Homicide ruling of SEAL death raises safety questions

SAN DIEGO (AP) — The Navy SEALs basic training is designed to be a difficult selection process to find the U.S. military's strongest fighters and turn them into an elite force able to dive into the world's deadliest places from Somalia to Syria.

The highly unusual ruling is serious and could affect the SEALs' basic training practices, said former Navy Capt. Lawrence Brennan, an adjunct professor at Fordham Law School who served as a Navy judge advocate.

The ruling on the May 6 drowning of the 21-year-old raises questions about the safety of the grueling training that some argue is necessary to create warriors charged with missions like the one that took down Osama Bin Laden.

Lovelace, of Crestview, Florida, was starting out in the toughest phase of basic training that culminates in "Hell Week" — when candidates spend five-and-a-half days of running, climbing, swimming in frigid waters, and other drills, and get a total of four hours of sleep.

The investigation's outcome could lead to the instructor facing a number of military charges — from dereliction of duty for not following safety procedures all the way up to homicide.