Why go SF?

[lksteve]

Originally Posted by kgoerz

The 82nd was far from chicken shit, at least in my Infantry BN.

i'm glad it worked for you...the 307th Eng. Bn. was very much a clique...

[NBC-Guy]

I joined the Army because my father was in the Army for his whole career and it made him into a totally person than who he was when he enlisted. The big reason I want to go into the Special Forces is from my interactions with three key individuals. The first was a CSM whom got me into JROTC as a freshman. Then second was my ex-girlfriends father, a CW4, who treated me as a son and encouraged me to follow this dream of mine and provided incite to what it took and above all told me of the confidence he had in me. Lastly, was a Maj. that was a cadre member in the ROTC program I was in for a couple of years. He told me the realities of what to expect and suggested WM's book for a more precise look into training and what not.

Associating with these three great people showed me the type of company and men that are within the various Groups. They are people that inspire, that push themselves, and above all hold themselves to a high standard. All of those reasons inspired me to do research on my own into the different missions, different Groups and AO's, and ultimately brought me to this site.

I have been planning going to a NG Group when I return from Iraq, but I just found out that after I demob I can go to an AD recruiter and get an 18x contract if I meet the pre-req's which I believe I have most of those boxes checked. I had planned to eventually go AD if I had made it thru the pipeline thru the Guard and its just amazing that this opportunity has surfaced. I only pray that the paperwork will fall into place and allow me to pursue this dream.

I would like to thank all of you for what you do, endure, and above all sacrifice in the name of Freedom and our country. I pray everyday and bust my ass in the gym and on the track to enable myself to own day join the fraternity and brotherhood.

SPC B

[abc_123]

Originally Posted by NBC-Guy

.I had planned to eventually go AD if I had made it thru the pipeline thru the Guard

SPC B

That's great. So Specialist, you had it all planned to waste a NG company's training NCO's time and effort let him, the admin nco, and the Ops Sergeant, do all the paperwork and babysit your ass...maybe even call the unit whining to have the Company SGM go to bat for you if you had happened to step on your crank along the way...all with the expressed purpose of showing up with paperwork in hand to transfer to the Active Duty.

Super.

No wait, I'm sure you would have shown up at that NG Company and told them right off the bat that you had no intention of serving with them and that you were simply using them to get a slot into SFAS/Q etc enroute to AD Right? ... Sure you would.

Yep, it's all within the rules....but I don't like people who from jump street misrepresent themselves to work an angle for personal benefit.

From that statement, you sound like one of those people.

I hope that I am wrong, and/or hope some AD team doesn't find that that to be true the hard way.

[abc_123]

double post. post deleted.

[NBC-Guy]

Originally Posted by abc_123

That's great. So Specialist, you had it all planned to waste a NG company's training NCO's time and effort let him, the admin nco, and the Ops Sergeant, do all the paperwork and babysit your ass...maybe even call the unit whining to have the Company SGM go to bat for you if you had happened to step on your crank along the way...all with the expressed purpose of showing up with paperwork in hand to transfer to the Active Duty.

Super.

No wait, I'm sure you would have shown up at that NG Company and told them right off the bat that you had no intention of serving with them and that you were simply using them to get a slot into SFAS/Q etc enroute to AD Right? ... Sure you would.

Yep, it's all within the rules....but I don't like people who from jump street misrepresent themselves to work an angle for personal benefit.

From that statement, you sound like one of those people.

I hope that I am wrong, and/or hope some AD team doesn't find that that to be true the hard way.

I did not in any way mean it in that manner abc_123. My plan was one of longevity which I often don't say on the forum due to the fact that I am not SF qualified. I was planning on going into the Guard group and staying there for as long as necessary to gain experience then if I gained the necessary competence and tactical proficency, put in a packet to go warrant in which time I planned to have gone Active Duty.

I by no means was going to waste the time and jump ship that quickly. I am not the type of person to burn bridges in that manner and to screw people over. I researched and talked to several AD recruiters to see if there was a way for me, being already four years into my contract to get onto AD for fear of being perceived as I have just been seen. A few days ago I found out that I could get into the 18x program thus changing the plans I originally had.

SPC B.

[abc_123]

Look, I shouldn't have jumped on you based upon one post....and for something that never came to pass anyway.

It's just that I am becoming irritated at the fact that there seems to be (from my perspective) an increasing number of individuals in the NG pipeline that use NG resources to get trained and prepared and supported thru their time in the pipe and then give nothing back to the organization that supported them. Look, I respect these individuals for completing the Q etc. (how could I not) and respect them for their willingness to serve and move to the sound of the guns when there are so very many sheeple in this country. However, when you are in a short-handed unit trying to do your own recruiting, spending time/effort trying to run a quality NQP program it's frustrating to have people exhibit no loyalty, or give any payback before jumping ship... without at least getting a deployment out of them.

Glad you found a path to your goal. AD SF. Work hard...and good luck to you.

Be safe.

[ksgbobo]

I have thought long and hard about this one. I grew up in a military family. My father was an officer in the USMC, so naturally I planned on joining the Corps. I did not enlist after high school because my dad told me that life as an enlisted man in the Marine Corps is shit, which I believe, because I have many friends who have BTDT. So I put off the military and went to college, doing the "right" thing.
I was an LDS missionary for two years in Mexico. I was happy serving our Lord, but wanted to serve my country during this time of turmoil. I met a fellow missionary who told me his dad was SF in Utah, and told all the cool stories about the kinds of things his dad did. That stuff appealed to me.
After I got home from my mission I was down in Melbourne Florida helping out with hurricane clean up in '04. We stopped at a Ryans Steakhouse - I think it was - off the highway there around Melbourne and ate lunch. Inside was a company of Army Infantry guys, and an SF team. I was stoked to see the SF guys, they were confident, well built and stood there with a purpose. As I was standing in line with the regular infantry guys, they were all bitching about their officers and such, and I asked them where they were from. I think it was Mississippi.
Well, I really wanted to talk to the SF guys, but they were off in the party section by themselves secluded from everybody else. One of them got up to get some ice cream, so I got up, approched him, and thanked him for his service and for what he does because it takes a special kind of person to do what you do (I thanked the infantry guys as well). He appreciated my compliment and thanks, and returned to his team.
Since then, I am still in school and have been married for two years now. I have read many books and accounts about SOF, but SF appeals to me the most. The reason being is the motto - To Free the Oppressed. When I was a missionary it was all about serving people, being in SF is not all about being a trigger puller, but being a thinker, a diplomat, a teacher and about serving others. That is why I like Special Forces, and one day hope that I can devote my life to Special Forces.

[PiratesLife11]

Originally Posted by NousDefionsDoc

Napoleon was an ass. He was more lucky than he was good. Quote winners.

Napoleon was indeed a strutting peacock; however, one should not underestimate or downplay his political savoir faire and tactical intelligence. Napoleon rose to power from relative obscurity because no one understood the French Revolution better than he did. This was no easy task. The fate of Robespierre is a prime example.

In terms of military prowess, let us not forget Toulon, where the "Little Corporal" made his bones. As a general, Napoleon trounced vitually every major power in Europe. During his Eastern European campaigns, Napoleon made Frederick Wilhelm's Prussia look like a third world country (just ask von Clausewitz, he details it quite vividly, especially the French capture of Prince August). Napoleon's cannon bombardments followed by his double column infantry and cavalry charges were the reason he was undefeated until the Concert of Europe finally ended the French expansion in Russia and finally at Waterlooo. Napoleon's only weakness was his ambition. Had he not over-extended his army, his empire would have lasted a lot longer than it did.

Napoleon's legacy still endures to this day. He initiated reforms ranging from women's rights to a fair justice system that have become the model for most modern societies, including America. It was his policies regarding economic equality that led to the aristocracy labeling him the "Anti-Christ" and "Devil of Europe". This was because he exucuted so-called nobles who did not fall in line with the new order of things and scoffed at the idea of "divine-right kingship" and "heavenly sovereignty". Upon crowning himself emperor in Rome, Napoleon sarcastically proclaimed: "Dio mi la dona, guai a qui la tocca" or "This crown is God-given, woe betide the man who touches it."—a testement to his understanding of the responsibility being entrusted to him.

By any measure, Napoleon was a great man, and certainly not a loser. Tolstoy's "War and Peace", though told from a Russian perspective, recounts excellently the sheer influence of the Napoleonic era in the early part of the 19th century. An esteemed professor of mine at UCLA once told me that a man can never truly consider himself an intellectual unless he is familiar with his Tolstoy and Dostoevsky. More and more, in daily life, I find his words and theirs applicable.

—E

[RTK]

ABC's post reminded me of a discussion I had the other day with one of my students.

Now I'm all for guys following their dreams to go SF. I don't look at it as my branch losing a leader. I see the Army just repositioning one. I've come to find out not all Armor Officers feel this way.

I got a new LT in this week at the Basic Course who essentially told me this: He's prior service Air Force 1LT and told me he has no desire to be an Armor Officer, just to go SF. He intends to graduate my course, go to Ranger and Airborne Schools and go to SFAS after, though he has an opportunity to go to combat with a combat arms unit instead of the schools. I tried to explain to him the 3 year rule about SFAS and that he could go to SFAS in the next 6 months, go to combat to learn more than his Air Force Signal career has given him so far, then pick up Ranger and Airborne on his way to the Q after the MCCC. He wants none of that. Then I asked him if he thought SF branch would look more favorably on his Ranger Tab or 1 year of combat leadership experience. He still thinks the Ranger Tab will get him farther.

Do you want him? Any pearls of wisdom you want me to pass on to him?

[Pete S]

Originally Posted by RTK

ABC's post reminded me of a discussion I had the other day with one of my students.

Now I'm all for guys following their dreams to go SF. I don't look at it as my branch losing a leader. I see the Army just repositioning one. I've come to find out not all Armor Officers feel this way.

I got a new LT in this week at the Basic Course who essentially told me this: He's prior service Air Force 1LT and told me he has no desire to be an Armor Officer, just to go SF. He intends to graduate my course, go to Ranger and Airborne Schools and go to SFAS after, though he has an opportunity to go to combat with a combat arms unit instead of the schools. I tried to explain to him the 3 year rule about SFAS and that he could go to SFAS in the next 6 months, go to combat to learn more than his Air Force Signal career has given him so far, then pick up Ranger and Airborne on his way to the Q after the MCCC. He wants none of that. Then I asked him if he thought SF branch would look more favorably on his Ranger Tab or 1 year of combat leadership experience. He still thinks the Ranger Tab will get him farther.

Do you want him? Any pearls of wisdom you want me to pass on to him?

In addition to sounding arrogant and selfish he needs a reality check.

[The Reaper]

Originally Posted by Pete S

In addition to sounding arrogant and selfish he needs a reality check.

Concur.

Badgefinder who will be found out and will not make it.

TR

[Peregrino]

Originally Posted by Pete S

In addition to sounding arrogant and selfish he needs a reality check.

Pretty astute observation for a former Marine. FWIW I agree, but let's let the QP SNCO's and O's provide RTK with his ammo. Besides, I don't think we'll have to worry about the ex-AF LT; somehow I doubt he'll make the grade where he is, which will preclude him moving on to SF. Nobody wants a problem child that's focused on I/me and won't listen to quality advice. My .02 - Peregrino

[Pete S]

Originally Posted by Peregrino

FWIW I agree, but let's let the QP SNCO's and O's provide RTK with his ammo.

Sorry, didn't mean to intrude

[RTK]

Originally Posted by Peregrino

Pretty astute observation for a former Marine. FWIW I agree, but let's let the QP SNCO's and O's provide RTK with his ammo. Besides, I don't think we'll have to worry about the ex-AF LT; somehow I doubt he'll make the grade where he is, which will preclude him moving on to SF. Nobody wants a problem child that's focused on I/me and won't listen to quality advice. My .02 - Peregrino

I've got no doubt he'll retrograde himself on attitude alone. I'd like the little bastard to be able to write a 5 paragraph OPORD to standard. So far, no dice. He's kinda throwing the cart in front of the horse, all in front of a huge bus, IMHO.

After a few days I'm gonna print what get's added out and give it to him. Thanks for the help, fellas.

[Pete]

RTK I sent you a PM - check your box.