SEAL commander in charge of ‘Hell Week’ boot camp where a candidate died hits back at Navy report

The Navy SEAL commander in charge of an arduous boot camp during which a candidate died has spoken out after a scathing report by the Navy suggested that under his brutal leadership candidates were pushed too hard. 

Kyle Mullen, a 24-year-old from Manalapan, New Jersey, died during an intensive training program, Hell Week, after swimming in cold waters and developing pulmonary edema, which caused his lungs to fill with fluid, and pneumonia, an autopsy found.

Comments from Navy Captain Brad Geary defending the program come as his mother revealed in an interview with The New York Post that she called Geary a murderer over her son’s death.

The Navy report detailed how ‘a near perfect storm’ of circumstances at the Basic Underwater Demolition SEAL course, referred to as BUD/S, resulted in injury to a number of candidates and the death of Mullen.

Medical oversight and care were ‘poorly organized, poorly integrated and poorly led and put candidates at significant risk,’ the nearly 200-page report compiled by the Naval Education and Training Command and unsealed last week concluded. 

Navy Captain Brad Geary has spoken out after a scathing report by the Navy suggested that under his brutal leadership candidates were pushed too hard

Kyle Mullen, a 24-year-old from Manalapan, New Jersey, died during the intensive Navy SEALs program Hell Week in February 2022

Regina Mullen, the mother SEAL candidate Kyle Mullen, told The Post that she called Geary a murderer over her son’s death

This week Navy Captain Brad Geary, the commander in charge of the course at the time of Mullen’s death in February 2022, gave an interview with the New York Post.

‘I’ll never be able to take that weight off my shoulders,’ Geary told The Post of Mullen’s death, speaking for the first time since the report, and denying allegations that he blamed candidates for being mentally weak.

‘One of the things that was misstated in that report was this notion that I somehow blamed the next generation for being mentally weak, which is what resulted in the attrition,’ Geary said.

‘Those were not my words. I never said that. Those closest to me in my command would say I never said that.’

‘That’s flippant and irresponsible and just not true,’ he added.

‘Capt. Geary maintained a view that the high attrition was caused, among other reasons, by the current generation having less mental resilience, or being less tough,’ read the report. 

Mullen’s mother, Regina, told The Post she wants Geary to be fired what what she says is his role in her son’s death.

Although Geary is no longer commander of the training program, he does still serve in the Navy.

‘I said, “You are a murderer. You murdered him,”‘ she told The Post she told Geary. ‘I think he feels bad, but everybody feels bad when you’re caught.’

Regina is a registered nurse, and claimed if her son had been given proper medical attention when he first started showing signs of illness.

‘If you’re sick, you’re weak – that’s what they were like promoting and cultivating,’ she said. ‘I don’t even know that you need the SEALs.’

Capt. Brad Geary (pictured left), commanding officer of Naval Special Warfare’s Basic Training Command, and an unnamed senior medical officer also got letters

One of the conditions that killed Mullen, formally swimming-induced pulmonary edema, was common among SEAL candidates, who would refer to the potentially lethal condition colloquially as SIPE. 

The New York Times reported soon after Mullen’s death that during Hell Week instructors on the camp kept students in frigid water for long periods, denied them sleep and hit and kicked them.

Part of the training involves frequent plunges in the frigid Pacific Ocean. 

Mullen had been going through the program in the middle of winter and endured a five-and-a-half day stretch in which candidates are allowed just four hours of sleep each night.

They would also run a total of more than 200 miles, swim in the frigid ocean and complete other physical training for more than 20 hours a day. 

‘I’ve lost many teammates in my career, unfortunately. Too many. But this was the first one under my command,’ Geary told The Post last week of Mullen’s death.

‘You’re grieving the death of a dream every day,’ he added.

‘I know by coming forward with the press on this one, I’m committing a cultural faux pas that will put me out of graces with my community, but I have to… I am laying down my career for my cadre of candidates to be their voice and defend them because no one else is.’ 

‘Nobody really wanted to hear our message until after Kyle Mullen died,’ he told The Post. ‘We beat that drum incessantly and it really did not resonate.’ 

Mullen played football at Yale University before transferring to Monmouth University in New Jersey

Geary suggested that he respected the next generation of SEALs and objected to those that characterize them as weak.

‘It’s very easy to say, “Well, damn the next generation” and make fun of them … [but] I’ve reinforced this throughout my entire time as a commanding officer: It’s on us as leaders to adjust to the next generation,’ he said.

‘It’s not enough to say “You have to be like us and we expect you to perform like we did.”‘

‘No, no, we need to look for their strengths and look for their weaknesses. Be objectively critical of those and then help them develop what we need them to have for the SEAL teams and the missions that will ask them to do,’ he added.

‘Our cadre deserved to be trusted and the American people deserve to know that they can trust the SEAL community, and it’s frustrating to me that [the report] unjustly undermines that trust,’ he said. 

‘I genuinely love everyone that is entrusted to my care as a leader, and as the commanding officer of [the training program]. I loved my candidates,’ Geary told The Post.

‘I loved Kyle Mullen, I grieved his loss and still do. I will carry that weight with me forever.’

Most of Navy SEAL training takes place at the naval base in Coronado, California. The injured solider was taken to the Naval Medical Center (top), while the the soldier who passed was taken to the Sharp Coronado Hospital (middle)

Mullen’s death shined a light on the brutal test that pushes SEAL candidates to their limits. 

It tests physical, mental and psychological strength along with leadership skills, and is so grueling that at least 50 to 60 percent are unable to finish.

Navy leaders conducted multiple reviews and investigations in the wake of his death, and the latest report makes a lengthy series of recommendations for changes to medical care staffing and training and to drug testing.

Rear Admiral Keith Davids, who heads Naval Special Warfare Command, said the Navy will learn from the tragedy and was already taking steps to prevent it from happening again.

‘Our effectiveness as the Navy’s maritime special operations force necessitates demanding, high-risk training,’ Davids said in a statement. 

‘While rigorous and intensely demanding, our training must be conducted with an unwavering commitment to safety and methodical precision.’

He said the command will ‘honor Seaman Mullen’s memory by ensuring that the legacy of our fallen teammate guides us towards the best training program possible for our future Navy SEALs.’

Mullen won a conference championship with Monmouth University in 2019

Several trainees have died throughout the years during the pool exercise (pictured), including Derek Lovelace in 2016, who died after becoming unconscious 

U.S. Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., said in a statement that the probe ‘exposed a culture that needs radical change, and the Navy has given every indication that they will implement serious changes to address the egregiously flawed command structure and failure after failure that led to Kyle´s death.’

Smith was briefed on the investigation last week along with Mullen’s mother, Regina, who has vowed to work to force changes to ensure this doesn´t happen to another family.

‘Looking at the egregious failures that went on, there needs to be serious accountability,’ she said. ‘The next stage of accountability is where I am focused.’

Already the command has taken steps to overhaul procedures, add medical staff and improve their training, particularly on heart and breathing problems commonly seen during Hell Week. 

Commanders are also doing more drug testing and heart screenings.

The latest report notes that special operations forces are routinely required to carry out high-risk military operations, and thus require demanding training. 

But it said SEAL instructors in recent years appeared to focus on weeding out candidates, rather than teaching or mentoring. 

Compounding that problem, the report said, is that candidates were often reluctant to seek medical care because it would be seen as weak and could get them removed from the course or delay their completion. 

According to the Navy, nearly 900 SEAL candidates are considered every year, and the goal is to graduate just 175.