CAPTAIN ANDREW BISSET

RETIRED NAVY SEAL

"RECRUITING & MENTORING SEAL CANDIDATES"

Former Westporter, Captain Andrew Bisset, retired Navy SEAL, and Chairman of SEAL Recruiting District Assistance Council (RDAC), will speak to the Y's Men of Westport/Weston at their weekly meeting on Thursday, May 3rd. In his talk, “The Navy SEAL Recruitment and Mentoring Program” he will discuss what is involved in preparing SEAL candidates for the arduous six- month training program called BUDS, which stands for Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL. The meeting begins at 10AM at the Saugatuck Congregational Church, 245 Post Road East.

Capt. Bisset is a retired Navy Seal with 37 years of combined active and reserve Naval Special Warfare (NSW) experience. He commanded two Naval Reserve (NR) Special Warfare Group Two Detachments as well as NR SEAL Team Two and NR Special Boat Squadron Two and ultimately served as Reserve Commodore of NR Naval Special Warfare Command, the senior SEAL Reserve position at that time. In 2000, his commission was extended for five years so he could continue the highly successful mentoring program he had established, the SEAL RDAC, for potential SEAL candidates. At his retirement ceremony in July 2005, Capt. Bisset received a Meritorious Service Medal from Chief of Naval Operations ADM V.E. Clark “for developing the most successful NSW mentoring and recruiting program in the history of Navy Special Warfare”. At present, 66 out of 94 of Capt. Bisset's candidates have completed BUDS Training for a 70% success rate versus the norm of 20%.

Currently, Capt. Bisset is Chairman of the SEAL RDAC, a volunteer organization he founded 13 years ago comprised of SEAL Reservists and Retirees who mentor SEAL candidates and prepare them for BUDS, considered the most difficult and strenuous military training in the world. Capt. Bisset was contracted with U.S. Tactical, a government contractor, assisting them in establishing a nationwide program to enhance recruitment of potential NSW candidates and then give them the mentoring needed to see them through successful completion at RTC, Great Lakes and then ultimately the NSW Basic Schools Training, BUDS. He served as Program Manager hiring all the 26 mentors nationwide, as well as being the Contractor Mentor assigned to NRD New England and then NY. Through his Physical Screen Tests (PST) and Mentoring Sessions, candidates are given combat swim stroke development and other strength training techniques and individual encouragement to prepare them both physically and mentally for the boot camp at Reserve Training Command Great Lakes and then eventual success as a SEAL Operator upon completion of their training at BUDS in Coronado, CA.

On a personal note, Capt. Bisset grew up in Westport and is the son of Andrew W. Bisset, an attorney who headed the Board of Finance in Westport. As a youngster, Bisset attended Greens Farms Elementary School and Long Lots Junior High School before attending the University of CT Law School prior to being drafted during the Vietnam War in 1968. After five years of active service with SEAL Team 1 and UDT 21, he returned to CT in 1973 where he commenced a career in the securities business. He has been married to his wife Nancy for 38 years and has three adult children and one grandson.

For more information about the Y's Men, contact Bill Meyer, Membership Chairman at 226-3704 or Jon Fox, President at 227-2679 or visit their website: www.ysmenwestportweston.org