The first female Navy SEAL officer candidate voluntarily left training in the initial stages of the process Aug. 2, Task and Purpose and former Navy psychologist Josh Cotton report.

The female candidate was the first to qualify for training since the Pentagon lifted restrictions on women in special operations roles. Task and Purpose explained that the candidate left the training process in the earliest stage. Cotton characterized the training, saying:

Becoming a SEAL is a long process. Graduates of the SEAL Officer Assessment & Selection course earn the chance to be considered in a second stage process involving a selection panel. Those selected by the panel are offered the chance to complete the arduous BUD/S SEAL training course that includes the famous Hell Week – which is perhaps the most difficult military training week in the world. Completing BUD/S all but guarantees the Navy Sailor will become a US Navy SEAL, but completing BUD/S is still not the end of this long training program.

The failed candidate was reportedly a college junior female Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps midshipman. Another woman appears to be in the training pipeline to become an enlisted Special Warfare Combat Crewman. “The SWCC training program is easier to complete than the SEAL training program, but both are very difficult to complete and have high dropout rates,” Cotton explained in an email to The Daily Caller News Foundation.

Approximately 1,000 service members enter training as candidates each year to become a Navy SEAL with only 25 percent succeeding, Naval Special Warfare Command spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Mark Walton told CNN in June.

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