One medical drop, reviewed

Illustrative case study. It is not a customer testimonial or endorsement.

A Navy officer trained for BUD/S and was medically disqualified after two injuries. The first version of this page used his story to sell certainty. This version reviews it against what the evidence supports.

RecordAAR-001

Subject: Anonymous. Naval Academy graduate, commissioned Navy officer.
Objective: Lateral transfer to Naval Special Warfare through BUD/S
Outcome: Medical disqualification after two injuries
Genotype as first reported: MMP3 rs679620 · CT · Glu/Lys (study AG)

Planned · Happened

Planned

He was a Naval Academy graduate and a commissioned officer working toward a lateral transfer to Naval Special Warfare, through BUD/S. He built his preparation around the load he expected there. Every morning before dawn, he trained with a loaded rucksack on soft sand.

He was, by his own account, in the best shape of his life.

Happened

Two injuries ended his candidacy: degeneration of his spinal discs, and a torn calf muscle. He was medically disqualified.

He didn't quit.

Why

What the record shows

Injury is common in this pipeline. Across BUD/S Classes 347 to 357, about 200 musculoskeletal injuries were recorded in the three weeks before Hell Week alone. In those same weeks, an average of 9% of each starting class has been rolled for medical reasons since 1998 (NETC investigation of BUD/S Class 352, 2023).

What we can't say

Injuries like his have many possible causes: the load, how fast it rose, total volume, sleep, recovery, earlier injuries, chance. His account doesn't let anyone separate them. Neither do his genes.

What the first version of this page said

Years later, he had his DNA genotyped. The first version of this page said "the markers were there the whole time" and that "every single injury was preventable". Read under Method rev. 1.0, the genotypes it named don't support either claim.

His genotypes as the first page reported them

Position	The first page said	Rev. 1.0 reads
MMP3 rs679620 · CT	"HIGH-RISK". Tied to his torn calf and to his discs.	Glu/Lys (study AG) · Grade C. "One copy of each. Only the study's GG genotype (CC in your file) was associated with tendinopathy." Consider: "Train to the program." We won't claim: "That your tendons will fail, or anything about joint disease."
IL6 rs1800795 · GG	"CRITICAL". High inflammatory response.	Not read. IL6 was removed from the list in this revision: neither paper behind it measured recovery or tissue load.
"VDR TT" (no rsID given)	"DEFICIENT". Genetically low vitamin D.	Not read. VDR variants are left out because their stress-fracture findings in small studies conflict with a meta-analysis in active people and a study of 2,550 Army trainees. Rev. 1.0 reads vitamin D through GC, CYP2R1 and DHCR7, and only to suggest a blood test.
rs12649507 · GG, labelled BMAL1	"SILENT FAILURE". Weak circadian amplitude.	Not read. The position lies in the CLOCK gene, not BMAL1, and has no evidence relevant to selection.

His spine. No position in rev. 1.0 is read for disc degeneration or back injury.

Sources for this section: NETC investigation of BUD/S Class 352 (2023), paragraph 51 and paragraph 39 · Raleigh et al. 2009, Br J Sports Med, doi:10.1136/bjsm.2008.053892 · Fukuyama et al. 2025, Int J Sports Med, doi:10.1055/a-2419-4359 · Ryan-Moore et al. 2020, Front Genet, doi:10.3389/fgene.2020.00551 · Roberts et al. 2026, J Appl Physiol, doi:10.1152/japplphysiol.00181.2026

Sustain · Improve

Sustain

He trained for the specific load he expected at BUD/S.
He didn't quit. The injuries decided it.

Improve

For candidates

Train for the load with a written progression for running and rucking, with recovery days built in. Hold to it on the days you feel strong.
Get persistent calf, shin, foot or tendon pain looked at early.
If you want to know your vitamin D or iron status, that's a blood test. Discuss it with your physician.

Educational information, not medical advice. Talk to your physician before acting on any result.

For us

The first page attached certainty to four genotypes and hung supplement protocols on two of them: a daily omega-3 dose on IL6 and a vitamin D blood-level target on VDR. Supplement advice doesn't belong in a genetic readout, and rev. 1.0 contains none.
It said he "might still be wearing a Trident today". Nobody could know that, and it shouldn't have been written.
It sold his injuries as proof. This page reports them as what they were: two injuries, with causes nobody can now separate.

The readout

What the readout would have told him

His genotype at each of our 24 positions that his file carried, placed on the BUD/S weeks where its stressor falls. Soft-tissue load falls in Orientation, in First Phase up to and including Hell Week, and in Third Phase.
At MMP3 rs679620, CT · Glu/Lys (study AG): "Train to the program." Grade C.
That all five positions on the list tied to soft-tissue load (ACTN3, COL1A1, COL5A1, MMP3, GDF5) are grade C: small studies and mixed results.
Where any of his other genotypes suggested a slower ramp in load, or a blood test worth discussing with a physician.

What it would not have told him

That he would be injured, or that he wouldn't.
Anything about his spinal discs.
That his injuries were preventable.
Any supplement or any dose.
Whether he would finish.

Selection will measure you. A readout can tell you where to look while you train. It can't tell you how it ends.

Start pre-flight check Read the specimen

The officer's account is as first published on this site before October 2026, kept anonymous. In this review we removed claims and added no facts. Pipeline figures: NETC investigation of BUD/S Class 352, signed 24 Mar 2023.