Air Force Special Operations

Prepping For Selection, the Right Way is the Only Way

This is the time of year when the Selection courses are in full swing and the guys…and gals who want to be part of Special Operations units are deciding to get ready and give it their best shot at becoming members in the best fraternity in the world.

The US military has embraced Special Operations Forces after many decades of hating on “elite units” and the services have a unified command structure to ensure they all work well with each other as well as conventional units. The services have plenty of specialized units with varying missions and each has their own specialties carved out thru years of intense training. Whether it be the Army, Navy, Air Force, or the Marines, each service has their own Special Operations Forces. And all of them are excellent.

For our purposes, we’re going to deal with the US Army Special Forces, popularly known as the “Green Berets.” Having been in Special Forces units for more than a decade in the military, it is easy to say, there’s no place better to be. But the rest of what you’ll read here will serve you well regardless of your choice of unit.

Some of you’ve may have already decided that Special Forces is for you and you’re getting ready to prep for SFAS and a chance to attend the Special Forces Qualification Course or “Q” course. Good. That’s the easy part.

First and most importantly, Is your head screwed on straight? Are you wanting to be SF to be a part of the best and willing to put everything into your choice? If so, then you’re definitely on the right track.

Now to dispel some myths. We’ve all heard the wives’ tales and myths of the Special Forces soldier, right? “You have to be 10-feet tall and bulletproof.” LOL, don’t laugh. “SF guys have to have the athletic ability and look like NFL players.” Having gone thru the Warrant Officer Candidate School at Ft. Rucker with a former defensive lineman for the NY Giants (but in a different MOS), I can tell you with 100 percent certainty, we looked nothing alike.

There isn’t any big secret about passing selection, in fact to those of us who worked out there the saying used to be, “the answer is so simple that it is hard.” It is all about you the individual. Selection is 70 percent mental and 30 percent physical. And not the reverse. You don’t have to look like an NFL linebacker to pass the course as I mentioned above. I certainly didn’t and the vast majority of guys I finished with didn’t either.

In fact, most of the guys who looked like that passed by the wayside, it becomes simply a matter of mind over matter. You will have to want it and won’t let anything stop you from reaching that ultimate goal. That may sound a little simplistic but that is it in a nutshell. So, after getting several emails about Selection and the tips of the trade to be selected…here they are…(Cue the Dating Game music and spin the board around. OK, I dated myself there.)

#1 – Don’t Ever Quit: There will be times when you are exhausted beyond belief, between either selection or the Q-course and that is when the SF guys get separated from the other guys who thought they wanted to be there.

Selection is a test of will, nothing more. Don’t let your mind play tricks on you and focus only on what you’re doing today. Get thru the day and don’t worry about what comes tomorrow. That doesn’t exist. Sometimes and during some training events, you can’t even look past the next few hours or smoke sessions. Be standing there when it is over, that may be your goal. Survive until lunch, if you get it. Be there at sundown when guys are dropping like flies all around you.

You’ll get no feedback from the cadre other than the stock “do the best you can”, and I for one think that’s the best way. Special Forces doesn’t want or need guys who must have constant reassurance. They want soldiers who will go the extra mile and keep on going. If the cadre members don’t tell you anything, then you’re good to go. When you think you’ve reached Hell…keep going. It WILL get hotter.

#2 – Prepare, Prepare, Prepare: Don’t come to Selection fresh from being a couch potato. There are plenty of guides on how to properly prepare for the rigors of the course and they all will get you into the arena. You don’t have to be the fastest runner, but it certainly won’t hurt. But the biggest obstacle in your path is your rucksack. Soldiers who can strap the big pain pill on and continue to drive on are what the cadre are looking for.

Soldiers who came from a light infantry or a Ranger battalion will have already mastered that art. For soldiers coming from a different background, that is where they are sailing into uncharted waters. And that is where the will to continue comes in. Even the most hardened troops get worn out and tired, that is what the course is designed to do.

If you want a good PT program, there are plenty of great ones on the internet. I am no professional physical trainer, but I did work at Selection so I believe I know what works. And this being our site, I will recommend our PT Training Program here:

I recall the adage that fatigue makes cowards of us all is quite telling but not entirely true. The Special Forces soldier won’t give in to his fatigue and keep on going. If you allow doubt to creep into your mind, you are already defeated. So tip #1 ties into tip #2. In my post-SF life, I’ve had the privilege of covering the NFL and one of the most intriguing people I’ve met is Bill Belichick the coach of the New England Patriots. He has stated that if a player is thinking about retiring, then he’s already retired. It is the same thing. If you allow doubt to creep into your mind, that little voice will screw you every time.

#3 – Don’t Worry About What the Instructors: As soldiers, we’ve been weaned on immediate feedback. As basic trainees or boots, everything you did was wrong. Forget all that. It’s over. Time to use your head, that is that lump three feet above your ass. Give it your all and when the event is over, forget it, it is in the past. Focus on the next one and try to do even better.

Too many times I saw candidates withdraw because of the lack of feedback from the instructors they took as a sign that the instructors want them to fail. Nothing could be further from the truth.

They’ve been where you are and experienced all the same things. They want to see you succeed. But only if you meet the standards. Then they’ll be happy to be standing next to you in the Regiment. You may not think so today, but you will see soon enough.

#4 The Gray Man: My views on this run counter what you’ll read everywhere else but here it is. And this is one of those subjects I feel strongly about so my take on this is a bit biased. So, you can take it for what it is, ignore it, or tell me to GFY.

You’ll hear many people tell you to be the “Gray Man” in SFAS, and if that means to you, just keeping a low profile while doing the best that you can, then that is fine. But to others it means trying to purposely fly under the radar, to hide behind the masses. You know who those types are, and you’ll find some in your class. Whenever as a Selection Cadre member, I’d see someone trying to ghost during team events and do just enough to get by while some guy was in the spotlight in being assessed in a leadership position, I’d evaluate that guy very poorly.

Everybody’s different. Certain guys (Many SF guys) are Type-A personalities and are demonstrative, take charge guys. Others are more quiet, low-key and lead by example types. Be yourself. The cadre will know by then which type you are. If you are a guy who by his nature is one of those personalities who motivates people by being a stud or by making people laugh (which we’ll get to), then do it. That is WHO you are. Every team needs those kinds of people and you won’t be judged harshly if that is who you truly are.

You came to Special Operations to be part of the top 1 percent in the military. That doesn’t mean to go beating your chest every time you accomplish anything. That will put a bullseye on your back quickly. And if you’re looking to slide under the radar in training, then you’ll do it on a team. As a cadre member, I didn’t evaluate too kindly on those trying that either. Screw the gray man, be yourself.

#5 Laugh Every Day and Find the Humor in Everything: One of the things we preach all the time is and #5 could easily be called “Embrace the Suck”. And that follows along with everything else It is going to be hard, it will suck. You WILL be tested and no doubt, you’ll have your dick (metaphorical, I know we have women now), dragging into the dirt at some point. But it doesn’t mean it can’t be fun or at times even funny.

There should be times every day when you find the humor in the crazy shit that you’ll be asked to do. And it will accomplish a couple of things. One is that it will break the tension that builds up during the course, especially as things progress. And it will surprisingly build your morale up, more than you’d believe…time for an SF anecdote.

Carrying some very heavy shit one day, I believe it was, by the weight of it, a section of a high-rise skyscraper, we slowly heaved it up and placed it on our rucks and immediately shrunk an inch. Yours truly wasn’t having a good day, I was sick with the flu, still had the remnants of dysentery from my last deployment and felt like a horse apple.

One of my buds looked over and said, “Steve, you just made a great face when you lifted that. You missed your calling bro…you should have gone into porn.”

Tension broken, we all laughed our butts off, and the rucks got lighter. The rest of the day was much easier.

Photo: US Army

SERE Level C Course And the truth will set you free…

Most of what we write here at SpecialOperations.com deals with the training side of the house. What you’ll need to do to pass the Selection and Assessment courses. But today we’ll leap ahead to the second phase of the Special Forces Qualification Course or SFQC for Special Forces students and talk about SERE training.

Since the Army revamped the training and made SERE a part of the SFQC about a decade ago, every prospective SF soldier goes thru it before their patrolling phase (Phase III). And it makes more sense, in the old days, candidates would go through a survival portion of the training and then after graduation, selected members would get tasked to attend SERE. Now everyone does and it allows training for the entire force.

The only drawback is, the survival portion of the SFQC was very good training that candidates did on their own. They had a lot of tasks to complete while isolated in a survival situation. Now the survival training is done in groups. But apparently, the school didn’t think it was as important as in the past. Times change…

Breaking the Myths of What SERE Is and Isn’t: SERE School is a training program to teach military members, Department of Defense civilians and military contractors survival skills, training in evading capture and the military’s Code of Conduct.

The JFLSWC’s SERE course focuses its training on:

Code of conduct applications in wartime, peacetime, governmental and/or hostage detention environments
General survival skills
Evasion planning
Resistance to exploitation & political indoctrination
Escape planning

But we must get the BS out of the way. Like everyone else, we read what is out there in social media. And the myths that are perpetrated about SERE rival those of Selection. You’ve seen all of these myths and some of you candidates have probably already repeated them without realizing they are false.

Myth #1, the Cadre are allowed to break one bone in your body: Really? I was going to use more colorful language but suffice to say, that this is total horse dump. I’ve even seen the “It may just a small one like a pinky”…. Jeez. No one is breaking bones out there, folks. We don’t do it to detainees in Gitmo, we’re not going to purposely break the bones of future Special Operations troops.

Myth #2 SERE is a “Torture” School designed to break you: Wrong again. It isn’t a torture school at all. It is tough, it will push you in ways you probably haven’t been pushed before and it isn’t fun. But when all is said and done, SERE is one of those courses that no one wants to go to but looks back upon it as a great learning experience. Treat it as such and learn from it. That is what is designed to do.

Myth #3 Troops come out of SERE with PTSD and Psychotic: This one has to be my favorite. Most of the great unwashed who repeat this use the 24-hour rule after SERE is over as a means to justify this myth. It is akin to saying 1+1 = 6. After SERE is complete, students are given a 24-hour break to decompress before the out briefs are given. This is because the final week or more, the candidates get very little sleep and they are generally hungry as hell. The out briefings are important teaching points and the students must retain them.

If you get PTSD from SERE school, perhaps you need to rethink a career in Special Operations and take up something other than combat arms as a primary MOS. My officer class was released at the conclusion of the course and we met that night en masse at Chi Chi’s in Fayetteville. The staff at the restaurant was alarmed, not our psychotic behavior but at how much Mexican food was put away as we put on a serious feed bag that night….but PTSD? No.

Sere training is broken down into three levels. As the JFKSWC puts out in a letter of instruction to students:

Level-A is initial-entry-level training that all soldiers, enlisted and officers receive upon entering the service. It provides a minimum level of understanding of the Code of Conduct.

Level-B is designed for personnel whose “jobs, specialties or assignments entail moderate risk of capture and exploitation.” DoD 1300.21 lists as examples, “members of ground combat units, security forces for high threat targets and anyone in the immediate vicinity of the forward edge of the battle area or the forward line of troops.” Current combat operations have shown that practically everyone deployed in theater falls under this category. Consequently, demand for Level-B training has proliferated exponentially, and it has become mandatory for most deploying forces. Level-B is conducted at the unit level, through the use of training-support packets containing a series of standardized lesson plans and videos.

Level-C is designed for personnel whose “jobs, specialties or assignments entail a significant or high risk of capture and exploitation.” AR 350-30 supports DoD 1300.21’s mandate: “As a minimum, the following categories of personnel shall receive formal Level-C training at least once in their careers: combat aircrews, special operations forces (e.g., Navy special warfare combat swimmers and special boat units, Army Special Forces and Rangers, Marine Corps Special Operations and force reconnaissance units, Air Force special tactics teams, and psychological operations units) and military attaché.”

The SERE Level-C training facility at Camp Mackall is one of only five facilities within the DoD that is authorized to conduct Level-C training. The Air Force conducts training at Fairchild AFB, Wash., and the Navy has facilities in Brunswick, Maine, and at North Island, Calif. The Army Aviation Center at Fort Rucker, Ala., has their own another Level-C facility for aviation pilots in the Army.

SERE was developed by LTC Nick Rowe because, during his five years in captivity as a POW of the Viet Cong, he saw difficulties in how the troops were being trained. It used to be “The Big Three” (Name, Rank and Serial Number) and nothing more. But while a captive, Rowe saw that he had to change that outlook and approach things in a different manner or else he’d suffer the fate of CPT Rocky Versace, who fought the Viet Cong at every turn and so incensed his captors, that he was executed by the Cong. And with minor tweaks, the course has remained largely the way he envisioned it.

The SERE course spans three weeks with three phases of instruction, with the first phase consisting of approximately 10 days of academic instruction on the Code of Conduct and in SERE techniques that incorporate both classroom learning and hands-on field craft. One of the highlights of the course is that the cadre brings in former POWs to talk to the students about what to expect and how they coped with being a captive. Our class had Dan Pitzer who was a POW with Col. Rowe in Vietnam. Suffice to say, you could have heard a pin drop during his presentation.

The second phase is a five-day field training exercise in which the students practice their survival and evasion skills by procuring food and water, constructing small evasion fires and shelters and evading tracker dogs and aggressor forces for long distances. This was by far the best part of the course.

Trying to defeat the tracking dogs is not easy. And to dispel another myth, tracking dogs don’t bay while on your scent. You won’t hear a peep from them until they can see you. Hollywood-perpetrated this one as a means of building suspense on film. It isn’t very suspenseful when the escaped cons from the prison farm stop and hear silence. Once you hear the dogs baying, it is too late. One morning we made it to our hide site, camouflaged it and I was already sacked out asleep when I was woken by a basset hound licking my face.

The final phase takes place in the resistance training laboratory, a mock prisoner-of-war camp, where students are tested on their individual and collective abilities to resist interrogation and exploitation and to properly apply the six articles of the Code of Conduct in a realistic captivity scenario. That’s as far as we’ll go in that phase, as the school house has some strict rules on that.

But by now, many prospective Special Operations troops will have read the horror stories of SERE and psyche themselves out before ever touching foot in the place. Don’t pay attention to that, to quote my man Bill, “ignore the noise.”

The course finishes with a day of debriefings in which the students receive individual and group feedback from the cadre. These critiques help students process everything they have been through to solidify the skills they applied properly and to correct areas using constructive criticism.

SERE is an excellent course that each of the services has tailored to meet the needs of their particular mission. But the core elements for each service remain the same for each course. It is a great learning experience and prepares you as best the services can what a survival situation may entail in the real world.

“Boots, boots… There’s no discharge in the war…” This will eventually make sense to you, for the grads of SERE, no explanation is necessary.

Photo courtesy: US Army

Special Operations Forces Selection PT Preparation Week 15, Day 2

Monday morning means our weekly mini-UBRR test to judge where our fitness level is at. Start off with pushups, sit-ups, and crunches, then to the bar for V-ups, Pull-ups, and dips before a 5-mile run.

Remember to stay hydrated and mark your progress in your workout log book.

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-minute maximum)

Stretch well after completion

Special Operations Forces Selection PT Preparation Week 15, Day 1

Sunday morning rucksack march. Do a quick warmup of pushups and sit-ups before heading out. Head out over varied terrain and try to go as fast as you can without running.

Stretch well both before and after the event. Remember to drink plenty of water and stay hydrated out there. With a bunch of the heat of the warm weather finally upon us up here, you don’t want to become a heat casualty, even before the sun comes up. And if you do it will really set you back in your preparation.

UBRR Training:

Warm up

1 x 20 Pushups

1 x 20 Sit-ups

8-mile Rucksack march over varied terrain with a 45-pound minimum. Go as fast as you can without jogging. And mark your times in your workout log book.

Stretch well after completion

Special Operations Forces Selection PT Preparation Week 14, Day 7

Let’s kickoff this Saturday morning right and head back to the gym for a shoulder and back workout. Pulldowns, pullups and some shoulder work followed by a four-mile run. Log your numbers down in the workout notebook

Training:

More Preparation for the UBRR:

3 x 10 Lat Pull downs, rear

3 x 10 Barbell Dead Lift

3 x 10 Wide Grip Pullups

3 x 10 Seated Rows

3 x 10 Dumbbell Side Raises

3 x 10 Seated Bent-Over Delt Raise

3 x 10 Dumbbell Shoulder Press

3 x 10 Arnold Dumbbell Press

4-mile run (32-minutes maximum)

Stretch well after completion

Special Operations Forces Selection PT Preparation Week 14, Day 6

Friday is Leg Day at the gym. Start off with our favorite, Squats – (Front, Dumbbell Goblet, and Barbell), then Lunges and the Weighted Sled Push. Follow it all up with a five-mile run.

Mark your progress down in your workout log book and stretch well after the session. Remember….keep hydrating, even in the rain.

UBRR Training:

Continue to prep for the UBRR.

3 x Front Squat 20-15-12 reps (lighter weight)

3 x Goblet Dumbbell Squats 20-15-12 reps (lighter weight)

3 x 10 Barbell Squats

3 x 10 Deadlifts

3 x 10 Dumbbell Lunges

3 x 10 Romanian Lunges

3 x Weighted Sled Push or Fireman’s Carry

5-mile run (40 mins. Max)

Stretch well after completion

Special Operations Forces Selection PT Preparation Week 14, Day 5

Back to the gym this morning for a Chest and Triceps workout before heading out for a 4-mile run. Remember to stretch well before and after and to stay hydrated. Mark your progress down in your workout log book.

UBRR Training:

More Preparation for the UBRR:

3 x 12 Bench Press

3 x 10 Dumbbell Flies

3 x 10 Dumbbell Incline press

3 x 20 Pushups (alternate sets with wide, narrow and shoulder width)

3 x 20 Plank Step Ups

3 x 20 Shoulder Touch Planks

3 x 20 Cable Push Downs (rope)

3 x 20 Dips or until muscle failure

4-mile run (32-minutes maximum)

Stretch well after completion

Book Review – “Murphy’s Law” And the Truth Will Set You Free

I always balk at when someone I know writes something and I’m asked to give an opinion on it. As my circle of friends has grown smaller, I have erred on the side of caution, not wanting to hurt any of my friends’ feelings. Jack Murphy has never had that problem.

Jack has been on a mission, to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. And when you’re blunt, do your homework and research and then write what you believe is the right thing, the truth, you’ll invariably piss some people off. Jack has done that. In fact, in the Special Forces community of which he was a member, many men of the Regiment have a case of the red-ass against him.

Murphy was a member of the Ranger Regiment and deployed to Afghanistan with them. He then moved on to Special Forces, and was on an A-Team in the 5th Special Forces Group, “The Legion”. He deployed again to Iraq with SF. He then decided to leave the military and graduated from Columbia University with a B.A. in Political Science. Murphy is near a perfect fit that the OSS in World War II was looking for.

OSS was the forerunner to both CIA and the U.S. Army Special Forces. General William “Wild Bill,” Donovan said they were looking for “PhDs who can win a bar fight.” Murphy is an Ivy League graduate who was a Ranger and Green Beret.

Along the way, he co-founded the website “SOFREP” which later became “NEWSREP” and developed a ton of aspiring writers who came from military backgrounds and had the itch to write. SOFREP developed a reputation as a hard-hitting journal of military and current affairs that spoke plainly and covered it all. The great successes and the failures with equal attention. It was far from a PR firm or just a cheerleader squad for the military. That was Murphy’s doing. Which brings us to his book.

“Murphy’s Law” is basically a two-part book, the first half deals with Murphy’s military career and the second part, which is the next chapter in his life takes you on the trail with an investigative journalist. But this is one who covers the military with the trained and sometimes jaundiced eye of someone who has “been there, done that”.

This book is an absolute page turner and as with everything that Murphy writes, he covers the “who, what, where and most especially, why” of his experiences. Murphy hardly paints himself as a hero, in fact, he delves into a particularly sensitive subject of a friendly fire incident in the Ranger Bn. That could’ve easily been glossed over, but again, that wouldn’t have been the “whole truth” and Murphy hardly paints himself in glowing light there. That’s part of what makes this so intriguing.

Murphy’s experiences during the Global War on Terror (GWOT), gives his perspective on what has been the United States’ longest war in its history. And like he always does, Murphy tells it like it is. His take on al-Qaeda and their fighters is an instant classic.

“The Iraqi insurgency consisted of hardcore criminals, jihadists, and a ton of foreign fighters looking to get their kill on. These dudes were murderers, members of a death cult called al-Queda. The Nazis, the Soviets, and all the North Vietnamese Army were at least fighting for some twisted vision of a better future. By comparison, al-Queda was, and is gutter trash”.

Awesome stuff there.

After graduating from Colombia, Murphy wasn’t a sit in the office type of journalist. He traveled to the Philippines where his interview with the commanders of the Light Reaction Regiment of the PI’s SOF, while they were actively engaged with Abu Sayyaf terrorist units. He snuck into Syria to report first-hand on the brutal fighting that tore the country apart there.

Murphy wrote about the religion of the Yazidi and Peshmerga peoples of Syria, as in the Middle East religion is everything. Something that I never knew about was that the Yazidis predated both Christianity and Islam. All stuff I’ve never seen anywhere.

I can’t recommend this book more, it is a great take on one man’s life with extraordinary events and people thrown together. Murphy has already written some military novels but this book was different. He was trying to put down the events of his life, thus far and was worried about appearing “douchey”.

As with anything, I have to put an anecdote in there. Our local Veterans Council consists of vets from the VFW, American Legion and unaffiliated veterans. Every year we visit all of the schools in the area at Memorial Day and Veterans’ Day.

We were finishing up a school visit last week when one of our vets named George who was a Major in Army Intelligence who is now a retired attorney asked me, “Have you ever heard of a guy named Jack Murphy?”

“My wife and I were walking thru Barnes and Noble and I saw his book and picked it up. And after scanning thru it for a moment, had to buy it. I brought it home last night and can’t put it down. It is a fantastic read. The guy was a Ranger, a Green Beret…now he’s a globe-trotting journalist. Have you read it?”

After I explained the workings of NEWSREP and SpecialOperations.com and the relationship I have with Murphy, George said, “I think he’d be a great guy to sit down and have a beer with to just be able to pick his brain.”

Yes indeed.

Being so young, Murphy and his wife, who is also an investigative journalist should have plenty of adventures left in their lives for another book sometime in the future. I’d put that one on the reading list, but for now, head to the nearest bookstore and read “Murphy’s Law” asap. You’ll be glad you did.

Photo: Amazon, NEWSREP

Special Operations Forces Selection PT Preparation Week 14, Day 4

Wednesday is a light Shoulders and Back training day in the gym before heading off to do the SOF (Special Operations Forces) Triathlon. A 3-mile run, a rucksack march, and a swim with fatigues and boots.

These are three things that you’ll have to be able to do well to pass Selection. If your plans include being a Marine Raider or a Navy SEAL, then being a good swimmer and being more comfortable in the water with your gear on is a must.

UBRR Training:

More Preparation for the UBRR:

2 x 12 Lat Pulldowns, behind the neck (go as heavy as possible)

2 x 12 Lat Pulldowns, front

2 x 10 Dumbbell Side Raises

2 x 10 Dumbbell Front Raises

2 x 10 Dumbbell Arnold Press

2 x 8 Shoulder Shrugs

3-mile Run (24 minutes maximum)

3-mile Rucksack march (45-pound minimum, 45 minutes maximum)

100-meter swim in fatigues and boots

Stretch well after completion

Special Operations Forces Selection PT Preparation Week 14, Day 3

It is Tuesday, which means it is Leg Day at the gym followed by a 4-mile run. Start off with pull-ups, then squats, lunges and the Sled push/Fireman’s carry followed by a four-mile run.

Remember to stretch well and hydrate well during and after your workout.

UBRR Training:

Continue to prep for the UBRR

3 x Pullups 10 reps

3 x Front Squat 20-15-12 reps (lighter weight)

3 x Goblet Squats 20-15-12 reps (lighter weight)

3 x 10 Deadlifts

4 x Sled push heavier weight/ Fireman’s carry

3 x 10 reps Dumbbell Lunges

3 x 20 Spider-Man Planks

4-Mile run (32 minutes maximum)

Stretch well after completion