Hell Week is a rite of passage for all Navy SEALs. It is the hardest week of the hardest training program in the U.S. military, Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL (BUD/S) training.

Of course, any old frogman will tell you his Hell Week was the toughest ever, but I have to say that I have seen several Hell Weeks since I graduated from BUD/S in 1992 and they still suck. After ...

Hell Week — which happens in the third week of the Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL (BUD/S) training - is the five-and-a-half day of cold, wet, brutally difficult operational training on fewer ...

Hell Week BUD/S class 245 students during a Hell Week surf drill evolution with a SEAL instructor, in Coronado, April 15, 2003. Getty Hell Week takes place during the fourth week of First Phase.

At 2 p.m., about the time BUD/S medics went home for the day, a fellow BUD/S student found Mullen in the barracks bathroom, coughing up dark fluid and — hours after completing Hell Week with ...

Navy SEAL candidates undergo Hell Week during the last week of the first phase of BUD/S training in Coronado, California, in 2018. The candidate who died is not pictured.

A: Each BUD/S class is slightly different, so the length of each training day can vary. Estimates of 8 to 20 hours exist, but an official average has not been posted by the U.S. Navy or NSW.

CORONADO, Calif. (Aug. 5, 2011) Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy (MCPON) Rick D. West speaks to students in Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL (BUD/s) Class 290 upon their completion of Hell ...