Annapolis, Maryland. (May 13, 2025): The Marines have the “Crucible”, the SEALs “Hell Week”, and the Naval Academy has Sea Trials. All are brutal tests of physical and emotional endurance that challenge recruits to their limits. In this photo by Technical Sergeant Christopher Muncy, a Naval Academy midshipman participates in the final event of their fourth year. Sea Trials are a series of training events that are designed to provide a final physical and mental challenge to midshipmen before they become officers in today’s Navy.

Devised in the spring of 1998, Sea Trials consists of fourteen straight hours of pure adrenaline. Midshipmen endure a lengthy list of physically and mentally straining activities that foster teamwork as a class.

The ordeal begins at 3:00 a.m. with recruits bailing from their bunks to prepare for inspection. From there, midshipmen negotiate brutal obstacle courses including crawling through a muddy trench while avoiding barbed wire overhead. They also engage in “grappling” with other recruits and battling each other with padded pugil sticks. In perhaps the most brutal physical test, recruits hoist a tree-truck sized log above their heads while performing sit-ups, dead lifts, and distance carries.

They also practice emergency re-supply, shore defense, Spartan relays, and the combat fitness test. Students perform military operations in urban terrain while displaying their land navigation and survival skills. Shipboard exercises include damage control (pipe patching and fire hose handling), underwater events, riverine operations, and aquatics endurance challenges. The top unit performance becomes the “Iron Company” and receives a plaque at a ceremony at the conclusion of Sea Trials.

For midshipmen, it is the longest day of their lives and an experience they will never forget.