He is currently a professional firefighter. Marines can storm ashore in LLVs and LCACs and be deployed from the air in CH-53 helicopters and Osprey aircraft, while the unit’s amphibious raid company can assault the island’s southern sea cliffs. In order to build and maintain such an elite fighting force the US Navy must provide special assets to the SEALs so that they can train as they fight and fight as they train, and there are few battlefields more unforgiving or fraught with danger than those where urban warfare is the name of the game. San Clemente is known for its big surf and cold water. The Island is a ship-to-shore live firing range. These training events happen at MOUT facilities scattered around the US and overseas, where mock cities and villages, often built out of cinder blocks and shipping containers, simulate what troops may encounter on upcoming deployments. If you knew what was good for you, you snuck in, stuffed your face, placed a quick call, and got the hell out of there before an instructor made his way in and busted you.
The SEALs do their thing in their area, everyone else does their thing somewhere else.
I, for one, am glad I survived it, with (most of) my sanity intact. At some point in the mid 2000s the decision was made to build a specialized and elaborate MOUT training facility on the secretive and isolated Navy controlled San Clemente Island. The training and testing extends offshore in the waters around the island, with amphibious, naval and submarine exercises common, and a range that extends far out into the Pacific useful for cruise missile testing, and perhaps some Top Secret stuff as well. When looking at a map or aerial photo of the island it is clear why the SEALs chose the northern tip of San Clemente Island for their elaborate urban warfare training facility as it is situated between various forms of shoreline and a US Navy operated auxiliary airfield. Needless to say, when the enlisted man in question tried to apply a rigger’s tape straightjacket on the officer while the latter slept, it did not end well for the enlisted man. They laughed. For another, at one point, you have to complete the obstacle course amidst the haze of a tear gas (CS) cloud. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Students are tear gassed on the O-course. The Third phase of training during the BUDs course develops in San Clamente Island and its called Combat Condition Course. As if being tortured by SEAL instructors on the desolate privacy of the Island was not enough, San Clemente also serves as a place for U.S. Navy vessels to send hellfire down in the form of naval gunfire, on a regular basis. As it turned out, the instructors sat us down, turned off the lights, and fired up “Jaws.” We watched for about 5 minutes, saw some humans get devoured by a shark, were told that San Clemente was the home of a seal hatchery, and were further informed that great white sharks liked to feed on baby seals around the Island. The northern part of the island includes the airstrip, the Navy SEALs combat town, and support facilities including administrative buildings, barracks, stores, two gyms, sports fields, a club and a bowling alley. Self preservation in action. An A-10C Thunderbolt II provides close air support during an exercise on San Clemente Island in May 2020. 5. It is also a known SEAL training enclave. There is a driving range, but you have to shag your own balls.
He was lucky enough to be so near the end of training that he limped through the last week or so on crutches. Multiple high-profile operations around the globe have reminded all Americans how lucky we are to have such dedicated and deadly warriors on our side.
Approximately 50 miles off the Southern California coast is a secretive 21-mile-long island owned by the U.S. Navy that hosts a wide variety of high-end military training and testing including special operations and special forces exercises, artillery and naval gunfire coordination, rocket firings, cruise missile testing and much more. MOUT training has been around for decades in some fashion or another, but since the aforementioned "Blackhawk Down" incident in Mogadishu, and especially after the Global War On Terror kicked off, it has grown in scale, complexity and scope. As we enter into the age of budgetary austerity there is a real danger that the high-end training assets and facilities we have built over the last decade, and at great cost, will wither and become dated and thus less relevant to tomorrow's wars. It is the small victories that get you through BUD/S, after all. Another trainee gets revenge by crapping in the surf zone. (Location at Google Maps. This is a dangerous road for America to travel down as you can have the most expensive weapons available, $150M F-35s, the latest man portable UAVs, top-of-the-line night vision goggles, and the best swimmer delivery vehicles money can buy, but if you have no money to train with them regularly, or the budgeted training scenarios lack cutting edge threats and realism, the tactical edge that they offer will become highly degraded. Available Now: A Way Forward by Christian Dattwyler - Click Here For Your Copy →, Available Now: A Way Forward by Christian Dattwyler →, The Pic of the Day: Iron Fist 2020 used island where Navy SEALs train, Former Navy SEAL recalls singing the National Anthem during SEAL training on San Clemente Island. That means you swim explosive devices out through the surf zone, hold your breath, swim them underwater, and rig them up onto submerged obstacles like the ones seen during the D-Day invasion. San Clemente Island is a truly batshit crazy place. Situated in relative proximity to Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, San Clemente Island is a favorite training ground for the U.S. Marines.
In the past, there has been videos on the net of America's elite special forces units, namely the US Navy SEALs, training at MOUT sites on Army and Marine bases around the US. 9. Service members of all levels and expertise have talked at great lengths about their urban warfare experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan, where on one street they could have been handing out candy to the local children and on the next street the inhabitants would suddenly evaporate from view, just like in a high-noon spaghetti western movie, and in no time bullets and RPGs would start raining down on their position. Gadiel Zaragoza), U.S. Marines with the 1st Air Naval Gunfire Liaison Company, I Marine Expeditionary Force Information Group, utilize a Polaris MRZR D4 during a simulated fire mission on San Clemente Island in May 2020. There ain’t no Navy brass to save you on San Clemente Island. There's no pool, but if you let the police know (and you don't mind sharks) you can swim from the pier. That is a comforting thought, is it not? They called other instructors over to watch. While San Clemente might be considered beautiful and a piece of untamed nature to some, to the indoctrinated it is an infernal hellscape, populated by more foxes and feral goats than humans, and the scene of unspeakable tortuous training meted out by Navy SEAL instructors during Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL (BUD/S) Third Phase. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Chad M. Butler), The San Clemente Island bushmallow, one of six federally listed plants on the island, is found only here. It would seem that at some point in time the SEALs realized that more conventional forces' facilities did not offer them the realism, and most notably the proximity to the ocean, that they require to adequately simulate their operational realities. It also has a nearby rural village like those found in Afghanistan. Grace Kindred), An MH-60R Seahawk helicopter conducts a hoist exercise with a Peruvian Navy submarine off the coast of San Clemente Island in November 2019. While going through the course holding your breath is impossible, it would not have mattered anyway, because the CS pellets adhered to your body when you low crawled through parts of the course. There is supposedly a 1 lane bowling alley, although the lights never work down in that part of the building. 3. Overall, it would appear that the SEAL's own isolated and dedicated MOUT facility is virtually the perfect place for America's super-warriors to secretly cut their teeth on direct action, reconnaissance and snatch-and-grab urban combat scenarios. After the "Blackhawk Down" incident in 1993, urban warfare became something to be avoided almost at any costs as terms like "bloodbath" and "cluster-fuck" were closely associated with it. At some point in the mid 2000s the decision was made to build a specialized and elaborate MOUT training facility on the secretive and isolated Navy controlled San Clemente Island. Manuel A. Serrano), A landing craft utility (LCU) vehicle, launched from the USS Comstock, approaches San Clemente Island in April 2020. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. The enemy could move from building to building, dropping weapons and picking up others as they go, and at any time they could simple melt back into the local populace. We do a lot of anti-submarine and anti-surface warfare out there. By discovering issues in a mission plan ahead of time by actually running the mission in a simulated manner, SEAL mission planners can refine their plans, and in the process not only ensure a higher probability of success, but also possibly save the lives of the operators involved. The excrement in question made its way easily from my pant leg to the water, and rarely have I felt such relief as I did in that split second. Harkening back to their World War II “frogman” days, SEAL trainees learn to become experts in underwater demolition while on San Clemente Island. Then there is one of the most challenging urban warfare missions of all: Neutralizing ghost-like enemy snipers. You always hoped those rounds would not fall in the wrong spot.