and began SBI (SEAL Basic Indoc) now called SQT (SEAL Qualification Training). Our Land Warfare, Tactics, and Demolition training was conducted at a small SEAL Camp in the Sonoran Desert in Niland, California and SQT’s are still conducted there today.
Our Camp back then were old metal buildings with uneven floors and just plain crappy living, but I loved it there. Bunkers for the bullets and demolitions, classroom, showers, bunks and a dilapidated part we called a chowhall. No cooks in white hats and jackets in the chowhall, we were on our own each day for meals which consisted much of Macaroni and Cheese, Ramen Noodles and a bowl of cereal for breakfast; bachelor type foods
My brain does much Ctrl, Alt, Delete these days as whatever doesn’t seem very important is erased from my memory but one of the clearest memories...
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Navy SEAL Training. The Beginning.
Added: Saturday March 09th 2013By: Don Shipley
AS THE RAMP of the C-130 opened during a SEAL Training exercise, a freezing blast of cold air filled the aircraft under the glow of red lights and my body was shocked back to reality. Above the Arctic Circle, a bitter Norwegian Fjord waited below. I checked each man in my squad, then myself, as we approached the drop zone and I wondered what my family was doing at home as I hooked my parachute to the static line cable and took my position behind the gear laden boats.
Nothing but blackness looking out of the windy ramp and well past midnight as the eight of us were about to repeat Hell Week again, only this time, much worse. This would be my final jump, in my final exercise, and in my final platoon, and while I love going out with a bang, tonight would be an explosion.
The jump was about to go very bad . . .
THERE ARE THREE things you can do as a SEAL that are a cut above the average SEAL, if there is such a thing as average in the Teams.
1. Our Counter...
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