SPECIAL FORCES TRAINING TODAY
In recent years, Special Forces mission areas have expanded. As this has happened, so has the scope of the selection process and the training program. Thus today, the initial phase of formal qualification training lasts between twenty-four and thirty-six months, depending on the MOS of the student.
Applicants are all volunteers. They must be airborne-qualified, in good physical condition, and have nothing in their backgrounds that would prevent a security clearance to at least the SECRET level.
The Special Forces Qualification Course breaks down as follows:
Phase I (Camp MacKall): SF Assessment and Selection—25 days
Phase II (Camp MacKall): Land Navigation, Small-Unit Training, Live Fire—48 days
Phase III (Fort Bragg): MOS Training: 18B (Weapons)—2 months18C (Engineers)—2 months18D (Medic)—12 months18E (Commo)—4 months
Phase IV (Camp MacKall): Training to include Robin Sage (2 weeks)—39 days
SERE: Survival, Escape, Resistance, and Evasion (Camp MacKall): 19 days
Graduation: Flash Awarded Language Training: 4–6 months
The toughest part physically is the SF assessment and selection phase, during which soldiers are continuously assessed to determine whether or not they have what it takes. The first week is designed to evaluate a soldier's emotional and psychological makeup, mainly by means of written and practical tests. The second week is structured to test the soldier's endurance, strength, will, and mental toughness. It involves a complete range of physical tests, including timed runs, obstacle courses, rucksack marches, day and night land navigation, and swimming wearing uniform and boots. During this week, the soldier's ability to function effectively in a high-stress environment is also evaluated by means of sleep deprivation and more psychological testing. The third week evaluates his leadership abilities as an individual and as part of a team.
At the end of the three weeks, a board of impartial senior officers and, NCOs reviews each candidate's performance record and makes the final determination about his suitability for Special Forces training. The board also recommends a military occupational specialty for each soldier.
The Assessment and Selection course is conducted eight times a year. In the past, the average selection rate has averaged about twenty-nine percent. Recently, however, the rate has risen to fifty percent. A more stringent preliminary screening process and better-quality applicants have meant that the higher rate has been accomplished without sacrificing quality. Soldiers who fail to make the selection are sent bach to their units with a letter of commendation. Some are allowed to try again, and some of them will make it on the second go.
Meanwhile, those who were selected mill enter the Q Course (Phase II) , where they must satisfactorily complete whatever their MOS requires (including Robin Sage and SERE training).
After graduation and award of the 'flash,' each soldier is assigned to a unit, but before he joins his A-Detachment, he must complete six months (or more) of language training (depending on his unit's area of orientation).
Now he has mastered the basics, but as a member of a team his training continues for the rest of his career. His next formal course of instruction (which comes very soon) will likely he military free-fall (parachute) or combat diver (scuba) training. Additionally, he will hegin to receive intense formal instruction in the culture of his area of focus.
During the two months after graduation from the Q Course, Stiner attended Jumpmaster School (two weeks at Fort Bragg) and continued to improve the proficiency of his A-Detachment in field-training exercises in the Uhwarrie National Forest.
In January 1965, and for the next six months, he was commander of a B-Detachment in A Company, 3rd Special Forces Group. More field, training followed, and on a larger scale.
One exercise I particularly remember (modeled after 'Cobbler Woods') involved two B-Detachments — mine in a counterinsurgency role against Captain Charlie Johnson's in a UW role. This exercise was conducted in an area of Florida, bounded in the north by the city of Titusville, in the south by the city of Melbourne, in the west by the St. John's River, and in the cast by the Atlantic Ocean. All of this was civilian-owned land, and virgin territory for military training activities. A large segment of the civilian populacc was organized and trained by one or the other B-Detachment, and they participated enthusiastically. Army aviation was used extensively in support. Air boats were also used by both sides (great preparatory training for Vietnam!).
At the conclusion of the exercise, and in an effort to desensitize and reunite our civilian friends who had participated (some had gotten a little too involved — they actually wanted to keep fighting their 'enemies,' some of them with guns), we hosted a barbecue supper — and military demonstration — for the entire community. This worked. Peace was restored.
As we were flying back to Fort Bragg the next day, I noticed a commotion up near the front of the airplane.
Some NCOs had been trying to smuggle a four-foot alligator back as a company mascot. When I checked out the commotion, I discovered that the alligator had gotten loose, and they were trying to subdue him. They eventually did, binding him with rope from one end to the other.
When we landed, we were met by our commander, Lieutenant Colonel Hoyt, and Sergeant Major Arthur. the sergeant major immediately detected the smuggling operation, and took the four smugglers, along with the gator, to the company area and had them spend most of the night digging the gator a pond. They secured him there with leg irons so he would not get loose and cat the real company mascot, a dog.
It didn't stop there. The NCOs allowed that the gator had to be 'airborne-qualified, especially since the dog was. So they connived with the riggers into making him a harness and a special parachute. About a week later, during a scheduled jump on St. Mere Eglise Drop Zone, they threw the gator out of an aircraft and followed him to the ground. He made it down just fine, but when they got to where he'd come down, all they found was the harness and chute. He'd eaten his way out of the harness and disappeared.
Thirteen years later, the Fort Bragg game warden discovered a seven-foot alligator in the swamp at the western end of St. Mere Eglise Drop Zone, the only gator ever at Fort Bragg — and it remains a mystery to this day how he got there.
Soldiers, and especially Special Forces soldiers, are always looking for imaginative ways to entertain themselves, and there is nothing wrong with it, so long as it is legal, ethical, and no one is hurt.
In July 1965, following the training exercise in Florida, I became the Company S-3 (Operations Officer), responsible for the training and readiness of the company. 1 remained in that position until the spring of 1966, when I left Special Forces to attend the Command and Ceneral Staff College at Leavenworth, Kansas.
During this period, when all the services were undergoing the buildup for Vietnam, large numbers of draftees were being brought into the Army, and the training centers were filled to capacity.
In August, the entire company, which consisted of the headquarters and two B-Detachments (the third B- Detachment was on mission to Ethiopia), had deployed to the Pisgah National Forest in western North Carolina for training in the higher and more rugged parts of the mountains. This had been ongoing for about a week, when I
