After weeks of endurance training, underwater training, land warfare training, exercises, and physical conditioning, the SEAL recruits are almost there – at the finishing school. It is only after the finishing school that a SEAL recruit can be called a US Navy SEAL and can wear his/her trident with pride.

The finishing school consists of different types of training that will help the SEALs to take on any enemy in any environment and at any time. Some of the important areas that the SEAL recruits specialize in includes SERE, Tactical Combat Medicine, Tactical Air Operations (Static Line/Freefall), Cold Weather/Mountaineering, Combat Swimmer, Land Warfare, and Close Quarters Combat.

An Insight into Finishing School Training
Different types of training are given to SEAL recruits in different surroundings and in terrains across the US. Let’s take a look into some of the important training areas in the US Navy SEALs finishing school:

SERE: it stands for Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape and this is a training that was actually established by the US Air Force. Later on, after the Vietnam War, this training was extended to the US Army, and US Navy including Navy SEALs. The SERE training is divided into three phase, which are:

Phase-I: Survival and Evasion. In this phase, a SEAL recruit is given training on survival skills and evasion. Recruits learn how to survive in different climates with stress on wilderness survival. They also learn how to use emergency first aid, camouflage techniques, different methods of evasion, and making improvised tools.

Phase-II: Resistance and Escape. In this phase, the SEAL recruit learns how to use skills to resist capture by enemy and to escape from enemy capture.

As a part of the SERE training, recruits are also taught different techniques that will help them to survive in water. There are 4 levels of training and US Navy SEALs normally attend Level B SERE training.

Cold Weather/Mountaineering: This training takes place in Kodiak, Alaska. SEAL recruits have to walk through deep snow in an all-night exercise as a part of the cold weather training. It is a 28-day course and it prepares every SEAL recruit for fighting and surviving frigid conditions. As a part of the training, the recruits will also focus on mountaineering skills and learn to navigate through mountains in the day and night.

Combat Swimmer: This training is given to SEAL recruits at Naval Special Warfare Combat Swimmer Training Facility (CSTF) of the Naval Amphibious Base, Little Creek, Va. The course is intended at providing the SEAL recruits with ways to improve their efficiency in water. There are several hours of classroom training and 10 hours of pool training and drills each day. The emphasis is on making the SEAL recruit a perfect tactical swimmer.

Tactical Air Operations: This is the static line and free fall school of the US Navy. There are different training programs and the Navy SEALs training program is in four phases:
• Basic: Static Line training
• Phase-I: Accelerated free fall
• Phase-II: Combat Equipment
• Phase-III: Night Descent

Only when all the different types of trainings are complete and the tests are passed, the SEAL recruits are given their Tridents and sent for their Platoon training.

This Article is written by James Kara Murat