Chosen Soldier - Dick Couch [70]
We drop back a little, and the cadre sergeant says to me, “These are great kids for the most part. With a few exceptions, I’d have any one of them on my team.” His comment rather surprises me, as he shows none of this to the candidates.
At one of the Pinelander’s posts, Captain Carson and First Sergeant Sarno are there to observe the changeover. “Now is the time when the good leaders and good followers emerge—leaders who lead by example and followers who quietly lead from the rear,” Sarno explains. “It gives the cadre a chance to see if they can play well with others when they’re really dragging butt. Sometimes my cadre sergeants get a little caustic about the new men we’re training. So every once in a while, we go out and do a Star or we do these team events as a cadre team. It refocuses them on just how hard and taxing this can be. These guys haven’t had a real night’s sleep in close to three weeks.”
“Periodically, we do a team event with the higher-ups,” Walt Carson tells me. “Soon after I took over the company, we had a headquarters element from the 1st Special Warfare Training Group come out here for team events. I had a bunch of lieutenant colonels and majors on my team. As the junior man, I was the team leader. You couldn’t believe the bitching and the power struggles at first. Finally, I had to almost shout, ‘Gentlemen, can we just please soldier on and get through this.’ They all laughed, sucked it up, and we made it happen. It’s good for us to get regrounded on what we ask the new men to do.”
The final team event has them back at the Rowe Training Facility late morning on the third day, exhausted beyond measure. It’s the last physical evolution of Phase I—almost. After securing the materials from their last team event, each team is sent to the classroom, where they conduct a peer review of their team. With the peers’ input, each man will have in his training record an evaluation of how the cadre rated his performance in the team events and how his teammates rated him in the team events. There’s also a cadre debriefing. A cadre sergeant sits for ten or fifteen minutes with each man, one-on-one, and talks about his performance. He tells the candidate where he did well, where in the cadre sergeant’s estimation he came up short, and what he might do to improve. And finally, after a hot meal and a hot shower, they’re allowed some rest. Those who performed well will eventually be selected for continuation in Special Forces training. Those who did not perform or test well will have their training record examined by the commander’s review board.
Early the next morning, they are up at 0300 for their last physical evolution—a twenty-mile ruck march. There is no time limit, but they’re expected to complete the march in twelve hours. All but two finish, but many in SFAS Class 8-04 are nearly sleepwalking by the time they return to their barracks at the Rowe Training Facility.
The officers in Class 8-04 are asked only to follow during the team events, though they’re ranked along with their teammates in the peer review. The cadre sergeants know who the officers are and watch carefully to see how they follow and support the assigned team leaders from the ranks. This input is noted in each officer’s training folder. One of the more important inputs for the officer candidates is their performance in the SAREs. All of these Green Beret hopefuls are looked at carefully, but none more so than the officer candidates. In fact, few men in or out of uniform are as closely scrutinized as these prospective Special Forces detachment leaders. Here in Phase I and in subsequent phases, their physical, mental, moral, and decision-making abilities will be continually challenged and evaluated. Their screening is on the order of a full-on, in-depth psychological examination and a Senate confirmation hearing—combined. The first of these challenges is the SAREs.
Following their completion of the Stars and continuing through the team events, each officer