The Truth About DEVGRU Selection & Attrition No One Talks About

About this video

A former Navy SEAL recounts his experience going through DEVGRU (Seal Team Six) selection in 2005, describing the mental challenges and steep learning curve. He discusses the approximate 50% attrition rate and notes that which candidates succeeded or failed often surprised him. After selection, he describes checking into Gold Squadron and his unexpected assignment to become a climber, which led to climbing El Capitan with only minimal prior rock climbing experience.

Key takeaways

• The guest reports that DEVGRU selection had approximately 40-50 candidates with a roughly 50% pass rate, mostly due to safety violations, and notes that predicting who would succeed was often difficult
• The guest describes DEVGRU selection as mentally harder than BUD/S, with extremely strict CQB training, and recounts struggling most with the compressed military freefall qualification (completed in 5 days instead of the normal 2-3 weeks)
• The guest recounts being assigned as a climber despite minimal experience and climbing El Capitan after only 10 days of prior rock climbing, describing it as mentally harder than most physical challenges but less physically demanding than later mountaineering expeditions

Episode details: published March 12, 2026 · 22.6K views · 24:24 long. Summary written by Self Growth Videos from the episode itself. Stories told by Mike Ritland’s podcast guests are the guests’ own accounts, attributed to them — not independently verified. Commentary is Ritland’s, presented as his analysis.

← Previous: Professor Jiang Predicted the Iran War & America’s Defeat (Here’s What He’s Missing) · Next: Tier One ROK Navy SEAL: Hostage Rescue Operations Gone Wrong →

All Mike Ritland videos · Mike Ritland profile · Mike Drop (official site)