picture this a six-foot-two Navy SEAL
who's just reveling in his victory
receiving the certification to
officially be able to call himself one
he's been through hell and back to earn
this he's convinced that what he's
endured as a seal has prepared him with
the ultimate mind set to conquer
anything
he's sweat and ran and jumped and
traversed through water only on four
hours of sleep at times and then in the
blink of an eye he's in that battle
surrounded by mean and scary looking
Spartan soldiers the men are kind of
similar yet very different than his SEAL
comrades he got so close to during
training after all his superiors drilled
it into their heads that this
Brotherhood was essential to winning but
now he's alone and forced to confront a
battle that he's never seen the likes of
before could he do it we'll take a
closer look at his odds and more in this
episode of the infographic show a Navy
SEAL
versus the 300 Spartans from the Battle
of Thermopylae the tension that caused
the Battle of Thermopylae all started
with Darius the first the king of Persia
who ruled from 522 to 486 he sent
heralds or announcers to Greek cities in
491 BCE to convince them to heal two
Persian rule his predecessor Xerxes
followed suit invading Greece but not
Athens or Sparta both of which formed a
resistance to help dissect what the odds
are let's backtrack and do a deep dive
into what Navy SEAL training is like to
see how he'd fare in a scenario he's
just been dropped in even before
starting the Budds training or basic
underwater demolition SEAL training he
had to endure the Naval Special Warfare
prep in Great Lakes Illinois for two
months of physical and mental
preparation rewinding - even before then
he took the ASVAB
which stands for the Armed Services
vocational aptitude battery test this
tested skills like mathematical
reasoning were acknowledged in paragraph
comprehension all of which seemed pretty
useless when Spartans are coming at him
with spears and swords the computerized
Special Operations resilience test or
see sort was completely like the ass fab
but at least a bit more useful this test
was designed to determine his mental
toughness something that a paper study
guide couldn't possibly help him with
the C sort was designed to see how he'd
hold up in stressful situations and if
he could employ different tactics to get
through them like self-talk and
breathing he passed that and he'll
certainly need that resilience now the C
sword also aimed to vet our personality
traits
see who was the fittest while his seal
Brotherhood was made up of different
types of personalities
there are certainly personality traits
that give candidates like him an edge
over the others the most important of
which was resilience it didn't stop
there of course he wanted to master the
Navy SEAL training but he had to prove
that he could do the 500 yards swim in
12 minutes and 30 seconds 42 push-ups in
50 seconds
52 sit-ups in two minutes curl ups and
one and a half mile run in nine minutes
and 30 seconds the surf passage test he
went through during buds is etched into
his memory too he distinctly remembers
the clothes that clung to his tired body
as he held heavy paddle inflatable boats
through the waves at the Silver Strand
beach in San Diego so if this battles
got any serious water to trek through he
can do that Budds is the main part of
SEAL training and it was held at Naval
Special Warfare training center in
Coronado California and was the next
step for six months he and other almost
seals crawled through the mud tides
nearly impossible knots underwater and
were on the brink of hypothermia this
was all designed to break him down
mentally but he did something right hell
week the aptly named part of buds began
two weeks in on day 15 of overall
training hell week meant swimming miles
upon miles through unholy cold waters
and then toiling through sand in mud in
heavy gear on top of all that hell week
was made even more fun because he was
running on just four hours of sleep
throughout the ordeal one ex-seal a guy
named marcus luttrell said this about
hell week in his book lone survivor guys
collapsed onto the sand others just
stood there too many of them wondering
how they could possibly go on and he
went on to include himself in this
account of a suffering writing including
me knees were buckling joints throbbing
I don't think anyone could stand up
without hurting because he survived hell
week he was one of the lucky ones who
continued on to train in diving and land
warfare learn to become a sniper who
could leap out of planes and navigate
the depths of the ocean
sniper school lasted three months and
was made of 12-hour days without any off
days training was broken up into three
parts the first month was focused on
technology digital photography and
satellite communications the second
focused on mastering camouflage and
stealthily navigating through
prospective enemy turf the last leg was
focused on sharpening his focus and
perfecting marksmanship methods but he
was one of the few who made it through
hell week and buds generally because
about 70% of their
piers just straight-up quit ringing that
bell signifies utter defeat okay so it's
pretty clear being a Navy SEAL gives him
an edge over the average Joe on the
street but these are the Spartan 300
we're talking about here it's looking
like less of a battle and more like a
heavy defeat and here's why well for one
it's him against an army of 7,000 Greek
soldiers 300 of which are Spartans and
these men have primed since they were 7
years old
yeah that's right when he was still in
first grade coloring and really nailing
down this whole reading thing Spartan
boys were sent off to enter a
weird-sounding thing called an angle gap
where these Tiny's were subjected to
awful circumstances think of the way
trainee tried to break him down mentally
but happening as a wee type to help
picture what the aggregate was like it
was a state-sponsored training program
to turn kids into soldiers from this
very early age they were housed in a
barracks with all the other wood beasts
and were immersed in academics warfare
in sports at 12 was when the torture
started though initiate says they were
called at that age and state-of-the a
googa
were stripped of all clothes except for
a red cloak they were also made to sleep
outside on a bed that they made for
themselves from reeds if that wasn't
enough to make our seals shaking his
boots they gave these kids a limited
amount of food and were violently
punished when things went wrong after 14
years of being subjected to this they
were signed on to serve a term that
lasted 40 years but all of this training
in these brutal conditions made them
unstoppable in the 8th century BC Sparta
conquered Laconia and Messenia the
captives from these two cities were made
slaves for the Spartans at their beck
and call for farming nursing and
domestic servitude in Spartan homes and
military attendance the Spartans
continued this streak by being
victorious in capturing neighboring
city-states garnering more slaves and
they were too different from the
Brotherhood we mentioned earlier that he
formed with our seals own platoon they
stood together to not let anything stand
in their way of fighting for their
country so what about the weapons he'll
be faced with during this battle he
could expect to see an intense spear
called a Dori the Dori was typically
gripped with one hand either over or
under and the other hand who was freed
up to be used to hold a shield Spartans
would grip the spear with leather to
further solidify their grip on it the
end of the Dori was made of bronze or
iron welded to be in the shape of a leaf
and a shaft was made of core
a wood so dense that it's sank in water
the end of the Dory had a sour tear a
spike that helped the spear stay upright
when propped up or was the alternate end
fig used when the spearhead broke off
for whatever reason Spartan hoplites
also used as she posed a short sword
that was considered their secondary
weapon its iron blade was typically
twelve to eighteen inches the she post
was advantageous to the Spartans because
it could be easily thrust through their
opponent's shields and armors the
typical spots being aimed at during
battle with a she post was the groin and
the throat the copis a thick curved iron
sword was another option as a secondary
weapon although typically used as an axe
rather than a sword its victims suffered
from Messier wounds as opposed to the
cleaner hole made by the weapons we've
already gone over finally we can't
discuss Spartan weapons without
mentioning the shield which of course
could be turned upwards when used during
defense but it's multiple other uses
include stunning the opponent and
knocking them down because it was so
heavy at 30 pounds it was used to just
Club the opponent and they'd be hurt
just by the blood force of the trauma so
while we wanted him to survive this
battle it looks like our seals chances
to win are just too slim this time and
he might just kick the bucket if you
agree and think the Spartans would win
then click this video over here or if
you disagree with our assessment and
think the seal would have taken it then
click on this video over here instead