Al Mayadeen English

  • Ar
  • Es
  • x
Al Mayadeen English

Slogan

  • News
    • Politics
    • Economy
    • Sports
    • Arts&Culture
    • Health
    • Miscellaneous
    • Technology
    • Environment
  • Articles
    • Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Blog
    • Features
  • Videos
    • NewsFeed
    • Video Features
    • Explainers
    • TV
    • Digital Series
  • Infographs
  • In Pictures
  • • LIVE
News
  • Politics
  • Economy
  • Sports
  • Arts&Culture
  • Health
  • Miscellaneous
  • Technology
  • Environment
Articles
  • Opinion
  • Analysis
  • Blog
  • Features
Videos
  • NewsFeed
  • Video Features
  • Explainers
  • TV
  • Digital Series
Infographs
In Pictures
  • Africa
  • Asia
  • Asia-Pacific
  • Europe
  • Latin America
  • MENA
  • Palestine
  • US & Canada
BREAKING
Al Mayadeen's correspondent: Large rocket salvo launched from central, western Iranian provinces toward "Israel".
Iranian Armed Forces: Do not allow the criminal regime to use you as human shields.
Iran's Armed Forces: Over the past days, Iran has accurately and successfully targeted military, security and strategic facilities of Zionist enemy.
Iranian Armed Forces to settlers: Leave occupied territories immediately, as they will certainly be uninhabitable in the near future.
Iranian Armd Forces: Most assuredly, the scope of Iran's destructive retaliation will include all corners of the occupied territories.
Iran's Armed Forces warn Israeli settlers: Netanyahu’s criminal regime has launched a doomed aggression based on a grave miscalculation.
Al Mayadeen's correspondent: Air defenses engaged in western provinces and east of capital Tehran to confront Israeli targets.
Tasnim news agency: Security forces successfully disarm bomb rigged to explode in Shahre-Rey, southern Tehran.
Asked about Reuters report that Trump vetoed Israeli plan to assassinate Sayyed Khamenei, Netanyahu said: I'm not going to get into that.
Reuters citing two US officials: Trump in last couple of days vetoed Israeli plan to assassinate Iran's Leader.

US SEAL training: Living example of brutality, cheating & drug culture

  • By Al Mayadeen English
  • Source: Agencies
  • 31 Aug 2022 13:13
  • 2 Shares
5 Min Read

Few get it through the elite force's selection training, and many of those who do turn to illegal measures.

  • x
  • Death in Navy SEAL training exposes a culture of brutality and cheating.
    Death of SEAL exposes the US navy culture of brutality and cheating.

On the California coast, young men get ready for the Navy SEALs' punishing selection course, known as Hell Week. During Hell Week, 24-year-old Kyle Mullen was exposed to horrendous physical and mental hardship, sleep deprivation, and hypothermia. Mullen ended up with exhaustion, an infection, and coughing up blood. 

The course started with 210 men. By the middle of Hell Week, 189 people had quit or been injured. Mullen, on the other hand, continued to slog for days, spewing blood the entire time. The instructors and medics leading the training did not stop him, possibly because they admired his tenacity.

When he stumbled out of the freezing sea at the end of Hell Week, SEAL leaders shook his hand, handed him a pizza, and ordered him to relax. He then returned to his barracks and collapsed on the floor. His heart stopped beating a few hours later, and he died.

That same afternoon, another man who survived Hell Week had to be intubated. Two more were hospitalized that evening.

Read next: US Troops Suicide Rate Spiked in 2020

The SEAL teams have faced criticism for decades, both from outsiders and their own Navy leadership, that their selection course, known as Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL training, or BUD/S, is too difficult, too brutal, and too often causes concussions, broken bones, dangerous infections, and near-drownings. Since 1953, at least 11 men have died.

For just as long, the SEAL teams, who perform some of the military’s most difficult missions, including lighting-fast hostage rescues and the killing of high-level terrorists, have insisted that having a bare-knuckle rite of passage is vital for producing the kind of unflinching fighters the teams need. Without BUD/S, they argue, there could be no SEALs.

Privately, they talk of training casualties as a cost of doing business.

“They killed him,” his mother, Regina Mullen, who is a registered nurse, said in an interview. “They say it’s training, but it’s torture. And then they didn’t even give them the proper medical care. They treat these guys worse than they are allowed to treat prisoners of war.”

A SEAL's magic 

Related News

Manhunt for suspect in killings of Minnesota lawmakers intensifies

Trump admin may expand travel ban to 36 nations

The Navy discovered needles and performance-enhancing substances in Mullen's car when they went through his possessions. The captain in charge of BUD/S immediately initiated an investigation into 40 candidates who had either tested positive for steroids or admitted to taking them in violation of Navy regulations.

The Navy has made no connection between the sailor's death and narcotics. In the fall, the service is anticipated to disclose reports on the training death and drug use. A Navy official declined to comment on Mullen's death or allegations of widespread drug usage, stating that it would be inappropriate to do so until the investigations were public and Mullen's family was briefed on their conclusions.

Nonetheless, the prevalence of narcotics during BUD/S has some SEALs at the top concerned.

Suicide rates among #US troops rose by 15% in 2020, according to a #Pentagon report that the Defense Secretary described as “troubling". pic.twitter.com/OCBfozm465

— Al Mayadeen English (@MayadeenEnglish) October 6, 2021

The instructors forced candidates through a gantlet of running, crawling, situps, and pushups on the hot sand on the first day of training, according to Mullen's mother. He collapsed late in the afternoon while racing in teams, carrying 170-pound inflatable boats above their heads.

A short while later, he called his mother from an ambulance, explaining that he hadn't had a drop of water all day. When he fell, a teacher insulted his limp body and told him to get up, he informed her. When he did not answer, physicians took his temperature, which was 104 degrees, and admitted him to the hospital for heatstroke.

Mullen was assigned to an internal recovery unit and given four months to heal before attempting BUD/S again.

'No other choice'

Mullen began speaking to his mother about performance-enhancing medications during his four-month wait, according to his mother.

He told her that men he met in the recovery unit were using steroids and human growth hormones and that he was thinking about doing the same. He told her he'd have to buy a used car to put the drugs in.

“In all his years playing sports, he had never touched that stuff,” she said. “I told him not to do it. But he ended up getting the car and sharing it with a bunch of guys.”

According to Benjamin Milligan, a former enlisted SEAL who recently released a history of the force, "Water Beneath the Walls," the drug problem during BUD/S is a logical consequence of the attitude the SEALs aim to foster.

In an interview, he stated that the SEALs seek operators who can identify unusual ways to get an advantage over the enemy. “You want guys who can solve problems in war, guys who know how to play dirty because war is a dirty game,” he said.

  • United States
  • Navy SEAL

Most Read

Iranian missiles impact Israeli sites in Tel Aviv in 2nd wave

Iran's missiles impact 'strategic' Israeli site in Tel Aviv

  • Politics
  • 14 Jun 2025
Smoke rises after an Iranian ballistic missile directly struck Tel Aviv, Occupied Palestine, June 13, 2025 (AP)

Op. True Promise 3: Iran's ballistic missiles strike Tel Aviv

  • MENA
  • 13 Jun 2025
'Israel' launches major strike against Iran's nuclear program

'Israel' launches massive aggression on Iran

  • MENA
  • 13 Jun 2025
The flag of the International Atomic Energy Agency flies in front of its headquarters during an IAEA Board of Governors meeting in Vienna, Austria, Wednesday, Nov. 22, 2023. (AP)

Tehran unravels documents exposing secret IAEA-'Israel' collusion

  • Politics
  • 12 Jun 2025

Coverage

All
The Ummah's Martyrs

Read Next

All
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi speaks to journalists after a meeting with Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri in Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, June 3, 2025. (AP)
Politics

Iran confirms targeting Haifa oil refinery, vows continued retaliation

An Israeli military working dog searches rubble for survivors in an area hit by a missile fired from Iran, near Tel Aviv, occupied Palestine, Sunday, June 15, 2025.(AP)
Politics

Ex-Israeli General warns of strategic defeat in war with Iran

Steve Bannon speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference, CPAC, at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center, Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025, in Oxon Hill, Md. (AP)
Politics

Steve Bannon accuses 'Israel' of pushing US into war with Iran

The Haifa oil refinery burns after being targeted by an Iranian missile, June 15, 2025 (Social Media)
Politics

Iran causes significant damage to Haifa oil refinery, pipelines

Al Mayadeen English

Al Mayadeen is an Arab Independent Media Satellite Channel.

All Rights Reserved

  • x
  • Privacy Policy
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Authors
Android
iOS