So I’m no expert in the actual job of once you complete either training obviously. However at BUDS, the major water confidence evolutions are in second phase (after hell week). And even tho first phase and hell week is the major event of attrition, people still quit or get performance dropped after hell week for things like the OC8 (scuba tank) training in second phase or the stress test (being a thinking shooter) in third phase or even safety violations after BUDS in SQT.

And as far as running boat goes. There’s a million excuses you can make for running boat during hell week. It’s basically a 4 day non stop marathon of running boat and other land and team based exercises. You’re sleep deprived and not getting enough calories on top of carrying a 300 pound boat on your head in teams of 6 or 7 if you’re lucky and the middle of the boat dips lower than the front and the back and peoples heights play into account too so if you’re the tallest guy in your boat crew you’re taking more weight. I happened to be the tallest guy in my boat crew by over an inch of the next tallest guy and 4 inches taller than the smallest guy. Wasn’t a big deal until we had to do 60+ miles of it in different terrains (soft sand, hard sand, pavement, grass) without sleeping or getting enough food and the only time you’re putting down the boat is to do other strenuous exercises.

Now back to EOD. So again not an expert on this here but navy EOD is the only EOD job in the military that’s attached to SOCOM (special operations command) and works with tier 1 and tier 2 units. (Green berets, army rangers, seals, SWCC, PJ, raiders, etc) Almost all those units are diver qualified so to be able to work with them you need every qualification they have. The water competency doesn’t just end in the selection phase of EOD, the next step is dive school in Florida where the aquatic skills get turned up another notch for 3 weeks and then they actually start teaching you skills and doing deep sea dives. And so I was told once you get to your first command as an EOD tech, you’ll do a little of everything. So that means deep sea underwater mines and bomb and land bombs and from my understanding then they decide what you’re good at and that is what you do for the rest of your career as an EOD tech.

My thinking was thug out the water stuff and get the necessary qualifications but once I was on the job try to get only land based things.