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Old 05-18-2008, 11:02   #1
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'Masochists' compete to join Special Forces in Texas

Let's get going TEXAS!

Are there not enough "MEN" in all of Texas to fill a Special Forces unit?

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May 17, 2008, 9:02AM
'Masochists' compete to join Special Forces in Texas


By CHRIS VAUGHN
Fort Worth Star-Telegram

SAN ANTONIO — Thirteen men surrendered a beautiful spring weekend to physically punish themselves.

The objective: to join Texas' most exclusive military club.

They came to a pocket of the rolling Hill Country from different places and backgrounds — former Marines, college students, small-business owners, police officers — in the hopes of one day wearing a beret, green in color.

Trust these men, with bleeding blisters soaking their boots and shoulders in need of a tube of Icy Hot and very little chance of actually succeeding in their goal: John Wayne got his beret the easy way.

"Masochists," said Andres, a 32-year-old who works for a wireless company in Austin and made his judgment after a grueling, hours-long ruck march.

Every month, though, more men like him are showing up for these tryouts to join the Army Special Forces, "silver wings upon their chest," as the Ballad of the Green Berets tells it.

"As our soldiers have started training and as we're becoming more visible around Texas, we're getting more interest," said Bill, the sergeant major of Charlie Company, 5th Battalion, 19th Special Forces Group.

(Special Forces soldiers fall under U.S. Special Operations Command and tend to be very private. The Star-Telegram agreed to use only first names.)

Texas, home to more than 80,000 active-duty soldiers and tens of thousands Army reservists and National Guardsmen, has not had a Special Forces unit in close to 15 years.

But in September, the Texas National Guard stood up its first-ever Special Forces unit, ending a years-long campaign to convince National Guard headquarters to put a company in the Lone Star State.

The Guard eventually prevailed, gaining Charlie Company out of Colorado and relocating it to San Antonio as part of a restructuring and expansion of Special Forces nationwide.

But staffing a Special Forces unit is not a matter of grabbing infantrymen, tank drivers and engineers here and there. It's the most selective part of the Army — about 75 percent of applicants do not make it through — and building an A-team takes time.

The company's first drill, in October, drew seven men, all but one of them officers.

Thirty-one qualified Special Forces soldiers showed up for drill weekend in April, a faster-than-anticipated rate of growth that officials said proves their point that Texas can support a unit.

Many of the soldiers lived in Texas but drilled with out-of-state companies, and still more had gotten out of the military and are now rejoining. In seven months, the company is already at 37 percent strength. Special Forces companies are manned at 84, considerably smaller than conventional companies.

"We put ourselves on a two-year track to be at 100 percent," said Tim, a major from Denton who commands Charlie Company and works for the Texas Department of Public Safety.

Like the rest of the Army, Special Forces are under unprecedented pressure from repeated deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan and normal deployments to other parts of the world, plus the explosion in the U.S. government's use of security contractors such as Blackwater and Triple Canopy, which pay two to three times what the Army pays.

Of all the special operators in the military — Navy SEALs and Air Force pararescue jumpers, for instance — the Green Berets have the most varied responsibilities.

They are involved in conventional combat and unconventional warfare, typically working closely with the host nations' militaries. They are intimately involved in the hunt for terrorist leaders worldwide and reconnaissance of troubled areas, and they are required to be fluent in at least one foreign language.

Most of their work is done quietly in places such as Colombia, Ecuador, the Philippines, Algeria and Nigeria, talking to illiterate conscripts about infantry tactics, international relief workers about water projects and diplomats about the security situation.

Continued:

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/.../5787343.html#
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Old 05-18-2008, 11:04   #2
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Do you mean this article:

http://www.professionalsoldiers.com/...ad.php?t=18136



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Old 05-19-2008, 14:31   #3
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The word is getting out

Some of us are already in the pipeline TS. We've been getting a lot of interest from around the state, and as the article pointed out April was our largest tryout.

Thanks again for putting the word out.
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Old 05-19-2008, 14:56   #4
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Originally Posted by cowboykpy View Post
Some of us are already in the pipeline TS. We've been getting a lot of interest from around the state, and as the article pointed out April was our largest tryout.

Thanks again for putting the word out.
Yeah that's it, I was bumping the news....
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Old 05-31-2012, 21:48   #5
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Should have left C/5/19 in Fort Collins.
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Old 06-01-2012, 10:38   #6
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Originally Posted by 122418b View Post
Should have left C/5/19 in Fort Collins.
You beat me to it.

I know a lot of the guys down there and they are all stand up guys. However, that chicken-sh*t move (MOO) was conducted while those of us from C/5/19 were deployed to Iraq in 07/08. To this day, I cannot see the logic behind making that move. We had just finished adding new team rooms and huge DOD/FED-certified vault. Besides, TX already had a company from 1/19 located in the same building. Now they have two companies in there. Whatever coke deal was made between CO, TX and 5/19, it was without the input of the men of C/5/19.

Frankly, HQ/5/19 and the state of Colorado have been increasingly disappointing over the past 15 years or so. At the rate they are going, all of 5/19 is going to be in TX because CO sure as hell doesn't seem to want them. I never thought the state of Colorado would have gotten tired of siphoning off of such a nice meal ticket.

Meh! I'm just bitter.
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Old 06-01-2012, 10:55   #7
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Originally Posted by TOMAHAWK9521 View Post
Frankly, HQ/5/19 and the state of Colorado have been increasingly disappointing over the past 15 years or so. At the rate they are going, all of 5/19 is going to be in TX because CO sure as hell doesn't seem to want them. I never thought the state of Colorado would have gotten tired of siphoning off of such a nice meal ticket.

Meh! I'm just bitter.
I concur
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Old 06-03-2012, 21:23   #8
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Originally Posted by TOMAHAWK9521 View Post
You beat me to it.

I know a lot of the guys down there and they are all stand up guys. However, that chicken-sh*t move (MOO) was conducted while those of us from C/5/19 were deployed to Iraq in 07/08. To this day, I cannot see the logic behind making that move. We had just finished adding new team rooms and huge DOD/FED-certified vault. Besides, TX already had a company from 1/19 located in the same building. Now they have two companies in there. Whatever coke deal was made between CO, TX and 5/19, it was without the input of the men of C/5/19.

Frankly, HQ/5/19 and the state of Colorado have been increasingly disappointing over the past 15 years or so. At the rate they are going, all of 5/19 is going to be in TX because CO sure as hell doesn't seem to want them. I never thought the state of Colorado would have gotten tired of siphoning off of such a nice meal ticket.

Meh! I'm just bitter.
The fact that the unit was deployed did not factor into the decision at all. The logic was simple. ARNG SF 18 series DMOSQ was not at 85%. CO was significantly below that with it's SF structure, so the decision was made to help the State out by moving one of the companies.

No drug deal was made between TX and CO. The decision to take the company was made by the Director of the Army National Guard and agreed to by the Adjutant General of Colorado. Where it went was also the decision of the Director. CO had no input in that.

Which company got moved, however, was up to the AG of Colorado.

To say that the company did not have input is not completely true. In the ARNG, each unit has a stake in recruiting to fill its own ranks. I guarantee that if the company had better numbers it wouldn't have gotten moved.

As far as the State of Colorado siphoning off $$... If you are currently involved with funding and can talk intelligently with specifics, PM me. I'd be very interested to hear what you have to say.
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Old 08-09-2012, 07:16   #9
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Besides, TX already had a company from 1/19 located in the same building. Now they have two companies in there.
C/1/19 didn't get here until 2010, after C/5/19 was already here. I believe that to get the SF company, TX traded an IN Bn to CO. Not sure what kind of deal was made with UT.
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