To all the QP's, i ask you kindly to share your memories of year 1 on a team

[doc22584]

To all the QP's out there i ask you to reflect back to the years when you were the FNG on the team.

Thanks

[Jack Moroney (RIP)]

Originally Posted by doc22584

To all the QP's out there i ask you to reflect back to the years when you were the FNG on the team.

Thanks

Damn son, I have problems reflecting on what I may or may not have had for breakfast and you want me to go back 38 years!

[x SF med]

I second COL Jack - and it's only been nearly 22 years for me - although I still remember Kevin McA - the Sr B (Actually he was an 11C... Heavy Weapons, I was an 11B, Light Weapons) - I still have nightmares.

doc22584 - you must have just gotten to a team, or are trying to prep while still in the course.

I don't think I'm going to say anymore- you are still in the course, once you graduate, you'll find out - It takes the 'initiation ceremony' before you get that kind of info.

[The Reaper]

For the first year, it was like drinking from a firehose.

Like the SWCS training never stopped, but with guys who were your friends, mentors, and peers for instructors, and with real consequences hanging in the balance.

You learned fast and worked hard, not for yourself, but because you didn't want to let any of these guys down.

And you need a pick-up truck, because of all the beer you will have to buy.

TR

[lksteve]

Originally Posted by The Reaper

And you need a pick-up truck, because of all the beer you will have to buy.

and if you are an engineer sergeant, you need to haul stuff you sto...obtained for the team...

i remember L1 through about L7...i remember (vividly) how much of a pain in the ass it was getting parachutes out of trees at Turner DZ...i remember there was no such thing as a Viking Dry Suit (Viking Damp Suit, yes,,,Dry Suit...nope) i remember being half-scared to death of screwing up an IV i was trying to run on the Detachment Commander...i had a team sergeant that never yelled, never seemed pissed and WAS NEVER SATISFIED...not with me, not with himself, not with anyone or anything...

and i remember the combinations of half the locks on mop lockers at Fort Devens...

the year i was a detachment XO was far, far worse...and a lot more fun (not to mention expensive...the XO is always buying the beer...)

[doc22584]

Originally Posted by x_sf_med

I second COL Jack - and it's only been nearly 22 years for me - although I still remember Kevin McA - the Sr B (Actually he was an 11C... Heavy Weapons, I was an 11B, Light Weapons) - I still have nightmares.

doc22584 - you must have just gotten to a team, or are trying to prep while still in the course.

I don't think I'm going to say anymore- you are still in the course, once you graduate, you'll find out - It takes the 'initiation ceremony' before you get that kind of info.

Im still in the course. Just figured id throw the topic out there and see what everyone had to say.

[mffjm8509]

but here are some milestones......

Day 1. Team Sergeant made me introduce and talk about myself for 5 minutes as soon as I walked into the Team Room........IN RUSSIAN!

Week 1. Built a pallet for the first time for deployment......"why are we taking skis to Turkey?"

Month 1. Deployed to Turkey/N. Iraq for 90 days for SAR/UW operations (lots of fast roping, range time, helo ops, rockstar stuff! )

Month 1. Breifed USASOC Commander and CSM on mission planning/live launch for SAR

Month 2. Assisted in the development/writing of 6 week SUT POI/MTP

Month 2. Assigned to brief all incoming USAF Aviators on USSF SAR procedures

Month 3. Spent Thanksgiving depoyed with ODA 056. Had Thanksgiving Dinner in the "GB Club FWD", Incirlik AFB. Shared a 1/2 Gallon of bourbon with good friends.

Month 4. Redeployment, 100% Inventory. (they dont teach you that at the 18C course)

Month 5. Decentralized Winter training. ( "if this were an SFAS event I would've quit" ....... me after completing a 35 mile xcountry ski movement, the first time I'd ever been on skis)

Month 6. Winter downhill training at Ski Sunlight...probably the best 2 weeks of my career to that point. One of our best kept secrets.

Month 7. HALO school at YPG

Month 8-10. SF ANCOC/OI course

Month 11. Demining mission into Bosnia-Herzegovina. The best month of my career up to that point.

Month 12. First year complete. By far the best year of my career to that point. I learned more about being an SF guy from my Team Sergeant and the other guys on my Team. Those are lessons I still draw from today. Friendships were forged that are as strong today as they were then.

I'd do that first year all over again!

[Jack Moroney (RIP)]

Okay, I'll play

It was the anniversary of my third year in the Army with six months time in grade as a CPT. I stepped off a Huey in the middle of the Central Highlands to take over A-246 in a place called Mang Buk, this was going to be the first of two A-Teams I was to command in Vietnam in one year. Each was going to be totally different and everything I knew was going to be put into play the first week on the ground. I learned more from those outstanding soldiers in my first month than I had learned from anyone or any other experience in my life up to that time. I cannot begin to even explain the awesome level of reponsiblity I felt having been given the command of a team with all that it entails and you know what my biggest fear was-letting any of these guys down in any way. The hardest thing for me to do was to not take out every patrol or participate in every recon. It took my Team Sergeant to grab me by the stacking swivel real hard one day to remind me that we all had a good working relationship and they did not want to have to break in another "new" guy after stuffing me in a body bag. I learned something new everyday where ever I was. I couldn't learn enough. I checked everything, fired everything, sent the daily sitrep, broke msgs, debred wounds. I stood back and let my NCOs do their jobs and had them teach me virtually everything about anything they could. We trained counterparts, worked with our indig, were indoctrinated into their tribes, participated in their ceremonies, we were not one of them but we were definitely part of them. The saddest day of this part of my first year on a team was leaving them because the Group Commander decided I needed to go straighten out another A-team because he was so impressed with my folks at Mang Buk. I told him that we were good because we were a team and if he really wanted me to straighten out another team he should allow me to take the team that we had built together. He said no, I said good bye, my wife didn't know I had been given another team until a heavy package came for her in the mail of Thai Bronze Ware that my team had sent someone to Thailand to buy for her as a thank you. So for the remainder of my first year I took command of A-244 in a place called Ben Het and that started off with me getting blown off the helipad the minute my feet hit the ground. This was a tough assignment for a different reason. While the Group Commander might think you are the team's saviour, a bunch of guys who were totally busted because of the death of one guy and the capture of another living in a hell hole are not likely to look upon you as anything other than just another officer who will probably also get relieved. This was one of those times when you just had to set the tone right off the bat, which I did that night by responding alone to a ground probe on one of our OPs by driving like a wild man up to the top of the OP, taking a 60 mm mortar away from the yard that was supposed to manning it and walking rounds down the gully where the intruders were making their probe. Came back to find a bunch of long faced folks wondering if I was nuts and it took about a week but things fell into place and the team came together. It was a different setting, with different challenges and different folks, but good soldiers all who were intially distrusting of officers in general. I continued my old ways of learning all I could, but this time I had many battles to fight with higher headquarters, my counterpart who was a NVA mole, the 4th Infantry Division who killed more of my folks then the NVA did, and that constant nagging fear of making sure that I did nothing that would let these guys down or get them killed. My year ended much the way as it started, with a Huey ride away from a bunch of guys that I knew were in harms way but now I could do nothing about it. A couple of months later tanks hit the camp, but were stopped by the mine field I had put in without permission. There was talk of courts-martial until the 5th Group realized that they had gotten credit for killing a PT-76 and no one wanted to admit that some no-necked CPT did not have persmission to do something that should have been authorized in the first place. Now I could fill in the blanks about both places, but that would take a novel that no one would really want to read and many would not understand because I am not skilled enough to paint the picture that pays the appropriate level of respect and honor I hold in my memories of some of the finest soldiers with whom I have ever served.

[SouthernDZ]

Originally Posted by doc22584

To all the QP's out there i ask you to reflect back to the years when you were the FNG on the team.

Thanks

doc22584,

You will have 11 other team members engaged in sizing you up; as stated in an earlier post, you only have one chance to make a first impression. Do yourself a favor and realize you don't know a damn thing and keep your mouth shut.

Unlike me, who drank from the firehose my first months on a team while the country wasn't at war (I do not count multiple "advisory" tours in El Sal). You will have to learn each and every other team member's job.

If you're not an 18B: you must learn how to emplace and crew heavy weapons and mortars, tactics, moving as a fire team member, etc, etc.

If you're not an 18C: you have to be able to do the calculations, set up line/ring mains, electric/non-electric, S-4 functions, etc, etc.

If you're not an 18D: you have to be able to stop bleeding, perform chest decompression, and keep your head when someone is screaming "God help me" in your face, etc, etc.

If you're not an 18E: you have to be able to assemble and place into operation all of the numerous radio systems on the team, emergency encrpytion, duties too numerous to list here, etc, etc.

I'll forgo 18A, 180A, 18F and especially 18Z duties here; I pray these will not even be an issue for you so early in your SF career.

I have a hundred stories, some horror, some funny - but I had one thing you won't have when you walk into your first team room - time. I also learned a hell of a lot more from my mistakes than my successes. I'm afraid you may not have that luxuary either.

War is a series of mistakes, he who makes the least, wins.

I wish you the best, I have no doubt you'll carry on the SF tradition well.

[MFFI115]

I don't know, they kept me in a wall locker the first year!!!

Actually, from Training Group I went straight to CCS were I was in Recon Co and 1st Expoloitation Co, then Recon at CCC, so my experience was a bit different. All the "old timers", One-zeros and such, were pretty young, some younger than me, as I joined the army at a later age. Many of them had only 3-6 months longer in country than me. Now, we did have some real old soldiers like SGM Billy Waugh, MSG "Pop" Taylor, 1st SGT Joe Brock, SFC Floyd Rettman, SGM Matamoros and a few others. Except for Billy and "Pop", and my apologies to anyone I forgot, we learned from our fellow youngsters.

The rest of the old soldiers were either in the staff or security platoon. At that time I viewed them with disdain. Hindsight and the advantage of many years under my belt has taught me tolerance. I got there in May of '69 and some will say the war was "winding down". Many of the old soldiers "hiding" in security platoon, etc. were on their 3rd, 4th and more tours and I think deserved to spend some time in an easy job.

Any way that's my 1st year on a "team" experience; 1-1 and 1-2 in recon Co and Sgd Ldr/Plt Sgt in 1st Exploitation Co. Running Recon and Hatchet Forces as an SF newbie doesn't truly prepare one to be an A-Team member. I'll probably get some grief from some of my old SOG buddies for that comment! After a year and a half in country I went to the 46th CO in Thailand and finally got to my first real A-Team as the Intel Sgt on A-14 of B-4?. Uh-oh, can't remember the B team number. Yes, we had A, B, and C Teams then. We converted to companies and battalions in April '71.

I will add that I don't recall a whole lot of mentoring once I get to A-14. I think the unspoken philosophy was that you signed up, you showed up, got your stripes fast, now perform. Besides, you just spent a year and a half in combat. I think that may hae been a collective attitude amongst the older guys to us younger guys. Although the term didn't exist then, we were SF Babies. We were the first large group of SF volunteers that entered with reduced entrance requirements of age and time in service since the first call up for SF.