Two Guys Made It Through Hell Week… Then Rang the Bell

About this video

A former Navy SEAL recounts his BUD/S training and career path through SDV teams to DEVGRU. He shares that two classmates completed Hell Week but rang the bell afterward, following an instructor’s unusual advice. After graduating BUD/S, he spent time at SDV Team 2, participated in a record cold-water dive with British SBS, and later made it through DEVGRU selection (green team) before joining Red Squadron, where he describes the intense professionalism and shooting standards.

Key takeaways

• The guest describes two unusual cases where students completed Hell Week successfully but chose to quit Monday morning, following a senior chief’s advice that they could still leave with respect and a Hell Week t-shirt.
• The guest recounts working with British SBS on a record cold-water dive in Norway where he experienced cognitive problems from the cold severe enough that his navigator had to take over piloting.
• The guest explains that DEVGRU’s Red Squadron maintained extremely high shooting standards where even top green team shooters had to tighten their performance, with unlimited ammunition available for after-hours practice and a culture of self-remediation.

Episode details: published August 20, 2025 · 15.9K views · 18:41 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.

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