Rollback (Set Back)
A rollback, which the Navy calls a set back, means a candidate repeats part of the BUD/S pipeline instead of leaving it. It exists so a candidate who is injured or behind the standard can rejoin a later class rather than lose their place in the pipeline entirely.
How a Set Back Is Decided
The Navy's 2023 command investigation defines a set back as requiring a candidate to repeat a portion of the pipeline, for a candidate who shows promise but needs more work before advancing. A Phase Board weighs whether to set the candidate back, continue their training, or recommend a drop. A recommended drop goes to a Candidate Review Board, whose recommendation is sent to the commanding officer of Basic Training Command for approval or disapproval.
The Medical Roll
A medical roll is a separate process: the Senior Medical Officer determines that a candidate is no longer fit to train and gives an estimate of recovery time. Phase leadership then weighs how long the candidate has been on board, past performance, previous rolls and character, and recommends to the commanding officer whether the candidate is set back or dropped. Most rolls in First Phase are medical.
What It Costs in the Numbers
Rolls count toward the attrition figures alongside drops. Across the three weeks before Hell Week, 9% of a class's starting strength is medically rolled, an average of 13 candidates, and 5% is performance rolled; during Hell Week another 5% is medically rolled, an average of seven. A medically rolled candidate waits out the recovery in the Candidates Awaiting Training Students division, or stays in their phase if they have already finished Hell Week, until they class up again.
Most rolls are medical, which makes the plainest parts of the plan, sleep and the easy days included, the parts worth defending hardest.
Related Terms
A Drop on Request (DOR) is a BUD/S candidate's own request to leave training. The Navy requires it to be said out loud and then put in writing, and the process is explained to candidates during orientation and again before evolutions.
First Phase is the seven-week opening block of BUD/S, the phase that selects and prepares candidates physically and psychologically for the rest of the pipeline. It holds Hell Week, and it is where most of a BUD/S class is lost.
BUD/S orientation, which the Navy calls Naval Special Warfare Orientation (NSWO), is the seven-week course candidates complete before BUD/S begins. The Navy describes its purpose as building the conditioning base and the water competency that the pipeline then demands.
Progressive overload is the training principle of gradually increasing the demands placed on the body over time. In the NSW preparation program, progressive overload is applied systematically: cardio distances grow week over week, calisthenics rep targets scale with PST performance, and strength training loads increase as the candidate adapts.
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