Chosen Soldier - Dick Couch [76]
The regular Army soldiers who were selected for continuation in Special Forces training will return to their units and await orders to return to Fort Bragg and Phase II. The X-Rays will stay in “the pipeline,” as they receive additional leadership and small-unit tactics training to prepare them for Phase II.
STUDENT ODA 811. Operational Detachment Alpha 811 musters outside its team room, ready for a four-day tactical field exercise during Phase II.
CHAPTER FIVE
SPECIAL FORCES TACTICS
The Special Forces Qualification Course, up to this point in time, has been focused on preparing and selecting men for Special Forces training—a process designed to screen for the right men. Phase II marks the beginning of the serious training that will train and equip those men to do the work of a Green Beret overseas. Phase II is all about small-unit tactics and leading in a small-unit tactical environment. To put a fine point on it, the phase focuses on small-unit tactics as applied to the unique environment of special operations. The regular soldiers who’ve earned the right to begin Phase II with SFAS Phase I Class 8-04 now return to their current duty stations. They’ll come back to Fort Bragg in two to six months and be assigned to a future Phase II course. Now that they’ve been selected for Special Forces, the Army will move them, along with their families, to Fort Bragg on a permanent change-of-duty assignment. Oddly enough, one in ten of those soldiers will elect not to continue with Special Forces training. I 153 asked about this. Why would a man undergo the rigors of selection and not choose to return for Phase II? There are several reasons.
Many of the soldiers who put in for Special Forces from regular Army units come to selection to see if this is for them—if this is how they want to spend their career in the Army. In the pressure cooker of the assessment and selection process at Camp Mackall and the Rowe Training Facility, they get those questions answered. A few of those take a hard look at the months of training ahead, the lifestyle, and the rigorous deployment schedule, and they decide that this is not for them or not for their family situation. Most experienced soldiers who come for selection are proven soldiers and leaders. They’ve enjoyed some measure of success in their conventional units. When they return to those units after selection for Special Forces, some are approached by their first sergeants, command sergeant majors, and company officers and asked to stay on at their current unit. Sometimes they’re offered positions of increased leadership and responsibility within their unit. These are good men, and their current commands want that talent to remain in place for their next deployment rotation. So one in ten decline orders to Phase II and Special Forces training. Special Forces lose a potential Green Beret, and the regular Army retains a good man, perhaps a better soldier for his experience at SFAS. In any case, I’ll lose track of those nine in ten from SFAS Class 8-04 who will return for Phase II at a future date. I’m scheduled for the next Phase II class, as are the X-Ray soldiers who are to begin Phase II about five weeks from the completion of their selection. For the X-Rays, there are two interim courses they must complete before they begin Phase II: the X-Ray Special Forces Preparation Course,