Quote:
Originally posted by CommoGeek
At the time wasn't the 8th based out of Panama and had SA as its AO? That period of SF history escapes me at the moment.
You mean the teams don't always take more commo guys? 
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You are right about it being 8th's A/O.
It was lead by Major Ralph "Pappy" Shelton. Maj Shelton had been in Laos, Japan, Korea, Germany and the Dominican Republic as well as Panama. During his 20 year career he had been awarded the Silver Star for heroism and the Purple Heart with an Oak Leaf Cluster.
Major Shelton was the one who developed the training course.
It was 19 weeks long -
6 weeks of Basic Infantry Training then 3 of Advanced Infantry Training
3 weeks of Basic Unit Training followed by 5 of Advanced Unit Training
Ending with a two week training exercise.
I'm going to leave it up to you guys to decide why commo skills might be more important on that particular op than combat engineer skills.
there were 2 communication guys, and 4 radio operators