IT WAS A SUNNY THURSDAY IN MARCH when Tim Jones (Editor's note: name changed to preserve requested anonymity) jumped into a rubber boat with six other SEAL candidates for what should have been a relatively simple task: paddling eight miles along the southern California coast to Navy SEAL training headquarters in San Diego. The trip quickly turned into a nightmare.
The current seemed to be pushing against them, making it feel like they were barely moving, and they were trailing the other boats in a race that guaranteed extra exercises for the losers. But those were the least of Jones' problems. He had already been awake almost continuously for four days, pounding out endless rounds of push-ups, timed runs, cold ocean plunges, heavy lifting and a battery of mind games. Occasionally, during the chill of the previous three nights, he had been allowed to stand still by a fire. But he was usually cold, wet and forced to remain just outside its tantalizing ring of warmth. Ninety-minute naps were always shattered by chaotic wake-up calls filled with shouting, gun blasts and flashing lights. Those disorienting jolts out of deep sleep would haunt his dreams and yank him awake for years afterwards – even as he would eventually go on to the next level as a member of the most elite subset of SEALs: the U.S. Naval Special Warfare Development Group, or DEVGRU, also known as SEAL Team Six.
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