The SAS: a very special force

[Chairborne64]

You would think it might work that way but it doesn't and here is why. The number of SF guys needed is fixed. 5 Groups at 4 battalions each. Then a certain amount of extras for SWCS, SF Command, USASOC, T-SOCS, etc.... Current plans have no reduction in the size of SF. I may be mistaken but I think the current size of SF is at an all time high. At the least it is as big as it has ever been since the end of Viet Nam.

As the Army gets smaller the number of people in the Army who can meet the standards to become SF gets smaller. More importantly the number who meet the standards AND WANT TO BECOME SF gets smaller. There are many very good soldiers who are very happpy were they are at and there is nothing wrong with that.

As the number of folks going through the pipeline gets smaller you are left with two choices. Get rid of force structure (either officially or unofficially) or lower the standards to get more graduates.

We were in the same prediciment in the late 90s. We first unofficially shut down ever 6th ODA in a company. Later we got DA approval to do that. I am very curious to see what we do this time.

[Pete]

Originally Posted by Chairborne64

...........We were in the same prediciment in the late 90s. We first unofficially shut down ever 6th ODA in a company. Later we got DA approval to do that. I am very curious to see what we do this time.

Not the first time the 6th team was shut down. Somewhere around 77 +/- a couple of years the companies were getting so short all the empty slots were assigned to the 6th team. Had all the equipment just no warm bodies.

Some had one or two guys on them - just enough to keep the team room clean and do the company details.

The word was it was a trade off to keep from axing one of the Groups.

[Richard]

Originally Posted by Pete

Not the first time the 6th team was shut down. Somewhere around 77 +/- a couple of years the companies were getting so short all the empty slots were assigned to the 6th team. Had all the equipment just no warm bodies.

Some had one or two guys on them - just enough to keep the team room clean and do the company details.

The word was it was a trade off to keep from axing one of the Groups.

Yep - the 6th ODAs went away in '81 (at least for us in the 7th SFG) and came back later - it kept the 7th "on the books" until the turn-around began in the mid-80s.

As far as AD Groups went, by the summer of '74 we had gone from having the 1st, 3rd, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, and 10th SFGs to having the 5th (3 Bns at FBNC), 7th (2 Bns at FBNC and 1 Bn in the CZ), and 10th (2 Bns FDMA and 1 Bn of only 2 Companies in Bad Tölz). Groups had lots of 11B/11C//12B, critically short of 05B/91B.

And so it goes...

Richard

[Chairborne64]

I apologize to the NG Groups. As I was re-reading my post above I see I forgot to mention them. They will also have trouble recruiting. Also the AD side has more than once looked to the NG SF to try and steal manpower. I remember in 3rd Group we had about 4-5 officers show up out of the NG to fill missing positions.