I always found that the closer I was to the flag pole, the more trouble I got into. 500 miles was usually a safe distance...

Any early indicators from the adolescent years?

Getting into more fights than the average young male, playing malicious pranks on the neighbors, playing with BB guns and fireworks, challenging authority, getting into trouble at school, doing risky things on a dare, drinking beer, etc.

We're not freaking delinquents.
Check out the "Did boy Scouts help you in SF" thread. We have a very high number of Eagle Scouts and Life Scouts who profess not sticking with it to complete the requirements for Eagle as their ONLY regret (or one of the few).

Just cuz some General who didn't understand what he was seeing . . .

No angels either, at least not some of the enlisted folk I knew. ;) :p

Not a lot of fights but spent a lot of time making small explosives out of the powder from my dad's can of Hercules Red Dot...

I'm not completely convinced yet that I'm not qualified to try out for SF in the future, so I decided to stick around a bit longer.

Huge compliment. And thank God for culture clashes, and the uncanny ability to mesh right in to the cultures that oftentimes clash with our own. Forget the box. Sometimes you just have to think outside the dodecahedron.

That's why SF was successful in Southeast Asia. We didn't follow all the rules. There is a reason it is called "Unconventional Warfare". Geezus....

You know on such a topic it would be relevant to bring up the matter of training. A study was done here in Australia on our Special Force elements, namely the Special Air Service Regiment and 2Commando Regiment. I believe the study was done on these members during black role, as they trained for home or close-to counter-terrorist incidents under the esteemed Tactical Assault Group (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJdreNh1nxE).

The 'overstimulation' of certain parts of the brain caused operators to 'overdevelop' and make more use of these areas due to the unrelentless degree of high intensity training on a daily basis over a intermediate to relatively long period of time.

I have no reference as it was on the news for a short period of time, then vanished and I cannot find it published. :rolleyes:

But, to cause more interactions of the body and advances within neural developments or stimulation, this could probably be true to some degree. Of course they are secreting more hormones than the average human, and their workload is a lot more mentally and physically demanding - as they say, it sharpens the mind.

Their body 'norms' and degree of sensitivity to stimulation, or specific stimulants, would be at a different level and boundary limit to others. Just a thought...

Can you link?

Edit: I carelessly scanned over you mentioning this:

How to be a "Special Forces Guy":

1 Grow epic beard
2 wear black oakleys or gatorz
3 hands in pockets as much as possible
4 sweat stained hunting fishing or "contractor" hat
5 drive jacked up truck or ride a harley
6 never say its classified just look angry and no one will ask
7 see photo below,anything thats missing is above my pay grade....

Big Teddy :munchin

1 Grow epic beard-CHECK
2 wear black oakleys or gatorz-CHECK
3 hands in pockets as much as possible-CHECK
4 sweat stained hunting fishing or "contractor" hat -CHECK
5 drive jacked up truck or ride a harley -AFTER DEPLOYMENT
6 never say its classified just look angry and no one will ask-CHECK

SGM will be on your ass for aleast 3 of the 5 posted above :lifter

Possibly...but on the inside he's smiling...knowing he's left the detachment in good hands.

Sounds like a vestige of the "2%", which are psychologically precluded from developing PTSD when compared to the average service member, which theoretically comprise the vast majority of SOF as mentioned by Mr. Grossman in his book "On Killing."

Doesn't sound unreasonable, but I imagine that it's pretty standard throughout all of the SOFs that this resiliency is prevalent

There might be a genetic basis for whatever biological difference there is with us, but as an earlier post mentioned, the term "mind-set" expresses it well. I made it though jump school and Training Group because I already knew that nothing was going to stop me, and it didn't. Mind-set. To get past being wet, cold, hungry, exhausted, scared shitless, or otherewise stressed, and going beyond what you ever thought you could do because other members of your team are depending on you and by God, you HAVE to. Mind set. I served with men better than me - stronger, faster, more talented and skillful, etc., etc. - but my mind set kept me from letting them down. You either have it or you don't, and if you aren't sure, then you probably don't.

Then too, being a stubborn, opinionated, irrascible SOB probably helps as well.

My two cents worth.