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I'm going to assume there was a lot more going on than "broke his leg, was wrongfully washed out of the course, ended up on a snack counter since he washed out". I've been in a job on the other side of "tear-jerking story on the local radio station and local newspapers", and it's very easy for the people (Caserta, his dad in this case) to make claims about what happened, while the official response can't tell the full story due to privacy requirements, legal constraints, etc.
Our tear-jerking story sounded like a typical tale of heartless red-tape bureaucrats refusing to help a single mother struggling to give her kids a better life. If you knew the real facts of the case, it was very different, And I can't say more than that, due to still being bound by the confidentiality requirements even after leaving the job. So yeah, unless we get the other side of the story from the Navy or the SEAL training course, I'm going to suspend judgement that it happened exactly like that.
My two cents, you're probably right that there's more to it than that, but there also might not be. Thing about SEALs is, the Navy doesn't have a pile of land warfare units they can send washouts back down to. There is no navy "infantry". In the Army, people who wash out of special forces training just go back to their line units. They might not be Green Berets, but they can still be king shit of 2/502 or whatever. My uncle washed in Selection and wound up in the 82nd Airborne. Prospective SEALs are betting it all on making it into the teams, because there is no other job waiting for them. And that's a structural problem that stems from letting the Navy play on land with the real boys. The SEAL teams IMO should fall under the Marines, and then washouts could be sent down to Marine units. But politically, they had to give the Navy a special forces unit since no one makes movies about battleships anymore. Ultimately, whatever their usefulness, the SEALS are a PR ploy to butch up the Navy's public image. Hence all the movies, the book deals, the podcasts etc.
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One the level of staffing, yes of course. That's the sort of jobs enlisted men do in the Navy, mechanics, cooks, gun crewmen etc. But those jobs are not the sort of fallback position someone who was trying out for the SEALs is likely to be all that happy with. Might be gunners mate, but might also be snack bar at the on post gym. My point was that the people who go out for these units want to fight. For whatever reason, they're trying to get as close as possible to being the guys who are actually kicking the doors and shooting the faces. Even in the military, this is a distinct minority of people. But, because the Navy doesn't really do that sort of fighting as part of its normal job, they don't have a junior varsity squad to send these prospective SEALs to if they wash out. In the Army or the Marines, you just drop down a level, there's a whole pyramid scheme of "hardercore" units from basic line grunts to airborne to rangers to green berets to whatever the fuck they're calling Delta these days. Wash out of Airborne? No problem, go to a line unit. Made airborne but washed in Selection? Why not try out for the Rangers?
There is a prestige thing with serving on certain ships, I think. The Navy gives it's best new toys to its top officers etc. But as I said above, being the top plumber's mate on the Navy's best ship isn't really the plan B guys going out for the SEALs are likely to be all that happy about.
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You're thinking Marines. They're the Amphibious assaulters, and by rights should be under the navy... Which they are, technically... the department of Navy which doesn't allow meaningful crossover between Marines and Navy.
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Can’t say how the Navy works, but people who wash out from some Air Force specialties end up in jobs like postal worker or supply staff, and I suspect this might have to do with the time and budget allotted for training and what other technical school is located near the first training option. Postal was adjacent to my school, thus, washouts went right to postal.
“Running a snack bar” seems weird, since that’s usually a civilian position for local staff or military spouses/teen kids.
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Definitely good to take any sob story with a whole shaker of salt, but it's more emblematic of a general problem than about a particular person (Success=SEAL, Failure=Nobody; even though BUDS failures are probably in the top 1% of human beings in fitness and fortitude), and that general problem is more about the mindset it creates in candidates than about the actual results of success/failure. Whether we believe it to be true, if candidates making decisions about whether to take steroids thought it was true than it served its purpose.
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