SEALs Smarter Than Surfers
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SAN DIEGO — Navy SEALs were beached Wednesday, when the Point Loma sewage spill made it too risky for the elite commando unit to conduct underwater training in the Pacific.
Cmdr. Robert Pritchard, spokesman for the Naval Special Warfare Command, said the spill has affected Basic Underwater Demolition training, which is usually done in the ocean off the Coronado coast.
“We’ve had to curtail our BUD training, and are no longer able to do any open ocean swimming,” Pritchard said. “It looks like it’s going to be at least a couple of weeks before we can go back to open ocean training.”
He said Navy officials ordered a halt to swimming in the open ocean Tuesday.
“Right now we’re looking at some alternatives to the training that has been curtailed,” Pritchard said. “We’re doing some swimming in (San Diego) bay. It’s still early in the game, but we might have to find an alternative training site. We’re thinking about going out to San Clemente Island.” San Clemente Island is about 50 miles off the coast.
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