Have you been hearing about the Navy SEALs in swimming and water polo news recently? Yeah, me too. This is no coincidence, because the U.S. Navy is looking to recruit civilian athletes who stand a better chance of actually completing the difficult SEAL training.
Last night, the CBS Evening News reported how Navy SEALs are in high demand because they specialize in high-risk operations, like Sunday’s high profile rescue of cargo ship captain Richard Phillips from Somali pirates. However, finding recruits with an adequate level of physical fitness has been difficult–especially while the Navy is trying to increase their number of active SEALs without lowering standards.
It was reported that the Navy has been ordered to expand the number of active SEALs from roughly 1,800 now to 2,500 by the year 2012. Right now, only around 25% of recruits ever complete the demanding training. The Navy wants to raise the completion rate to 50% without lowering expectations by looking to recruit athletes who excel in sports requiring endurance and discipline.
Sports targeted for Navy SEAL recruitment efforts are rugby, wrestling, swimming and water polo.
CBS Evening News reports:
Terry Schroeder coaches the U.S. Olympic water polo team. He’s helping get the word out to top high school swimmers that the Navy SEALs are looking for young men like them.“I think there’s a lot in common,” Schroeder says. “We learn to battle, we learn to work hard.”
So what have you noticed? There’s been an increase in civilian outreach including new marketing campaigns and events. Michael Phelps and the U.S. Swimming National Team sparked a lot of attention when they spent the day training with Navy SEALs (previous blog post). Garrett Weber-Gale even blogged about going to a shooting range with Navy SEALs (link).
The U.S. Navy also organized the first SEAL Fitness Challenge at Arizona State University, which allowed 330 athletes age 13 and up to challenge themselves against the SEAL standards. The event was hosted by the Naval Special Warfare Recruiting Directorate (NSWRD) in association with I-High Marketing (source).
SEAL Fitness Challenge 2009 saw Matt Grevers in attendance, where he was quoted saying “This humanizes the SEALs for me. It’s less intimidating knowing that they’re just cool, normal guys
3 Comments:
Aren’t good swimmers usually planning on going to college? why would they want to join the army especially while we’re in a war
the satisfaction from doing something difficult and protecting something you believe in?
why go to college? to get a job.. to learn about yourself.. to learn about society and create value thorugh technology and labor… i think joining the military provides these things, it just requires an certain mind frame… who wants to stare at the bottom of the pool for 3 hours a day? the kind of person willing to put the time into what they believe in. same type of person who might persevere through extremely trying seal training.
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