Chosen Soldier - Dick Couch [23]
RUCK INSPECTION. Special Forces recruits in Pre-SFAS Class 8-04 muster for instruction and inspection prior to a field problem.
CHAPTER TWO
RECRUITING THE UNCONVENTIONAL
A great deal of time, effort, and thought goes into the criteria for deciding who comes to Special Forces training and who does not. The Special Forces, just like the rest of the Army, the other military services, and private industry, are looking for bright young people to fill their ranks. In each case, the more adept they are at recruiting the right kind of people, the easier and more effective the training and the more accomplished the finished product. Special Forces has a unique task. It has to train its recruits to a more rigorous, and yet in some ways a more ambiguous, standard than do other organizations. There is a defined military skill set that includes small-unit tactics, marksmanship, interpersonal skills, mission planning, and the like, but much of the Special Forces’ work comes under the heading of “getting the job done.” So they’re looking for men who can think and improvise—men who can operate independently with little or no help, or direction, from a conventional command structure or logistics support train. They’re also looking for men who can teach, lead, and operate independently from any other U.S. military presence. Because they are frequently alone and in remote areas, they often are the United States of America. They may be on their own, but they still represent our nation. As such, these men must have a firm moral foundation. A Special Forces soldier must abide by the Rules of Land Warfare, theater-specific rules of engagement and the code of the American fighting man.
The Special Forces are looking for more than someone who is tough and smart and plays well with others. They are looking for adaptability and flexibility, men who can look at a given task and come up with any number of ways to solve it. Someone with good entrepreneurial skills is a good candidate for Special Forces, since the work of the Green Berets often involves calculated risk and creative thinking. If one solution to a problem fails, they have to immediately come up with another way to accomplish the mission. Since the work often involves working as a team or in a cross-cultural environment, the Special Forces are looking for candidates who have good interpersonal skills—men who are open to listening and working with other people and foreign communities. More crudely put, it may come down to whether a man is more comfortable in shooting people or trying to make friends with them. Some soldiers are very proficient in a tactical situation and very comfortable behind the gun, but they don’t really want to make the effort to communicate with someone different from themselves. A Special Forces soldier has to be good behind the gun and be able to deal effectively with other cultures.
There are two predictors of success in Special Forces training. The first is the Ranger tab. Men who have completed Ranger training have two advantages. One is that they have successfully completed a very difficult school. They’ve been cold, wet, and hungry, and they understand what it is to go days without sleep. They know pain and discomfort, and they know how to cope with it. Second, Ranger school also teaches small-unit tactics, a key skill in the world of Special Forces and SOF ground operations. Perhaps the most valuable carryover skills from Ranger training are confidence and leadership. Physically, nothing in Special Forces training is more difficult than Ranger training. I’ve heard Rangers in Special Forces training often say, “This is some nasty shit, but it’s not Ranger School.” Ranger training simply gives them a confidence that many non-Rangers lack. During Phase II of Special Forces training, which focuses on small-unit tactics in an SF environment, the Rangers usually do very well. Phase II cadre often look on their Ranger candidates as teaching assistants. The second predictor is a foreign language. A second language