7th Special Forces Group

Special Operations Forces Selection PT Preparation Week 14, Day 2

A quick workout to start the Monday morning and week off right. Start off with the basics of pushups, sit-ups, and crunches, then to the bar for V-ups, pull-ups, and dips before a 5-mile run in a mini UBRR test. Remember to stay hydrated and mark your progress in your workout log book.

So how was your time in the 12-miler on Sunday? Were you under the standard of 3 hours? How do your feet feel after that? If your time was near or over the time limit, then you know what needs to get worked on.

UBRR Training:

More preparation for the UBRR

1 x 1-minute Pushups

1 x 1-minute Sit-ups

1 x 1-minute, Crunches

1 x 1-minute, V-ups

1 x Dips as many as possible to muscle failure (No time limit)

1 x Pullups as many as possible or to muscle failure (No time limit)

5-mile run (40 minutes maximum)

Stretch well after completion

Rucking Practical Exercise, Dodge the Rain Drops

Against my better judgment today, I decided to throw caution to the wind and go rucking despite having an injured calf/ankle. Last weekend I was shooting a high school football game for one of the newspapers I work for. Yes, that O&I photography class is still paying dividends after all these years. So, near the end of the game, I was trying to get a shot along the sideline of a kid catching the ball right near where I was standing off the field of play.

The defender rode the kid out of bounds and for good measure well off the field, gave him an extra shot, which sent the receiver flying…right toward me. I stepped back but the kid went down and rolled, executing a pretty fair PLF. As he continued his roll, his cleats came down right on my ankle and lower calf. While it hurt, it didn’t get bad until I got home and pulled my boot off. It looked like a lion scratched me with his claws, the middle gash was deep and my foot swelled up to about 3x its normal size.

What’s the best way to recover from an injury like that? Rest? Ice? Both? Nah, Rucking is the answer …right? It seemed like a good idea at the time. Anyhow.

With heavy rain forecast for the area, starting later this morning and running thru the day, the best time to start a ruck march is early. And as being we’re early risers normally, this was a no-brainer.

The morning was overcast and warmer than I envisioned and quite humid as you could tell that there was rain in the air. And before you get to Selection, remember the weather will always, always take a dump on you at the worst possible timing during a gated event.

Going Downhill Really an Advantage?

Recently I had been reading some material about rucking. And in this one piece, the author had stated that the ratio of timed gained going downhill was only about half of what was lost going uphill. Surely, that has to be false, I thought. I have always been one to preach about “making up time” going downhill.

So I decided to test it as scientifically as possible. On the trail that I was using this morning, there is a long upslope followed by about two miles of flat terrain and then two good size hills.

And surprised to say, that what I perceived to be a wife’s tale was the truth. At the start of the two-mile flat terrain, I started my stopwatch on my phone and timed myself until I got to the end. I took the average for the two miles on the flat which was right about where I expected to be in terms of time of the pace.

When I got to the hills, I did them twice to get an accurate look, so I set the watch and timed myself going up, made a note and went back down. At the bottom, I repeated the procedure.

Just as a footnote, the hills in question are pretty steep and much steeper than anything you’ll find in SFAS or at Ft. Benning. However, while it appeared that I had not slowed down much, the pace was knocked back to where it was a good 35 seconds slower than the flat terrain.

And the average time gained from trudging on the downhill side was only half of what was lost by going uphill, which was exactly what I had read in the piece. My times were an average 18 seconds faster but only about half of what I had lost on the upslope. Again, these hills are much bigger than you’ll see in Selection, so the ratio of time lost and gained are probably much higher than you will experience in Selection. Unless of course, you’re going to Delta Selection and then these are almost the flattest terrain you’ll experience there. So, in the SpecialOperations.com version of “Mythbusters”, mark this one down as true! Learn something new every day.

There is something to be said for hitting the trails early in the morning in the fall. To see the leaves turning the bright colors is always a reason that we remind ourselves of why we choose to live up here. Although I then went thru a small section of woods where the leaves are already down and it is depressing thinking of what is soon right ahead of us.

But as we’re out hitting the hills this morning and clearing our head first thing in the morning it is always a good idea to do a checklist to ensure you have everything right before you go.

Correct Socks and boots for the ruck? Check. And even the extra wrap for the sore ankle…check. Is the rucksack packed properly with the sandbag in the radio pouch and the Camelbak ready to go? Check. Walking stick/slash lance for unruly animals…check.

Embracing the Suck…Again:

Lately some of the messages I’ve gotten, I get the distinct tone that some candidates are already approaching rucking as something that is going to suck 24-hrs a day and it is something that must be learned to live with. To a small extent, that is true.

But as we’ve put out in countless times in plenty of posts…too many to count, if you treat rucking as you would getting a root canal, then it will be painful each and every time you do it. “Embracing the Suck” isn’t just a t-shirt design. It is a way of learning to embrace your lifestyle choice. No one is saying that rucking is easy or that it will be any less painful at times. But your ruck is and always will be, along with your boots your primary means of transportation when everything else goes to hell….and it will.

You have to learn to love putting the big green tick, the pain pill etc…on your back or you will be a very unhappy camper in Special Operations. That’s why some of us still do it 30-something years later. While we may not be humping 100 pounds of lightweight kit over the mountains of Shitholeastan, it was and still is, part of the lifestyle.

Check out the FOGs (many of whom I know) that humped the length of the Appalachian Trail last summer for charity. Remember, “it is a normal civilian who looks upon everything that happens in his life as a blessing or a curse. But the warrior looks upon everything thrown at him as a challenge.”

With that said….Let’s go rucking, preferably before rain hits! However, I do have to have a word with my bulldog who used to love to go. Now she runs to the back of the house when she sees me pick up the ruck and boots. She is not “Embracing the Suck”… We need to talk.

If anyone else has any questions, feel free to send them along to [email protected] or at my Twitter page @SteveB7SFG and I’ll be glad to answer them.

Photo courtesy of US Army, author

SF Working By, With, Through Bolivian Rangers Capture Che Guevara

In the 1960s, Che Guevara was an iconic figure, especially among those who thought that the young revolutionary was hip, chic and achieved almost rock star status. He was young, handsome and very well educated. In fact, Che is now probably more popular in the country responsible for his death, Bolivia, by people who have little understanding of what he truly stood for, than he was then in 1967.

This is a good history lesson for the students of both unconventional warfare as well as those looking for a good counter-insurgency mission lesson. And it shows how quickly a dedicated professional group of Special Operations Forces can turn a group of peasants into a professional, 400-man strong Ranger unit in just a few months.

The Bolivian people rejected his message of revolution and the farmers who saw Che and his band of revolutionaries, turned them into the government. They were hunted down in short order by the recently formed and trained Bolivian 2nd Ranger Battalion.

The Bolivian Rangers were trained by an ODA of Green Berets from the 8th Special Forces Group from Panama. The 16-man A-Team was commanded by Ralph “Pappy” Shelton, who had already conducted several important missions for SF in both Latin America and the Far East.

Shelton came from the enlisted ranks, progressing from private to Sergeant First Class and had fought in Korea before attending Officer Candidate School. Being older at 29, than the other candidates, he earned the nickname Pappy, which stuck. In 1962, Shelton joined the ranks of Special Forces and he had already taken SF A-Teams into Laos to combat the Pathet Lao and in the Dominican Republic in 1965 after the U.S. incursion there.

His team of 16 Spanish speaking Green Berets were sent to Bolivia to train the new Ranger unit that would be going up against the Marxist revolutionaries. The Green Berets with CIA assets in place, aggressively went hunting Che and his band from the moment that they were activated.

One of the SF officers assigned to Bolivia, LT John Waghelstein, later became the commander of the 7th SFG (A), and he recognized what the Bolivian government did to help defeat the message of Che. And he would repeat it later after he took command of the MILGP in El Salvador during the 1980s. ‘You can kill guerrillas and build a wall around this country with bodies of dead guerrillas, but unless you address the root causes of the insurgency, you can’t win. No way,’ he said.

Che grossly miscalculated his ability to foment revolution outside of Cuba. Once the Communists took over, Guevara was put in charge of the infamous “La Cabana”, the 18th-century prison where hundreds of political rivals who were branded “war criminals” were executed. Something the recent followers of Che seem to blot out of their collective conscience.

With the U.S. embroiled in the increasingly unpopular war in Vietnam, once Che announced that he was going to create 2-3 Vietnams in the United States’ backyard in Latin America, his group immediately went on the radar of the government.

He also got on the radar of the Soviets, at that time under the leadership of Leonid Brezhnev and the Soviets were trying to dissuade Castro from supporting revolutions in Latin America. Guevara publicly stated that the Soviets had “forgotten Marx”, and the iciness between the two would prove to be possibly a death knell for his operation in Bolivia.

Guevara Builds Little Support in Bolivia:

Guevara arrived in La Paz from Uruguay, he trademark beard shaved off and his hair died grey under an assumed name. He and his group of 50 revolutionaries moved to the Ñancahuazú valley in the southeastern part of the country. His second in command was an East German, named Haydée Tamara Bunke Bider, known by her nom de guerre “Tania”. They attracted few guerrillas to join their ranks, and those that did were mostly unreliable.

Worse, the support that Guevara expected from the Bolivian Communist Party, was not coming. They followed the leadership of the Soviets and wouldn’t help Guevara. He characterized the BCP in his diary as “distrustful, disloyal and stupid.” And Guevara’s radio, with which he was supposed to keep in contact with Havana didn’t work. So they could not be resupplied.

In a couple of small skirmishes with the Bolivians, Guevara’s guerrillas were successful in the spring of 1967 but that would soon change. They began deploying larger units to the operational area and they were beginning to turn the tide. One group of guerrillas with Tania was ambushed by Bolivian troops. Tania was killed while crossing a river and when her body washed up several days later, it has been largely eaten by piranhas.

Local Bolivian villagers didn’t care for Guevara and his message didn’t resonate well with them. So rather than flock to his banner of revolution, they informed the Bolivian army whenever they were spotted.

Bolivian Rangers Tighten the Noose:

Meanwhile, the raw peasants that Shelton and the Special Forces men inherited were quickly being turned into Rangers. Their training was completed in mid-September and they were immediately transferred to the operational area.

Shelton, in an interview just prior to his death in 2010, described ”We had a job to do and we did it,” Shelton said. ”The people of Bolivia wanted Guevara gone and asked for help, and we were glad to give it. That man is famous now, but he killed lots of innocent people and we were glad to help put him out of business.”

He set up the Ranger training at a small base that was an abandoned sugar mill in La Esperanza, north of Santa Cruz. He quickly recognized the value of a Bolivian captain, Gary Prado who was assigned to the new Ranger unit and the two became very close and Prado would be given command of one of the Ranger companies.

The Rangers with SF instruction became proficient soldiers in just 19 weeks of training. The had learned to operate at night and had become proficient with their weapons, something the regular Bolivian army was not. Shelton kept in close contact with Felix Rodriguez from the CIA’s Special Activities Division who kept him informed of the guerrillas’ activities about 160 kilometers away.

Once they were ready, the Rangers deployed to the operational area in trucks. And they split up into companies, as they’d been taught and soon their training would pay off.

Che Captured and Executed:

On October 8, 1967, Che’s ragged band had been spotted by a local woman. The troops moved in and soon the two sides were locked into gunfire. Guevara was slightly wounded twice and his weapon was rendered useless. He didn’t hesitate. He threw up his hands and surrendered.

“Do not shoot! I am Che Guevara and I am worth more to you alive than dead.”

Captain Prado took him prisoner and Che was quickly bundled off to a schoolhouse in the nearby village of La Higuera. There, he refused to be interrogated by Bolivian officers but would chat quietly with the soldiers.

The Bolivians were in a quandary. They didn’t want to try Che and then have Cubans or those sympathetic to him try to plan an escape. President Barrientos early the next morning on October 9, ordered that Che be executed and that the soldiers would say that he died in combat during his capture.

The Bolivian soldier who volunteered to kill Che, did so because several of his close friends had been shot in combat with Che’s band of guerrillas earlier that week. He shot Che nine times with an M-2 carbine, in the legs, shoulder, chest, and throat. He was pronounced dead that afternoon and the Bolivian brass posed for pictures with the dead revolutionary.

One myth that has endured was that CIA ordered the assassination. That is false, Rodriguez and CIA wanted Che alive and wished to bring him to Panama to be further interrogated.

The amazing thing is how exactly what the Bolivians didn’t want, came true. Che became a martyr in death and in the very village where he was killed, erected a statue of him. Everywhere in Bolivia are pictures and murals of him including the university in La Paz. The same people that rejected and informed on him, now revere his memory.

Epilogue:

The Bolivian Army had an elite Ranger battalion but was distrustful of anyone who could help in overthrow the countless corrupt governments that would ensue. They disbanded the unit not long after. Several years later the Rangers were reformed.

In a testament to the Special Forces men from Panama who trained them, they wear Green Berets with a red flash. Their unit crest is identical to the one the SF wears but in lieu of “De Oppresso Liber”, theirs simply reads “Ranger”.

On a counternarcotics mission training another unit several years later, my partner Dave and I heard that the 7th SFG commander, Hugh Scruggs, and SOCSOUTH Major, later BG Remo Butler were to visit the Ranger Bn. prior to 7th SFG conducting some joint training. We accompanied them to the Bn where their history to Shelton and SF troops from Panama remained strong.

There were numerous pictures on the walls of that time and their unit sign in book that dated back to that time was at the HQs. They asked all four of us to sign in as guests and flipping back to the beginning, Colonel Scruggs showed the rest of us the signatures of the long-before SF troops who helped start the unit. It was a neat moment.

Shelton left Bolivia two days after Che was captured. His mission and Army service were done. He retired soon afterward and settled in Sweetwater, Tennessee. He died on June 29, 2010, and is buried in Athens, TN.

Photos: US Army

“Keep on Ruckin’ It Only Gets Easier From Here”

In our daily Special Operations PT Preparation workouts that we publish, Sunday is our ruck day, just like going to church, it is our weekly ritual before the sun comes up kind of like paying homage to the Special Forces gods before we get on with our regularly scheduled Sunday activities, like coffee (Black Rifle of course), shower, coffee, church, coffee and then Sunday NFL games, where we’ll generally eat too much of the wrong things that my doctor says to avoid.

Earlier this week, the weather had turned in New England, from the humidity of the summer that plagued us here this year, to the cool crisp mornings that make this area of the country the nice place to be during the fall. We had a cool rainy morning and after talking with some of the other writers from our Loadout Room pages, I decided to head out and get some rucking in. It didn’t end well.

Heading out, I was nearly run over by a truck that veered off the road by some guy fiddling with his phone. But Sunday was perfect so, at 4:30 we set off to do the ruck we specified in our workout (8 miles). The conditions were perfect. The sky was clear, the trail mostly dry and the temps were around 46-48 degrees with just that hint of crispness in the air.

After a short warmup getting the old joints moving, the pace was quick and I was trucking along happily with my iPod in. My wife must have used it last, I just turned it on and took off. She had her own mixtape loaded on there and the music jumped around to a crazy mix from Metallica, AC-DC, to Pink, Abba, Lady Gaga and Kid Rock. Jeez… pick one.

The pace quickened thru town and then I cut back around the railroad tracks that I like to ruck on as it is generally flat and I have the miles marked so it is an easy way to keep track of the distance.

Everything was going perfectly for the first mile or so, just after I cut over the Blackstone River railroad trestle and moving past the town’s cemetery, I was moving from one side of the rails to the other and slipped and took an awkward tumble and banged my shin off the rail. Besides being embarrassed to look like an idiot, despite the fact that I was all alone in the dark, it hurt like hell. After taking stock of my situation, luckily nothing was broken, just pride, which was good since I left my phone at home…dummy.

Considering right then to just turning around and calling it a morning, right then I had a flashback to one of our old Special Forces medics during an SFAS class who was treating a candidate’s feet that were looking like melted cheese and said, “Keep on ruckin’ candidate, it only gets easier from here.”

That one particular class had a very large drop rate. The weather was poor, we had some snow (rare in North Carolina), rain and plenty of mud. Our rental trucks that the cadre used didn’t have four-wheel drive and the SGM (Hobson) and I got stuck briefly in the snow on a trail out in Hoffman…who would have “thunk” it?

Hobby was a tremendous shot with a long gun, he’d been a sniper at Delta if memory serves me and when we had to qualify at SWC, the SFAS cadre went out to the range and the SGM would bet a case of beer that he could outshoot anyone at distance for a case of beer (he drank Old Milwaukee’s Best…ugh) He never paid.

Anyway, our class had this one candidate with a stress fracture or something similar in his shin. The kid came up lame right at the end of Team Week and then it was right before what was then the Long Range Movement which was their final event before the Selection Board would meet.

So, while one Medic recommended that he be medically dropped, another said that he should continue and the final decision was made to let him continue. We had the LRM back to Ft. Bragg and that one was always tough as the candidates’ feet were by then hamburger and they were worn down after the Selection events.

The cadre (for the most part) liked the LRM because it signified the end of the course and most of the cadre weren’t needed for it. The worst job was the one cadre member who had to drive the truck…idle it actually for 20 something miles…(How far was it?) to the finish point behind the last candidate on the road. Guess who got that duty that particular class?

So that cold night, the candidates take off and we’re idling along at about 3-4 miles an hour and it isn’t long before our candidate who could barely walk is the last man in line. I kept the truck with the flashers on a comfortable distance behind him but he although limping badly never stopped walking and for a while was actually making good time. But it wasn’t long before his pain level became a real detriment.

The cadre head shed kept in radio contact with me all night and was asking for updates on where he was and if he was “continuing to train” or in other words stopping. He was falling behind the time hack to get a go on this event but never stopped walking.

As the night wore on he fell farther and farther behind the time hack and we knew there was no way he was going to finish in the allotted time, but whether he’d finish at all. When the time was finally running out on the time limit, the candidates were all finished at the time of the cutoff except for one. He was still about 2.5 miles from the finish point and moving by then very slowly.

Our commander called on the radio and asked how he was moving and said the time was up to pick him up and take him to the finish point. I pulled alongside him and told him to stop and get into the truck. He refused and said he wanted to finish. The third time, I said it, it was no longer in a nice evenly toned “SFAS Cadre” voice… “Get your gear and get in the f***ing truck!” was akin to it.

We took him to the finish point and the kid had tears in his eyes. After he got out and rejoined his classmates the SGM came over and we had a short conversation. “Did he ever stop walking or give any indication of quitting,” he asked? None I said. He nodded. “What do you think?” was the question. “Is he hurt? Of course, but I guess the question do we need to know is despite that he kept driving on and that is the kind of thing we’re looking for isn’t it?…I’d take him on my team,” I said.

The SGM nodded, “Fair enough,” he said. The candidate was selected.

Which brings us back to Sunday’s clumsy fall, should I do the smart, “Old Man” thing and turn around and keep going. The old refrain repeated…”Keep on ruckin’ candidate, it only gets easier from here!”

Ah well, who said you get smarter as you get older…Not me.

Happy Rucking! DOL

Photo: US Army Special Forces

RIP and a tip of the Beret to LTC Bob Phelan, a non-SF guy and a very good man who was a project officer on our contract back in the day. He’s riding his Harley in heaven today. Rest easy brother…

Kids Are the Same Everywhere and Say the Darndest Things

To our readers who are attempting for a career in Special Operations, you’ll meet all kinds of interesting people everywhere you go. Some societies are eclectic, like our own. Others are very regimented, but one thing that will never change, no matter where you travel are kids.

As Americans we have a built-in affinity for kids, we love kids, and will stop most anything we’re doing and talk to or help kids out. Of course, our enemies know this and they can and have used kids against us at times. But it doesn’t change our outlook on kids and hopefully, it never will. But kids are universally funny and can also be of great assistance in local areas as well.

There was a television show hosted by Art Linkletter from 1952-69, called House Party and every show, he’d air a segment called “Kids say the Darndest Things.” And here are a few funny anecdotes from back in the day that some of you may enjoy.

Recently we posted a piece and mentioned our team from 3/7th SFG getting tasked with fixing a school during our Christmas “break” in training while in the country of Bolivia. While we working on renovating the school, the parents in the town, volunteered to help out with the labor. This one young couple were both helping out at the school and had two very young kids a boy and a girl. And somehow both got attached to me. Of course, as most of the locals in the town were of the Aymara Indian descent, they’re rather vertically challenged. We must have seemed like giants to them.

They would follow me around everywhere and if I sat down, both of them would climb in my lap. Every morning the little dude would wait and soon as he would see me, he’d snap to attention and give me a salute. Of course the guys on the team thought that was funny. “Hey Chief, how much are you paying that kid, to salute you?” or the better one was, “we had to travel 4000 miles for Chief to find someone to salute him.”

The parents would bring their lunches with them and all four would take a break together around noon. The teachers at the school always put something together for the A-Team every day and it was always good. One day, I asked the parents to take the kids inside to eat with us. The three of us shared a chair and once the school teachers saw the kids, we had a junk food lunch, with too many sweets and soda. The little boy looked at me and said, “Do you eat like this every day? I want to have lunch with you from now on…”

Just a few years ago, I was working on a personal security mission that traveled to several countries in the Middle East. We had a few weeks where our clients were visiting Egypt. It was a fascinating place, somewhere that had been on my personal bucket list and despite working, I was happy to see much of what I dreamed about seeing back as a kid.

We went to visit a place in the center of Cairo where kids went to school and worked alongside adults for part of the day. As we gathered outside and were preparing to shuffle everyone inside, a group of street urchins, about 10 in all and very young approached. The oldest and the leader of the crew couldn’t have been more than 10, the rest were younger, with the youngest probably only about five.

By the way he was dressed, the leader of the kids pegged my partner as an Englishman. And he sidled up to him and spoke pretty decent English, much better than my few words of Arabic. He said, “excuse me, sir, could I please have a cigarette?” My bud Tom didn’t say a word but just shook his head. The kid nonplussed said, “God save the Queen.”

Now as for myself, this kid had me pegged right off as an American. Maybe it was the ballcap. But his entire schtick was different. “Hey Joe, you give me a Marlboro eh?” When I told him that I don’t smoke, either the answer shocked him that some people don’t smoke or he didn’t believe me. But his answer was completely different.

“Yes…well f**k George Buuush then!” he said. I laughed and told him he wasn’t President anymore and that Obama was. “Hey Joe, f**k him too!” Cracking up, I gave him a dollar and they scattered.

But perhaps the best one on how kids are so in tune with things going on locally happened in Panama. One night we were waiting to get picked by two helicopters on a small landing zone. It was pitch dark and we moved into the small clearing waiting for the choppers to come in.

Out of nowhere come two kids on ancient bikes with the old wicker baskets on the handlebars, circa 1950s style. They had ice cold Cokes inside and were hawking them for a quarter.

We shushed them out of there as it was dangerous for the kids with choppers coming in. So, the first chopper comes in, and we load and take off. We fly for about 10-15 minutes, do a false insertion and then land at another LZ. We move to the edge of the jungle and waited for the second to come in.

A few seconds later we heard that familiar swooshing sound and the same two kids, all out of breath, and sweating comes tearing into the LZ from the dirt road. They asked in Spanish if we wanted a Coke now. Sure thing kid. What the hell.

We did get some good intel from young kids at times in Bolivia that told us where drug labs were and sometimes where people were stashing the precursor chemicals but those were rare. In Robin Sage, the kids who worked for the SF auxiliary in the Uwharrie National Forest were already pros at drawing maps and detailing where the “enemy” positions were. The enemy troops, in this case, were 82nd Airborne troops and the kids would wander up under the guise of saying hello and being in awe of the troops and come back and drew detailed sketches of their positions and were their crew-served weapons were.

So for you young guys coming into the pipeline, don’t discount kids for their intelligence value, both for you and against you. But like we said at the outset, they’re the same everywhere and they do say the darndest stuff.

Photo: US Army

In Special Operations, Be a Self-Starter and A Team Player

We repeat these old adages constantly until they reach the point of almost being cliches at times but two of the most cardinal rules to follow if you’re looking at a career in Special Operations are being a self-starter and being a team player.

If you fail at either one of those either in Selection or a qualification course, you won’t last long in the Special Operations field. All of the units in SOCOM put a high premium on each of these traits and regardless of whether you aspire to be a Green Beret, Navy SEAL, Combat Controller or any other Special Operations professional in the U.S. military or one of our allies, you’d better be a shining example of both.

And for the purposes of this, I’ll give you some examples of both from both sides of the equation as both a student and as a cadre member. I recently had a conversation about what Special Operations were like and specifically what they weren’t with a civilian who had never served in the military. This person’s idea of what SOF troops were like and how they operated was not even close to being steeped in realism.

This person thought all SOF troops were blind automatons that were incapable of independent thought and would blindly follow the last orders given by a commander to the ends of the earth but were physically hard enough to keep blindly slamming their heads into a wall until told to stop.

Of course, this person was quite taken aback when I laughed at this suggestion and said that in fact, the exact opposite was true. “Oh…so what trait do they value above all else?” I was asked. I know that the answer he least expected was when I said,

“Intelligence. Specifically, the ability to think on one’s feet while under a very stressful situation. That and the ability to think and act independently.”

While leads us to “Old Guy Anecdote #1” while a student in the Special Forces Qualification Course (SFQC).

Many moons ago when the Army had just transitioned from smoothbore muskets, (okay maybe not that long ago), I was a student at the final Unconventional Warfare (UW) exercise known as Robin Sage in the mountains of North Carolina.

Our student detachment was a very sharp group of guys who worked hard and together and were ready to take the next step and move on to becoming full-fledged if, only basically trained Green Berets into the operational groups. Our team at Robin Sage had three officers instead of the normal two. Two of these guys were outstanding, team players who knew their stuff and were quick to jump in and lend a hand wherever it was needed. The third was the opposite. When the team infiltrated the area and linked up with the guerrilla band, he would butt heads with the guerrillas and especially the G-Chief at every turn.

It was quickly turning things sour and for no reason. A quick example of this was when the “Jefe” said, his men didn’t know anything about field sanitation and wanted a proper outdoor latrine built. He pointed to an area where at the far end of the base camp he wanted it placed. This one officer was trying to talk him out of it for a very minor reason and in reality, it was such a small thing, it wasn’t worth the trouble. While the officer and team sergeant (who was dragged into it) were talking with the G-Chief, (the Jefe as the G’s called him), our senior Medic grabbed two of us and three G’s and we just walked to where the Jefe wanted it done and we dug it out.

A couple of hours later, the latrine was done. Complete with even a wooden frame to perch oneself on. We dug it deep enough to last a while and cut down the trees to make the frame. Right about this time, after much deliberation, the officer finally relented and came back to tell the team to go construct it.

When our medic said it was already done, the G-Chief snapped he wanted to see it. We walked him over there and he was impressed with how it had been constructed. He turned and snapped at the medic, “Why did you do this on your own when your own officer was trying to tell me to put it somewhere else?”

This was one of those times where there is no right or wrong answer but lots of gray areas. “Well,” the medic said. “This IS where you wanted it done, but more importantly, from a medical standpoint, your men NEED a proper latrine or we’ll start getting people sick in here, and that doesn’t help you or us.”

The “Jefe” nodded, “This is a good latrine, maybe you should be in charge,” he said as he walked away with a sneer to our third officer. Later after graduation, when I was assigned to my first Special Forces A-Team, the “Jefe” was the Senior Engineer on the team. He was a great NCO and a super guy. He told me our entire detachment was in danger of getting kicked out of the G-Base for the stupid arguing of one man who could have undermined the rest of the team. But the actions of a few self-starters, not only diffused the situation but turned it into a positive.

Many years later I was assigned to the SFAS course where candidates were selected for the SFQC. When we first began it was called SFOT, which stood for Special Forces Orientation and Training, but the candidates called it “Special Form of Torture” which was brilliant.

Here is where not being a team player would directly cause a candidate who had excelled at everything else to be a non-select.

This one candidate was an NCO who showed up for Selection in phenomenal physical condition. He smoked the PT Test and Swim Test with ease. He scored the highest marks for every timed run and gated events as the ruck marches. This NCO literally flew thru the Obstacle Course, “Nasty Nick” with ease. Out at Land Navigation, he was finding his points during the practice sessions and smoked the Land Nav exercise, finishing with plenty of time to spare.

During Team Week, he was graded as a Team Leader twice and scored very high marks on each, one of which I was his lane grader for the day. So what was the snafu?

Other than the time when he was placed in charge of a specific event, all of the cadre NCOs noticed, he has virtually no interaction with his fellow candidates. He was a loner, who kept entirely to himself. During Land Nav when all of the candidates would finish their practice runs, he’d keep to himself and wouldn’t join in as the others compared notes which is encouraged.

We’d walk thru the barracks at night and weaving in between the huts, he had a rep among his fellow candidates as aloof, arrogant and gave the impression that they were all beneath him.

During Team Week, as soon as he was finished being a leader, he’d give no assistance to whoever was in charge. He’d pick up the heaviest item and carry it with no problem, but as to helping any candidates who were needing some support? He gave none. Some candidates are good with lashings and tying of ropes and such. Others are not, he was very good at it but never once volunteered to help out the following candidates who were under the gun and being rated as a team leader.

He was not selected as being a team member in a small unit environment and being a team player was not for him.

Don’t be that guy, be a self-starter and be a team player, the guys that you help and lift up today, will do the same for you tomorrow.

Photos: US Army

Can Special Forces Teach Everything?… Pretty Darned Near

As a member of a Special Operations unit, you can be tasked with damned near anything and probably will. The best indicator of having a skill is the fact that you can teach it to others.

As we wrote here some time ago, “Teaching is An Art in Special Forces”, and some of the best SF NCOs also happen to be the best instructors you’ll find anywhere. As a prospective Special Operations candidate, know that if you graduate, you’ll have to be prepared to teach almost anything to anyone while you’re deployed overseas.

And much of it can be MOS immaterial. Just because you are a Heavy Weapons man on a team, doesn’t mean that you can’t or won’t be assigned to teach about anything under the sun.

In Special Forces, we can and frequently do conduct operations that might not have much to do with your current operation but help United States government assets in fostering goodwill of the host nation thru a variety of subtasks that often center around civic action projects.

While teaching a 6-month counter-narcotics course in a jungle camp in Bolivia, our team was supposed to get a two-week break at Christmas, as the host nation forces would be given block leave to celebrate the holiday in the middle of our course. We were slotted to go back to Panama, enjoy some beach time and head back.

But the Ambassador came calling, he got roped into rebuilding a school that taught elementary students early in the morning, high school in the afternoon and adult education at night. It was completely falling in and the bathrooms were broken with raw sewage on the floors.

The US government thru USAID had about a quarter of the funds to rebuild. We were asked to help. No Christmas leave on the beach after all. The only way we could make it work was to get a ton of labor from the citizens who would volunteer their time. And each of the team guys became a construction foreman, teaching the locals how to do their own small piece of the pie. It got finished under the time limit and under budget. Most had no experience doing it but it got done and done well.

Another time, my partner and I got tasked with teaching basic combat shooting to the wives of the MILGP personnel. There were threats to U.S. personnel in-country and the women had asked for classes to teach them how to defend themselves in the event they were forced to use a weapon to defend themselves or their children.

The only two stipulations from the women were that we treat them like anyone other troops we’d train and that their husbands stay away. We borrowed the combat pistol range in the city and took them for a few days with a ton of range time. The ladies all that telltale callous on their right thumb from loading so many pistol magazines.

Despite their stipulation, we taught them quite differently than we would have our normal host nation troops but the women caught on extremely fast and their shot groups got tighter and tighter. We even had time to teach them double-tapping their targets. At the end of our training, the husbands from the MILGP and the Military Attache’s Offices came out to see the women show off a bit. They took great delight in double-tapping their targets. Thankfully, no one, in our time there, ever had to utilize the training we conducted.

One of the most fun (for us) of our pop-up training activities was teaching a door gunner course for the helicopter machine gunners. Most of them weren’t trained that well and they had little to no refresher training until the operations called for them to do it for real.

We were asked if we were familiar with this, and answered: “of course we are.” We studied up and got a bird and a couple of M-60s for our own train up prior to the class.

We practiced it and had a blast burning up copious amounts of ammo on our own until it came time to teach the class. It lasted all of one day when the host nation shut it down (temporarily) because they needed all hands on deck for a live operation. We’re still waiting for them to kick back in for the training class but we had a blast at least.

One of the most challenging was an all-classroom course. Our Bolivian counterparts had staff officers assigned to all of the top positions, but in reality, never functioned as a staff would in the United States. Our counterpart, a Major in the Bolivian military asked for our assistance in teaching a staff course.

The Army Attache stated (and correctly so) that they needed a CGSC (Command and General Staff Officers’ Course) graduate to teach it. We were firmly in agreement with him there. But the problem was, not many SF NCOs or Warrant Officers have been to CGSC. And of course, with just the two of us there, we were stuck. Would he like to teach it? Of course not.

So we got as much material from the old School of the Americas that we could and taught a senior staff course. They were even surprised at who was teaching it. So while I never attended CGSC…I can say I taught it…kind of.

Anyway, old anecdotes aside, you’ll find your career in Special Operations a very different type of experience from anything you’ll ever encounter anywhere else. Your duties and responsibilities will far outdistance your rank in the U.S. military. It is par for the course.

When hit with a subject that you don’t have much experience with, do the research, study and get it done. Your biggest asset is the ability to sell your expertise to our host nation forces and get them to trust that you’ll get it done.

Every day on nearly every mission can be a very different set of circumstances that can be a rewarding and challenging experience. So, back to the title, “Can Special Forces Teach Everything?”… The short answer is, ABSOLUTELY.

Photo: US Army

How You Handle Adversity or Failure Will Follow You Through Life

The greatest accomplishment is not in never falling, but in rising again after you fall.
Vince Lombardi

When we write here at SpecialOperations.com and have discussions with aspiring candidates for the various units, we tend to deal only with the positive. It is par for the course, by and large, the vast majority of us are those Type A, can-do personalities who are a glass-half-full type of people. We don’t deal in failure and won’t tolerate it. We focus on achieving everything that we set our sights on…it is who we are.

However, for the vast majority of candidates for the U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM) forces, they will face adversity and in this case failure before attaining their goal. We’ve steered clear of this question for the most part in the past because we tend to only think positive, but what about the majority of the people who find that they have failed a part or all of the courses?

Why Do Candidates Fail: We know that the attrition rates in Selection are high, and the courses are designed exactly for that. So where do these candidates fall into the “unsuccessful” formation when all is said and done? Many get injured, through no fault of their own during the rigorous training. The vast majority of these candidates have an open path to return once they have fully healed and are once again ready to go.

Others will fail to meet the high standards that the services insist upon in Selection in one or more of the gated events physically or academically. The cadre at the Selection courses keep meticulous records for a reason. The candidates that fail to meet the standards will have their records closely evaluated and a decision will be made as to whether that individual is clear to return and try again.

Some candidates are recycled right into the next available class, which is the best scenario for everyone involved. This also happens many times with injured candidates whose injuries were of the minor category where the candidate heals up quickly. If these cases, most candidates are allowed to return in this scenario as well. The cadre will ensure the candidate knows why he failed and what would need to be done to rectify that unfortunate situation in the future.

The third group of candidates failed because they quit. That is a dicey can of worms there. When a candidate quits, there is a 99.9999 percent chance that he will not be allowed to return to Selection to try it again. The cadre members recognize that not everyone is cut out for Special Operations and many will fail to meet the standards. But as long as a candidate gives his all, that candidate will leave knowing that his efforts weren’t good enough but at least has an opportunity to fix the deficiencies that caused the failure. Quitting? That is too bitter a pill to contemplate.

How To Handle Failure? Here’s the elephant in the room. And remember this, even experienced operators will fail occasionally. Do you think every mission is a success? No, and it is in how we handle the adversity that we will judge ourselves and ultimately be judged by our peers.

I call your attention to the quote above, I also write for an NFL website, this weekend was the big cut-down for professional football players as teams had to cut their rosters from 90 players in training camp to a 53-man roster. So, at 4:00 p.m. on Saturday, 1184 players not only failed to meet the standards but also lost their jobs as well. For most of them and you as well in Special Operations, how do you handle the adversity? It’s here now and isn’t a bad dream.

It’s time to get off the canvas and get back to work. Learn from this as you would any other training exercise where you were successful. Take stock of the good, the bad and if necessary, the ugly. Then embark on a course correction to retrain yourself on the tasks that need attention.

That is the Special Operations way, we aren’t going to dwell on the failure aspect of it, other than to admit to ourselves there was an issue that needs fixing. We don’t point fingers or blame others for our own shortcomings.

Others may decide to not return. Special Operations isn’t for everyone, and the attrition rates show that point clearly. It doesn’t mean that the candidate that tried…and failed is any less of a valued soldier. Many of those who fail, return to and excel in their home units. It is that excellence in the conventional military, that was the reason that they tried out for Special Operations in the first place.

Don’t let the failure rule your being, learn from it and become better for it. Many successful and very good special operators, didn’t pass their Selection and Qualification courses on the first attempt.

It is how we handle the adversity of a temporary setback that will ultimately show how we’ll be judged. If you get knocked on the canvas nine times, ensure you get back up ten. Don’t ever let a temporary failure stop you from giving it your absolute best. Go all out. When you get to Special Operations Selection, act like you are the third monkey on Noah’s Ark.

And it is raining like hell.

Photo: DOD

Jose Rodela, Special Forces, Medal Of Honor, Sept. 1, 1969

Remember Your Regiment…

Former Green Beret, SFC Jose Rodela who was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for gallantry in Vietnam, did not find the news that his award was being upgraded to the Medal of Honor, many years later in 2014 very well. In fact, he wished that the government hadn’t brought up that fateful day at all.

The war, and the memory of close friends who didn’t survive that battle still haunt the veteran and he’d prefer to leave the battle and the results far away.

“I’m a little disturbed,” said Rodela, when he found out his medal was being upgraded. “I don’t like it, but I go along with it because of service to my country. I really wish they had left me alone, but I’m here and I’m going to give you the best I know.”

Congress, several years ago, began scanning records of Black, Hispanic and Jewish troops to see if there was any bias that would have prevented them from receiving the Medal of Honor from World War II, Korea, and Vietnam. There were 19 men that fell into that category, two were Special Forces veterans from the Vietnam war. One of them was Rodela. He was eventually awarded the Medal of Honor by President Obama at the White House on March 18, 2014.

Vietnam veterans Sgt. 1st Class Melvin Morris, Master Sgt. Jose Rodela, and Sgt. Santiago J. Erevia, along with 21 other veterans from World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War, had their Distinguished Service Crosses upgraded to Medals of Honor. Here, they take part in a Medal of Honor presentation ceremony at the White House, March 18, 2014. Of the 24 who fought in World War II, Korea and Vietnam, only Morris, Rodela and Erevia are living. (Department of Defense photo by J.D. Leipold, Army News Service, Defense Media Activity)

Rodela was born in Corpus Christi, TX and left school in his sophomore year because he was bored and looking for the discipline that the military offered. Rodela joined Special Forces and was assigned to Detachment B-36 of the 5th Special Forces Group, although an NCO was a company commander of a group of Cambodians, he helped to recruit, train and then lead into combat.

In an interview he did with the media in December of 2013, Rodela said that recruiting the Cambodians was a normal occurrence. “Every three months we’d go to Cambodia, load up the volunteers in C-130s, and take them to war,” he said. Rodela and the other SF NCOs would train them through basic combat training and then lead them into combat.

Rodela (center front row) with his Cambodian strikers

Rodela would sometimes recruit Vietnamese but preferred Cambodians as he said they were the superior fighters. But the Green Berets would never mix the two ethnic peoples as they both disliked and distrusted one another.

On September 1, 1969, the Mobile Strike Force that the SF troops were leading, would get into a pitched battle with North Vietnamese regulars at Phuoc Long Province, South Vietnam.

The North Vietnamese outnumbered, and outgunned the SF-led strikers but that never deterred the Green Berets. “We looked for them, found them and killed them,” Rodela said. “That’s what we were there to do.”

But the NVA regulars were dug in and prepared for the battle which was to come and would last 18 hours. At the very outset of the battle, the Cambodian troops under the SF men came under withering machine gun, rocket and artillery fire.

Rodela displaying immense coolness under fire moved out into the open and began to move his men into a half-moon defensive perimeter. His actions gave the rest of the battalion time to organize a coordinated defense and saved his unit from sustaining even worse casualties. The strikers lost 11 dead and 33 wounded.

During the battle, he was the only man moving, as he went from position to position, physically checking on the status of his men. Encouraging them, moving them to more stable defensive positions, checking on the wounded, he was an inspiration to the rest of the men. Despite being targeted by machine gun and rocket fire, he kept this up for the entire 18 hours and ignored his own wounds, shrapnel in his back and head.

In an interview with the San Antonio Express, Rodela recalled having to take out a machine gun position, armed by young teenagers just 16-17 who didn’t realize the predicament they were in until it was too late. They were laughing and jeering at Rodela as he tried to clear the position and free his men who were under fire.

“The rest of them left but they hung around that machine gun, and they kept shooting. I just went around the bushes and they just wouldn’t leave, wouldn’t leave. I shot them. I (yelled), ‘Get out of here!’” Rodela remembered. “I was trying to recover my people; they were being shot by the machine gun. They kept interfering. Young kids! Wow, that’s what bothers me. I had to shoot them.” During the battle, Rodela lost his two best friends, Green Berets SSG Rudy Chavez and SFC Joe Haga who were killed in the intense firefight.

Rodela and his Cambodians came across an orphaned 12-year old boy who was all alone with no one in the jungle. He took him in and was planning on adopting the boy and bringing him to the United States. So the boy stayed with the unit and one night he stepped on a landmine and was killed. Rodela said, he had already thought of the boy as his own son and his death haunted him.

After Vietnam, Rodela was assigned to the 7th Special Forces Group and utilizing his Spanish language skills, he served in Colombia and many other countries in Latin America before retiring from the Army in 1975. He went into business with a Latin American seamstress making maternity clothes for a while but has lived quietly since. Until his DSC was upgraded to the MOH, his own children didn’t know about his exploits. Asked why, he said, “because you have the mission of giving them orders and they don’t come back.”

It is doubtful, the proud and private Rodela will be making many appearances as a speaker. “I can’t forget it, it’s just I don’t repeat it. I don’t want to repeat it. There was a lot of people hurt, a lot of people who never came back. Let them rest,” Rodela said.

Rodela still lives, quietly in San Antonio.

Medal Of Honor Citation:

For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty:

Sergeant First Class Jose Rodela distinguished himself by acts of gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty while serving as the company commander, Detachment B-36, Company A, 5th Special Forces Group (Airborne), 1st Special Forces during combat operations against an armed enemy in Phuoc Long Province, Republic of Vietnam on September 1, 1969.

That afternoon, Sergeant First Class Rodela’s battalion came under an intense barrage of mortar, rocket, and machine gun fire. Ignoring the withering enemy fire, Sergeant First Class Rodela immediately began placing his men into defensive positions to prevent the enemy from overrunning the entire battalion. Repeatedly exposing himself to enemy fire, Sergeant First Class Rodela moved from position to position, providing suppressing fire and assisting wounded, and was himself wounded in the back and head by a B-40 rocket while recovering a wounded comrade. Alone, Sergeant First Class Rodela assaulted and knocked out the B-40 rocket position before successfully returning to the battalion’s perimeter.

Sergeant First Class Rodela’s extraordinary heroism and selflessness above and beyond the call of duty are in keeping with the highest traditions of military service and reflect great credit upon himself, his unit and the United States Army.

Citation represents Soldier’s rank at time of action.

Photos: US Army/DOD

Ruck, Ruck, Rucking The Hills for Selection Prep

Before hitting the gym this morning, I went back out on the rucking trails and hit the woods among the hills here in Central Mass. We have a small state park called “Purgatory Chasm” nearby that has some shorter hiking trails that we could take advantage of rucking the hills before they fill up with the hikers in the area. Rucking in the hills shouldn’t be something to be feared, just another chance to excel for the aspiring Special Operations candidate.

The trails were still muddy and slow from the severe thunderstorms that wracked the area in the past few days…but not climate change, right? The mud actually adds to the workout, and while it will slow down your time, it builds leg muscles for the long haul. The trails are short enough that we had to do a couple of loops to get the distance in that we were looking for.

In Special Operations, and especially in Selection, training doesn’t stop when the weather turns to crap. And the standards remain the same, so rather than wait until the trails are dried up, our candidates for Selection should get out and get some experience rucking the muck and mire. It is good practice and you’ll either experience rucking in the mud or the soft sand of Camp Mackall if you opt for SFAS. In many classes, you’ll get to experience plenty of both.

I was going to take my bulldog along for the company but my wife, who is the smart one in the household, pointed out that the dog just had a bath and taking her out on a muddy trail would just make more work for us when we return. The dog, watching the conversation, seemed to understand just fine and after I said I’d leave her behind settled back down in her bed, belched, farted and promptly went back to sleep.

Rucking in the early morning is therapeutic for your brain, most especially after a very long and stressful week. Back before the arthritic knees, I used to love doing it all the time, now I have to pick my spots. But a couple of days in a row is the best medicine for relieving the stress and leaving the B.S. behind for a while.

My 45-pound sandbag is packed up high between the shoulder blades as much as possible. The ruck that I’m using has radio pouch up high, that is where the sandbag was placed, just like we pointed out in our Monday morning post. But you can pack anything you want in there as long as the weight is correct. My Camelback was full of Gatorade again….tsk, tsk. The hills here are rolling but pretty steep on both sides of the ridgeline, much steeper than anything you’ll find in Selection, so it is a really good leg day workout.

As we also mentioned on Monday, I cinched the waist strap on my rucksack, so that, the weight rides more on your hips and not on your shoulders. I find this especially effective when rucking in the hills. This allows you to loosen your shoulder straps just a bit so that the weight isn’t all on them and your lower back, the weight will ride more on your hips. Ensure that the waist belt is snug but not tight nor too loosely.

So, I popped my iPod in place, listening to Eric Clapton this morning, I hit the trails very early. When trudging on the upside of the hills, I like to lean forward just slightly and lengthen, not shorten my stride. Some people like to do the opposite. I will say this…try both ways and whatever works for you, stick with it.. There really isn’t that big of a difference, just an ever so slightly longer one which will keep your momentum going.

Back in the day, we once had to accompany some intelligence types into the mountains in Central America to put in trail sensors to monitor the level of traffic the bad guys were using in the area. It was rumored they had a trail network and basecamp on top of this steep peak. We were already high up in elevation and the nights were cool to the point of putting on sweaters or Gore-tex jackets. This peak was nearly vertical of about 700-800 meters and it was almost as steep as climbing a ladder. With about an 85 pound ruck, my thighs felt like they were going to burst by the time we reached the top.

It was and still is amazing, that that much vegetation could grow on such a steep peak. Leaning forward wasn’t only preferable but necessary. I think if any one of us had lost their balance, that person would have tumbled a long way before being able to stop. The view was spectacular, the trail and Basecamp? Not there.

We covered boots in a several of our earlier pieces. I have several favorite pairs that I take on hikes depending upon the conditions. I normally don’t ruck anywhere without my Merrells anymore. But today I wore my Army issue boots from Bates. Digging thru some old boxes and duffel bags full of Army shit, I found my favorite pair of jungle boots. The ones that I had worn down to nearly nothing and fit like a tennis shoe. Those boots had more frequent flyer miles than you could imagine and had hundreds of take-offs of C-130s back in the day. Not many landings…from inside the aircraft. I half thought about wearing them but the boot was beginning to come apart from the sole on both pairs. We had to say adieu to those selfless companions on so many rucksack marches and jumps.

So you should use what you are going to wear in the course and ensure that you have at least two pairs broken in and ready to go. Once you graduate and become a member of the various units, the opportunity to wear what you want will be there for you. Until then, go with the issued boots.

The walking stick I made for my son I took with me and it will definitely help here and there on the trail especially when you reach the downside of the slopes. And it can help for the pesky wildlife and occasional stray dog that attempts to get froggy with you out there in the dark on the trail.

Speed, Speed, We All Want to go Faster:

I don’t know how many times I’ve said this but will keep repeating it because it bears repeating. Learn to increase your speed without resorting to running. It is like any other skill you acquire and hone, it requires practice but it can be done.

Running with a rucksack puts an incredible amount of stress on your knees. You will find on any course you ruck on that there will be some steep downhill slopes where it is easy to pick up a shuffle for a short distance. However, although it can speed things up there is a difference between doing that and for running a longer distance.

Now, as I’ve also said many times, while in the course, that has to be tempered with the reality of your situation. “They’ll be times in your selection course or the qualification course that you’ll have to make up time or want to pick your pace, especially on the downhill slopes. At those times, you’re going to have to do what you must.”

I can’t stress enough as someone who now has two arthritic knees and a back to boot to learn to increase your speed without running. Lengthen out your stride and generate power with your legs and your speed will come naturally without resorting to running. But while in the course…do what you must to pass.

Back when I was assigned to be an SFAS Cadre member, we had to go thru Selection before working there. Why? I was one of the “dinosaurs” who went thru the SFQC before there was SFAS. And as I admit, on the long-range movement rucksack march, I jogged the last mile and a half, almost two, just to get it over with as I still had plenty of time (why do people who give advice, never take their own?).

The standard is a 15-minute mile pace to pass the course. That is the minimum. You should be aiming much better than that. I used to keep about a 12-minute per mile pace. It is plenty fast enough for where you’ll finish a 12-mile ruck march with just over 30 minutes to spare and is a pace that you can keep up for an even longer distance.

Hydrate Constantly: Water and hydration are very important as we keep harping on in every PT piece every morning. On this day, despite the cooler rainy, wet conditions, I drank nearly all 36 ounces of Gatorade. It is a good habit to get into during training to continue to push water all the time. If you get into the habit now, you’ll keep it up during the course.

The hardest habit to get into is hydrating during the winter months when your body won’t trigger your thirst as quickly. But it is still imperative to keep drinking and staying hydrated. When you are even a little bit dehydrated, it affects the cognitive aspects of the brain. It can adversely affect mood, energy levels and the ability to think clearly.

The body doesn’t trigger the thirst reaction until the body is approximately 2 percent dehydrated which means dehydration is already setting in and will have negative effects on cognitive testing. Since you know you’re always being evaluated, keep your mind as sharp as your body and stay hydrated.

Learn to love rucking and practice it just like you would your shooting skills, they are that important. Hills won’t be a problem…now I have to ward off a bulldog that didn’t want to ruck with me but is wide awake and intent on sharing my bacon.