#I found this info in about 15 minutes. 🙄

[catmomjudy]

Picky Gripes About TV Shows and Their Weak Hold On Reality

You know, I looked up “SEAL Civilian Challenge” one time and found squat. It doesn’t exist as far as I can tell, at least not currently or recently (not did I thought it did.).

SEALs are Navy Sailors with additional training. But they are Sailors first. The pipeline used to be boot camp; then to regular (probably shipboard) duty for about two years; get through at least one annual evaluation cycle; apply and get recommendations from your command.

There is a SEAL Challenge Contract now, but guess what? You still go to boot camp. If you meet mental acuity (ASVAB) and physical training requirements (which are well above boot camp standards), you go what they call “Seaman to SEAL.” IOW you go very quickly to BUDS (SEAL training) after boot camp rather than having to wait like they used to do.

Guess what happens if you “ring out” like Buck did? Well, dearie, have fun on the high seas because you STILL signed a Navy enlistment contract. You get reassigned and fulfill that enlistment.

Yes, I was in the Navy, but it’s been 25 years. So I looked it up. It wasn’t too hard to find once I realized what I was really looking for. I’m sure screenwriters know how to Google.

(P.S. And no, you can’t go into the FBI right out of high school. I see Teen Wolf fanfics that have Stiles doing that 🙄. 23 years old and a bachelors degree as minimum requirements, unless you’re a high performer who applies to a special program, and then that means you go straight after COLLEGE graduation without having to work elsewhere first. They do have a college intern program during the summers for current college students, I.e. between college years, not before you ever go. And the FBI Academy is not like the Naval Academy. It’s a campus that hosts job training programs for FBI employees, not a college.)

(P.P.S. It takes 2hrs 56 min according to Google maps to get from Washington Navy Yard to Norfolk Naval Station at 10 pm at night. I would have guessed 3 hours, so I guess I was close. In the morning, in rush hour traffic around DC? 🤣🤣🤣 Even Gibbs couldn’t get there before the day was half over. Oh and there’s a HUGE NCIS office in Norfolk with its own forensics lab. I’ve been there when I went to Navy Legal Officer school. So, they wouldn’t call in people from out of town anyway unless they needed a really specialized team of some sort, and Gibbs’s team is simply major crimes. That’s not really all that specialized.)