June 17, 2011
Military.com|by Christian Lowe
FORT BRAGG, N.C. --- Special Forces Soldiers are some of the smartest, most highly-trained servicemembers in the U.S. military. The elite troops spend years not only learning the lethal art of warfare, but also honing their skills as diplomats, linguists, and cultural experts.
But despite all their training, many are left with few options for employment when it’s time to leave the service.
Recognizing the marketable skills learned in their Special Forces careers, the Army’s Special Warfare Center here has developed a program to apply more of their skills toward a bachelor’s degree.
“The Special Forces Soldier is incredibly well trained, but he’s ‘undereducated,’ ” said Lt. Col. David Walton, the head of regional studies and education at the SWC. “That’s not because he doesn’t want to be. It’s because he’s so busy training and deploying that he doesn’t have time.”
So Walton solicited civilian academia to find programs that could better leverage a special operator’s experience toward college-level credit.
Imagine using a basic land navigation qualification to validate Geography 110 at an undergraduate institution, Walton offered.
Through a rigorous evaluation program conducted by a local community college, SWC officials were able to correlate several of their core training courses with up to 48 credit hours of college-level coursework. If a Soldier wants to enroll in the degree program, he has to take another 17 credit hours of courses through Fayetteville Technical Community College, including English composition, math, and professional research.
Once they’ve completed the community college hours, SF Soldiers receive an associate’s degree and can use that credential to enroll in a North Carolina state college degree program as a junior.
For its part, the Army wanted to get a return on its investment by requiring Soldiers take courses for college credit that help them as Green Berets.
During missions, SF team members often have to brief officers and staff on operations, but the SWC doesn’t offer a course that teaches public speaking, for example. So Walton made it a requirement for the associate’s degree program.
“Here’s a classic way that an education for college students can help you be a better special operator,” Walton said.
The program is also open to Green Berets returning to the schoolhouse between deployments, or even civilian contractors at the school who are SF alums.
“I knew a college degree would be important once I retired and even while I’m still in for promotions,” said Sgt. 1st Class Mike Gruver, a communications NCO and Special Forces operator who’s studying for a degree in applied physics. “This is really the first time I’ve ever had an opportunity realistically to get a college degree instead of just floundering.”
While it might not seem like much of a rest after years of deployments and high-level warfare schools, Gruver said the schedule is focused on helping Soldiers knock out the associate’s degree requirements in less than three months.
“It was very time consuming. … It was a bit of an adjustment for my family,” Gruver said. “But it was no worse than being back on a team.”
And with as much as two years towards a bachelor’s degree completed well before retirement, the program is worth all the extra time and effort.
Some operators “can go from having no college degree at all to within a very short time having their bachelor’s degree,” Gruver said. “And all they have to do is go through this program to get that degree to tie it all in.”
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