<p>My son’s college roommate, a wonderful young man that we are very close to, is heading off to Great Lakes for SEAL Basic Training in a few weeks. We are good friends with him and his family and are immensely proud of him. We will be having a dinner with him and his parents before he goes – and my son is throwing a separate surprise going-away party. These guys are two years out of college and, as you can imagine, we all think this is a pretty big deal.</p>
<p>We’d like to give him <em>something</em> as he heads out – but what? I imagine the Navy will supply him with everything he needs, and there won’t be much room in his life for “stuff.”</p>
<p>I just went onto ebay and searched for Navy Seal. You may get different results when you do it. But, as crazy as I may sound, I think the way over priced “GI Joe” type Navy Seal doll at about $130 would be a great send off gift from a group of friends.</p>
<p>Is he religious? Is he Catholic? There are some beautiful medals that make great gifts. A rosary is a nice gift for rite of passage occasions, if he’s Catholic.</p>
<p>Not to be negative, but what percentage of candidates wash out of basic training? You might want to get him something that emphasizes your relationship and regard for him, such as the photo suggested above, rather than something strictly Seal-related, just in case. If you could put together a photo montage of him and his family and friends in some kind of portable form, he could look at it during training if he is in need of a boost. And he could take it with him wherever he goes in the future.</p>
<p>I’m aware that the washout rate is something like 80%. </p>
<p>I also know a bit about this particular person’s commitment and (perhaps more important) fitness level. If there was going to be one guy out of the 1000 in his class that made it – it quite possibly would be this guy!</p>
<p>He <em>is</em> Catholic – I may see if there was a religious medal that might work.</p>
<p>My son received a Four Way Medal from his fifth grade teacher, who he is still very close to. It does have the caption, I am Catholic, in case of injury, call a priest. This may be upsetting, but it also may be a gift he’d be grateful to have. St. Michael is also a good medal to have. My husband’s parents gave him one for his car when he went off to college, and had one in their own cars. They were not Catholic, so even if he is not religious, I think he would appreciate the sentiment.</p>
<p>I’m sure that is true, but if you read the Luttrell book (I heard him speak- and it was the most riveting talk I have ever heard- and I read the book, which is awesome) you will know that describes just about every member of the SEAL class.</p>