Inside the Covert, Superhuman World of Navy SEALs

Normals need not apply.

Only a tiny percentage of those who apply to be a Navy SEAL ever make it through the rigorous training program. Most participants drop out before the end of Hell Week, a five-day period in which they sleep for a total of four hours. Here, successful Hell Week graduates practice what are known as "Over the Beach evolutions" in May 2004.
CREDIT: Eric S. Logsdon/U.S. Navy via Getty Images.
Dumbbells are for weaklings.
Working out with a 150-pound log is a standard part of SEAL training.
Kyle D. Gahlau/U.S. Navy.
No girls allowed.
Though Demi Moore may have suggested otherwise with her role in the 1997 movie G.I. Jane, in which she joins the elite Team Six, women cannot become SEALs. Here a group of SEALs works out in the mud in 1988.
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CREDIT:
Breathing underwater.
Are you at ease taking off the diving gear keeping you alive deep under water and swapping it with another person in the pitch dark? Here, trainees practice this task in April 2011. There has been at least one training class without a single successful graduate, according to the Navy.
Kyle D. Gahlau/Courtesy U.S. Navy.
29 is over the hill.
Occasionally a valiant 29- or 30-year-old has defied the odds and made the cut, but generally 28 is the cutoff for joining the SEALs. Here, a recruit climbs a ladder during an assault training scenario in August 2010.
William S. Parker/Courtesy U.S. Navy.
Embrace the sky.
Parachute prowess is a prerequisite for all SEALs.
Credit: Joseph M. Clark/Courtesy U.S. Navy.
No Esquire covers for you.
When asked about Team Six, officially known as the United States Naval Special Warfare Development Group, one former Navy SEAL told Business Insider, simply, "There is no Team 6." This means that while these mysterious fellows may have taken out Osama Bin Laden, they won't get to brag about it. Here, a SEAL prepares for a night mission to capture insurgent leaders on July 27, 2007 near Fallujah, Iraq.
Kyle D. Gahlau/Courtesy U.S. Navy.
Redefining cold.
There is no such thing as "unsafe swimming conditions" for a SEAL. Here, an instructor monitors Navy sailors as they spend five minutes in near-freezing water as part of qualification training in Kodiak, Alaska, on April 8, 2009.
Credit: Courtesy U.S. Navy.
Ready that camera face.
Although perhaps more myth than reality, the legend of the SEAL requires not only superhuman feats, but looking dashing at all times. Here a SEAL waltzes through the water.
Kyle D. Gahlau/Courtesy U.S. Navy.
Welcome those gadgets.

The SEALs pride themselves on taking on the missions that are too complicated or dangerous for other units. This often requires unconventional tactics and previously unused technologies. Here, a SEAL experiments with a new night-vision system in 2004.

CREDIT: Credit: Eric S. Logsdon/U.S. Navy via Getty Images.