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Terry:
It can't be done on the AD side because of math.
Take the authorized end strength of the AD force, just under 500,000 soldiers. You need about 6,000 SF soldiers to fill the 5 AD Groups, plus Training Group, plus SWCS, plus all of the staff positions.
Subtract the females.
Subtract anyone too old, or too young.
Subtract the E-3s and below, E-7s and above, O-1s, any O-3 with more than four years of service (roughly), and any O-4 or above.
Subtract anyone with a permanent profile or disabling injury.
Subtract any MOS which will not release soldiers to reclass as 18s.
Subtract anyone with a GT score under 100.
Subtract anyone unable to pass the APFT with 270 or above.
Subtract anyone with a substance abuse problem, or a criminal record.
Subtract anyone who has been to SFAS and was non-selected, Never To Return.
Subtract anyone who lacks the motivation to apply, or the aptitude to succeed.
Subtract anyone who cannot successfully complete Airborne School.
Subtract anyone who cannot get a Secret or TS clearance.
Subtract those dying, retiring, or ETSing from SF every year (could have changed but has been running about 600-700 per year).
You are left with a number so small that we cannot put 500 soldiers a year into the SFQC from the Regular Army, hence the 18X program. With it, after millions of dollars, dozens of new positions, and a bunch of work, we have managed to graduate 750 per year for the past couple of years. As recently, as 2000, we only graduated 250.
Now you want to add an additional 1,500 slots or so to the force without lowering the bar?
I am not a math major, but I would submit that within the above limitations, this cannot be done in less than 10-20 years, EXCEPT by lowering the standards.
We can agree to issue green berets to everyone who wants one and assign them to an SF Group, but that does not make additional Special Forces soldiers, except on paper.
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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