US Navy sailors man the rails aboard Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Forrest Sherman in Kiel, Germany, March 21, 2022.
US Navy/MCS Seaman Eric Moser
A sailor’s death prompted the Navy to review its SEAL training course, The New York Times reported.
Seaman Kyle Mullen died this year after completing the Basic Underwater Demolition/SEALs course.
Mullen’s death exposed drug use, physical abuse, and medical neglect among recruits, NYT reported.
The Navy has ordered an independent investigation of its SEAL training course after a sailor’s death revealed widespread drug use, physical abuse, and medical neglect among recruits, The New York Times reported.
24-year-old Seaman Kyle Mullen died this year after he collapsed following his completion of the Basic Underwater Demolition/SEALs, or BUD/S, course, which is known for extreme training methods including exercises underwater with bound hands, lugging heavy logs and inflatable boats across the sand, and punishing situps and plunges in the frigid surf.
Mullen had been coughing up blood for several days, The New York Times reported, following the grueling training regiment’s “Hell Week” that included over 200 miles of frigid swims and running in hot sand, with only about five hours of sleep in five days.
The sailor’s official cause of death was ruled to be bacterial pneumonia, The New York Times reported, but his family believes medical neglect also played a role in his passing, as medics saw the condition Mullen was in during daily medical checks but did nothing to treat him.
“They killed him,” his mother, Regina Mullen, who is a registered nurse, told The New York Times. “They say it’s training, but it’s torture. And then they didn’t even give them the proper medical care. They treat these guys worse than they are allowed to treat prisoners of war.”
The same afternoon Mullen died, another man who survived Hell Week had to be intubated, The New York Times reported. Two more were hospitalized that same evening.
So few recruits pass through the BUD/S course that sailors often rely on illicit drug use to push through. Syringes and performance-enhancing drugs were found in Mullen’s car, The New York Times reported, which prompted the Navy to initiate a preliminary investigation that revealed roughly 40 candidates tested positive or admitted to using steroids or other drugs while making their way through the course.
A day after The New York Times published its initial report on Mullen’s death and the abuses it revealed, the outgoing vice chief of naval operations, Adm. William K. Lescher, issued an order to a rear admiral from outside the SEALs beginning a secondary, independent investigation.
Lescher’s letter ordered a review of the course’s safety measures, the qualifications of instructors and medics and its drug policies for students, The New York Times reported, and gave investigators 30 days to report their findings.
The US Navy did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment.