Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Brendon
My recruiter told me that if at the end of SFAS i am not selected to continue on to SFQC i will be given a second chance at SFAS before reassignment to an airborne unit. He also told me that if i get reassigned to an airborne unit as soon as i am a specialist i will be able to return to SFAS whenever i feel ready.
I heard from other sources that people who enlist as an 18x are only given one chance at SFAS.
|
I'm going to assume you are familiar with the different phases of the pipeline for 18x-rays.
With one exception, everyone in my class that didn't pass SOPC 1 the first time was given one chance to go through SOPC 1 again. Usually land navigation was the problem, though a few times it was PT scores. The one exception that didn't get a retry was an
extremely incompetent individual.
Notice I said SOPC 1, not Selection (SFAS). Once you complete SOPC 1, you'll likely only receive one chance at SFAS at that time.
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Brendon
I have also been told that if i for some reason I do not succeed in SFAS i will become ineligable to come to the course again and that people are given one chance at succeeding in SFAS.
I have an extremely strong desire to one day be Special Forces and i do not want to jump into SFAS too early if i am only going to have one chance at it. I am willing to spend time in an infantry unit to better prepare myself if that is the case.
If there is the possibility of having another chance at SFAS at a later date if something goes wrong then i will happily take the 18x enlistment. But if i am only going to have one chance at SFAS i am willing to enlist into an infantry unit and spend a few years making sure i am properly prepared.
|
You can normally go back to SFAS. There might be cases of people that left SFAS with Never to Return marked on their records, but I don't know of them.
Chances are you'd have to go the 82nd for a while before going back to Selection. You'd have to be an E-4, and you might have to wait until the timing is right. (You won't likely be brought back form a deployment for Selection, for example.)
One of my pet peeves was watching 18x-rays fail SOPC 1 or Selection and then do everything possible to avoid going to the 82nd. Often they try to go EOD or PsyOps. I never understood. They signed up to be "shooters," and after the Ranger Battalion, the 82nd is in my opinion the next closest thing to SF. These guys always say they are coming back to SFAS, but the best option would be go to the 82nd, go to Ranger School and then come back. I think they are more interested in the status of SF, rather than soldiering.
But it might not be a coincidence that the guys that don't have what it takes to make it at SOPC 1 are also scared of being in the regular infantry.
Full disclosure: I've never been in the 82nd, though, and you do here a lot of guys from there complaining about it.