1st Seaman Completes Navy Special Warfare Training

WASHINGTON (AP) – For the first time, a female sailor has successfully completed the grueling 37-week training course to become a crew member of a Special Warfare Combat Ship – the operators of vessels that carry Navy SEALs and conduct their own classified missions at sea.

Navy officials said they would not identify the woman or provide further details about her – routine military policy for special operations forces. She was one of 17 sailors to graduate and receive their pins on Thursday. She is also the first of 18 women who have attempted a job as a SWCC or SEAL to be successful.

The Sailor’s graduation is just women’s latest foray into some of the military’s most difficult and competitive commando jobs – just five years after all combat posts were opened to them. She will now head to one of Naval Special Warfare’s three special boat teams.

“To become the first woman to graduate from a special naval warfare training program is an extraordinary accomplishment and we are incredibly proud of our teammate,” said Rear Admiral HW Howard III, Commander of Naval Special Warfare. “Like her fellow operators, she has demonstrated the character, cognitive and leadership qualities required to join our force.”

“She and her fellow graduates have the opportunity to become experts in covert special operations, as well as manned and unmanned platforms to provide distinctive capabilities to our navy and the nation’s joint defense force,” added Howard.

Of the 18 women who sought employment in Navy Special Operations, 14 did not complete the course. Three of them, however, are currently still in training, one for SWCC and two are trying to become SEALs. Overall, according to the Navy, only about 35 percent of the men and women who begin training for SWCC graduate.

A year ago, a female soldier became the first woman to complete the elite Army Special Forces course and join one of the all-male Green Berets teams. Another female soldier has completed her training and will report to her special forces group next month, and another will attend military freefall school next month and then report to her team.

So far, no woman has successfully completed Navy Special Operations training. Navy spokesman Major Hector Infante said that since August 2016 nine women have attempted to go through the assessment and selection process. He said two candidates made it through phase two, but fell short of performance expectations and, along with a number of male counterparts, were not selected to continue.

He said only about 40 percent of the more than 1,200 Marines who have taken the course since 2016 have successfully completed it.

Air Force Lt. Col. Malinda Singleton said that as of this month, there are two women enlisted in the Air Force Special Warfare training pipeline for combat jobs that has opened up to women. in 2015. One has completed the assessment and selection course and will be eligible for an assignment in special operations work upon completion of final training. The other woman is in preparation and has not yet reached the assessment phase.

While Navy SEALs often make headlines for high-risk missions, the crew who operate ships and weapon systems in raids and classified operations also go through an extensive selection and training process. .

Training to become a combat vessel crew member comes after the initial Navy recruit training camp, and includes a two-month prep course, three-week orientation at the Naval Special Warfare Center in Coronado, in California, and seven weeks learning the basics of boating and nautical skills, as well as fitness and safety. At the end of those seven weeks there is a 72 hour crucible called “The Tour”. This event, which tests their courage and physical resistance, is the most frequent point of failure for candidates.

Those who pass go on to seven weeks of Basic Seaman Training to learn combat, weapons and communications, followed by a seven-week Intermediate Seamanship Course, and finally Survival, Evasion, Resistance and of escape and a cultural course.

According to Naval Special Warfare, around 300 Sailors attempt the SWCC course each year and around 70 complete it. There are between 760 and 800 in the force at all times.

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