What what makes a seal get through all of these levels of training and makes them a real standout in combat is they are able to choose three things at the same time which no one else can really do. They dominate their bodies. They control their bodies and fight to physical exhaustion and week is one of the things they do an underwater Demolition School that forces them to deal to do that. They go almost a week without sleep. Second it dominates your mind is must fight confusion and you must fight fear. There is great physical fatigue and great mental fatigue your mind gets worn out. The ability to persevere through that mental fog is another test and thirdly to dominate your spirit, to drive your will to constantly go forward. To be a will to do those three things at the same time. There are individuals who can do one or the other for the third one. To do all three is really extraordinary. This culture of unique people is under threat as our politically correct Defense Department begins to change what is culturally allowed among this unique set of commandos that are changing as well. That was interesting to me. That is why rock the boat. Are there women in this seals . Not yet although the Defense Department is certainly looking at this. There are former seals who have had sex change operations so some would say they are women now but the seals are unusual outliers. Not everyone can be a seal. Very few people can. Its extraordinary thing. Theres a lot of debate within the cut Seal Community about whether women can physically do it. I talked to the u. S. Army ranger instructor someone who trains rangers and rangers are a very demanding physical program as well. He pointed out in the case of an olympic athlete a woman olympic athlete couldnt get her ranger training. There are male olympic athletes who fail to get through the seal training so the question is whether you can maintain the same standards and have women read that sounds like the below question but for the navy s. E. A. L. S involved is really practical and physical one. Can you do the pushups . Can he carry the heavy loads . Can you physically endure for 140 hours . Can you carry those heavy rocks . Can you physically do the job and the seals are operating in those demanding environments under seal operations where they are dropped from 40000 feet, thats eight miles high into a cold ocean 10 miles offshore where they are swimming underwater and one of the things we talk about in the look they are literally swimming with sharks in the philippines, swimming in the cold waters of the pacific to set up surveillance. They are operating in high altitudes, lebanon 12000 feet in the mountains of afghanistan and other places. That takes a great deal of physical endurance. How many navy s. E. A. L. S are there and how many tryout . The exact numbers classified but is roughly about 2000 navy s. E. A. L. S worldwide and there is an Alumni Organization of a few thousand more. At some point i think every boy and im sure girls tutu think about being a navy s. E. A. L. But those who actually get to tryout is about 10,000 over the course of the last 10 years. To even get to the point where you are able to go to basic underwater school which is basic training for seals is the demanding process itself. It used to be you had to join the navy and go through basic training. Now you can join the navy and be selected for seal training directly but even after you get through buds there is another demanding Training Program so it takes a year and a half to two years of grueling Selection Process to get through that program and very few do. Less than 20 in most classes make it through the program. These are highly selective, highly fit young people with demonstrated capabilities. Some are former marines, olympic and fleets and all these feet people fail. How long does one stay in the seals . Thats a great question. You think its a young mans game but i have met old great number of seals who are in active duty who are in their midtolate 30s. Often they want to do 20 years to get their pension. One of the things i discovered when i was writing eyes on the target there are Record Number of early retirements people leaving at just 16 years and after 12 years. They sense is becoming more politically correct. There are al qaeda prisoners to press charges. Turned out to be false in the seals were exonerated at trial but the trials went on for a year and half before they are exonerated. Once they were found not guilty this was a case in which s. E. A. L. Team 10 captured the al qaeda leader at volusia responsible for hanging before american bodies off the bridge in fallujah the infamous atrocity that was seen around the world. The cameras feasted on. Five years later the s. E. A. L. Team it was a flawless operation. It reads like a thriller. Theres a chapter on how they did it. Carl higbee said you are in big trouble. Why . The prisoner has a bloody lip and that led to a year and a half of legal charges of abuse of a prisoner. The seals were exonerated many men decided after they had been suggested to this degree of legal scrutiny they didnt want to sign up for another tour. Taxpayers lost millions of dollars a training investment. This is something we really need to think about. Yes we need to protect human rights of prisoners but we also have to realize al qaeda in manuals that we have captured in afghanistan and other places train people to make false reports. Keep the warfighters off the field but to be aware that sometimes the enemy will make false reports on purpose not in good faith. We have to protect the seals and other special operators from that or they will spend all their time in court and not enough time protecting our fellow americans from some of the deadliest people on earth al qaeda and the taliban. It kind of access read granted efficiently . I got a fair amount of access to current and retired seals some of them are not named in the book. I think my coauthor scott mcewan who cowrote american sniper about the deadliest seal sniper we both had a fair amount of access to interesting people. Why do we hear so much about s. E. A. L. Team six . One of the things the seals complain about is they are becoming famous. We thought it was a mistake for Vice President wyden to name them as the executioners of osama bin laden. When there was an attack on s. E. A. L. Team six 90 days after bin ladens death led to the single greatest loss of life for navy s. E. A. L. S in their history since dday. They thought that was retaliation by al qaeda for them killing osama bin laden. So naming them they can put their lives at risk and the lives of their families at risk. We know from intelligence documents and this is in the book that al qaeda has an on line unit that looks through social media especially facebook to find the identities of seals and their families. Seal is an acronym for . Sea air and land basically. It was a term developed in the kennedy years and before that they were underwater demolition teams. They snuck into enemy harbors and put toms on the bottoms of votes and cleared obstacles for submarines during world war ii. The seals came about in the early 1960s through kennedy. Kennedy of course, jfk had been a skipper on a pt 109 and understood the ability for a small boat and a small crew of Navy Personnel what a big difference they could make in combat especially so he pushed for a Naval Commando force that could go and to the sea, the arundel and all terrains environments. Not just operating from ships that operating far from land. In vietnam they went out of the blue waters of the navy into the brown waters of counterinsurgency and even the jungles in cambodia and vietnam and other areas. In the current war in iraq and afghanistan in the war in terror the seals are operating thousands of miles from the sea. Some of them said the only water we have is in our canteens. A al qaeda rally in Martyrs Square in downtown benghazi. Some 300 al qaeda activists waving their guns in the air and publicly calling for the deaths of the u. S. Ambassador. The very same time mean they also manhattan the private life of a messieurs these into the stephens was known. A minute by minute account of the attacks. Forty diplomats and Diplomatic Security personnel in benghazi. So they did not also i dont think they had to die. The ambassador died in the first half an hour of the attack. Separated in a small building. The insurgents, the attackers it exactly where the diesel fuel was hit. Break into those drums and set the building on fire were the ambassador died of smoke inhalation. He died eight hours later. There is ample time. The balance here. One can from tripoli. Town and benghazi. Theyre sacrifice said the lot of lives. A shot taken afghanistan. Eyes on the target, and side stores from the brotherhood of the u. S. Navy seal. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Now, navy s. E. A. L. S talked about their books and experiences at the tucson festival books last year. This is an hour. Born november 8th 1961. Now enrolled at cumberland college. He served as the search and rescue swimmer and antisubmarine warcraft operator reenlisted in order to get the necessary steps completed the necessary steps to become a navy s. E. A. L. Later he was selected to join the special Warfare Group also known as s. E. A. L. Team six was classified as a cspan2 special unit within the u. S. Military joint special operations command. Following his Honorable Discharge chico wrote the biography memoir s. E. A. L. Team six. He also graduated from the university in marietta, georgia and earned a doctor of chiropractic to greek ship. Brandon was born in canada in 1974, raised mostly in california and worked on a fishing boat from the age of 16. He joined the navy in 93 and began his career as an aviation warfare systems operator and search and rescue summer. He completed basic underwater demolition seals training and was assigned to s. E. A. L. Team three. When he served as a coors manager worried about new curricula and trained snipers. He is the editor in chief batting of whining media on snipers and related special operations. Coauthor of the 21st century sniper, a complete, practical guide. Lets give them a round of applause. [applause] i would like to turn that time over to howard was done for a presentation. Good afternoon. Glad to see everybody. Can everybody see me . Can you hear me now . There we go. We did . I will keep this thing up here. A little Cross Section. A lot of myths out there about seals and the kind of people we are, what plans we come from. I want to give you a Cross Section of a typical seal and what it means to be raised in our country and the benefits of we