03-07-2011, 20:08
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#1
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Quiet Professional
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Phoenix, AZ
Posts: 20,929
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How do you know.....
I received a question via PM and I thought it a good question:
"How do you know if you got what it takes to be a Special Forces soldier."
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"The Spartans do not ask how many are the enemy, but where they are."
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Team Sergeant is offline
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03-07-2011, 20:15
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#2
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Quiet Professional
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Free Pineland
Posts: 24,780
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Team Sergeant
I received a question via PM and I thought it a good question:
"How do you know if you got what it takes to be a Special Forces soldier."
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If you have to ask, you probably don't.
OTOH, you could verify that by signing a 4187 and showing up at SFAS.
The cadre will then answer that question for you.
TR
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"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat." - President Theodore Roosevelt, 1910
De Oppresso Liber 01/20/2025
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The Reaper is offline
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03-07-2011, 20:15
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#3
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Quiet Professional
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: NorCal
Posts: 15,370
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That's like one of those questions you get from a wife or girlfriend and have a difficult time responding to - "Honey...do these jeans make my @$$ look fat?"
As for the "How do you know..." question - you'll know when your records show an 18 series MOSC (or a 3, S, 5G for the older guys) and you can sign in here as a QP.
Richard 
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“Sometimes the Bible in the hand of one man is worse than a whisky bottle in the hand of (another)… There are just some kind of men who – who’re so busy worrying about the next world they’ve never learned to live in this one, and you can look down the street and see the results.” - To Kill A Mockingbird (Atticus Finch)
“Almost any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so.” - Robert Heinlein
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Richard is offline
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03-07-2011, 20:19
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#4
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Quiet Professional
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Phoenix, AZ
Posts: 20,929
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It's a big decision.
I like the question and I like The Reaper's answer: If you have to ask, you probably don't.
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"The Spartans do not ask how many are the enemy, but where they are."
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Team Sergeant is offline
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03-07-2011, 20:27
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#5
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Quiet Professional
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Kent, Wa.
Posts: 504
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I don't know
But let me go try anyway.
Blue
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Blue
NOUS DEFIONS
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bluebb is offline
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03-07-2011, 20:30
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#6
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Quiet Professional
Join Date: Jun 2004
Location: Occupied Pineland
Posts: 4,701
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I see my peers all agree - the varient on J.P. Morgan's answer appears to sum it up nicely.
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A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears not a traitor; he speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their arguments, he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to fear.
~ Marcus Tullius Cicero (42B.C)
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Peregrino is offline
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03-07-2011, 21:30
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#7
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Quiet Professional
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Bay Area
Posts: 568
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You hear a clanging sound whenever you walk. 
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Every man has three characters: that which he shows, that which he has, and that which he thinks he has.
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head is offline
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03-07-2011, 21:58
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#8
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Quiet Professional
Join Date: May 2008
Location: Pineland, Northern Province
Posts: 600
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Team Sergeant
"How do you know if you got what it takes to be a Special Forces soldier."
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I knew that I would make it or die trying. I gave it everything I had, and knew I'd never quit.
Also, as Richard points out:
Quote:
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you'll know when your records show an 18 series MOSC.
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That was a good day because I really didn't want to die trying... 
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Do you want to know who you are? Don't ask. Act! Action will delineate and define you.
Thomas Jefferson
"The scene changes but the aspirations of men of good will persist."
Vannevar Bush
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uplink5 is offline
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03-07-2011, 23:03
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#9
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Quiet Professional
Join Date: Apr 2010
Location: La Plata, Maryland, United States of America!
Posts: 27
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There have been many a men that have asked that same question. It was answered the day they graduated! And for those who still ask the question, like my brothers have said before, fill out a 4187 and find out. No self assessment let the professionals at selection and Q decide if you have what it takes. You’ll get you answer soon enough. My .02
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SFA XXVI D-8163 (Baltimore, Maryland), XCI (Baghdad, Iraq)
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SFSalRet08 is offline
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03-08-2011, 05:52
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#10
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Quiet Professional
Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: 18 yrs upstate NY, 30 yrs South Florida, 20 yrs Conch Republic, now chasing G-Kids in NOVA & UK
Posts: 11,901
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As TR spoke: "If you have to ask..."
Even if you don't ask,, you will never know until you get one of those pointy metal sticks in the mail and someone alters your DD-214.. 
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Go raibh tú leathuair ar Neamh sula mbeadh a fhios ag an diabhal go bhfuil tú marbh
"May you be a half hour in heaven before the devil knows you’re dead"
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JJ_BPK is offline
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03-08-2011, 07:13
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#11
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BANNED USER
Join Date: Jan 2007
Posts: 3,751
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Team Sergeant
It's a big decision.
I like the question and I like The Reaper's answer: If you have to ask, you probably don't.
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I think you have to ask the question but you have to ask it in your heart.
If you ask it out loud . . . or if you care about somebody other then yourselves answer then . . . you probaly don't.
And then there is the next question, "Why do I want it?" That'll tell you something, too.
And on that note.
Last edited by Dozer523; 03-08-2011 at 07:16.
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Dozer523 is offline
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03-08-2011, 08:00
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#12
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RIP Quiet Professional
Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: The Ozarks
Posts: 10,072
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Quote:
Originally Posted by The Reaper
If you have to ask, you probably don't.
OTOH, you could verify that by signing a 4187 and showing up at SFAS.
The cadre will then answer that question for you.
TR
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 That just about covers everything...
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"There you go, again." Ronald Reagan
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Dusty is offline
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03-08-2011, 09:06
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#13
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Quiet Professional
Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: Orange, Ca.
Posts: 4,941
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I first volunteered because I figured if I am going to go, I want to go with the best, increasing my chances of surviving. Then, when I got involved, I discovered it was much more than just being with skilled pro's. It was a way of life, a comittment to the service of our country and becoming part of a brotherhood of trust and respect.
Last edited by mark46th; 03-08-2011 at 11:10.
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mark46th is offline
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03-08-2011, 10:18
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#14
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Quiet Professional
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: Potomac River
Posts: 925
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I think Mark alluded to an interesting point.
Getting into SF requires a lot of determination and a lot of belief in yourself.
Staying in SF for a career is a matter of personality and goodness of the match between your self and the life both in war times and peacetime. Personally, peacetime/stateside in any portion of the Army was just not something that fit me well. I do not regret anytime I spent in service, but a military career was not going to work out for me.
P.S.
I see I have repeated myself several times which means I am having a hard time expressing my thought.
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The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed.
SFA M-9545
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Buffalobob is offline
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03-08-2011, 10:31
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#15
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RIP Quiet Professional
Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: The Ozarks
Posts: 10,072
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Buffalobob
I think Mark alluded to an interesting point.
Getting into SF requires a lot of determination and a lot of belief in yourself.
Staying in SF for a career is a matter of personality and goodness of the match between your self and the life both in war times and peacetime. Personally, peacetime/stateside in any portion of the Army was just not something that fit me well. I do not regret anytime I spent in service, but a military career was not going to work out for me.
P.S.
I see I have repeated myself several times which means I am having a hard time expressing my thought.
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You can say that again.
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"There you go, again." Ronald Reagan
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Dusty is offline
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