up next on a second look, he held one of america's most highly esteemed military jobs, a navy seal. so how did nicholas bickel become a gun runner? taking guns that he stole from iraq and selling them on the streets of the united states. plus teenagers facing the

painful reality of gunshot wound. it's all straight ahead on a second look. a federal judge sentenced a former seal to 2-1/2 years in prison. prosecutors say that he stole military weapons in iraq including machine guns and then sold them on the street here in the united states. ktvu's eric rasmussen started investigating the story and he received access by agents taken with a camera. >> reporter: more than 70 weapons seized. >> in my years as an investigator i've never seen anything like this. >> these are guns you see in a war zone. >> definitely and these work, they came from iraq. >> reporter: more shocking agents say is where these guns

were coming from. >> early on we heard references to special forces. none of us believed it. >> this is all straight back. and shift. >> reporter: an undercover detective working for the atf was the first to discover these nearly untraceable guns were sneaked in from iraq for sale in the u.s. we disguised the agent's voice to disguise his identity. >> the person selling the machine guns to me told me that the person was a special forces or military type person. >> lean into it and start firing so your bite never shifts and you can have that radar. >> that's pretty [ bleep ] >> yeah, they're in the navy seal. >> we were surprised that this was an active navy seal. >> reporter: bach helped build the case. a member of the u.s. navy's highly trained seal team five who served two tours of the

duty in iraq. >> on one purchase we spent $8,000 to purchase a weapons the next day i believe it was she had $8,000 wired to his bank account. >> i wasn't happy that we would ultimately have to arrest someone that could be considered a national hero. >> reporter: the man in this video was bickel's long life friend who helped authorities seal his case getting him to talk about the gun deals on the phone. >> omar has been bugging me for more aks. >> how many more? >> he said as many as five. >> i don't really have any. i'm down to the littles. at one point investigators say bickel went shooting with

his two accomplices outside of las vegas. bickel warned some of the people, you know who we are, we're the government. we'll get you. although it was bickels who was caught. everyone a dust cover found at bickel apartment in san diego. >> he was able to match this ak48 that we purchased. >> turned out to be a key piece of evidence and it locks right in. >> do you know how many weapons you did not get. >> the concern is always that we missed a firearm. >> just one of these is pretty heavy. have you given it a thought how he managed to get these over here without getting detectived. >> the combined weight of the firearm is significant. it obviously took some forth planning. we've since learned it's common for members of the

military to mail their belongings home uninspected in containers like these. a foot locker was discovered. aside from the motive of money we might never know why a man who many considered a hero would risk so much. >> it's difficult to comprehend that someone who has faced firearms like these in battle would knowingly participate in selling them on the streets of the united states. >> federal agents told us the atn spent tens of thousands of dollars making the undercover gun busts but the cost of having these weapons end up of the hands of criminals on the street is hard to fathom. still to come on a second

look -- >> get up. >> down. >> they want to be navy seals. what these men will have to go through to make the grade. >> a bit later what separates the trainees who become navy seals and the ones who don't? must be nice, cheering on team usa from the shallow end.

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tonight on second look we're revisiting the case of nicholas bickel a former navy seal who stole dozens of military weapons while he was on active duty in iraq and then sold them on the streets of the united states. the unanswered question, why would someone in such a highly regarded position commit the crime because it is not easy to commit a navy seal. as bob mackenzie found out back in 1973.

>> to hang with your elbows up in the air until you might feel you may black out. until you are sure you cannot stand it another second and then to keep it doing it, that's just how these young men start the day. >> you can't keep up to a simple speed, you have to slow down to do. then we're going to pull you in the back and we're going to go ahead and start our second dare group of pt for individuals that can't hang with the rest of the men. do you understand that? sit ups, you ready. >> ready. >> in high school or college they were the top jocks. triathletes, iron men. here they are just trainees hoping to be navy seals at least half of them will fail. any ordinary man can do dozens of sit ups, but how about

hundreds of sit ups consecutively. let's check on these men. those who can keep going longer than the others as what is thought to be the toughest regimen in the world will become navy seals, it's that schism. - - i t's that simple. and if you try to grab a seconds rest that's all you get the trainer will suggest you do the bear crawl. >> hurry up get back there, bear crawl bird. >> bear crawl. >> the bear crawl is exhausting and ridiculous and humiliating and meant to make you remember that you need to shape up. in this exercise the feet are tied together and the hands are tied behind the back. the idea is to go to the

surface. take a fresh of air, drop to the bottom and expel the air and back up for another breath. if you can do this for an hour it is assumed you can do it indefinitely. this kind of training is set to come in handy when a man finds himself in hostile waters with an enmy patrol looking for him. even when the men get to go to class, they run there. they run everywhere. though many of these men are strung out on the farthest edge of physical exhaustion they are not advised to go to sleep in class. one man fell asleep in this class so the whole crew was told to run to the ocean, through themselves in to wake up and then run back to class. the man who fell asleep probably won't do that again. >> go, go, go. pull, go. >> as far as being physically tough, it is true.

they can push themselves they're going to have to push themselves past the limit and that's when the mental thing comes into play. >> why would you want to do this? >> be with the best. that's the only way to go if you're in the navy. >> what are you trying to prove to yourself, that you're tough? >> to see if i have the will power to do what i set my mind to do no matter what the obstacle. >> if you're going to have a military force it makes sense to have the best one. navy seals believe they are the best of the best and if they can get through this they are probably right. >> when we come back on a second look. why some become navy seals and some don't. the things that separate the trainees who succeed and all the ones who fail.

also getting hit by gunfire. why surviving is often not the end when it comes to pain and suffering.

the people who apply to become navy seals are among some of the best athletes in the military. even so, only about half will make it through the training and actually become navy seals. so what's the difference between those who make it and those who don't. that's what bob mackenzie set out to discover in this report from 1993. >> come on schultz. dig down deep. do it schultz, you don't have to make those ugly faces just do it. >> reporter: fewer than half of these men will make the grade despite the fact that all of them are superb athletes in

peak condition. >> get up there. i want to see it come from your gut. physical stress is only part of it. all of these men would have volunteered for this course and have passed a series of tests to get here. to get this far and fail could be very hard to take. >> come on agent curran. a little bit of a gut check here. >> the training has two purposes, one to take the trainees into realms of toughness beyond what they knew they were capable of. and two to break anyone who was not meant to be. when a man can't take anymore physical or mental stress he has a way out. he can stand in this spot and

ring the bell three times. he'll then be mustered out of the unit. during our two day stay, two men rang the bell. since this is considered a disgrace we didn't ask to video tape them. they'll have enough trouble forgetting that moment. >> thank you, sir. >> thank you, sir. >> hit the water. >> you better not drop that phone again. >> navy seals typically operate in small units half a dozen men. this exercise is about the kind of work seals do. sneaking on to an enemy beach in a small boat. they do this exercise over and over in any kind of water including storms that raise 6- foot waves. >> we have one down, one down. in a two foot wave, unbelievable. >> looks like they beat you half to death is it the idea to

get you to be discouraged. >> to make you a harder individual. this is what's going to happen in our future. when we get on the teams it's to make you more prepared for when those things happens so you'll be mentally ready for it. >> are you a naturally brave guy? would you like to say? >> i would like to think so, sir. >> you know some of these guys aren't going to make it through this, are you going to be one of them. >> i don't try to think about it that way. i take one step every day, if it has to be hour by hour. >> reporter: after bracing physical activity a man would like to have a nap before lump. what -- before lunch. whey they get here instead is a one mile run before lunch. >> get up here. get up here get with the class.

get up there. >> break a hole each time. do it. >> watch where you are running. take a hole. >> you're the victim, you're the buddy. go through the whole scheme áfpl don't be kicking when you're -- don't be kicking when you're the victim you understand. >> yeah. >> do it. >> though the seals now operate in desert and jungle they are still frog men. it's a rule in the force that a seal is never left behind dead or alive, never. once the trainees can perform every operation in the pool including picking up an object in their teeth while their hands and teeth are tied they take to the saltwater to do the same sorts of things. >> the lifestyle they have is the one i want to lead.

just danger, high sight, i like that, sir. >> life like a movie. >> kind of sir. >> the navy seal's exploits in korea, and vietnam have been like a movie expect that the danger and sometimes death are real. when we come back on a second look, if bullets will do this to a side of beef imagine what they'll do to a person. teaching teenagers about the reality of gunshot wounds. i hate getting less. but i love getting more.

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in a culture of video games, teenagers see a lot of characters shot with guns. but often are they able to come face to face with the end of life. police put together a program to show teenagers how dangerous a gunshot can be but also how it can change the life of a

person who survives a gunshot wound. here's bob mackenzie reporter. >> reporter: do the youngsters who do the shooting really does to a human body. by the end of this story they will. jason as we'll call him in this report is one of the lucky ones, he can walk and talk though he can't feel anything in his left leg. can't digest his food well because half his colon is missing. he was walking down when a stranger shot him twice with a .38 caliber handgun. >> it just stung like because it went in and out the first one hit my hip then came. it just stung. then the second one hit my stomach and i fell on the ground then my legs went numb i couldn't feel my leg. >> the first slug chipped off a piece of jason's left hip and

went through his abdomen. h his stomach filled with -- his stomach filled with blood. doctors at highland hospital saved his life but he will never be the same. >> anybody who has been shot may be permanently injured incapacitated from a brain injury, spinal cord injury where they can no longer walk again. maybe in a state where they will never talk to their relatives again. >> reporter: if these young people really understand what damage bullets can do, would they consider not shooting. officers think so. >> michael keaton doesn't spare the grizzly details. >> for the most part young people, they are thinking along the line that they are

invincible and that's the problem. until someone in their neighborhood or in that group or click that they run with sustains an injury then it brings it home. >> the youngsters in the class haven't committed any crimes but they are showing behavior, fighting, cutting cool, that makes them candidates for violence. >> you know if you wanted a gun yourself would you be able to get one in your neighborhood. >> yeah. >> how long would it take you? >> not very long, like a day. >> they were saying today the safest place is in school. that's not all together true because there's a lot of crime in the school. the kids are carrying weapons, they are on drugs. it's just a difficult time for kids. >> reporter: just what does a bullet do to a human body? to find out we went to the santa clara county sheriff's shooting range in san jose where we hung up a 40-pound section of beef. santa clara county medical examiner joseph ohara would

evaluate the results. john spanola who heads the county sniper team put hollow bullets in his side arm. >> that ripped that right open. >> sure did. >> it didn't go in there it exploded it this way. look that the. >> yes. >> those hollow point bullets just spread out and any vital or begans -- organs that are there are going to get splattered. >> yes, sir. it's a temporary cavity that forms and goes through the tissue. the higher power round it is the larger that cavity can be. >> people think, what they see in the movie they think you're going to get callus to it but in actually it's very devastating. >> reporter: a message police hope will spread among bay area

teenagers. >> it's not clear if anyone ever actually said that only men have the right stuff when it came to space white. but if anyone did, sally ride made a liar out of them. >> we have main engine start. and ignition and lift off. >> on june 18, 1993 at 32 years old, ride became the first american woman in space. and the right stuff well from the time she was a nationally ranked tennis player as a girl, teachers at the private school she attended described her as competitive. >> the coach and i made a really good passing shot by accident because i'm not a tennis player. the next three shots she hit was right between my eyes at 90 miles per hour. sally did not like to lose. >> reporter: she graduated with a bachelors in english, a

bachelor, masters and phd in astrophysics. >> there's a lot of girls that are interested in it and we have to encourage them. >> reporter: nearly 20 years to the day since she stepped into history she step to a microphone. >> i'm extremely honored to be induct into the astronaut hall of fame. when i was a little girl i always dreamed of flying in space. still can't believe that came true. >> and that's it for this week's second look. i'm frank somerville. we'll see you again next week.