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

[Pete]

Originally Posted by Firebeef

3. The Team will have it's own personality before you arrive, as do you.

my .02 worth

For you guys in the pipeline and some just coming to your first team.

You will be all fired up and "Gungho" to do something while the team may seem to be a little less "Gungho". That is because what is new for you is "Old Hat" to them. They will know how to get the job done without burning a lot of excess energy.

But about "Go" Teams. Start to look at all the teams in the company. Who is picked to go off by themselves, who is used as fillers, who works with the B team alot. Just what is the team personality on those teams? Why are they used the way they are?

You may end up on a team that cools a lot of coffee but will you stay there or, through hard work, end up on a "Go" team? Can your team be turned into a "Go" team with a few nudges here and there? How well you work, how mature you act and how you conduct yourself well get around.

Good teams eyeball everybody in the general area as prospects. Good teams will also have the ear of the SGM. The SGM likes to make sure the proper sock is on the right foot, so to say, and the boot fits.

Pete

Who picked a few plumbs from sleepy teams more than once.

[doc22584]

I just want to say thank you to all the guys sharing there stories and giving out quality advice.

[NousDefionsDoc]

Try to keep up.

[kgoerz]

My first major deployment overseas was when I was in A-1-7SFG. We went to Panama for our Companies security rotation to augment 3rd bn. We just happen to be there when the invasion kicked off. What luck and a great early impression of my SF career. Later on in SF working as a RST our hotel didn't have HBO. But we toughed it out anyway.......

[Richard]

Year 1 in Group?

As a newly graduated Medic assigned to the 7th SFGA:

• SGM Dick Warren put my ass in the 7th SFG motor pool for 2 months to learn to maintain and repair vehicles (hated ‘breaking” M35 tires), pull DZ coverage with my temp “assigned” M151 ambulance, and learn that SF Medics (or any newbies) are lower than whale shit until they prove themselves worthy of acceptance by their team mates
• Trip with 2/5th SFG
• Mountain/ski training in Northern Arizona
• Trip to Latin America
• 2 months doing MEDCAP support (“Nation Building” for NHS) in rural NC
• Trip to Oro Grande/Lincoln National Forest for UWEx with Canadian 2 Cdo (English speaking) for aggressors and involuntarily reactivated IRRs for Gs
• Left for USASFT (3/1st SFGA) and JCRC (SFT-36 @ Nong Takoo and CtlTm-A @ NKP)

Richard

[Viking]

I showed up in Feb 03. I was in the SGM's office and he was deciding where to put me. My new Team Sergeant walked in and the SGM introduced us. His hair was wild and there was fire in his eyes. The next month was fast and furious. I lucked into a SOTAC (CAS) school slot because I was the only guy left one afternoon. We were preparing to deploy and everything was balls to the wall. New equipment was rolling in every day. We deployed to Afghanistan a month after I got here. My ODA had no officer's and my Team Sergeant was an E-7. We deployed with six guys and upon arrival in Kandahar we were part of a DA force for a few weeks. The order came to push to our firebase in the central part of Afghanistan and we loaded up all of our equipment and conducted a 15 hour drive over some of the planet's worst roads. I spent the next five months riding behind a .50 over those same roads. We lived in a small mud hut with a freezing cold shower and we loved it!!! There was much work to be done and we stayed busy hitting houses and conducting recons. Those were truly the days. My Team Sergeant was an unbelievable leader. He led from the front in everything we did. Our commo guys could make anything work, our engineer could build or destroy things with ease, our medic was always busy patching holes in people, and I try to learn everything I could. I tried to be a good sponge and soak it all up. Everthing I learned came in to play over the next two tours but that first year and deployment was incredible. The rest of my first year is a blur of redeployment, leave, ranges, and training for the next tour. Learn everything you can in SFQC but remember that it never stops. Every single day on an ODA is a learning experience.

[Five-O]

Print these memories out and take it to Barnes and Noble.

[7624U]

1st month:
Welcome to the team your the Sr Bravo our last Bravo got fired !
He's working in the Arm's Room go talk to him.
We Start ISO next week study these maps and come up with a
good infil route into Iraq.

2ed month:
ISO end's and we do mission prep, pack and long range commo
checks and weapons training along with NBC training.

3rd month:
Fly to Romainia wait for 3 weeks to get clearence to infil threw
turkey never happens....

4th month:
Screw our infil plan turkey wont let us use thier base so we fly
the UGLY BABY route. link up with our peshmerga G's

5th month:
Change of mission your going over to Cco they need Extra
Bravo's, Hope your up on your Mortar's your going to gun
the 81mm for the BN's main Attack on the Ansar Islam.
as im wondering who the hell are these guys. I jump
on the Dump truck we use for transportation to the
stageing area.

5th 1/2 :
Ok go back to your ODA they need help bad.
ODA glad your back We need to get these 120mm
Mortar's working So we can give them to the Peshmerga
to use. ok let me look ! Nice! 1950's US made 120mm tubes
on Trailors, Romanian Surplus Ammo with no fireing table's,
and Sovet Union Sight's that are Exactly backwards From ours
(when I say backwards I mean when you look at a US Sight
3200mil's will be the data for looking strait ahead at a target
and the tube should be on the same bore site. on soviet sights
the data reads 6400mil's when looking stait ahead.)

6th month: OIF1 is over.


7th month: Redeploy, go on leave, clean stuff.

8th month: Change of Command

9th month: Down Time and admin.

10th month: SFAUC

11th month: Pike's Peak Climb. team training

12th Month: Orders Come down for our Next Rotation to Iraq.

[incommin]

My first year started in B company/ 7th in 1967. All I can remember is sitting on the team house steps and watching senior NCO's do police call and trying to get used to that image.....supporting Gabrial Demonstration area, trying to learn Polish, inventorying a demo box and locker every Monday morning, supporting jumps by driving a deuce and a half and delivering used chutes to the hanging tower and repacking shed, pulling KP and thinking that E-5's in the rest of the Army were not doing it, reporting to the isolation building with all my "stuff" every five to six weeks, watching my buddies get orders for 5th Group and trying to figure why I wasn't.

Jim

[deanwells]

HMMMM.......

MONTH 1
Join the team on first day of mission train up. I felt like I skipped the fire hose and went straight to Niagara Falls. There was alot to learn and little time to learn it. all. On the other hand, I had a dive bubble already so I was welcomed and accepted. I met the TM SGT on Black Friday a couple of months before when I came out to help the pre-scubies learn their desired infil technique. I thought to myself this isn't so bad

MONTH 2-9
Deployed on a 7 month trip. I had a senior, so I got pretty damn lucky. He showed me all the things that you don't learn in the Q. He had a wealth of knowledge and experience. Who would have thought car batteries would be so helpful? Not me, but it is actually an old school technique that you can learn by asking the guys who have done it. My TM SGT was a stand up guy who pretty much knew a ton of good stuff in all of the teams sections. He squared each and every one of us cherries away with techniques that are proven but lost from intial entry level SOF schools (Q). He also kicked us in the mid-section with verbal corrections when we were out of line and drifting way left of our range span. The "NO-DISCUSSION RULE" was in effect on a regular basis. I didn't see it then, because I thought I knew a little something. As I look back now, I see that I knew squat. I'm glad that the TM SGT was that way, because I would have never learned the right and always would have went with the wrong. I will never forget the lessons I learned.

Month 10
I had the opportunity to be an assistant instructor in a PRE-SCUBA course that our team ran for the new batch of guys wanting to be divers. Instructor strength ROCKS!!!

MONTH 11-12
I went to a couple of schools that I will not name for obvious reasons.

All in all, my first year was rough but definitely worth it. I learned so much by listening. I learned that an experienced and stern leadership can and will make the difference in the minds of young and old troops who are just beginning this chosen profession and lifestyle.

To the new guys,

Know you SA. Keep your mouth closed and your ears open. Know your job, not just the things you learn in the school house, but also the things you won't learn unless you ask questions and use the search button on your internet explorer.

Oh YEAH and one more thing,
The experienced guys do not care about your Q course stories unless they ask you directly.

Good luck in your future endeavors

DOL

Not to get off topic, but what incommin said has me curious. Does SF still do Gabrial Demo's?

[NousDefionsDoc]

Originally Posted by MAB32

Not to get off topic, but what incommin said has me curious. Does SF still do Gabrial Demo's?

Yes. Lately they have mostly been for AQ....

[Noslack71]

SGM Jake trained me and a couple of other fellows for a couple of weeks in the 81-82 time frame at Ft. Lewis. This lesson that still sticks, is the best use of a Rolex when one is being chased. I bought a Rolex shortly after SGM Jake's training and, have worn it ever since with that contingency in mind. Fortunately I have not had to put that bit of training to use nor, was I the one chosen to inform the "Ukranian Bear" what the height/weight standards were in the early 80's

[JMI]

Second time around reading this thread and it is better the second time.

[Mike]

I'll bite. WTF is the Rolex trick, hang it on a bush and hope they stop and fight over it?
I know how it works for a compass.