Navy IDs SEAL killed in Ariz. parachuting accident

Washiington Times ^ | 3/3/13 | Associated Press

[Eagles6]

Third Navy SEAL from PA to die recently. Weird.

[spetznaz]

Makes sense. That source was correct in my opinion. Some think training is simple, but in order to be effective it has to be realistic, and while that doesn’t mean they are trying to kill these brave men it does mean it will be very tough and every now and then accidents will happen. By the time one goes from normal Army/Marine training to the type of training Tiers 1&2 operators go through, one is slicing quite close to real danger. Live fire during kill house training, HALO and HAHO jumps (and at night), long treks in harsh terrain (and at times foreign countries, where a pit viper hanging from a branch at face level can really put an unwanted twist to your Borneo jungle training), etc. Put all of that together and it is far more likely for an operator to die during training than during an actual mission (although that may have changed since special operations units have been used so much by both Bush and Obama administrations in Afghanistan - eg DEVGRU - and Iraq - eg CAG- that actual missions may be catching up with training deaths).