lower standard in SFAS, Q school
 

I have a son who is in 1st group now, loving the work and doing great. Considering he is there, I pay attention to what is going on in the SF world, and have a major concern with the lowering of standards in SFAS and a shorter Q course. I talked to a former SF colonel, now retired, and he basically said that the team sergeant would then get a person coming to the team up to speed so to speak. I wonder if this is actually feasible considering how busy the teams are, and how badly this is going to affect the teams in the coming years? In my opinion, this would certainly make things harder for my son's team with an undertrained, not as tough as should be kind of person coming to the team, especially if things get dicey. But maybe I am wrong?

One other thought, with women now making it through SFAS, am not against a woman in combat, if it were with an all women team. Thoughts?

In my opinion, the course was way too long. They wanted the perfect Green Beret upon graduation. Back in the ‘60s thru late ‘80s the course was 4-6 months long and produced some outstanding troops.

Some schools/segments of schools are a waste of time. The real learning begins once you arrive on a team.

Concur. A significant percentage of the "angst" about lowering standards is just that - "angst". There's nothing going on today that hasn't been going on since 1978 when I graduated and (the vast majority of) SF Soldiers have been exceeding expectations throughout.

STANDARDS : Then & NOW.
 

IRONIC: Today is the anniversary of my graduation from the Q course. I arrived at Ft.Bragg on Dec.5,1962 and graduated from the Q course Nov. 22,1963 with the MOS 91B3S. The course of instruction was 16 weeks at BMAC (Ft.Sam Houston TX.) 8 weeks OJT at Ft. Jackson SC. and 8 weeks Advanced Medical Training (Dog Lab) Ft.Bragg NC. and 8 weeks Branch Tng.(Robin Sage) Jan. 1964 Enroute to USARPAC. C Company 1st SFG. Assigned to ODA-333 and Team Tng. for Deployment to Vietnam TDY June 1964.

Happy anniversary, Tom! Very ironic day, though. Plus, it was also a Friday if I recall correctly.

Nov.22, 1962
 

YES IT WAS FRIDAY:

I went through in 1984. January through May. SERE wasn't mandatory as we had POW and survival training in Phase 1, no Camp Slappy.

Language wasn't required if you had one on your ORB (I had high school and college Spanish and took the DLPT).

Now it takes two years or longer if you're not a medic? And you can be dropped before the end of the whole pipeline?

They must be technically and tactically perfect James Bond/Jason Bourne/ninjas at the back end.