Conflict · SEAL selectionCoronado Navy SEAL training: Two women reach week three, then leaveWritten November 5, 2026 at 3:29 PM UTCTranscript0:07Two women reached week three of Navy SEAL training before leaving the course.0:11Their progress is reportedly the furthest any female candidates have advanced since0:16women gained access to it.0:18One entered Hellweek.0:20The Navy hasn't confirmed whether any woman before them reached the same point.0:24The women trained at Naval Amphibious Base Coronado in California.0:28They entered basic underwater demolition/slash asseal training, usually called BUD0:34Slash, several weeks before their progress became public.0:37Both reached its third week, near the beginning of a much longer qualification0:42process.0:42The candidates were a naval officer and an enlisted sailor.0:46Their paths through training then separated.0:49The officer was moved into the next class.0:52A step called being rolled back that gives a candidate a later class to continue0:57with.0:58Her decision to leave came afterward.1:00The officer ultimately asked to leave before Hellweek.1:04The enlisted sailor entered Hellweek and was medically removed during it.1:08So the officer's final departure was voluntary, while the sailor's was medical.1:14Neither completed BUD slash S.1:16The women's names are being withheld for security and privacy.1:20Their progress became public on November4,2026 , after they had already1:26entered training several weeks earlier.1:28That date marks the disclosure.1:30The training itself had already taken place, including both women's departures from1:35the course.1:35Candidates carry logs and launch boats into breaking waves during Hell Week.1:40They also lie in cold ocean water.1:43The test begins in the fourth week and lasts five and a half days, pushing physical1:48endurance and the ability to keep working with a team.1:52Candidates get about four hours of sleep, in total, across roughly five days.1:58They run around two hundred miles.2:00The Navy's own description puts that distance at more than two hundred miles, with2:06more than twenty hours of physical training a day.2:09Reaching that test means surviving substantial selection beforehand.2:13About forty-five percent of candidates were removed or rolled back during the three2:18weeks before Hell Week.2:20Those historical Navy figures cover nineteen ninety-eight through twenty2:24twenty-three.2:25They describe the broader candidate population, with reassignment to a later class2:30included in that percentage.2:32The historical figures also put voluntary withdrawal before Hell Week at about2:37twenty-nine percent.2:38Across the training pipeline, attrition was about sixty-eight percent.2:42The greatest losses came during the seven-week first phase, which includes Hell2:47Week.2:47There, sixty-six percent of candidates were removed or moved into another class.2:53Around twenty-one percent left during Hell Week through voluntary withdrawal,2:57medical removal, or performance problems.3:00Later, five percent left during the combat diving phase and three percent during3:06land warfare, under one percent left during the final SEAL qualification training3:10course.3:10Nearly four in five candidates who entered Hellweek finished it in that historical3:16summary.3:17More candidates left during the preceding weeks than during Hell Week itself.3:22These percentages describe different stages and groups, so they can't be added3:27together.3:28They also don't predict either woman's individual chance of qualifying.3:32Bud slash last roughly six months.3:35SEAL qualification training follows and takes roughly another six months.3:40Graduates receive the Trident insignia that signifies qualification as a SEAL.3:45Both women left during the early part of that route, with substantial training still3:49ahead.3:50Women gained access after the December3,2015 decision to open all military3:56occupations and positions to women beginning in January2016 .4:00Women had already served alongside Special Operations Forces for decades, and4:05in2021, a woman graduated from the Navy's separate special warfare boat crew4:10training pipeline.4:11Those boat crews operate heavily armed.4:14High-speed craft that transport seals into and out of hostile territory.4:20They have their own selection and training.4:22That earlier graduation marked progress in another naval special warfare occupation,4:27with a different route to qualification.4:30The week three milestone for these two women remains a reported first.4:34Naval Special Warfare Command says it won't discuss individual candidates' selection4:40status or position in training, citing course integrity and privacy.4:45The Navy hasn't said whether either woman will return to training.Read the articleStory timelineHeyDex
