John Allen

speaker

2,188 appearances 4 recordings 3 series first heard Nov 2013 last heard 31 Aug

John Allen’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 2 in all, peaking in Aug 2026 with 1.

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The MeatEater Podcast · Ep. 924: MrBallen on SEALS, the War in Afghanistan, and a Career in Storytelling · 31 Aug 2026 podcast

I I I did not breeze through it at all.

I uh there were things I was good at.

I think that you have to have something going in.

You need to have you're either a good runner or you're a good swimmer or you're just really strong, or you just there's something about you typically needs to carry the day.

I was a good runner.

Um, but man, the uh

There were just some tests that were just exceptionally stressful.

Um I'd say most notably are like the underwater tests you do.

So so SEAL training, it takes call it two years.

If you go the enlisted route, you gotta go to boot camp.

Uh, this is if you start as a civilian.

You go to boot camp, that's in Great Lakes, Illinois.

You you do two years, uh two years, two months of boot camp.

And then you I went to a prep school in Chicago that is to get you ready for buds.

I don't think they do that anymore.

And then you go out to San Diego for like the the famous part of training, which I keep saying it.

It's BUDS, which stands for basic underwater demolition SEAL school.

That is SEAL boot camp.

It's the it's the famous part of training, and that's six months long.

And then if you graduate that statistically, you're you're gonna be a SEAL.

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