Quiet Professional Soldiers

**Pete** · 02-28-2005, 13:47

Just a thought here on a rainy day.

In the Special Operations family SF has had thousands of people who have served all the way from the 1950s to this day. Some spent years in conventional forces before "seeing the light" and coming over to the dark side. Others enlisted for it as an option. Some served one tour and got out while others spent all their years in SF related assignments.

Through it all there has been very little "talk" about what we do. Sure there was JW's movie and a book here and there. There even was the dust-up over Tail Wind. We even have a character or two in jail around the world. But all-in-all our life is a closed book with few seeing more than a page or two. The people who served have seen a few chapters but it's a thick book.

The people you serve with, the places you go, the things you do are generally known to only a few. And it is the people you serve with that makes it all worth while. A long line of smiling faces in odd places, forever young as you flip through your memories.

Pete
Except when we're in a bar with our buddies, then it's anything but quiet.

lksteve · 02-28-2005, 15:58

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pete

A long line of smiling faces in odd places, forever young as you flip through your memories.

mighty reflective today, aren't we? i know that i am still a 25 year old engineer sergeant at heart...

as long as the checks reflect O4, i'm okay with that, too...

SFRADIOMAN · 03-02-2005, 23:06

I think this is a great topic. For most of us, our service was classified at the time we did it. Not that what we did was any great secret to those directly involved but to the global community it was classified. I think that is one of the reasons we are quiet for so long. We can keep a secret and really, besides the ones you served with, who would believe what you did anyhow? The general public cannot relate to the state of mind of a SF soldier let alone be able to sleep at night knowing we are among them if they did know.

Now that most if not all of the VN missions are becoming declassified we can start talking about them and when you look back you say no freaking way we did that! When the war stories start flowing and you even discount them by even 30 or 40% for CRS and embellishment, the stories are still incredible.

I can't wait to get one of todays young troopers drunk in a bar and hear what's happening today. This Mid-east stuff is totally different from jungle warfare and the tools are clearly different but the blood is still red.

The time might be ripe to produce another movie series starting with WWII and progressing through Iraq and maybe fade into the mission in Russia.

Joe L.