Navy SEALs have a reputation of being in the s—t. It turns out that Navy SEAL candidates spend a lot of their time swimming in it too.
A recent report from the Defense Department Inspector General’s Office found that Navy SEAL candidates often conducted water training exercises off Naval Amphibious Base Coronado, California, even when local beaches were closed due to high levels of “fecal indicator bacteria,” a telltale sign of fecal matter.
“Navy SEAL candidate exposure to contaminated water occurred because [Naval Special Warfare Command] did not follow San Diego County’s Beach and Bay Water Quality Program’s beach closure postings,” DOD IG’s Feb. 7 management advisory says. “As a result of Navy SEAL candidate exposure to contaminated water during training, candidates are presented with increased health risks and Naval Special Warfare Command’s] training mission could be impacted.”
The DOD IG report noted that the Navy has documented 1,168 cases of acute gastrointestinal illness among Navy SEAL and Special Warfare Combat Crewman candidates who trained at NAB Coronado between January 2019 and May 2023. Moreover, 39% of those cases were diagnosed within seven days of candidates being exposed to water that exceeded state limits for fecal indicator bacteria.
DOD IG found that levels of enterococcus bacteria — which live in intestinal tracts of warm-blooded animals and indicate possible fecal matter contamination — exceeded state limits in 76% of tests conducted on samples taken from the beach north of NAB Coronado and 75% of samples taken from the beach south of the base between February and September 2024.
But Naval Special Warfare Command only moved 12 of 265 Navy SEAL candidate water training events — or 5% — during that time even though closure advisories for those beaches were in effect, according to the DOD IG advisory.
The command also did not reschedule, move, or cancel three water training events during the Hell Week phase of Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL training from Sept. 3 to Sept. 8, 2023, even though local officials had issued beach closure advisories due to the high level of bacteria in the water at the time.
“Consequently, Navy SEAL candidates were exposed to contaminated water during these three ocean training events,” the DOD IG advisory says.
Currently, Naval Special Warfare Command does not conduct its own water testing. Instead, it relies on water reports from San Diego County’s Beach and Bay Water Quality Program.
DOD IG recommended that Naval Special Warfare Command institute a policy to monitor water quality and to relocate, reschedule, or cancel water training when bacteria levels are higher than state health limits. It also recommended that the command come up with procedures to notify the appropriate officials within the command about water quality results and decisions to change the training schedule.
In response, Naval Special Warfare Command vowed to implement both recommendations by Dec. 31.
“However, as a federal entity, [Naval Special Warfare Command] retains flexibility to determine [standard operating procedures] independent from state requirements,” Rear Adm. Milton Sands III, head of the command, wrote in his Jan. 10 response to DOD IG. “Additional analysis would be required to determine the fiscal impact of relocating from the local area or rescheduling or canceling in-water training evolutions when bacteria levels exceed state health standards.”
Naval Inspector General Vice Adm. John Fuller wrote separately that while Navy SEAL candidates’ safety is a top concern, “Naval Special Warfare (NSW) will have a challenge canceling or relocating 75 percent of their water training activities.”
A Naval Special Warfare Command spokesperson told Task & Purpose that the command has access to several training locations that instructors and qualified safety personnel constantly monitor to make sure the environment is safe for training. The command follows San Diego County’s Beach and Bay Water Quality Program to modify training if needed.
“If a training site is unsafe, NSW [Naval Special Warfare] implements mitigation strategies to reschedule or relocate evolutions to minimize impacts to training,” the spokesperson said. “NSW’s top priority is conducting training evolutions safely and using the resources available to make informed decisions. As a learning organization, NSW continues to assess procedures in place to enhance safety and operational readiness.”
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