War is Mell: Former Navy SEAL Spicer toils on ‘Combat Missions’

Kimberley McGee

Monday, March 11, 2002 | 8:25 a.m.

For four weeks last summer Las Vegan Mell Spicer jumped from hovering helicopters, climbed a net wearing a 50-pound backpack and was shot at sometimes by friends.

All in a day's work for the former Navy SEAL.

"(SEALs) do the things that people can't talk about, like clandestine missions," Spicer, 34, said. "Our job is to protect the country, without you knowing what we do."

The newest in a spate of reality shows, USA Network's "Combat Missions," which airs Wednesdays at 10 p.m. on Cox cable channel 34, lifts the veil on the secret lives of service people who risk their lives for their country.

Spicer, a Las Vegas strength and conditioning trainer who works from home, is one of 32 highly trained men competing for prize money on the cable show, which concludes its run April 24.

To qualify, the contestants needed combat experience. Spicer was a Navy SEAL from 1995-2000 and served as head communicator and dive assistant for three platoons in Southeast Asia.

"That's all I can say," Spicer said.

The 15-episode, hourlong "Combat Missions" series follows four groups of six-person teams made up of current and former members of elite tactical units, such as the Navy SEALs, Green Berets, Marine Recon, Army Rangers, SWAT and other specialty law enforcement.

The groups compete in events that test the limits of physical ability, tactical strategy and mental discipline in a series of staged military-themed and -styled missions.

Throughout the show the men tell the camera they will do what they have to for the team. That noble effort is compromised at each show's end, when the players turn on each other to vote off the weakest link.

While four groups compete, in the end one man stands alone as the show's ultimate winner. The prize money of $400,000 will be divided among the top teams. The winning team wins $150,000, which is split among its members. The final winner takes home $250,000.

For four weeks the contestants lived and competed on a secret military base, Camp Windstorm, in California's Mojave Desert.

The reality series' mock base was equipped with man-made lakes, obstacle courses and faux fighter-jet crash scenes.

Spicer was in his element, albeit with cameras rather than assault weapons trained on him. "It was more Hollywood than what we as Navy SEALs actually go through in training," Spicer said. "But then there's no way they could have followed us with a camera in true training. There's too much action."

The burly 6-foot-tall Spicer was chosen for the show because of his obvious physical capabilities, said David Russo, co-creator and executive producer of "Combat Missions."

"Physically he looked like he could handle anything we could throw at him," Russo said. "But he also had a great personality we thought would play great on television."

Russo hatched the plan for show in 1982. He had thought a realistic glimpse into the special operation forces that protect the American way of life would be fascinating to couch potatoes.

"These are the warriors of our tribe," Russo said. "They protect us every day, are willing to take a bullet for people they don't even know, and we know nothing about them."

Russo traveled around the world, visiting special-operation training camps. He plotted games that would showcase the physical strengths of the men as well as test their loyalties, as they had to vote each other off the show.

"I knew this would be something that people had never seen before, but Mark brought the character element to the show," Russo said.

"Mark" is Mark Burnett, the creator of CBS' ratings success "Survivor" and USA's "Eco-Challenge."

Burnett cast Rudy Boesch, the curmudgeonly contestant from the first season of "Survivor," as the camp commander who oversees weekly war-game tournaments.

"Mark brought the reality to the show," Russo said. "You are living with them on the show and getting to know who they are and what they are going through."

Spice girls

Greeting a guest at his northwest Las Vegas home, Spicer is welcoming and friendly.

His large Doberman, Zeus, also exudes a sense of playful warmth.

But on the lavender walls of the large, tiled living room -- strewn with the toys of his 4-year-old daughter, Santanna -- are images of Spicer in camouflage as a Navy SEAL training to protect the United States.

"I come across as easygoing, and I think I am," Spicer said. "But I'm trained to make sure you can sleep at night."

Spicer's daily schedule has much to do with his daughter and his wife of seven years, Michelle.

Spicer rises at 6 a.m. each morning. He prepares breakfast for his daughter and dresses her for school, so his wife can ready herself for her job as an office manager for a local construction firm.

"On the show they make him look like a hothead," Michelle Spicer, 28, said. "But he's really quite shy and calm. He's not as emotional as they make him out on the show."

The Spicer family watches the show each Wednesday night, but Mell Spicer isn't an informer.

"I'm not really allowed to talk about what happened, until it happens," Spicer said.

The television broadcast is trivial to Spicer's own big picture. He is, however, banking his dream on the outcome of the reality series.

Spicer had heard of the reality-show phenomenon, in which contestants win public fame regardless of whether or not they win the game, and go on to become quasi-celebrities.

"I came into this for the publicity," Spicer said. "I had a dream and I thought this was a good way to get my name out there."

For Spicer the show was a possible stepping stone to realizing his lifelong pursuit of the ultimate gym: a massive indoor/outdoor physical training facility with a temperature-controlled running track, a military-style training facility with an obstacle course outdoors and a 40-foot climbing wall and acres of strength-training machines indoors.

The facility will be called Motivation Fitness and rest on nearly 10 acres of land that has been acquired by Spicer near Red Rock Canyon.

Spicer has a silent investor, and two partners -- Bruce Hammond, a Florida health and safety officer, and Frank Monestere, a fellow "Combat Missions" veteran.

Corporate retreats and military and athletic training will be a cornerstone of the facility, Spicer said.

"This has been my lifelong dream and I hope what I went through on the show gets me there," Spicer said.

Tweaked reality

Spicer is not allowed to discuss the specifics of the show because he has yet to be voted off the 15-week series, which is in its eighth week.

But he will offer some cryptic insights.

There were theatrical moments played out among team members during the show that were caused by outside forces, Spicer said.

"I don't want to give too much away, but there were definitely moments of drama, more so than I cared for," Spicer said. "It made for good TV I guess."

His buddy on the show, Monestere, became a friend during the made-for-TV missions.

"It was definitely not about teamwork in the end," Monestere said. "But teamwork is what we are all about."

Monestere, 32, lives in Washington, D.C., and was a member of the Green Berets from 1995-1998. He has traded his assault rifle for a cell phone and is a financial consultant in Virginia with an MBA from Harvard Business School.

He sacrificed his position on the show in episode six (which aired Feb. 20) and allowed his teammates to vote him off to maintain peace among the men, Monestere said.

It wasn't an easy decision.

"Quite frankly I'm trained to not put my interests above someone else's," Monestere said. "I thought I'd rather go than create discord among the team."

Spicer and Monestere discussed what they would do after the show. While Monestere made plans to return to his family, Spicer was passionate about realizing Motivation Fitness. By the end of filming, the pair had become business partners in Spicer's vision.

The show was a brief moment in his life, Spicer said, one that could propel him into his planned future, or merely offer an interesting anecdote to his already full life.

"I know who I am and I'm true to myself," Spicer said. "I think it's more important to know that and say what you do and do what you say."

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