Former Navy SEAL addresses Optometry's Meeting

SEATTLE – Rob O’Neill, a former member of Navy SEAL Team 6, shared what he learned in the military with attendees at the opening general session Wednesday, here at Optometry’s Meeting.

O’Neill was involved in the SEAL missions that located and captured Bin Laden, rescued Marcus Luttrell of “Lone Survivor” fame and rescued Capt. Richard Phillips on the Indian Ocean. However, these were only three of 800 missions on which he served and through which he learned the skills to achieve success, which he shared with the audience.

O’Neill said that during his training he quickly learned the importance of people skills. “People don’t want to work for a jerk,” he said.

He credited his trainers with treating him and his colleagues respectfully and with humor, a necessary tactic, considering 80% of people who try out for SEAL training do not make it through, he said.

His trainers said they would never ask them to do anything impossible. “But I’ll make you do one incredibly hard thing, followed by another incredibly hard thing, followed by another incredibly hard thing,” O’Neill said they told him. “Just think about getting from breakfast to lunch and from lunch to dinner. Never quit, and you’ll be fine.”

Rob O'Neill

O’Neill shared his experiences qualifying for SEAL Team 6. He showed an example of a typical living compound in Afghanistan and recounted details of training exercises as well as highlights of some actual missions. He said that with more than 400 combat missions, no one on his team was ever hurt.

Many of the SEAL Team 6 drills simulated the stress of combat.

“It’s all self-induced stress, but we’re looking for the people that realize all stress in life is self-induced,” he said.

The training for SEAL Team 6 lasts 9 months, 7.5 of which consist of “close quarter tactics.”

“Fifty percent of the guys don’t make it through this,” O’Neill said.

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Another lesson O’Neill said he learned in his training was the difference between over planning and being prepared. He shared some of the detailed protocols the SEALS are taught, such as proper foot placement and team communication when “clearing” a house or other structure.

He said he also learned how to take emotion out of the professional decision-making process.

“Don’t react; do respond,” he advised. “Separate decisions and emotions. Think about the last time you did something based on emotions and you regretted it.

“In combat, bravery is not the absence of fear; it’s the recognition of fear and the ability to put it aside and do what needs to be done,” he continued. “Fear is healthy; it makes you think more clearly. Without fear there wouldn’t be courage. But there’s a fine line. Panic could get you killed.”

O’Neill said people skills are what makes the team. He explained how his SEAL Team 6 team was more like a family that was part of each other’s lives outside of work.

“We stayed together at home, our kids played together, we vacationed together,” he said. “We all looked out for each other.”

O’Neill also advised attendees to not be intimidated by people you believe are outperforming you. “Get closer, find out what makes them successful,” he said. “How much sleep do they get? How do they work out?”

He said when he was promoted into a position of authority, the most difficult thing he had to do was delegate.

“We came up with a rule for delegation: the rule of threes,” O’Neill said. “One person could navigate three tasks well, but the fourth one would oversaturate them. Hand off the fourth one. Then back off and let them work. The less we taught, the better we were. We found if we were silent we were faster and more efficient at communicating at the highest level. We did this at war, on the Bin Laden mission. When the one-third of a second of chaos is over, imagine how they felt with 23 guys coming through their house not talking.”

His final advice to the audience was: “Be prepared to fight, perform under fire, trust your people and never quit.” – by Nancy Hemphill, ELS, FAAO