View Full Version : What Advice Would an SF Soldier Give?
The Reaper
11-12-2014, 11:17
If any of our SF members had one piece of advice to share with others (other SF soldiers, wannabes, conventional soldiers, spouses, civilians, kids, etc.) what would that piece of wisdom be?
It can be SF advice, life lessons, whatever you would like to share as your legacy.
What should it be?
To get the ball rolling, I would offer that I believe whatever happens, you should never quit trying. Dedicate yourself completely to whatever cause you are pursuing. You can accomplish far more than you would imagine, if you just keep striving for your goals. You may fail, in trying, but you will never succeed if you quit.
TR
Life happens; never allow yourself to one day regret not having lived it to its fullest.
For example: http://langvei.com/team-member-details-dennis-thompson.php
Richard
miclo18d
11-12-2014, 19:37
Never be in a hurry to get yourself killed. (Look for your next position before you move; have a plan, etc.)
You may find yourself in a firefight that lasts a good part of a day. Rushing in and blasting away at everything can get you into some serious problems. Take your time as it relates to your training (the more you train the faster you can go) and bring your guys home alive!
Shut-up! Look, listen, think. Be low profile. Toot your horn honestly, appropriately and with humility. Be polite, be professional, be prepared. Be ON TIME! Learn to follow before you attempt to lead. Accomplish the mission. Never quit, never give up, never surrender. NEVER. Be brave.
Never ignore your family. When the Army is done with you they are all you will have left. My last BC said that and it has changed the way live.
2018commo
11-12-2014, 21:01
Remember who you are: From my first TS, from his, as he loaded him into a medivac at Lang Vei.
Take care of your body. Getting old sucks and when you are one of the oldest guys in Group still on an ODA, having to keep up with guys 10yrs your junior, it can be down right painful at times.
x/S
SF Wise: Don't be MOS Centric. Learn how do to other peoples jobs on the ODA. Remember that as SF we can be broken down into three 3-4 man split cell teams.
Military Wise: 1000% on exsquid on taking care of your body, and 11Ber on your family. Lastly if you're in the Military do some college for Lord Sake!! Doing a course or two a year over the course of your 20+ years in you will or should walk out with a Undergraduate degree if not a Graduate Degree. Think about your ODA being there or you to help you as needed.
Snaquebite
11-13-2014, 06:25
Know and understand yourself. It's in my signature line.
TrapperFrank
11-13-2014, 08:22
These are the things I learned in my 26 years in the military and they apply equally to life in general. 1. Own your screw ups. 2. Make your screw ups right 3. Make a decision. 4. Learn how to work with people you do not like for a greater organizational good. 5. Do not snivel. 6. Do not quit.
UWOA (RIP)
11-13-2014, 16:23
All of the above are insightful approaches, to which I would add:
Your mind is your greatest tool, and consequently -- weapon. Soak up knowledge like a sponge and look for ways to apply it that color outside the lines ... don't limit yourself; if you're carrying a firearm, don't rely entirely upon it -- learn to fight unarmed or with whatever is available. Think about building as well as destroying and 'see the ground' as did General Buford in The Killer Angels -- it ultimately defines how you will operate.
.
cat in the hat
11-13-2014, 22:21
"Stand up and do something"
mark46th
11-13-2014, 22:47
Be persistent, but learn to recognize when something bad is going to happen and react accordingly. Learn when to charge head first or when to walk away.
craigepo
11-14-2014, 10:38
1) Do everything for its greatest purpose.
2) Treat people well, even those who don't deserve it.
3) Never ever ever quit. If they drag your body away, it was a good death. Better that, than to live with regret.
4) Revel in the good moments. They make life fun.
5) Gut through the bad moments. These are the times that hone your character.
6) Don't sacrifice your integrity.
7) Meeting someone is easy; building rapport is tough. Ask people questions that will let you glimpse into their soul, and they will remember you for a long time.
8) Helping your fellow man when you can makes you human. Helping him at your peril is divine.
9) Don't just say "thanks". Send a follow-up, even if it's a one-liner.
10) A rewarding life begins outside your comfort zone.
11) Don't get married until you have been to three different continents.
12) Children are not yours; they are loaned to you by God. Raise them well, and love them.
13) You are going to have your fifteen minutes of fame. When that time comes, avoid looking like a jackass. Touchdown dances are for amateurs and idiots. Try to look like you've been there before.
14) Prior planning prevents piss poor performance.
15) Never forget snivel gear.
16) Situations change. Professionals find a way to make it work. Amateurs flounder.
17) It's much easier to get out of shape than it is to stay in shape. Don't blow off PT.
18) Amateurs practice till they get it right. Professionals practice until they can't get it wrong.
19) Embrace technology, but always have a knife and pen and paper handy.
20) Great speeches are fine, but if you want to motivate your people, let them build a fire and get some hot chow.
21) A weekend safety brief greater than 3 minutes in length is nothing more than verbal masturbation.
22) Have a good eye for talent. Leave your job in better shape than when you found it.
23) Praise works wonders.
24) Don't bitch unless you have a way to fix the problem. Then still don't bitch, just fix the problem.
25) Trust is earned, not given.
Astronomy
11-14-2014, 17:52
First reports are usually bullshit...
Surgicalcric
11-16-2014, 01:24
Never ignore your family. When the Army is done with you they are all you will have left. My last BC said that and it has changed the way live.
I totally concur.
The people that I moistly ignored on my march to becoming a great SF soldier were the ones there or me when I took one too many steps in the right direction.
That said, be a man of principal. Think of the mission and men; if you do that your career will sort itself out. Being too eager to be promoted leaves you without the experience and knowledge necessary to function at a higher level and will cause your subordinates to question your [lack of] leadership.
Trapper John
11-16-2014, 08:01
IMO, Rudyard Kipling said it best:
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;
If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!
Striving for this everyday :lifter
Failing in that then "Shoot, move, and communicate" is pretty good advice. :D
WarriorDiplomat
11-16-2014, 15:29
The loud too cool for school ego maniacs that most people see and associate as SF are not the guys you want to emulate.
The best teams are the teams you have never heard of and the above only exist because of the true quiet professionals that exist in our ranks these are the true Green Berets the rock stars you guys see are SF qualified but could not carry the jockstraps of the quiet professional whose hard work and silent un-media provoking operations provide a majority of our success.
True QP's don't like the rockstars but for us they are useful idiots and provide the enemies of freedom a distraction and a false illusion that they are our best foot forward. This allows the true QP's to continue working in the shadows under the radar.
Learn to listen to what people are saying.Don't be too quick to judge.
other SF soldiers:
new 18A: Remember, the first day you walk into your first team room, that ODA has a combined 35 to 85 years of SF experience to your 0 days. Any idea that you come up with has already been vetted at least once by at least one team member. The average team guy is always looking for the right way, not the easy way. If you willingly incorporate that experience into your planning and execution, you will be the most successful TL in that BN.
new 18Z: The team is counting on you. Regardless of how good your mentor was, seek knowledge from other TM SGTs and former TM SGTs (Co and BN SGMs, and WOs) whenever you can, keep learning every day. The journey didn't end when you pinned on E8 and got a team.
new 180A: see 18A and 18Z.
new team guy: SFQC didn't teach you your job, it gave you the MOS and the tools you needed to learn your job on your team. Ask questions and listen. Learn everything you can about your MOS, your goal here should be that everyone else in the company in your MOS will come to you before Google when they have a question.
And learn what the other MOS's on your team can teach you. Your goal here should be that the other MOS's on your team are confident that you can back them up in their absence.
"I don't know how" or "not my job" is not how we operate. Learn it and do it , whether it is writing a CONOP, re-writing a FID POI from scratch, submitting an award, writing an NCOER, or completing your DTS.
Shooting bad guys is about 1% of the job. If you can't hack the other 99% of the job, SF isn't for you. And the Army probably isn't for you...
Wannabes: Don't quit. Don't stop learning. See above for the rest when you get there.
Conventional soldiers: The SF guy you are dealing with came into the Army to be SF, just like you came in the Army to be your MOS. MOS's are not inherently "better" or "worse". They are just jobs. We are going to be working together more frequently in the future, so let's just treat each other like professionals and get better at the new joint thinig.
Spouses: If he is going to cheat on you, or if you are going to cheat on him, it was going to happen if he was an 18B or a tax attorney.
It's not a job thing, it's a character flaw. So quit blaming the job and start dealing with the character flaw.
Kids (and Spouses): This job cannot always be scheduled around birthdays, anniversaries, graduations and Christmas. It's the quality of time you spend together, not the quantity or specific dates on a calendar.
Don't bind yourself to that arbitrary date on the calendar, be flexible and celebrate those big events early or late on the days that you can when you're all together.
other SF soldiers:
new 18A: Remember, the first day you walk into your first team room, that ODA has a combined 35 to 85 years of SF experience to your 0 days. Any idea that you come up with has already been vetted at least once by at least one team member. The average team guy is always looking for the right way, not the easy way. If you willingly incorporate that experience into your planning and execution, you will be the most successful TL in that BN.
new 18Z: The team is counting on you. Regardless of how good your mentor was, seek knowledge from other TM SGTs and former TM SGTs (Co and BN SGMs, and WOs) whenever you can, keep learning every day. The journey didn't end when you pinned on E8 and got a team.
new 180A: see 18A and 18Z.
new team guy: SFQC didn't teach you your job, it gave you the MOS and the tools you needed to learn your job on your team. Ask questions and listen. Learn everything you can about your MOS, your goal here should be that everyone else in the company in your MOS will come to you before Google when they have a question.
And learn what the other MOS's on your team can teach you. Your goal here should be that the other MOS's on your team are confident that you can back them up in their absence.
"I don't know how" or "not my job" is not how we operate. Learn it and do it , whether it is writing a CONOP, re-writing a FID POI from scratch, submitting an award, writing an NCOER, or completing your DTS.
Shooting bad guys is about 1% of the job. If you can't hack the other 99% of the job, SF isn't for you. And the Army probably isn't for you...
Wannabes: Don't quit. Don't stop learning. See above for the rest when you get there.
Conventional soldiers: The SF guy you are dealing with came into the Army to be SF, just like you came in the Army to be your MOS. MOS's are not inherently "better" or "worse". They are just jobs. We are going to be working together more frequently in the future, so let's just treat each other like professionals and get better at the new joint thinig.
Spouses: If he is going to cheat on you, or if you are going to cheat on him, it was going to happen if he was an 18B or a tax attorney.
It's not a job thing, it's a character flaw. So quit blaming the job and start dealing with the character flaw.
Kids (and Spouses): This job cannot always be scheduled around birthdays, anniversaries, graduations and Christmas. It's the quality of time you spend together, not the quantity or specific dates on a calendar.
Don't bind yourself to that arbitrary date on the calendar, be flexible and celebrate those big events early or late on the days that you can when you're all together.
Alot of good advice, this one is great, from different tm position perspectives.. good post...
fasteddie565
01-06-2015, 23:47
A single Twig will break, a bundle of twigs is strong.
Its never about you, Its always about the team. If it is about you, its because the team said so.
Honor is pure, as the standard is both established and maintained by the group. The more difficult the standard, the sweeter the taste of the honor
Pride is easily corruptible as the standard is never absolute
A man who loses his dignity will lose his will to live.
miclo18d
01-07-2015, 06:19
A single Twig will break, a bundle of twigs is strong.
Its never about you, Its always about the team. If it is about you, its because the team said so.
This symbol is from Etruscan origins and used in the Roman Republic. It is called a FASCES (http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fasces). It is a bundle of sticks that denotes strength in unity and is seen everywhere in US Government buildings. This picture is from the U.S. House Of Representatives, there is one on either side of the U.S. Flag that sits behind the Speaker's chair.
Thanks fasteddie for reminding me of this!
StRaTeGy_
01-10-2015, 18:28
When you feel like quitting, remember why you started!