SOF

Passing SFAS – Team Week, Be Prepared to be Tested

So, you’ve volunteered to be in Special Forces and you’re getting ready to go to SFAS. This is the time to prepare yourself for the grind that is to come. There are certain tips, such as the PT program which will help you attain the level of physical fitness that you’ll need to not just pass the course but to excel.

Well now we’re on to Team Week, you’ve passed the Land Navigation course, and while it wasn’t easy, you learned that you are pretty good at navigating after all. And if you can navigate in Hoffman, you should be able to do it anywhere.

But now we’re here at Team Week and you’ve no doubt heard the nightmarish stories about it and what a smoker it is. Well, it is true that you are going to be tested this week. The tasks are difficult and you’re going to be worn down and smoked like a cheap cigar with some of them, especially if the weather doesn’t cooperate and the trails get muddy and slow. But again, like Land Nav, thousands of guys have passed it and so can you.

Here are a few things to keep in mind.

What is Team Week Anyway? Well, the school response is that Team Week is a series of tasks that the candidates must accomplish within a set amount of time. Sounds fairly innocuous, right? No one is better than the military at making something sound so bland.

The Special Forces cadre members will watch and evaluate the candidates on their ability to solve problems, work as a member of a team and lead a group of peers while under physical and mental stress. All of these are extremely important in your SF career but nothing will get you to be non-selected quicker than the second.

You can be a physical stud and smoke every ruck, run and PT smoker in the pit, as well as find all of your points on Land Nav, but if you’re a non-team player, you’re done. sayonara, adios, auf wiedersehen, ciao. SF can’t use you.

Team Work Essential: And trust me, the cadre is ALWAYS watching! During team week as an SFAS cadre member, I not only watched the candidate who was put in the leadership position of the event, but also his teammates. Are they supporting him to the best of their ability? Or during a break are they just doing the rucksack flop?

If you are really good at lashing, be prepared to be busy during Team Week. Normally the successful teams identify the team members that are good at that skill right away. Because you must build some funky conveyances during Team Week. The better that they are lashed together and engineered, the quicker you’ll get to your finish point for that event.

When it is your time in the barrel as a leader on an event, be a good one. Remember you’re not going to be the smartest guy in the room. You have a wealth of knowledge and experience amongst your teammates. Use them. Listen to their ideas, because you are all going to have to cross the finish line together. Get everyone involved and pulling together.

Always be a Leader: In Special Forces, you’ll be expected to perform well above your pay grade in everyday work, so you must, must, must always be a leader in your attitude. It doesn’t matter if you are the Team Leader or the last guy in line. Always support the guy in charge to the best of your ability. Because that guy may be supporting you next.

Selection never ends by the way. You’ll move on to the Q-course, get your Long Tab and wear the Green Beret but you’ll forge your reputation every day and on an A-Team, everyone must pull together and put absolute trust in each other. You’re starting an entirely new career field here, get off on the right foot and never stop.

Cool Wins: Always remain calm, and trust me there will be times when you are ready to explode because you’re tired, worn down and physically exhausted. But a person who is out of control will make mistakes. Stay cool, calm and collected. I believe it was Kipling who said,

“If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;”…

Gray-Man: I didn’t know whether to put anything down here on this subject because there are so many takes on this and they all differ. And this is one of those subjects I feel strongly about so my take on this is a bit biased.

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.

Everybody’s different. Certain guys (Many SF guys) are Type-A personalities and are demonstrative, take charge guys. Others are more low-key and lead by example types. Be yourself. The cadre will know by then which type you 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, but 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.

Final Thoughts: Team Week will test you, push you and is a big gut check. Take it seriously but always keep a positive mental attitude and you’ll be fine.

Don’t be afraid to inject some humor in there. Sometimes humor can be a stress reliever and will lighten the load a bit. But in moderation as in all things. You’ll find that on you’re A-Teams as well.

Team Week failures usually were because of lack of endurance, lack of tactical troop leading procedures, lack of being a team player and a lack of leadership by example. Those are easily preventable. Part of the reason you must be in such good physical condition is not only to pass the events of the course but physically fit people have a much better coping mechanism with stress. And Team Week will be stressful.

Don’t be Late, Don’t be Light, Don’t be Last. Above all else …good luck!

Photo courtesy of DOD

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

IDF West Bank Units Using New Intelligence Methods To Combat Terror Attacks

After several attacks on Israeli soldiers and civilians in the West Bank where the attackers were able to get away in the crowds, the IDF is revamping the way they do business to alert their troops to any suspicious activity by Palestinians in the West Bank.

There have been 16 Israeli soldiers or citizens killed in shooting or stabbing attacks in the West Bank during the past year but the IDF has also been able to stop other attacks before they occur.

This new system relies on both increased visual surveillance as well as analytics which will be connected in an operations control room. The information will then warn soldiers on the ground before a terror attack begins. The system is already being tested in the West Bank by the Samaria Regional Brigade.

The IDF is placing more surveillance cameras and other sensors around the West Bank, around areas of increased traffic like road junctions. The operations room personnel will use advanced computer algorithms to review the camera’s footage to identify any imminent threats. Soldiers will be alerted to risks through smartwatches and other wearable devices according to the IDF.

The Israelis are calling this development the “Digital Regional Brigade” and was a combined effort of the military’s intelligence, technology and ground forces units. In a released statement, the IDF said, “the system knows to identify… and prevent violent terrorist activities. In this way, it provides soldiers with a quick warning of an impending threat.”

In another development, the Israelis are putting together “mixed combat teams” during terrorist attacks in scenarios where the attackers flee and attempt to blend into the crowds, “which will help oversee large swaths of land during a manhunt.” These composite teams will consist of infantry, field intelligence, special forces, and other security services during terrorist incidents.

The Israelis are also beefing up their individual training before troops move into the West Bank. The training is designed to ensure that every combat soldier is able to make correct decisions under pressure and in a short period of time, such as overpowering an attacker at maximum speed. The infantry troops are getting advanced training in five areas that the IDF has identified as needing work:

improving shooting skills and hand-to-hand combat skills
“mentally” preparing troops for the types of threats they face in the West Bank,
Create a unified set of techniques that is most suited for operating in the region
improving training facilities
establishing division-wide standards and measurements to accurately assess effectiveness and success.

During the training, the soldiers will utilize virtual reality headsets to better simulate actual combat and terrorist situations that they’ll encounter including stabbing and shooting attacks, as well as Krav Maga and shooting courses. This is designed to speed up the response time for Israeli Defense Forces when they face an incident which will also not allow terrorists to get away.

The Israelis, in an attempt to diffuse other situations before they occur, have arrested 1000 Palestinians and confiscated 270 weapons this year. Security forces, including the IDF, police and Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency), carry out nightly raids in the West Bank to arrest Palestinians suspected of violence against Israelis.

The Palestine Liberation Organization’s Department of Public Diplomacy and Policy stated that the numbers are even higher with 1,600 Palestinians, including 230 children and 40 women, have been arrested since the start of 2019.

By using intelligence gathering, the IDF has been monitoring social media activity, and have arrested individuals who openly state their desire to carry out attacks and monitor social media networks especially like Facebook.

They’ve targeted underground weapons and bombmaking workshops, greatly reducing the number of weapons and illegal explosive devices that could end up in terrorist hands.

In related news, Israel keeps getting sporadic rocket fire aimed at it from Syria. Thus far, no one knows for sure if it is Syrian troops or Iranian proxies. But with each attack, the Israeli Defense Forces have been hitting back and hard with airstrikes. In a statement released by defense officials, the IDF stated the following:

“Last night, two rockets were launched from Syria to Israel, one landing within Israeli territory,” the IDF said. “In response, we struck a number of Syrian Armed Forces military targets. We hold the Syrian regime accountable and will firmly operate against any attempt to harm Israeli civilians.”

The Israeli counterstrike hit the area of the launches outside of Damascus and targeted a training facility for Iranian and Hezbollah forces, and an arms depot in the area of al-Kiswah.