 The only easy day was yesterday. Head off the door! Get your head off and get your eyes open. Stop trying to hide from the pain. Head off, eyes open. Welcome to The Only Easy Day Was Yesterday, the official Navy SEAL podcast. A crucial part of any naval special warfare mission is the covert insertion and extraction of operators, especially at night or under fire. The team responsible for this, SWIC, or Special Warfare Combatant Craft Crewman, are trained extensively in how to pilot and maintain special boats and their weapons. They are physically fit, highly motivated, combat focused, and responsive in high stress situations. They frequently work with the Navy SEALs. Today we speak with Bill, the SWIC instructor of the year, who is also responsible for the first block of SWIC training, called the Basic Crewman Selection. Let's get started. Well, first I'd like to thank you so much for taking the time to chat with us today. I know you're a pretty busy guy. Oh, you're welcome. If you could start by introducing yourself and letting the audience know, you know, who you are and a little bit about what you do. Yes, I'm Petty Officer First Class Bill. I'm an instructor here at the SWIC Schoolhouse, specifically our selection phase, which we call BCS, standing for Basic Crewman Selection. So what does it mean to be an instructor here? An instructor, what that means here is we are the primary role of conducting evolutions for the students and anything and everything that's required for the students to get through our schoolhouse. Very nice. And I think you left out something in your introduction. You're not just any instructor. You're the instructor of the year. Yes, I was fortunate enough to be awarded the instructor of the year. I got a lot of help from a lot of guys previous to me to get that award. What does that mean? Well, what those qualities would mean to me personally is that you are the example for what you would want a candidate to become. So anything ranging from character and competence is what we always hit for students. That's what we're looking for. So we're demonstrating that ourselves with our personal leadership, team ability with how we are physically on evolutions, our personal fitness, our knowledge, everything that we want out of the students that we are demonstrating that ourselves. Okay. How did you decide to go SWIC? Where did that come from, the motivation? I decided to go SWIC about 10 years ago when it was actually through a YouTube video showing the capabilities and everything going on with the riverine aspect of SWIC. I saw that video. I was interested in the military before kind of just cruising through looking at different special operations positions. That's what I was into. And I saw that one and I was immediately hooked. Awesome. I think we should pause for a second to let anyone listening know where we're sitting because they're probably going to be hearing some sounds around here. Can you tell us what we're looking at over here? Yeah. So right now we're sitting at what we call here pier four in the slab. It's a main spot that we conduct a lot of our training here at the basic crewman selection phase of the SWIC schoolhouse where they do many different physical activities. They start their underweighs here and they perform countless swims down here. So if anyone chooses to go the SWIC route they would be spending many hours where we're currently sitting. Nice. Well before we start talking about what actually happens when you go SWIC I want to just start by asking you if someone's interested in going in that direction what do you think the best first step is? The best first step to become a if you're interested in becoming a SWIC is first looking up all the open source information out there on what a SWIC means. What does it mean to become a SWIC? Because the first step is making sure that that's what you really want to do. It's a great job and there's a lot of good things about it but you first need to know what it is and why you want to do it and then you start getting into the details of precise things you need to do to prepare. So to get to that stage what is the course like that people have to go through? The first course would be the physical preparation. So actually on the SEALS SWIC website there's an extensive amount of information on what physical standards someone should be at to be properly prepared and that's where you would first want to look to see the running time you should have swimming, push-ups, pull-ups, sit-ups general body calisthenics that someone should be at so that they have a good shot at making it through. Can you describe that it's a seven week course? BCS is a seven week course. So could you walk us through that course? So when someone comes to training when they start BCS, the first week is a large amount of different physical evolutions that we test their personal grit, their team ability and it has a small amount of classroom instruction revolving around coastal navigation. So there's a lot of different physical evolutions based off things such as running, push-ups, pull-ups, sit-ups there's a lot of swimming there's a lot of team building exercises with small boats that they all have to maneuver together hold together and do different relay races that force a lot of teamwork. Is that before we move on to the next phase personal grit, that's an interesting phrase. Grit would be a huge factor for our selection course not the only one but it is a primary factor and the entire course is both developing and testing grit so it's a combination of we're selecting those with enough grit and we are developing grit at the same time. So that is throughout and it changes on how we do it and week one is mainly through those physical evolutions with a small amount of classroom instruction. Okay. Then the next two weeks, week two and three are similar however it changes into less on the physical we start introducing more classroom time because there is a large amount of academic learning they need to know before we get underway on the boats so we have to start from square one on everything to do with navigation the fundamentals of the craft that they're going to be on and basic seamanship. So we get into that on weeks two and three while at the same time still having the physical grit side but now they have the academic side as well. And you bring up a point which is that they haven't even touched a boat yet. Not yet, not yet. Even though the boats are the main objective but you got to get through this before you can. Correct, correct. So they have quite a bit of a steep learning curve to even get to that point. So we don't just jump immediately on to it. Then when we get into week four is our underway week we also have physical test skates. So it's less about grit building on this week and it's more about performance. So we're going to be executing everything we've learned and you're also going to have to execute your physical performance on this week. So both we start getting underway and they're doing all the basic underways mainly revolving around navigation but we also do anchoring towing, whole inspections some other fundamental seamanship skills. At the end of that week then week five is our crucible week. We have the tour and then the crucible week. Yes. Okay. Why is it called that? It's not called the crucible week. So it is called the tour. Week five has the tour and what I meant by that is that that is what basic crewman selection is leading up to. Okay. So the first four weeks is all leading up to the week of the tour where they put together everything that they've been learning and we call it a day in the life of a bow guy. So it's three days of minimal sleep testing them on everything they've been learning and a huge amount of physical activity. So they're going to be wet, cold, tired and tested for three days straight. Five on grit. Yes. Geez. So once they get through that week there's a phase line within BCS. So that's when the students get their brown shirts. They transition from white shirts to brown shirts and then that's a symbolic transition that they have been selected for further training. So they've made it through our tour and those students have demonstrated the capability and grit to transition into the next phase of training. So if anyone happens to be walking around Coronado and sees a bunch of guys go buying brown shirts that means they have... They know that they've made it through the tour. Okay. Then we transition to week six and week six is when we start getting into more advanced skills. It's still fundamental and we get into basic driving. Up to this point the students haven't been driving at all. All they've been doing is the navigational side learning the fundamentals of what an engine is and everything else. So we start off the week with teaching about maintenance on craft's official maintenance and how to drive the craft. We start off with the smallest craft we have in our inventory. It's a small rubber craft where it is called a CRRC Combat Rubber Rating Craft and it uses a small 55-horsepower outboard motor. So we put that on the back of this small craft and they practice basic maneuvering, driving straight, doing different turns, mooring up onto the side of other boats or piers and the fundamentals there with driving. That's how this week goes. It's different underways. A lot more classroom now. The PTs go into more of... on the minimal side. They're always going to PT for their entire SWIT career. Then we're transitioning into week 7 and that's the last week of basic crewman selection. And during this week we culminate everything that they've learned and we do what's called an FTX and that's a final training exercise. So they get taught some basic mission planning. They know how to drive these small CRRCs and we give them a mission and they go ahead and execute this mission under instructor surveillance and we grade them and that is the culmination of everything that they've done in BCS. So they get to see and execute what all their hard work has led to. Wow. And of all these stages, would you say there are one or two where you lose the most amount of people? Absolutely. So we lose the most people during week 1 and week 5. So week 1 being the first week of BCS it's a shock to a lot of candidates that come through. And it's a steep curve for many people and then we also lose a significant amount during the tour where they go three days straight and minimal sleep. Cold went tired the entire time. So what would your advice be for someone knowing that, you know, when you're on the other side and I can see what holds people back? My advice would be starting from the time that you want to become a SWIC developing grit within yourself. So there's great information out there publicly open source. They can just check out right on the SEAL SWIC website and what they should be doing to physically prepare. And you need to immediately start working towards those targets and if you hit those targets, exceed those targets, never be satisfied and every single day be building a habit of grit. And they can do that indirectly even though they don't have these exact tools just through their lifestyle. When they're working now and are they truly pushing themselves or do they listen to that little voice in their head that, you know, tells them that they want to stop and do that. Do they set themselves a rigid schedule or are they letting themselves just wake up every day in the morning whenever they want to? Are they doing everything they can to start having a lifestyle of grit is what I would suggest to anyone that wanted to become a SWIC. Lifestyle of grit. What did you do to get to this place? How did you prepare before you when you decided you wanted to go that direction? Ten years ago there wasn't the SEAL SWIC website with as much information. Wikipedia had the entrance scores required. I was working at the time so I would wake up before work to go use the pool every day and just work out twice a day until I came in. I had quite a big deficit to do with things like pull-ups and other upper body physical because I grew up playing soccer. That was where I had the biggest improvement that I had to make. The running, I had to mainly just maintain. At the time I was a decent runner so I was still working on it however the swimming and the upper body strength I had a lot of work to do so that's where I devoted most of my attention to try to become the best overall possible. That's good to point out to people that might think that right now there's no reason they couldn't get there or any other form of physical. Absolutely not. There's enough time and there's information out there that if this is what you want to do anyone out there could through enough personal effort become ready. If you haven't ever swam before there's great information on there on how to swim. I learned the combat side stroke and practice it every day until they feel good enough at it and then do it a standard amount for the workout templates that are out there maybe three times a day. If they didn't run very much growing up then they're going to need to work on that and usually what's much different for people is being comfortable in the water. I grew up on the west coast California so I was able to go to the ocean pretty often so I had an advantage of being slightly more comfortable in the water than someone who's never been in the water before so that is if they don't have access to the ocean they absolutely need to get in the pool as much as possible and just get comfortable in the water and that's by spending more time out in the water. And it also sounds like you don't necessarily have to know how to drive a boat No. So fundamental math skills it is needed for navigation so if you front load that meaning if you graduated high school eight years ago and you haven't touched math in a while being able to do everything on paper not use a calculator to long division decimal multiplication those basic skills you just need to brush up on real quick but everything else we will teach you here with the do with navigation with the boats with engines with communication radios the training is extensive when they get here and as long as they're willing to pay attention in class and do their homework they will have ample opportunity to perform at their required needs Do you think your job is pretty cool? Yeah I do It looks cool from the outside in so I mean just what we were saying before with how many jobs out there get to show up each day work out for a while and then you know practice being a team so it's you feel like you're in a team each day where you show up work out and then just refine your skill sets and it's great each day. What about when you're actually on a mission of some sort? What do you mean by that? What could you walk us through what that is like just a little bit of the highlights I know you can't talk about all of it but It could drastically change depending on what type of mission you're on and you know with the mobility piece it's rewarding to know that you're being part of this bigger system of making sure that the objective is met taking guys where they need to go bring them back if they got in trouble and it turns into a hot extract where you need to make sure to lay down and suppress the fire and get them out of there fast and there's a lot of different opportunities for SWIC it's hard to explain the fundamental aspect there is with the small crafts with taking people where they need to go doing surveillance with the crafts or anything else that's needed we also pride ourselves on just being experts in mobility so if we need to do it in other vehicles such as Humvees we will anything that we need to do to help out we will that's interesting not just boats so that's the primary piece it's the boats but we are flexible to adjust to whatever is currently needed how do you select someone after all the seven week process like what you know say someone gets through the whole thing is there a reason you might still not want them on your team yes so we we break it down very simple that we select on character and competence so what we mean by that is first with the character is things such as does he have good integrity is he a good team player how is his grid can we trust him is he going to be a good teammate with us later on then competence and that's all about performance and BCS that is how do they do on our evolutions can they run fast enough swim enough do enough pull ups do a fast enough time in the obstacle course are they are they passing all the whatever they're thrown at during the tour and then in addition to that the academic side for the SWIC training can they pass our academic tests we do different chart tests in the classroom and are they learning what we require them to learn so it's probably important to pause and say that you're teaching them everything we are teaching them so it shouldn't be intimidating it's more like when you get here pay attention right if they are doing their side we prepare them with everything they need to know and we pride ourselves on being excellent instructors in the classroom and adjusting to the individual students need with helping out them as much as possible so we don't expect anyone to come here being experts in the institutions are knowing the inner workings of an engine we'll get them there however they need to do their side their homework and this needs to be their life while they're in BCS and students candidates that have that mentality that they're all in and they this is their current dream at the time and they will succeed if they are willing to to learn everything they need to learn on physical evolutions on your website it says they need to be morally mentally and physically qualified I think we've talked about mentally and physically quite a bit but what does morally qualified mean morally qualified has to do with the character I was talking about with character and competence so one big ones integrity so we have a lot of responsibility and trust in our job with what mission set we are expected to see so we need to be all trust a candidate coming through that they're going to be part of this small team a boat crew for example will have anywhere from three to five people on and that's not very many people so each person's going to have a large amount of responsibility and require a large amount of trust so we need to know that they're going to do the right thing when no one's looking that's what we say so but they they will earn our trust and they'll always do the right thing and that's the easiest way instead of going down into all the different possible situations with the integrity can we trust them when no one's looking it's powerful we pretty much cover what it means to be mentally prepared but do you have anything I feel like that's an important subject to make sure we mentally prepared is activities or evolutions that they had not seen or did not prepare exactly for here besides the fundamentals of you know that you're going to experience running you know that you're going to have to swim do the obstacles push-ups sit-ups different activities with boats you know that that's coming but there's going to be something that comes at you you weren't exactly ready for and at that moment is when you're truly tested that that you need to be short-sighted and just know that you could get through it and it might feel overwhelming at the time but just push through you know you go through a lot of work on a mission and execute the mission as a SWIC and everything goes smoothly comes back not too eventful however in the time where you're needed the most it will be a very stressful situation where you got to have a lot of mental fortitude to know that you're going into a real bad situation and you got a high chance that it's not going to go well and you got to stay focused and make sure you do your part to get them out of there otherwise it could be catastrophic for whoever you're working with and then in turn for yourself I called this a job earlier it seems like that's the wrong word for it well I would say any job that is very involved would be you know you could classify as more of a lifestyle people that want to become champions and whatever they pursue are completely immersed in what they're doing and everybody else is so it adjusts the culture of what you're in you're working with the group of people that this and their family is basically the only two things they got so they they try as hard as they can and you know it definitely goes more towards the lifestyle side of things what's your favorite part of what you do well that's a hard question to answer I couldn't really say any one particular thing so the whole package is what's enjoyable right now I've been an instructor for almost three years now so I've really enjoyed being part of this process and it just morphs over time so when I go back to a boat team because I'm not at a boat team right now I'm going to be working with guys that I was part of them going through selection so my experience will be more rewarding as time goes on that I both get to do the job and I've been part of their career path and it just keeps on building on itself it's great being part of that I like the day-to-day aspect and I think that that's important for people to remember that that just the fact of training for example is great where you say we're training at night practicing with night vision that you show up later on in the day you get to go train and shoot guns and everything else that people would probably pay money to do and that's what we're getting paid to do and then a lot of people pay to do the things that you want right so of course you know the missions are good and that's what we all want to do and it's important to remember too that we get to enjoy the regular day-to-day as well because if you're just thinking about the mission that could be pretty draining so we're always training for the mission but you got to learn how to enjoy both training and the mission when it comes all about the journey yes what else do you want to talk about what do you think is important for people to know I think it's important for people to know to to become a SWCC is when you get here is to be short-sighted not in a bad way meaning when the days get really hard to just focus on the current now and can you keep on going right now and when it feels overwhelming and let's say for example you're not a gifted runner and you're struggling on a run can you take one more step can you push yourself a little bit harder and most people will find that they do have a little bit more in the tank and if they start on that right now then they'll be in a good place months later when they get to here or when they're really cold at night time are you so cold that you absolutely need to be warmed up meaning are you at a health risk or is it just very uncomfortable and it will most likely just be that you are uncomfortable and I'm not suggesting for people to get themselves cold that is something that they need to just deal with when they have to however you can't train for that there's no reason to be trained for that so they just need to practice PT physical training is what I mean by that working out as hard as they can finding a quality program and there's templates on the Seelswick website and learning how to swim and just being more regimented because they're going to be one entering in the military and two within a very quick time period in a military selection course so depending on what they did before enlisting that's going to be a massive culture change and you're in a selection course so start becoming more regimented and hold yourself to high expectations throughout the day with everything you do so everybody's had that feeling when they're working out or doing something challenging where like you said it's can I take that next step and I think I don't know if everybody does this but I feel like there's sort of a voice that talks to you do you have that? Is there something that goes through your head? Well I think for me personally I can't speak for other people but it'll be more of doubt or anxiety if I'm doing something that I really don't like and I think that this will be a good point that if you are doing something challenging let's say a long run for example and you you gave in a little bit and it's important to not beat yourself up about that meaning if you're in this training progress and you're you're trying to get much more physically fit you're hearing that you should ignore that voice and you don't well you don't want to go down the path of feeling like oh no now I can't accomplish this I think it's better to have small targets and constantly the constant improvement method I think is best so instead of if you've been doing nothing all of a sudden trying to match an ultramarathon runner that's not feasible but the constant micro improvements every day will help that that voice in your head and it's never going to go away so it's about knowing yourself knowing what type of personal anxiety or stress will happen to you at different points and just being much more self aware each day so if you go through a day and feel like you didn't accomplish what you wanted have a little reflection time and think about why you didn't what you can do better next time everyone has those moments right and and what you're saying is if you don't get through it this time don't double down on that just get back up right just always learn from it always learn from your mistakes everyone's going to have mistakes everyone's going to have those weak moments but how do you learn from them how do you improve and if you're constantly improving and have less of those and six months from now then you'll be far much more far along and in your personal grit you could say or fortitude or capability of withstanding different challenges since you became a SWIC has that affected your personal life absolutely I do believe it's improved so right now after being a SWIC for about ten years I feel capable of much more in my life's challenges whatever it may be so I feel more capable of personal challenges now not only my SWIC I try to excel as much as I can in that I'm also going to school on the side on top of this full time job I have a family I try to do my best to be a good husband and a father there and I feel much more capable of accomplishing all those challenges and I attribute that to a lot to the different stressors and everything that I've developed a lot more grit through this job so you've gotten through the seven week course you've been successful you've been selected well not quite so next they got two additional phases of training before they are pinned as a SWIC operator they've made a major milestone in the process getting that brown shirt is huge and then they have two more phases that are each seven weeks the next one is BCT which stands for basic crewman training that's where they learn the fundamentals of weapon shooting they start their process of shoot move communicate where they learn more about engines getting into the finer details after that the next seven week block is room and qualification training which we just abbreviate CQT and CQT is really where they start running in their training meaning they start driving the 30 foot rib they start shooting out on the boats they start using radios and they end up at the very end being able to do a much more realistic final training exercising and culminating all the skills executing it themselves on that 30 foot craft and once they're all done with that that is when they will be pinned a SWIC and have the graduation ceremony and after graduation walk us through what is happening now what's the next step like how do you feel what's going on well the next step is you would report to a boat team and start your journey there but more on the feeling part is it's a very special great feeling of pride knowing that you look back and reflect on all the hard work you've done whether it be a year or longer of preparation for this accomplishment and it's something that no one could ever take away from you so you know yourself that through your own dedication and hard work you've achieved something great where you look back and realize how many people did not accomplish it through whatever preparation it might have been and that's something that will stick with you for the rest of your life and do you start working up right away or it'll change for different people but you will show up to your perspective boat team and you'll get inoculated in that team culture where you will still be a you know you'll be a new guy and you'll have a lot to learn and a steep learning curve and the job never ends is just you're continuing on your journey and you're getting closer to being able to deploy and do your job real world when you're pinned as a swick you're not quite a self-sufficient boat operator yet you've got a lot to learn before you're ready to deploy as a boat guy however you have validated that you've done what it takes to become a swick and you instantly are part of that team and everyone brings you in and everybody knows that you got what it takes to be here and it seems to me like you guys you really support each other you want I mean it's more than the average workplace in terms of support good well yeah so everybody knows that you've been through that selection and it brings an instant bond to each other so if you go to a different boat team or around different boat guys that you've never met you have an instant bond with them and you know you gravitate towards them if you're in a group of people that are a blend of boat guys and not boat guys of course the boat guys are going to come together and want to talk and hear you know their past history of what they've done at the teams or different things and that's another special thing that you know that you only get through going through this selection course and what's your first mission feel like well that will be different for a lot of people depending on what type of mission but it's a good feeling knowing that what you're doing is for the country or for that mission set there's very few people in the united states that are able to do that so you're being part of history essentially the amount of important jobs for the country and this is absolutely not the only one it's just that you know that you're being part of the greater system there in a special way and you've worked very hard to do it so you're having direct impact and you're part of a huge amount of people that are part of that system that aren't just SWIX and it's good to look back on in your life later on and know that you did that what motivates you it's good to reflect and I know 30 40 years from now when I'm not in this job anymore I was part of that so for example if you read Vietnam was way before my day and you know there is a lot of great people that helped out that and then I'm helping out in my current situation here the current conflicts and you know my life was about more than just myself and after this job or other job I do whatever it might be that these experiences can never be taken away a life about more than just yourself pretend you're speaking to someone who's just like thinking about it in two sentences or three sentences what would you say to them why would they want to join I would encourage anyone that is interested in being part of the U.S. military of special operations with small crafts like the idea of shooting big guns and this is a great career that they could have fun and do important impactful work along the way love it thank you so much for being here we really appreciate it so you've mentioned a couple times but just to make sure everyone knows using the best place to get information outside of this podcast would be the website absolutely so that's the purpose of the Sealswick website so we have people dedicated and that's their jobs to provide information and that is by far better than the way I did it ten years ago and just essentially look up here say so if I had the opportunity ten years ago to just get it straight from the source that is what I would have done and what I recommend to anyone thank you again you're welcome find out more at Sealswick.com and join us again for the next NSW podcast