View Full Version : Try for SF now or later?
This may be ill advised for me to ask here but its been on my mind alot latly.
I have wanted to go SF for as long as I can remember, and I still do; just not right now. I feel I need a little more job and life experience. However I've talked to a few SF guys in the past and pretty much all of them have said just do it. If its what you want why wait, you'll get all the experience and traiining that you will need/ want.
I've been thinking alot about trying to get into either CA or the 160th SOAR, gain experience and training there and then try for SF.
The more I think about it I think I would enjoy CA more than SOAR as I really enjoyed my year in korea (although not all the time). I loved learning a diffrent language and being able to go from english to korean to tagalog to russian and back. Although my knowledge of each being very limited. Really wish I had tried to learn more while I had the chance to use it. And I loved our katusa's.
So I guess I'd just like some advice from people who have maybe had the same questions when they decided to go.
thanks for the help..
CA would be a good choice, The Q-course takes to long and would not be as much fun... CA is offering alot of money also sence they are so short on people.
It seems as though theres lots of opportunitys for more advanced training as well? I've seen there is a CA SGT course, trauma SGT and a few others specifically for CA. Would those courses offer something diffrent from 18D or would they be along the same lines?
I see you have Fayetteville listed as your current location, if it were me, I would go pay a visit to 96th CA and Bank Hall. That way you could get all your questions answered from the source and current operators within that organization. Not to mention, the GB Club is stumbling distance from 96th.
This is an issue weighing on me as well. Trouble is it's not going to be entirely up to me. Having just moved back to Ohio after being in Maryland for two years, I had hoped to get into the NG SF unit at Rickenbacker. My old unit hasn't been to Iraq yet, and last week there was a tentative mobilization time line and training schedule sent out. I have to complete three drills with the 19th before I can transfer in, which basically means that by that time my transfer will need to be cleared by a general somewhere at the 99th whose only concern is going to be making numbers right. The RST forms for the three drills have already been filled out and approved. Would I just be shooting myself in the foot to get to that point in training and then go party in Iraq for a year? I mean, It'd be a good experience, and the guys in the ammo section are trustworthy even if the rest of the unit is a bit shaky, not to mention they need people and I'm bloodthirsty loyal to the First Sergeant and Brigade Comander. But I feel that I have a duty to go SF if I think I can get selected. Any thoughts?
Eagle5US
09-15-2007, 02:44
It seems as though theres lots of opportunitys for more advanced training as well? I've seen there is a CA SGT course, trauma SGT and a few others specifically for CA. Would those courses offer something diffrent from 18D or would they be along the same lines?
18D is 18D...CA Medic is CA Medic (68W with some additional training).
CA used to pull 18D's from Group. I have had CA "Trauma medics" work for me...there is little to no comparison between the two.
You are the only one who will make the decision to go...you already have the informed opinion from folks you have spoken with. Is the advice of folks on an internet BBS going to have a true impact on your decision???
If you are vacillating on it this badly-perhaps it is best that you not go to SF at all. It takes much more of a commitment for you to be successful.
Look within yourself, make a decision, and act on it. The course isn't going to get any easier-and you aren't going to be any younger the longer you wait.
Eagle
The Reaper
09-15-2007, 05:43
This is an issue weighing on me as well. Trouble is it's not going to be entirely up to me. Having just moved back to Ohio after being in Maryland for two years, I had hoped to get into the NG SF unit at Rickenbacker. My old unit hasn't been to Iraq yet, and last week there was a tentative mobilization time line and training schedule sent out. I have to complete three drills with the 19th before I can transfer in, which basically means that by that time my transfer will need to be cleared by a general somewhere at the 99th whose only concern is going to be making numbers right. The RST forms for the three drills have already been filled out and approved. Would I just be shooting myself in the foot to get to that point in training and then go party in Iraq for a year? I mean, It'd be a good experience, and the guys in the ammo section are trustworthy even if the rest of the unit is a bit shaky, not to mention they need people and I'm bloodthirsty loyal to the First Sergeant and Brigade Comander. But I feel that I have a duty to go SF if I think I can get selected. Any thoughts?
Time spent productively in training is never wasted.
There is very little "party" time in Iraq.
You can "what if" your whole life away, and then regret in all at the end.
Make your best decision, and accept the consequences.
TR
I've decided if SF is what I want to do, why wait. Just trying to get into shape, mentally prepare and sort out some personal stuff. I'll probably so talk to the recruiters next week sometime as I haven't talk to them here, only when I was in the ROK.
I was wondering; I took the DLAB when I first enlisted, but I ended up going to a diffrent recruiters and enlisting with them. I was told I did really good, but its not in my records? Is there a way to look it up, or is it just lost and I'll have to take it again? that was two years ago not sure if theres a time limit for how long its good.
Don't worry about the DLAB; you'll have ample opportunity to take it again if you get selected. Start focusing on 25 meter target; if you make it through SFAS, you'll find the Q a long haul (I've been here more than two years).
Drive on.
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