Chosen Soldier - Dick Couch [29]
There’s precedence for the X-Ray Program. On more than one occasion, Special Forces has looked to younger, less-experienced soldiers to fill its ranks. As recently as the early 1990s, the Special Forces began to accept soldiers directly from basic training and assign them to the Special Forces groups. After they had served in the groups in an administrative or support role for six months, they could be recommended by their group to attended Army airborne training and go on to selection. This was done in an attempt to bring up the manpower strength of the groups. This earlier program was only in place for two years, but it did modestly add to the Special Forces manning levels.
In chapter 3, we’ll take a close look at these soldiers and the formal training that prepares these men for the selection process at Camp Mackall, but for now, let’s focus on who they are and what happens before they arrive at Fort Bragg to begin their initial Special Forces training. There’s no such thing in my mind as a typical X-Ray, but taken as a composite they look something like this:
Average age: twenty-three years old, with the youngest twenty and the oldest twenty-nine.
Rank: Private first class or specialist. Some in the National Guard are more senior.
Army general test score: 120+, high enough to qualify for officer candidate school.
Average physical training score: 265 out of 300, well above average for the Army.
Other: 15 percent are married, most have some college, just under half have college degrees.
The reasons these men join the Army for Special Forces training range from the patriotic to the adventurous. Not a few are bored by their civilian jobs. Many come from military families. Most were deeply moved by the attacks of 9/11, and that event had some bearing on their desire to serve. A few have had prior service, mostly in the Army, and those few choose the X-Ray Program as a way to get back in uniform. The Special Forces National Guard groups send a few of their non-SF-qualified soldiers to join up with the X-Ray Program; these are men who need some physical training before they go to selection. The reserve groups also send some of their new recruits to the program. All of them have their minds and their focus on a single event that will change their lives: Special Forces Assessment and Selection.
Men who join the Army for the X-Ray Program will sign a five- or six-year enlistment contract. They’re inducted into the Army as privates and report for basic training. Army basic training has morphed into One Station Unit Training (OSUT), which includes seven weeks of Basic Combat Training immediately followed by seven weeks of Advanced Individual Training. The basic training course makes a man a soldier. The successful completion of the latter qualifies a soldier and an infantryman. In basic training, the new X-Rays and every other new recruit in the Army learn about Army regulations, physical training, first aid, close-order drill, marksmanship, obstacle courses (now called confidence courses), hand grenades, and marching under a rucksack. The new recruits put these new military skills to work in a three-day field exercise. On graduation, they are soldiers. Following the Basic Combat Training phase of OSUT, the X-Rays and the other infantry candidates move on to Advanced Individual Training. Here they learn soldiering skills that are useful whether they are assigned to an infantry platoon or a Special Forces detachment. These include weapons operation and maintenance, vehicle operation and maintenance, land reconnaissance, land navigation, minefield safety, communications,