NORFOLK, Va. — Training for the military's Special Forces can be risky, but a new report is making recommendations about how to limit those risks.
Congress called for the Government Accountability Office to investigate following accidents and deaths among the forces.
The report says between 2012 and 2022, there were about 3,600 accidents involving Special Forces in the military. Of those, about 80-percent happened during training.
"I broke my back twice in parachuting accidents and dislocated my jaw once in a parachute accident," said Don Mann, a retired Navy SEAL who was an advanced training officer.
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Mann says the risks are necessary to ensure Special Operation Forces are ready for their missions.
"There's really no other profession where sending in people untrained to do the job could cause more of a catastrophe and a disaster," said Mann.
The GAO report says 80-percent of training accidents were caused by human error, particularly in two areas: parachute training and combat dive training.
"Sometimes, that high-risk training training will put individuals in areas of high risk, but the goal is always to mitigate the risk as much as possible," said Diana Moldafsky from the Government Accountability Office.
Sadly, News 3 has reported on deaths over the years.
Watch previous coverage: Navy says SEAL candidate dies after "Hell Week" test
In 2022, a SEAL candidate died after he got sick while completing "Hell Week" training.
In 2021, a Navy SEAL from Team 8 died after getting hurt during a fast rope training exercise in Virginia Beach.
"Why Congress ultimately asked us to do this investigation was because those injuries and fatalities started to make us have questions as to why, if those programs were effective," said Moldafsky.
Watch previous coverage: Navy identifies SEAL Team 8 member who died from injuries after Virginia Beach fast-rope training exercise
The report makes six recommendations to the Defense Department to implement. They're aimed at providing additional oversight so the military can re-evaluate the training and further identify what's considered high risk and find ways to prevent injuries and death.
"More can be done to mitigate the likelihood of high risk training accidents," said Moldafsky.
As for Mann, he says Special Forces need to keep the foot on the gas to be ready for whenever they may be needed.
"You can't make training easier. You can't," he said. "People are always going to get hurt and died in training. It's just the way it is unfortunately."
