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By Root 1641 0

’s location. They toss out smoke grenades and make a dash to secure the pilot and spirit him away. The assault team deals with the guard force, including the man in the spider hole. All goes well until the search team, led by PFC Pantella, finds the black box inside the aircraft. It’s booby-trapped, and they set it off—a smoke grenade that quickly drives them from the interior of the hulk. Still, 811 was one of the few teams to successfully recover the pilot. After the critique, the team moves to its last set of coordinates. It’s a familiar location; it’s where they were inserted. They are bone tired, but they move in good tactical order. And their spirits are good; they’re headed for the extraction site with the prospect of hot chow and a hot shower in the not-too-distant future.

Eight-one-one is one of the better student ODAs in Class 1-05. This is not just my observation; the cadre working the eight final targets agree. Like most of the other student ODA cadre sergeants, Jan made the patrol-leader assignments but let the senior leadership run the squad. He has a lot of confidence in Sergeant Hall, Specialist Dolemont, and the two officers. While this final field exercise is a chance for the student ODAs to lock down their Special Forces tactical skill set, it’s also a report card of sorts for the cadre sergeants. Their pride is on the line. Whose guys are good, and whose are not so good? Whose student ODAs can be innovative in a tactical environment and whose are capable of little more than a rote execution of the basic skills? By late Saturday afternoon, day thirty-two of the training, all the student ODAs are back at the Rowe Training Facility.

For 811, the final days of Phase II are taken with gear overhaul, weapons cleaning, and a full inventory of sensitive items—specifically, the radios and night-observation devices. One morning before breakfast, there’s a final round of training in unarmed combat. In a frosty corner of the Rowe Training Facility, the ODAs circle up and take turns with one man in the middle. The soldier in the arena has to fend off attack after attack, using the techniques the men have learned during the phase—breaking choke holds and slipping out of headlocks. They pull their punches and kicks, but there are still a few bruises and bloody noses. Back in the team hut, 811 completes a final round of peer evaluations. On day thirty-four, Jan spends fifteen minutes to a half hour with each man, reviewing his performance—his strong and weak points, and his ranking within the ODA. For the twelve men in 811, training is over. They will move on to Phase III. For Captains Anderson and Santos, they’ll begin the 18 Alpha officer course, which will prepare them to be unconventional-warfare planners and foreign-internal-defense specialists. The enlisted men will start the specialty training that will qualify them for their individual Special Forces military occupational specialty, or MOS.

PFC Tim Baker, Specialist Antonio Costa, Specialist Tom Kendall, and PFC Roberto Pantella will all begin 18 Bravo training to become Special Forces weapons sergeants. Sergeants Aaron Dunn and Daniel Barstow are off to train as 18 Charlies, Special Forces engineering sergeants. Sergeant Stan Hall, Sergeant Byron O’Kane, and Specialist Frank Dolemont will all attend the 18 Delta course to become Special Forces medics. Specialist David Altman alone will train to become an 18 Echo, a Special Forces communications sergeant. The MOS training assignments are made at the end of Phase II based on the needs of the Special Forces groups, the aptitude of the soldier, and his stated preference. All of the MOS training, except for the 18 Deltas, will last some twelve weeks. Combat-medic training is a twelve-month course. Most of the billets for 18 Delta training are reserved for the regular soldiers, men who have invested enough time in the Army to be considered career soldiers. A few of the X-Rays from Class 1-05 will attend the Special Forces medic training, but most are those who have had prior medical training.

Day thirty-five is