It’s true. I have a guest key to the famed Hotel Del Coronado, and I’m actually a guest here.

Yes, the same Hotel Del Coronado was made famous by Marilyn Monroe and the swarm of Hollywoods elite. It is also the same Silver Strand beach that Navy SEAL wannabes run up and down almost daily or until they drop.

Hi, my name is Larry Fowler. At my ripe old age of 50-something, it's admittedly more enjoyable to observe groups of young men running and singing songs from the hotel seaward. At times, these men are carrying large rubber boats on their heads, and minutes later, they’re swimming in a toasty 55-degree Pacific Ocean.

Tijuana Mud Flats, Dark Muck & Misery Yet How BUD/S Changed My Life Forever

You see, a long thirty years ago, it was the opposite. I was one of these men running up and down the Silver Strand. I still recall ‘gazing’ at the movie-star-like people who had the ultimate luxury of being dry and enjoying fine dining beyond human comprehension on the hotel patio, drowning themselves in pure comfort while I was likely being nearly drowned in salt water or by my salty sweat—or worse, both.

That was in 1976. BUD/S class 89. And now it is about 30 years later.

What has changed about BUD/S?

On the other hand, there looks to be little difference.

The sweating, the incriminating language that puts any imaginative prison inmate's offensive directives to shame, the instructors‘ ‘Hit The Surf’ commands, the constant running to the ‘chow’… and oh yeah, the ‘cold’ water all appear to be the same.

But is it?

I traveled a generous 2,000 miles from Atlanta to Coronado to discover what has changed in all these years. Is it easier to graduate from BUD/S today? Are the new SEALs tougher? Better trained?

Well, to begin with, they did away with the ‘mud flats.’ The last week of the first phase of training is called ‘Hell Week’. You can only imagine why, right? ‘Hell week completes the first phase, which is largely focused on ‘physical’ and 'mental' training.

How Much Does Anyone Dare Want To Be A Navy Frogman?

If you’re unsure about your desire to become a Navy Frogman, this is the phase where you will surely earn your ticket home. During Hell Week, you’ll experience only a few hours of sleep with around-the-clock physical training, cold-water swims, Obstacle Course endurance, and much, much more. I cannot verify the official cause of the mud flats being eliminated, but I can only imagine it. You see, during Hell Week, you receive medical checks three times per day, for good reason.

It was almost the final day of the week, and we were about to paddle our IBS (large rubber boat) back from the mud flats (in Tijuana, Mexico) to Coronado. Yes, if you’re still alive at this point, you have good reason to continue to hallucinate!

Bottom line – your ‘mental’ tolerance for pain is minimized, especially during Hell Week. As such, following one of the three-per-day medical checks, it was discovered that body parts were extremely swollen from the mud flats.

This would explain my inability to walk or even run in a semi-coherent straight line. I still recall the instructor’s ‘quick’ peak and very audible gasp at this — and I dare say — ugly, perverse sight. But again, I did not care. I only knew that Hell Week would be concluding within 24 or so hours!

Sorry, I don’t mean to digress, but which leads me to say, ' No more mud flats’? The explanation could be very simple. The mud flats are a sewer for Tijuana. They stink, are filthy, and are home to likely every disease imaginable. In America, they would probably be ‘contaminated’ for anyone within a hundred miles, and here we were swimming in them.

Ha! I was lucky. I got to go home with all that I arrived with! I quickly said no when offered the option to ‘row back’ to the next upcoming class. No way. I’m almost home - just one more day of Hell Week. If I’m able to stand… I will not stop.

By many estimates, BUD/S or NAVY SEAL training is the most challenging military training in the world. You’re tested both physically and mentally beyond human comprehension. What better perseverance training for becoming an ‘entrepreneur’! For example, I had the buoyancy as a ton brick… one training exercise required us to ‘porpoise’ the length of an Olympic pool with our ‘hands’ and ‘ankles’ firmly tied together.

After barely making it from one end to the other end of the pool (and digesting a gallon of chlorine water), the SEAL instructors noticed that my wrists were bleeding from my obvious ‘struggling’. With that, they not only ‘retied’ my wrists & ankles back together and even tighter, but then also tied my ‘elbows’ back together behind my back! And yes, they were then tossed back into the pool to repeat the swim.

Navy SEAL BUD/S Training Not For The Faint At Heart

BUD/S taught me that we have no limitations other than the ones we place on ourselves!

So, back to the original question. Is BUD/S easier now?

I would say no.

Honestly, from what I understand, there are still minimum-timed runs and swims. If you don’t make it, you’re a goner. It has become much more complicated. Like in the good old high school days, you go to the principal's office (or disciplinarian) if you mess up. At BUDS, you go before a board of instructors. If I had been in this year's BUD/S class, I would have probably been on a first-name basis with all the board members.

All said and done, although I did okay on almost all physical evolutions, ‘heart’ probably got me through BUDS. But now, heart's not enough! You have to be a superior athlete with agility on the ‘O’ course, a swimmer who can endure many miles in cold water swims at a motorboat pace, and lastly, a runner who can seemingly sprint for miles while wearing combat boots in the thick, hot California sand.

I conclude with the most important observation. Above all, regardless of Class 89 or 289, you must have ‘HEART.’ The ability – or inability – to never quit no matter what or how severe the sacrifice.

As I sat here from the hotel, I cannot help from welling a tear as I see these young men run through their paces while instructors verbally torment them to ‘be a winner’. I wish I could reach out to each trainee and tell him that completing BUDS may be the most important single achievement they will accomplish in life. It may become what they’re best known for even 25 or 30 years later. I would cry to them not to quit. Then again, those who don’t will be Navy SEALs for life, never to be taken away.

Article by Larry Fowler, BUDS Class 89 (photo below Larry Fowler, Doug Young & Scott Rawding with Class 89 motto ‘The Only Easy Day Was Yesterday’)

The Only Easy Day Was Yesterday: BUD/S Class 89