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Originally Posted by odoylerules
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And that's where I got this question: why should an individual want to be SF? Why did you? What's a good reason.
Doyle
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For me it was a matter of disenchantment with conventional units. When I came in to the military (1965) there was a definite separation between officers and enlisted men and officers where judged more by their ability to look good than to do good. I entered the army to be a soldier but soon found out that my expectations of soldiering were incompatible with what those above me expected a young officer to do. I was counselled often because I chose to lead from the front not push from the rear, because I spent too much time making sure that we actually could perform the tasks expected of us, and had the audacity to have the troops teach me those soldier skills I was severly lacking because they were not "officer tasks". I was foolish enough to actually think that I should never ask a soldier to do something that I could not do our would not do myself if the need arose. I was equally foolish to think that if the troops had to freeze their butts off I had no business sitting in some tent around a stove drinking coffee and God forbid I should take some of that coffee out to the guys on site. While I knew that I was locked into being an officer I just thought the priorities in conventional units were ass backwards. I just had to be a soldier first and an officer second and that outlook was not compatible with the conventional units in the 60s. SF provided that for me and for me it was not only the right choice but the only choice. Had I not been able to enter SF after my first assignment I would have certainly left the military.
Jack Moroney