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Hell Week
Mary G. Barry, MD
D
Louisville Medicine Editor
[email protected]
ocs don’t have one. We might have
hellish moments, and horrible
days, and lifetimes of frustration
with modern industrialized medicine – but
we don’t have Hell Week.
It’s the ninth week of Navy SEAL training
and if it does not make you ring the bell,
then you’ve got a shot at finishing your six
months’ basic SEAL course. Admiral William H. McRaven, the ninth commander of
U.S. Special Operations Command, became
a SEAL in 1977. He’d been commissioned
an officer in the U.S. Navy the day after he
was graduated from the University of Texas.
On May 17th this year he gave a rousing and
inspiring commencement speech there. The
motto of UT is, “What starts here changes
the world.” Here’s how Admiral McRaven
said we can all try to change the world.
1
“Start by making your bed” – perfectly,
every single morning, to the SEAL standard. If you can’t do the little things
right, he said, you’ll never do the big
things right. And when you stagger
home after a terrible day, there is your
bed nicely inviting you in, a small
comfort and a promise that tomorrow
might turn out better.
2
SEAL teams train in the heavy, up to
10 foot, freezing cold, plunging su