Air Force Special Operations

Too Many Junior Army Leaders Can’t Navigate, A Bad Sign

A recent piece in MilitaryTimes stated that many of the young sergeants in most infantry and close-combat units don’t know how to maneuver their squads or do basic land navigation. For “soft skill” MOS’ that isn’t necessarily a show stopper, but for the infantry and combat arms types, that is a very bad sign that units aren’t doing proper training for their soldiers and leaders. For Special Operations troops, this lack of training will have a trickle-down effect.

Last week we posted a piece about a soldier who was akin to “Ned the Navigator” and got lost on a Land Nav course. This, however, is no laughing matter.

If conventional infantry units aren’t doing proper training for their soldiers, when they become junior leaders, fire-team leaders, and squad leaders, then they, in turn, can’t properly train their soldiers. And it snowballs.

According to the same Military.com piece by Matthew Cox, the Army’s Noncommissioned Officer Academy is seeing sergeants routinely show up for courses unable to pass a basic land navigation course using a map and compass.

Those courses are a piece of cake compared to what they’ll see in Special Forces. The “Star Course” that SF candidates must pass is easily the toughest land navigation course in the Army and arguably the toughest in the military as a whole.

The majority of Special Forces candidates that fail at Selection and Assessment (SFAS) do so at Land Navigation and it requires every candidate to be on top of his… or her game. And if the E-4s, E-5s, and E-6s can’t do basic navigation at an NCO Academy they have next to zero chance of passing the Star course in Hoffman.

An example of this was back in the day when I went thru the Warrant Officer’s Candidate Course. There were a handful of Special Forces NCOs, a couple of CID NCOs and a whole bunch of high-school to flight school kids who wanted to fly Blackhawks. The CID guys didn’t have much practical experience with maps and compasses, so it was up to us to help out the class.

The cadre played up the difficulty of the course and told horror stories of so many candidates getting lost out in the forest and getting dropped from the course. The SF guys looked at one another and we knew there was no way this could be anywhere near the difficulty as we experienced at Camp Mackall. It wasn’t.

If memory serves right, we had a five-hour window in which to find all of our points and successfully return to the start/finish point. In less than an hour, the SF guys started trotting in. I arrived seconds before my best bud Wade Chapple, who was a frequent target of our Senior Tac Officer. “Are you lost Chapple?” the Senior Tac yelled. With a shit-eating grin, Wade answered, “no sir…just done.”

They checked over our scorecards where we had to mark down each of the points we found. “How is it you finished so fast,” the tac asked. “We’re trained to move out much farther and much faster with a ruck on our backs,” Wade said. “We ran to our points.”

The cadre seemed incredulous that someone can run thru the woods and navigate at the same time…they shouldn’t have. Thousands of SF troops who passed Land Nav at Camp Mackall have done just that. This was nothing more than a glorified compass course which most NCO Academy’s are.

According to cadre at the Henry Caro NCO Academy at Ft. Benning, GA, home of the Army’s Infantry, stated that 30 percent of the NCOs that show up can’t pass the diagnostic dismounted Land Navigation Course. That course is geared toward Skill Level 1 tasks. Many of the NCOs who failed to find the requisite 4-out-of-5 points said that they hadn’t practiced with a map, compass, and protractor for years in their units. That is flat-out wrong.

After my active duty career was over, I worked as a contractor and saw that the troops headed for Iraq were far too dependent on GPS and there was a definitive lack of map reading training taking place.

While that is fine in a counter-insurgency environment in Third World countries such as Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria, for example, but with the military services transitioning now to a large scale conventional battlefield against a foe of equal strength such as Russia or China, the threat of them blocking or jamming our GPS signals is very real. What happens then?

The Big Army is not doing right by its soldiers and NCOs in this case. Brigade and Battalion commanders have to cut back to the typical ash and trash details and let combat soldiers go back to train to succeed in what they’re supposed to do.

NCOs are the backbone of the military services; when their training and technical competence isn’t up to par, the entire unit’s tactical and technical proficiency will suffer. Get the troops back to the basics and teach them the old way of “Shoot, move and communicate.”

We’re not even going to touch on the fact that most NCOs couldn’t hit their targets with iron sights, as they’ve become too dependent on optics…

Who’s ready to go to Land Navigation this week? It may be time to revisit some of our basic Land Navigation and Map Reading tasks in the very near future.

Photo: US Army

Special Operations Forces Selection PT Preparation Week 8, Day 5

Back to the gym today as we prep for the UBRR with a Chest and Triceps workout. Then a 4-mile ruck march with 45-pounds minimum. This would be a great time, to wear that second pair of boots. Right? Remember to push the pace without running.

And also 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 10 Kip Ups

3 x 20 Sit-ups

3 x 20 Cable Push Downs (rope)

3 x 20 Dips or until muscle failure

4-mile rucksack march (45-pound minimum) over varied terrain, note your time

Stretch well after completion

Special Operations Forces Selection PT Preparation Week 8, Day 4

Shoulders and back day in the gym before heading off to do a 5-mile rucksack march. Conduct the ruck over varied terrain and remember to hydrate throughout. After the ongoing and heavy rains here and dealing with a muddy mess on the trail, your times may suffer as the ruck becomes a slog thru the mud. Get used to it, the weather is rarely perfect for Selection.

It is a good habit to get used to hydrating while rucking and a needed one for the time when you’re in the course. Even in the rain. Mark your time down in your workout logbook.

UBRR Training:

More Preparation for the UBRR:

3 x 12 Lat Pull downs, behind the neck (go as heavy as possible)

3 x 12 Lat Pull downs, front

3 x 10 Seated Rows

3 x 10 Dumbbell Side Raises

3 x 10 Dumbbell Front Raises

3 x 10 Dumbbell Arnold Press

3 x 8 Shoulder Shrugs

5-mile Ruck sack march (45-lb minimum) over varied terrain, 75-minutes maximum

Stretch well after completion

Let’s Talk About That Dirty Word …Standards in Special Operations

Let us talk about standards again…oh no. Not that dirty word again. But it is a very important one. We’ve written about the standards in the SF courses, both SFAS and the SFQC a couple of times and now is a good time to revisit it again.

There has been a lot of talk about Special Operations Forces a lot lately and a lot of it is for the wrong reasons. And while the jury is still out (figuratively and literally) on many of these cases we’ve seen in the news, some have stated that these cases we’re seeing here are just a case of the military letting the standards slip. While we disagree with that assumption and believe it to be the case of several factors, that won’t be the last time we hear that uttered.

In the Special Forces community, we had the now infamous “night letter” where several SF instructors took to the internet to vent their frustrations what they perceived to be a severe lowering of standards with the Special Forces Qualification Course, they reached to their fellow Green Berets for support. It excoriated the command of the JFK Special Warfare Center and School.

Our Regiment has a cancer, and it is destroying the SF legacy, its capability, and its credibility.
SWCS has devolved into a cesspool of toxic, exploitive, biased and self-serving senior Officers who are bolstered by submissive, sycophantic, and just-as-culpable enlisted leaders. They have doggedly succeeded in two things; furthering their careers, and ensuring that Special Forces more prolific, but dangerously less capable than ever before. Shameless and immodest careerism has, in no uncertain terms, effectively destroyed our ability to assess, train, and prepare students, or to identify those students that pose a very real risk to Operational Detachments. I cannot stress how systematic and severe the effects on the force will be if the standards, recently implemented here in the Special Forces Qualification Course, remain in place.

That letter eventually made its way to the media and there was the devil to pay. The Commanding General of the JFKSWC, MG Kurt Sonntag answered that email with one of his own and tried to answer those charges and reassure the cadre of the Special Forces courses.

“Many of you have seen the anonymous letter calling into question the integrity of our training standards and the quality of the Soldiers being produced. Let me be clear,” Sonntag writes in his letter, a copy of which was provided to NPR by the command, “I would be proud to serve with each and every one of our Special Forces Qualification Course graduates, and I stand behind the quality of every Soldier we send to the operational force.”

The purpose here isn’t to re-debate things here, that is an exercise in futility. We can understand…totally both sides of the equation. The school’s commander, Sonntag is in a very tough spot. He gets guidance from above him that the operational groups need “X” number of people and those numbers just aren’t there. Between the endless wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, and now Syria, the operational tempo and deployment schedule have left Special forces with a high case of operator burnout.

But the instructors have a duty to assess, select and train the very best candidates for the force. And they know, when their tours as instructors are over, the candidates that successfully complete the course, will be their teammates of the future.

Regardless, the standards have to remain high and the School’s command and instructors have to be very discriminating over who can be part of it. Not everyone is cut out to be an operator in a Special Operations unit. By their very nature, the missions of SOF units are extremely challenging both physically and mentally. For the operators, the job gets tougher, not easier after graduation when our troops find themselves in the real-world SOF environment. The different services and their individual units must identify, develop, and provide the necessary training to produce troops that can operate in their environments.

That’s why the maintaining of standards is so important. All of the different services (Army Green Berets and Rangers, Navy SEALs, Air Force CCT) have their own standards as to what they are looking for in the troops that aspire to be in their units. But they all share some common attributes.

They have to be internally motivated and will strive to not only get the job done but do it beyond the scope of what is required. And be able to function with but more importantly without supervision.

Candidates have to be intelligent and be able to learn other languages and cultures. The SOF units are looking for people who can think on their feet when they’re tired, hungry and under an extreme amount of stress. Physically, they must be hard and tough enough to never quit, never give in and always keep driving forward.

William “Wild Bill” Donovan who created OSS (Office of Strategic Services), the forerunner of both CIA and the U.S. Army Special Forces, in World War II was asked what he was looking for in OSS operators. It was simple yet detailed. “PhDs who can win a bar fight.”

Special Forces utilizes the “Whole Man” Selection Process concept and the six main attributes that every successful Special Forces operator should possess include:

Intelligence
Trainability
Physical Fitness
Motivation
Influence
Judgment

However, those same attributes apply equally to Rangers, SEALs, or Air Force CCTs. And of course, they all share the confidence that comes from constant practice of their profession and the fact that they react to stress as motivation.

As we’ve seen in the lessons learned thru the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and now Syria, the standards of the SOF need to remain high. In fact, if anything they need to be even higher as the demand increases for operators and the number of qualified candidates dwindles. As the demands increase and the tools of the trade become even sharper, the standards for becoming a Special Operations trooper should never be lowered.

So, even though the mission priorities are subject to change as the threat evolves, the core values of SOF never do. And the standards by which we identify, assess and train our Special Operations Force warriors should never be lowered.

Photo courtesy DOD

Special Operations Forces Selection PT Preparation Week 8, Day 3

Tuesday is Leg Day, time for building strength and endurance, begin with pull-ups and. then squats, lunges and the sled followed by a four-mile run in under 32 minutes which is the standard.

If your gym has no sled, you can substitute a Fireman’s Carry with a training partner.

We hope everyone had a great Easter or Passover dinner on Sunday. A day to recover and Leg Day with a good run in the rain will fix that.

Training:

Continue to prep for the UBRR

3 x Pullups 10 reps

3 x 10 reps Deadlifts

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

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

4 x Sled push heavier weight or Fireman’s Carry

3 x 10 reps Dumbbell Lunges

3 x 20 Side planks

4-Mile run (32 minutes maximum)

Stretch well after completion

Special Operations Forces Selection PT Preparation Week 8, Day 2

A good workout is the best way to start Monday and the week off right. We’ll start 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 40 minutes or less in a mini UBRR test.

Remember to 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

1 x Pullups as many as possible or to muscle failure

5-mile run (40 minutes maximum)

Stretch well after completion

Special Operations Forces Selection PT Preparation Week 8, Day 1

Happy Easter to everyone. Time for our Sunday morning ruck march. Do a quick warmup of pushups and sit-ups before heading out. Stretch well both before and after the event. Remember to drink plenty of water and stay hydrated out there.

Today would a great time to wear your second pair of boots for the Selection Course. Don’t wait until then to get another pair broken in. Check for hot spots and blisters, by the time the Selection course rolls around, you’ll be an expert at this and shouldn’t have as many issues in that area.

UBRR Training:

Warm up

2 x 20 Pushups

2 x 20 Sit-ups

6-mile Rucksack march over varied terrain with a 45-pound minimum. And mark your times in your workout log book. The standard is 90 minutes, you should be looking to better that.

Stretch well after completion

Special Operations Force Selection PT Preparation Week 7, Day 7

We’ll start the weekend and Saturday off right. It is time to go back to the gym for some shoulders and back work. Followed by a four-mile run. Log your numbers down in the workout notebook

UBRR Training:

More Preparation for the UBRR:

3 x 10 Lat Pulldowns, rear

3 x 10 Barbell Dead Lift

3 x 10 Wide Grip Pull-ups

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 7, Day 6

It is Friday, so yes, you know it also means Leg Day at the gym. Begin with some Squats – front, and barbell. This builds up the strength in your legs that will help propel the rucksack.

Then some lunges and after the weighted sled push or an alternative if your gym doesn’t have one. Then finish the workout off with a 4-mile run. Get out and enjoy the rain today.

Remember to stretch well after the workout and to hydrate.

UBRR Training:

Continue to prep for the UBRR.

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

3 x 10 Deadlifts

3 x 10 Barbell Squats

3 x 10 Dumbbell Lunges

3 x 10 Romanian Lunges

3 x 10 Leg Extensions

3 x Weighted sled push or Fireman’s Carry

4-mile run (32 minutes maximum)

Stretch well after completion

Special Operations Forces Selection PT Preparation Week 7, Day 5

We are heading back to the gym today as we prep for the UBRR with a Chest and Triceps workout. This workout will build your upper body strength

Then a 4-mile ruck march with 45-pounds minimum. 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 10 Kip Ups

3 x 20 Sit-ups

3 x 20 Cable Push Downs (rope)

3 x 20 Dips or until muscle failure

4-mile rucksack march (45-pound minimum, 60 minutes maximum) over varied terrain, note your time

Stretch well after completion