Probably. My first SF assignment was to 1-10 and, at the time I arrived (1980), they hadn't seen a live SF E-5 in quite awhile. So long that I got treated like a new puppy found under a Christmas tree. Had an E-4 "S" qualified guy showed up, they'd have probably taken turns feeding him.
At that time, 1-10 teams were full of senior guys. Teams chock full of deeply experienced Vietnam era SF E-7s. Guys from all the Groups. Guys who knew how to schmooze choice assignment to Bavaria through Mrs. Palmer.
Meanwhile, most of my graduating SFQC class were filling billets at Bragg. With the exception of myself and another E-5 who went down to Panama, every junior Ranger tabbed NCO in my class went straight to SWC after graduation. Drafted as cadre instructors before they ever saw their first ODA. If you had just come from a Ranger Batt or other Airborne Infantry unit, you went to Phase I or Phase II. Even if you were only an E-5. The schoolhouse cadre bench at that time was not very deep.
That was 1980. Three AD Groups. SF was short of experienced mid grade NCOs on teams and enjoyed little support or patronage from DA. The late 70's were a time of existential crisis for Army Special Forces. There were powers on-high that wanted the organization to disappear forever.
Half the folks you'd meet in the Army were absolutely sure that SF had been disbanded after Vietnam. Or didn't know that we existed.
During the early Reagan Era, that began to change, and lots of newly minted E-5s & E-6s started getting pumped onto teams. Especially as we became our own branch & filled the new Groups (1st & 3rd).
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