What’s it like to prepare to deploy into a hostile area overseas? To get bit by a military working dog? To do hand-to-hand combat training with Navy SEALs and Green Berets? To get ready to drive like your life depends on it? Thanks to Alabama defense contractor XTreme Concepts, Yellowhammer found out.
For several days in June, the Yellowhammer TV crew traveled to a training base in northern Virginia and captured footage of our own Cliff Sims going through a series of training exercise with members of the Xtreme Concepts team, including Navy SEALs, Green Berets and other special ops veterans.
“This was an incredible opportunity for us to get an inside look at how these guys prepare to succeed in situations that most of us can’t even imagine,” said Sims. “They’re the best of the best. Many of them have been the very tip of the spear for the U.S. military, so for them to allow us a peek into their world was a real privilege. We were careful to only capture footage of training and tactics that they felt comfortable being in the public domain, but we hope these videos make Yellowhammer’s audience walk away with an enhanced appreciation for the work that’s being put in by our men and women in uniform.”
Over the next several days, Yellowhammer will release a series of short videos focusing on different aspects of the training — from knife fighting and K9 training to evasive driving and armed ambush scenarios.
After returning to Alabama, Sims said it was the mental aspects of the training that he found most challenging.
“If you spend any amount of time around these guys, you start to understand why our special forces are the best in the world,” he said. “Their ability to calmly handle complex tasks while under extreme duress is remarkable. I was sweating bullets, knowing full well that it was only a training exercise. It was a humbling experience, to say the least.”
A short preview of the video series can be seen above. Look out for new clips throughout this week.
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