|
James:
Both the AD and NG Special forces already have more applicants then they need. You have to be really good to come here.
The YG selection process is different for AD and NG officers.
What unit would sign on an LT for a year, knowing he was planning on packing up and moving on? I have 5 years as an Infantry officer, and 20 as an 18A. If I were a Company or Battalion CO and you told me what you were doing, I would send you packing, quickly. Do you think that the Guard Infantry units work for the SF Groups, or want to invest in a guy with a plan to use them as a stepping stone?
I will give you one thing. For someone who has not accomplished much so far in the military, you do have big plans.
Follow this advice, if you really want to be a good officer.
No one seems to have heard of your "rumor". Let your first military duty be as the Rumor Control Officer. Call Group or Battalion HQs, probably the recruiter or S-1, and if no one can confirm it, it is probably BS. Frankly, it sounded like it to me as well. Forget it.
Focus on the 25 meter target first. For you right now, that is being the very best Infantry LT that you can, doing well in IOBC, trying to get a slot to Ranger and Airborne and doing that well too.
Get school out of the way. Report in to your unit. Learn your job, and what you are expected to do. Maximize your strengths, but work hardest on your weaknesses. Get to know your men, their needs and concerns, and take them to war. Accomplish all assigned missions, and bring your people back alive, if humanly possible. Sacrifice your personal comfort and well being till your people are taken care of. Mission first, men always. Forget the career stuff till you get back.
Then apply for a slot at an SF unit. Don't be surprised if while drilling in the NQP platoon, you regularly get smoked at a variety of tasks by junior enlisted NQPs. Work on getting better, every day. Earn your shot at SFAS, and make it count. Do not come here without being prepared, or focused.
Don't be planning your route to General before ensuring your success as a platoon leader.
Good luck.
TR
__________________
"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
|