Chosen Soldier - Dick Couch [86]
Specialist Frank Dolemont is the most junior of the “regulars” and, in terms of combat, the most experienced. Dolemont dropped out of high school in his junior year to work the family farm in Oklahoma. After a series of odd jobs, he joined the Army at twenty-five. Following basic and advanced training, he went straight to the 75th Ranger Regiment. He has two combat tours as a Ranger.
“My last tour, I was a squad leader,” he tells me, “and it was on that second tour that it all came together for me. I knew that this is what I was born to do—to lead in combat and to teach others how to perform in combat. I’m finally where I belong.”
The two officers are very experienced and very different. Captain Matt Anderson grew up in Meridian, Mississippi, and enlisted in the Army after his high school graduation in 1991. He has served in the 82nd Airborne and the 75th Ranger Regiment. He’s also worked in Army intelligence and counterintelligence. He attended college at night to earn a degree in psychology while at Fort Bragg, which allowed him to qualify for Officer Candidate School. Like many SF officer candidates, he’s an infantry officer. Anderson is handsome, easygoing, and outgoing; it seems as if he knows everyone and they seem to know him. He is unmarried, but has two daughters from a previous marriage. Anderson is six foot and a solid two hundred pounds. I have to finally ask him about his ethnic background—he looks as if he could be Arab or Lebanese. “No, sir,” he chuckles, “I’m just a black guy.”
Captain Miguel Santos grew up in a small town in Georgia. His parents are both Cuban immigrants. He’s been in the Army nine years: four at West Point and five as an armor officer—a tanker. Like Anderson, Hall, and Dolemont, he has earned his Ranger tab. He spent close to a year in Iraq, where he saw action as an armored scout platoon leader. He came to selection from a tour in Germany, where he met his wife. They’re expecting their first child while Santos is in the Q-Course—during Phase IV, if the captain and the baby both stay on schedule. Miguel Santos is short, perhaps five-six, and in superb physical condition. He is quiet, observant, and very intelligent.
“There are two things that made me want a career in Special Forces,” he says to me. “The first is 9/11 and the role SF will play in the war on terrorism. The second is the quality of the NCOs in Special Forces; they’re the best in the Army. These are the kind of men I want to serve with and to lead. That’s why I’m here.”
“I think we have a pretty good group,” Sergeant Janss tells me on the first day of training. “The two officers seem solid and focused, and there’s a good range of experience in the veteran soldiers. Sergeant Hall is particularly strong. I’ve spent some time with the records of the X-Rays, and they are a talented bunch—inexperienced, but there’s a lot of potential there. Phase II will be particularly important for them as they will have to display leadership in small-unit tactical situations. And we have four Rangers. For them, some of this will be a review—they’ve seen it before. My job is to teach, monitor, coach, and evaluate these men. I expect the Rangers to serve as my teaching assistants.”
In addition to the Rangers in