Navy SEAL candidate dies after 'Hell Week' training

Another sailor is hospitalized with unknown symptoms.

A Navy SEAL candidate has died and a second is in the hospital after falling ill on Friday just hours after both had successfully completed the grueling culmination of initial SEAL training known as "Hell Week."

Both sailors were quickly taken to local hospitals hours after they began showing symptoms of illness.

"Two Navy SEAL candidates, assigned to Naval Special Warfare Basic Training Command, were taken to the hospital on Feb. 4 several hours after their Basic Underwater Demolition SEAL (BUD/S) class successfully completed Hell Week, part of the first phase of the Navy SEAL assessment and selection pathway," said a statement from the Navy's Special Warfare Command.

Hell Week is the famous end to the first phase of BUD/S training where sailors who want to be SEALs are pushed to the limit of physical and mental exhaustion through a series of intense training. More than half of the SEAL candidates who go through Hell Week do not complete the grueling week of training that allows them to continue on through the six months of SEAL training.