NAVAL AMPHIBIOUS BASE CORONADO, Calif. Under the hot summer sun, facing the strong sea wind, 67 of the Navy’s premier sailors vying to become SEALs stood at attention on the beach Friday, heads down, faces caked in sand, skin burned, life jackets on, ready to grab their small zodiac boats and enter the sea yet again.
They might have thought they were hallucinating by this seventh day of “Hell Week” when they were ordered to turn around and rush up a sand dune lined with superior officers. There, in the middle, stood a frail, white-haired Defense Secretary Robert Gates.
Barely audible even with a bullhorn, Gates uttered words they were hoping to hear. “Hell Week secured,” he said, setting off an enormous cheer from the sweating, exhausted men who formed a spontaneous group hug.
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