Chosen Soldier - Dick Couch [82]
1. Have the highest team average on the Army Physical Fitness Test.
2. Win all course team events.
3. Get to know everyone in your team.
4. Don’t lose anyone in the team from training.
5. Exceed all standards.
“These are our team goals, and every few days we go over them to see how we’re doing. Chances are we may not achieve them all, but they’re realistic goals and each man in the team is committed to them.”
I notice that the members of the team all call each other by their first names. They address him as Sergeant Langston, and he calls them by their first names. Several afternoons are taken up with class presentations. Each man must submit an outline of a military presentation, and after it is approved by Langston, the student has to give an eight-to ten-minute talk on the subject, complete with visual aids. Probably one of the best and clearest presentations I’ve ever attended on sighting in an M4 rifle was given by one of Sergeant Langston’s soldiers.
In addition to the classroom work, there is close-order drill, usually a single student marching four or five of his classmates about the compound—column left, column right, to the rear, harch! There are also uniform inspections with sections of students turned out in dress greens, complete with red berets, bloused trousers, and spit-shined jump boots. The only concession to SF protocol is that the inspectees fall in with their rifles. Both the drill and the uniform inspections are unusual activity for the Rowe Training Facility, where most soldiers are dressed and outfitted for combat-related training, often with their face and hands camouflaged. The most welcome nonclassroom activities are the team competitions. Again, a squad leader or student team sergeant is chosen to lead each evolution. He has to organize his team, make assignments, and direct his men in the competition. These contests range from a barnyard version of soccer in a nearby meadow to a four-mile run, during which one or more members of the squad have to be carried by the others. The one I liked was the Nasty Nick relay. Each team is scattered around the obstacle course. The first man takes two or three obstacles, then hands off his helmet—the baton in this race—to the next man, and he negotiates the next few obstacles. As the event progresses, the squad members who have completed their leg of the race run alongside to cheer on their teammates as they take on their obstacles. At the last obstacle, there is a single, helmeted competitor and a dozen or more cheerleaders. They have to finish together, as a team. These are spirited contests on the Nasty Nick course, and the race is run more than once. Winning squad leaders take their men for a break, losing squad leaders lead their men in push-ups.
“This is a relatively easy two weeks for them,” Sergeant Langston tells me, “and it’s supposed to be. We have to give them the leadership training in keeping with Army requirements, but since we have them 24/7 for fifteen days, we can also expose them to Special Forces team-centric leadership training. They’ve been worked hard for the last six months or so. We want them to rest up and, in some cases, heal up for Phase II, but we also want them to stay mentally focused. We also want them to understand the key role leadership plays in Special Forces.”
Most are 18 X-Ray soldiers, but not all. A few are soldiers who have been selected for Special Forces training from conventional units. They are there for the Army NCO leadership requirement. In one of these courses, I met a former Navy SEAL. He had been released from the SEAL teams before 9/11 and had decided get back in the fight—this time as a Green Beret. Though he had been a second class petty officer in the Navy, he still needed this course to become a sergeant in the Army.
“This has been a good few weeks for us,” Specialist Justin Keller, one of the X-Rays, tells me. “It’s been challenging but not too challenging, and you can feel the guys’ confidence growing as we get ready for Phase II.” Justin Keller