Chosen Soldier - Dick Couch [78]
“How are they doing?” I ask.
“They’re doing pretty well considering where they’ve come from and the limited time we have with them.”
Sergeant Tell is a short man with an efficient compact build, dark hair, and dark eyes that give him something of a Native American look. He joined the Army sixteen years ago after graduating from high school in Tucson. Before reporting to the Special Warfare Center and School, he had spent twelve years, his entire Special Forces career, with 3rd Group. Sergeant Tell can make himself understood in both French and Arabic, but is fluent in neither. He’s made deployments to half a dozen sub-Saharan African nations and one to Afghanistan. He struck me as a very measured and precise individual, yet there’s no misreading his passion for teaching and mentoring these young soldiers.
“They arrive the same day they graduate from Phase I and are selected for SF training,” Sergeant Tell says. “Naturally, they’re a little cocky, and they literally swagger as they get off the bus. The first sergeant has a quick talk with them and settles them in. ‘Congratulations,’ he tells them, ‘but now it’s time to get ready for the real Special Forces training.’ That first afternoon we have them lay out all of their gear, what they have and what we issue them. It’s a full-on personnel and equipment inspection, and we give them a little of the drill-instructor treatment. It refocuses them and gets their minds set for the serious business of learning small-unit tactics.
“Myself and the other cadre sergeants also talk to them every day about staying focused and keeping their goals and priorities in order—preparing for Phase II and working to earn their beret, nothing else. We spend a lot of our evenings here with them, talking about life in the groups and on deployment. We tell them not to get married, get engaged, buy a car, or get a tattoo. We also talk to them about drinking, not that these guys have much time for that, but one DUI or an incident in a bar and they’re gone.”
The preparation course trainees draw weapons for this training—real weapons equipped with blank firing adapters. These are metal appendages attached to the muzzles of their weapon that allow them to fire blank ammunition, either in single rounds or on automatic fire. As with their two previous phases, they take their weapons with them everywhere and are never to be more than an arm’s length from their weapon. These are real guns, and they come with real weapons safety violations. Except for the first day’s inspection, the Special Forces Preparation Course is a pure teaching environment. Very few students VW from this training, and there are few IVWs. The involuntary withdrawals that do occur are for safety violations; these are always taken seriously, even with blank-loaded weapons. Safety violations include sweeping someone with the muzzle of your weapon, inappropriate handling of the weapon, and an accidental discharge. Failing to have a round in the chamber and the weapon locked (on safe) is also a safety violation, as it will be for the rest of their Special Forces training. In addition to M4 rifles, each student ODA is assigned two M249 squad assault weapons (SAWs) and a single M240 medium machine gun.
On day thirteen, they sit for a two-hour exam at their tables in the team bay. Following the test, Sergeant Tell gives them their operations order for their final field training exercise. The honor of leading Tell’s student ODA