Chosen Soldier - Dick Couch [85]
Paul Janss was born in Norway and went to high school in Alexandria, Virginia. He speaks Norwegian and Russian, and is a veteran of the 3rd and 5th Special Forces Groups, but now calls 5th Group home. Jan, as he’s called, enlisted in the Army in 1980 and served in the 75th Ranger Regiment from ’83 through ’85. He has deployed extensively in Africa and the Middle East. Sergeant Janss is five-nine, lean, and as hard as dried leather. Though he’s one of the older cadre sergeants, he can run—effortlessly, mile after mile. Few of his cadre sergeants want to run with him; few can. He is quiet, personable, and approachable. While he yearns to return to group and operational-deployment rotation, he’s totally committed to teaching small-unit tactics to the next generation of Green Berets. Jan is qualified as an 18 Charlie SF engineering sergeant and as an 18 Delta SF combat medic.
Jan’s training ODA for Class 1-05 has thirteen men: two captains and five enlisted soldiers who have returned to Fort Bragg for Phase II, and six X-Rays—a much higher percentage than with most student ODAs. Once they’re settled into their billets, Sergeant Janss takes them on a tour of the Phase II area and the Rowe Training Facility. For all, this is a reacquaintance of the area, except for the weapons-cleaning shed and the Phase II team huts. This is the first time any of them have carried real weapons, with blank adapters, at Camp Mackall. Before we look at the training, let’s take a look at the men in 811—my student ODA. First, the X-Rays.
They are Specialists Antonio Costa, David Altman, and Tom Kendall and PFCs Roberto Pantella, Tim Baker, and Jamie Wagner. All of them, with the exception of Wagner, went to selection right after their first iteration of the Pre-SFAS course. Wagner is a twenty-eight-year-old from Baton Rouge. He arrived at Fort Bragg from basic and airborne training insufficiently prepared physically for the rigors of Special Forces training. After his second round of Pre-SFAS, he was selected for Special Forces along with Baker, Costa, Altman, Pantella, and Kendall.
“Back home, I was a computer tech when I decided to join the Army,” he tells me. “Basic training and jump school got me in shape, but not enough for SF training. I needed the extra work, and they were right to hold me back for a second Pre-SFAS. Now that I’ve been selected, I’m ready to move ahead.”
The five experienced soldiers assigned to student ODA 811 all come from the conventional Army, and as in all small units, these veterans will form the backbone of the student ODA. They’re led by Sergeant First Class Stan Hall. Hall’s father was a career infantry officer, and he grew up in the Army and on the move; he went to four different high schools. He’s an experienced soldier with four years in the 25th Infantry Division, four years in the 82nd Airborne, and a year and a half as a drill sergeant. He’s also Ranger qualified. When I met him, Hall struck me as a mature, efficient leader, and probably one of the reasons the Phase II cadre assigned so many X-Rays to his training ODA.
“I went through selection almost two years ago,” he tells me, “and then I got orders to Fort Benning as a drill instructor. I thought I’d never have the chance to go SF. But I managed to get an early release to come to Phase II. I’m twenty-seven, and I need to get on with this before I get too much older.”
There are three sergeants or buck sergeants assigned to 811: Daniel Barstow, Byron O’Kane, and Aaron Dunn. Dan Barstow is from Canton, Ohio, and joined the Army right out of high school. He’s been in the Army for four years and came from a military police unit assigned to Schofield Barracks and the 25th Infantry Division in Hawaii. He met his wife, also an MP, in Hawaii. While he attends Phase II, she’s serving in a security role in Kabul, Afghanistan. Byron O’Kane is a seven-year Army veteran from Wichita, Kansas. He’s an infantryman and saw action in Iraq with the 1st Infantry