7 News Belize

Hell Week For The Seals
posted (February 6, 2015)
One year and six months ago, on August 2, 2013, we first showed you the group of men who would become the Belize Coast Guard Seals, an elite paramilitary unit with training and discipline to measure up against the US Navy Seals.

That was the first time we'd seen how the training looked up close. That 8 man team made it through the toughest part of the training, 5 weeks of physical and mental torture, which culminated at week 5 which the Coast Guard High Command calls "Hell Week".

Of the next group of officers who signed up to try out the SEAL training, only 2 made it through, but the Commandant wants 48 SEAL officers.

So, a third group of men took on the challenge to see if they have what it takes to be SEALS, and today, we got the see the 4 who have been able to withstand the hardship. They are the third group of Coast Guard officers to make it this far, and our news team got to meet them. Daniel Ortiz reports:

Daniel Ortiz reporting
The last four men prepared for the last hour of hell week by bathing themselves in mud.

When they were good and ready, and properly slathered in the muck, the men then swept in behind the mangroves to run the final drill for the morning.

The inflatable boat, filled with ice, was made ready for the 4 who would be required to endure it.

A few minutes later, the 4 then made their way onto the beach; they were required to taken on laborious tasks in the environment simulating a live combat scenario.

Finishing up their exercise with that heavy log, the men jumped into the ice bath completely ignoring the aches of the cold after being out in the sun.

Like those before them, they had to sing the National Anthem at the top of their lungs. At its completion, the men were recognized by their Commandant for their dedication in getting this far in the rigorous and demanding training.

Admiral John Borland - Commandant, Belize Coast Guard
"I am extremely proud that you have made it this far to the juncture. As the Commandant of the Coast Guard, I have the greatest for the 4 of you; the officers' men and women that are stood before me or behind me today, share the same sentiments. So, once again, I am going to offer you congratulations to have made it this far, to the end of "Hell week" class 0003 - the fantastic four."

This 4 came from a batch of 20 officers who signed up to try and make it through the SEAL training.

Admiral John Borland - Commandant, Belize Coast Guard
"This is remnants of class 0003. These are the 4 survivors. As I said earlier we started with 20 young men that have volunteer to join this class. However, this is not for the faint of mind, it is certainly for the stout of heart. These 4 men are special breed of men and they've had to endure the rigors of 5 weeks of what you would call torture and it culminated with the last week, the 5th week, being "Hell Week" where they've been on the go for 5 solid days with as little as 4 hours rest in 5 days."

So, now that they have shown that they have the endurance it's on to advanced paramilitary and tactical training.

Admiral John Borland - Commandant, Belize Coast Guard
"They now enter the tactical and operational phase where they will now become specialist and operators by the time it is all done and qualify to be called Coast Guard Seals. The intent here is to form a seal platoon by the end of this year. I have 8 people that are qualified seals. I am keeping my fingers cross that these 4 will make it to the end - that will give a dozen. I intent to run another course before the end of the year as we keep graduating new recruits and get people trained and in the right frame of mind to take on this which I said earlier is nothing but a daunting task. These guys are obviously as I said trained at a higher level. They require definitely a lot more support, so they can always maintain that edge on life and be able to rise at the cutting edge of battle from land, sea and air as we would say. The air component is not yet included, but we are working on getting there."

Currently, only the first 8 men who passed out of the training are operating as SEALS. Of the 2 who made it in the second round, 1 of them is out studying, and the other has returned back to the regular elements of the Coast Guard.

We'll follow their progress and see if these 4 men who are the new SEAL hopefuls can go the whole way.

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