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Operational Necessity
I want to throw my 2 cents in about something NDD covered. Two words. Operational Necessity. Is what you are doing different from the rest of the army an operational necessity? You live with and advise Iraqi soldiers in combat, while you are with them you don't wear us army or nametapes, no rank or unit patch. You don't blouse your boots and you roll up your sleeves and maybe you wear the same patch of the Iraqi unit you work with. These are all operational necessities. You have an operational necessity to maintain opsec and persec. You have an operational necessity to do what you can to mitigate effects of the 120 degree heat. You have an operational necessity to maintain rapport with your Iraqi counterparts. But what do you do when you go to where the big army is? Do you stay in the same uniform because it shows your special? If you do, you don't understand operational necessity. You are taking advantage of the flexibility SF has to stroke your own ego and in the long run draw unwanted attention to yourself and SF. When that conventional CSM walks up to you at the PX and asks you why you are in the uniform you are in and you tell him it's "My unit SOP" and he calls your CSM what do you think your CSM will do? What do you think you have done for the credibility of SF.
When you understand what operational necessity is and apply it to yourself and the soldiers around you (remember you are an NCO) you will have gone a long way towards becoming a mature SF soldier.
Abu Jack Out
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