US Army Special Forces

The “Green Beret Affair” Project GAMMA, a massive snafu for the Army

During the war in Vietnam, the US Army Special Forces were headquartered in Nha Trang. During this time, the Special Forces troops had a close liaison with the CIA and the two organizations worked closely on many intelligence and special operations missions. Their most successful covert intelligence unit “Project GAMMA”, had its mission effectively shut down after Gen. Creighton Abrams, the commander of US troops in Vietnam had many in the unit, as well as the 5^th Special Forces Group Commander Col. Robert Rheault arrested on August 6, 1969, for the murder of a Vietnamese double agent.

Background: Project GAMMA also known as B-57 had been running covert ground intelligence teams into Cambodia since late 1967. They used nearly 500 indigenous assets and operated from nine different sites inside South Vietnam using the cover for civil affairs or psychological operations units. It was the finest combat intelligence producing unit in Vietnam. B-57 or GAMMA produced 65 percent of the usable intelligence on Cambodia and 75 percent of the intelligence on South Vietnam. These figures were supplied by Abrams’ own intelligence chief on his staff.

The unit took its orders from the Station Chief of the CIA in Saigon and thru the agency’s satellite office in Nha Trang. Because the members were military, they were nominally under the chain of command of the 5^th SFG(A), but Rheault was kept in the dark over much of the unit’s actions as they were on a strict “need to know” basis. Rheault had been in command of 5^th Group for only a few weeks when these events took place.

One of the reasons for their success, the GAMMA people and the CIA did not include the South Vietnamese into the “need to know.” Their intelligence apparatus was a sieve and had many North Vietnamese agents in place.

Because policy makers in Washington had granted Cambodia and Laos “protected status” no US combat troops were allowed there. Only the covert intelligence gathering teams were allowed to operate there. Of course, the North Vietnamese Army used this to their advantage, placing units up to division size right across the border, attacking the south and then waltzing back to untouchable bases in Cambodia to refit, rearm and do it all over again.

In early 1969, the CIA and GAMMA were getting concerned. Too many of their teams and agents were disappearing and they were convinced they had a mole in the organization. Then pictures surfaced of one of GAMMA’s assets, Chu Van Thai Khac (AKA Thai Khac Chuyen) speaking to North Vietnamese intelligence officials. The roll of film was taken from an NVA (North Vietnamese) base camp in Cambodia where an SF recon team snuck in stole the documents and film.

The handler for Thai Khac Chuyen, a Sergeant Alvin Smith identified him in the photos. Smith was not SF but an MI specialist assigned to the unit. The asset was brought in for interrogation including a polygraph test which was not administered when the asset was recruited for some reason.

Execution and Fallout: After ten days of intense “enhanced” interrogation including the use of sodium pentothal, not only did GAMMA learn of the asset compromising the intelligence teams to the NVA but also to the South Vietnamese which made Thai Khac Chuyen in effect a triple agent.

GAMMA didn’t take the problem of the intelligence leak to the 5^th SFG(A), why would they? They took it the CIA in Saigon and the order came that down thru the Nha Trang office was to “terminate the agent with extreme prejudice” which quickly became the catch-phrase for every spy novel and film for the next generation.

The agent was drugged, wrapped in chains, and then taken to deep water out in the South China Sea from Nha Trang harbor. Captain Bob Marasco fired two shots into Chuyen’s head and he and others dumped the body into the sea.

The agency came up with the cover story to explain the absence of the asset if questions were asked, he was believed to have disappeared after being sent on a mission behind enemy lines to test his loyalty.

Here is where everything fell apart. Smith, Chuyen’s handler, feared for his own safety and retreated to the CIA’s Nha Trang office seeking protection. Word quickly got out and Abrams asked Rheault about the situation on an open and unsecured line. When pushed by Abrams, the Group Commander repeated the cover story.

Abrams was never a fan of Airborne troops and especially Special Forces and he quickly had all of the officers and men involved in the situation, including Rheault arrested and placed in Long Binh Jail. All were to be charged with premeditated murder.

Gen. Creighton Abrams hated paratroopers and Special Forces especially.

“Get up there and clean all those bastards out!”, Abrams told his staff. His chief intelligence officer said that Abrams has peculiar prejudices. “This commonsensical, well-read, sophisticated man harbored some of the longest lasting, strangest, and most unusual prejudices. For one, he hated halfbacks, football halfbacks…Abrams held another unusual, and more serious, bias: he disliked paratroopers.”

He wasn’t alone. The Big Army hated Special Forces, all the attention that the relatively new unit had gotten from National Geographic, Look Magazine and the Barry Sadler craze had rubbed the brass the wrong way. Many senior officers hated that the best and brightest NCOs were choosing on going to the expanding Special Forces units rather than stay and beef up the conventional army.

Article 32 Fiasco: Reporters who routinely covered Special Forces found out about the arrests and the story went public in a big way. Most Americans felt that Rheault and the SF soldiers were being made scapegoats in a CIA operation, especially when the defense produced photos taken by the GAMMA Intel team that showed the asset in a meeting with NVA intelligence officers in Cambodia. The public wanted to know why the men were being singled out for killing the enemy, which is what they were supposed to do.

Abrams insisted that the Article 32 hearing take place and it did, turning into a circus. The defense hired a civilian attorney, Henry Rothblatt who was well versed in military court martials. He immediately deposed both CIA agents and Abrams himself to testify.

The defense also moved for dismissal due to a lack of evidence. There was no body. Abrams tried to have the Navy drag Nha Trang harbor and use divers to find the body. He was taking a beating in the press, he denied the defense the use of any kind of office which further gave credence to his bias.

Lack of a body prompted the prosecution to give immunity to one of those charged, Chief Warrant Officer Edward Boyle and was going to use his testimony to push for a murder trial. Boyle refused the offer of immunity and also refused to testify.

Meanwhile, another SF recon team inserted in Cambodia and was hounded by NVA troops on insertion, but broke contact and later killed two enemy troops. One was believed to be a senior Chinese intelligence officer. In his possession, he had a case with a list of agents working for the NVA in the South Vietnamese and US military. Listed prominently was the dead “double agent” Chuyen. There was now no doubt that Chuyen was guilty.

In a side note, Col. Charles M. Simpson, who would eventually take over for Rheault and was a friend, flew to Saigon trying to be of any assistance. When Abrams found out, he flew into another rage. “Tell that SOB to get the hell out of the country ASAP, or his ass will be in a cell next to his buddy.”

Both Abrams and the CIA refused to testify, so finally the Secretary of the Army Stanley Resor announced that the charges against Rheault and the others would be dropped. Rheault asked to be re-instated as the Commander of the 5^th SFG(A) and it was denied. So, his career over, he promptly filed paperwork for retirement. The others soon left the military as well.

Col. Robert Rheault upon returning to the US with his then wife in 1969.

Aftermath: Rheault was, prior to this incident, a rising star in the SF community. He was considered a great candidate to make General Officer and his career, on the fast track was ruined. Project GAMMA was shut down in March 1970. An official Army history of the Green Berets, published after the Vietnam War, does not mention Project GAMMA or Detachment B-57 despite the high level of intelligence garnered. Although the Pentagon has declassified much material about Green Beret cross-border operations inside Laos and Cambodia, nothing on Project Gamma has ever been made available.

Rheault retired and quickly took a position with the Outward Bound program in Maine. He remained there until his death in October of 2013, just two weeks shy of his 89^th birthday. He refused interviews and book deals on the incident but was working on a book about SF in Vietnam but never got it published because publishers wanted him to discuss the entire “Green Beret Affair.” Eventually, his friend Simpson published the book, “Green Berets, The First Thirty Years”

Rheault never tried to augment himself financially or in any other way over the affair. He did work with veterans of both the Iraq and Afghanistan, assisting veterans in another unpopular war.

Lessons Learned: What does the entire affair mean to the SF and Special Operations Forces of today? There still remains within the Big Army some of that petty jealousy and distaste for Special Operations and Special Forces in general.

And in the shadowy world in which the SOF operate in today with constant changing of the rules of engagement, troops will always have that question of whether a kill is “a good one.” There was another wrongful prosecution for an SF captain and master sergeant of a “suspected” insurgent in Afghanistan about 10 years ago. Although the charges were later dropped, they never should have been brought in the first place.

Allegations are surfacing that certain SOF units from Britain and Australia were operating outside the rules of engagement as well. While the verdict is still out on those, proper caution must always be used in these types of situations. And the chain of command must leave no doubt in the SF operators’ minds on what is or is not allowed in the ROE (rules of engagement).

The life of the SOF operators is dangerous enough already, they don’t need anything else adding to it. Including a hostile higher headquarters that doesn’t believe in SOF.

Photos courtesy DOD

The Secret to Getting Selected in SFAS? There Isn’t One

I know what you’re thinking,…” here’s this FOG (F***ing Old Guy) preaching again about being in the last hard class.” Okay, first let’s dispense with the myths and get right to the crux of the matter. Every Special Forces guy you will meet, regardless of era went thru the last hard class and everyone since then or before his was an absolute cakewalk.

It is true, ask anyone and you’ll bound to get the same answer. Years from now when some of you do get selected and sent to one of the Operational Groups, you’ll be doing the same thing. I swore back in the day, that I would never, ever do that. But then in my last year or so in the military, I was talking to a good friend of mine who was at the schoolhouse teaching SF medics and he was lamenting the quality of his latest class and we fell into the “man things were sure tougher when WE went thru the course.” Yikes!. “When did we turn into the old MFers that we used to make fun of?” But I digress

Passing Selection is the rite of passage for every Special Operations unit in the world. And that is why we are all here right? The courses are designed to be incredibly hard for a reason and a very good one. The operating environment that Special Operations many times must perform in is often extreme. Carrying a lot of gear on your back in the heat of Iraq, Syria or in the mountains of Afghanistan or 100 other places isn’t a walk in the park. And all the while you’ll have a determined, hardened enemy that is trying very hard to kill you.

So, we get all kinds of email from prospective Special Operations asking about what the secret is for getting selected and the magic elixir that’s required to pass. The short answer is, there isn’t one. It is so simple it is hard sometimes for young troops to get. So we’ll go thru the quick guide again and the first one is probably a total no-brainer.

Be in the Best Shape You Possibly Can Be: We’ve set out the physical training pieces that we’ve felt will help you prepare physically for the challenge that is ahead. And make no mistake you will be challenged. You will get smoked, rinsed off, dusted and do it all over again. There will be plenty of times where you are tired, hungry, beat up and mentally taxed. That is normal, it also is exactly what the course is designed to do, once you show up for selection.

But there is no reason to be in arguably the best shape in your life when you show up for selection. I know at times a lot of guys get hurt during their prep time and they are not all the way back by the time their class date begins. I’ve seen that as a cadre member and the only thing to do in Selection is to just gut it out the best way you can unless you are seriously injured, where you can’t do it. Then try to get your class date changed.

I was levied for SWC (Special Warfare Center), the schoolhouse while on a deployment to Central America back in the day. As soon as I got back, I was assigned to Selection and since I went thru the SFQC (Special Forces Qualification Course) in the days before SFAS, I had to attend the next class…the only issue? While down south I had got a case of dysentery and was still getting over it when reporting in …about 25 pounds light. Carrying the “Sandman” while having the screen door $hits isn’t the best way to go thru the course. So I feel your pain if you’ve had to endure the task with going thru Selection, while not at 100 percent thru no fault of your own.

Leave the Assessing to the Assessors: This is a big one and a total no-brainer. Far too many candidates take a look around themselves and the daunting task that is selection and psyche themselves right out of the course. They become so self-critical that they’ll convince themselves that they are doing terribly. It is a common trait among most successful people and many Special Operators that we are usually our own worst critics. But Selection isn’t the time for that part of your psyche to come out.

One class in SFAS, there was senior NCO who came from an LRSU unit and he positively smoked every run and ruck march during the course. But instead of being back in his unit where he was far out in front of every such event, in SFAS among many equally impressive troops, he wasn’t. He took it to mean he was performing substandardly when the total opposite was true. He self-assessed himself and did a poor job of it. He voluntarily withdrew until “I can get my shit together and come back to do the course right.”

You don’t know what or how the cadre is assessing you at any given time and that isn’t your job. To quote my favorite BB, “Do Your Job”. Let the cadre do theirs. If you’re still giving 100 percent every day and still standing there in the formation, that is all you should be worrying about. If you’re self-assessing yourself, you’ll be looking at a sad face in the mirror.

Remember, You Are Always Being Assessed: This will sound crazy perhaps but many of the candidates get off on the wrong foot on Day 1 and it can end up costing them down the road. Many of the young soldiers coming into Selection are focused on the physical side (which is good) but never forget that everything in Selection is evaluated which means…”everything”. And now I repeat it, (listen for the foot stomp as if in the classroom) “Assessment Never Ends”, you’ll hear this often. Remember it, file it away and don’t ever forget it.

You’ll be asked to take a battery of psychological tests and they’re quite lengthy. Some of the questions will seem odd (they are) and often make no sense. And you’ll get asked the same questions multiple times but it will be worded differently. It is designed that way to see if you’re telling the truth and taking it seriously. It is designed to identify potential psychopathic or sociopathic tendencies in some candidates.

While working at SFAS, there were a few, not a lot of soldiers who took this part of Selection as a joke, it isn’t. This isn’t the time to be cavalier or a smartass with your answers. It matters everything does. Not answering truthfully will raise its head in the test and it may ultimately cost you.

Another thing, from the time you sign in until the time that you sign out and return to your unit at the end of the course, you are being evaluated. Act like it and as if you under a microscope. There is no off time save for the few hours of sleep you’ll get.

Be a Team Player: This one is self-explanatory. Selection is an individual assessment conducted in a team environment. So yes, you’re being assessed as an individual. But part of that assessment and a VERY BIG part of it is how well you work within a team. Being part of a team is the very essence of what makes Special Operations and Special Forces in this case so successful.

Lone Wolves don’t cut it. You can ace every individual event but if you aren’t a team player, the cadre will notice and so will your peers. And peer evaluation can sink a soldier’s chances easily. Certain soldiers will have areas that they’re stronger in than their peers. A team player will recognize this and step up and help their teammates during team events. If they don’t help their teammates, then they’ll ultimately fail.

This is an area where many of the officers not selected ultimately fail. They perform very well when in charge of an event but balk at taking orders from lower-ranking candidates when it becomes their turn to lead an event. And “spotlight Rangers” who thrive when it is their turn in the box while being a leader, but then try to ghost into the background once it is over are easily spotted.

Don’t Be Late, Light, or Last: These three little sins are my favorites will get a candidate washed out and doing the duffel bag drag quicker than any other. And add a 4th, don’t be out of uniform. If there are 150 candidates standing there in PT gear and two guys show up are in fatigues, do you think that would fly?

You’re being assessed on your potential to be in one of the premier Special Operations units in the world. And showing up late ever or out of uniform isn’t the way to impress upon the cadre that you want to be there.

Unless things have changed drastically, at Selection the students are kept in the dark about what event is coming next until shortly before it happens. The cadre will update a dry erase board usually 15 minutes or so before the next event and will have the uniform that the candidates must be in. Most classes learn quickly to have a candidate from each hut placed outside near the board to keep everyone apprised of updates.

Being light is a cardinal sin and there is no excuse for it. Your rucksack has to weigh what they said it must weigh and it is always the weight specified without food and water. The instructors will always use the same scales that the candidates use so there will never be a discrepancy there. If the standard says 45 pounds, then 44 pounds,15 ounces is a fail. That doesn’t mean to go overboard either.

One winter class in SFAS, one candidate came in straggling at the rear. His rucksack weighed 75 pounds! That didn’t curry favor with the instructors, in fact, it had the opposite effect. Be safe, and err on the side of caution and be in the green but don’t overdo it. A pound or two over the limit won’t hurt you physically and gives the psychological reassurance that you’re well within the standards.

Being last is, next to being light the kiss of death in selection. One has to be pragmatic here. Do the math, the failure rate for selection is high, even those who make it to the very end of the course aren’t guaranteed to be selected, so being last in any event isn’t a good thing. But one event isn’t going to sink you or your chances if you do well in everything else.. We’ll expand on this more below but you never, ever want to be the last guy in at anything.

Ignore the Noise: The SFAS “rumor mill” used to kill me. There is something about Selection that turns good, troops into a ladies’ sewing circle. This goes right along with self-assessment. Listening to the rumor mill is an unnecessary drain on your energy and serves no purpose. And invariably the rumors are as wrong as the National Enquirer, to begin with unless you’re a fan of “Men in Black.”

Many nights, my bud Doug P. and I as well as other cadre members would move between the huts dressed as the candidates were and gauged their reactions to the training for the day. And to check to see if candidates were sleeping before lights out or eating in the barracks, (heel stomp…you’re always being assessed back up to #2). By the second week of the course, they rarely if ever noticed our presence as cadre.

And by far, the rumor mill was always the most entertaining. As the course went along the rumors always got better. By Team Week, many of the candidates were so burned out, we’d have long conversations with some and they never knew they were talking to cadre members.

My advice to candidates is to have a book handy. When the rumors start flying, save your energy and brain matter and read a book.

Sounds like a walk in the park right? And yeah, Don’t quit!

Photo: US Army

So, You Want to Be a Green Beret? Separating Fact From Fiction

The US military has plenty of specialized units with varying missions and each has their own niche carved out thru years of intense training. Whether it be the Army, Navy, Air Force, or the Marines, each service has their own specialized units. For this piece, we’re going to deal with the US Army Special Forces, popularly known as the “Green Berets.”

If you’re reading this perhaps you’ve already decided that Special Forces is for you and you’re getting ready to prep for Special Forces Assessment and Selection (SFAS) and a chance to attend the Special Forces Qualification Course or “Q” course.

This article won’t deal with the ‘how-to’ tips that will help you get thru selection, although we’ll touch briefly on that subject. First, let us separate fact from fiction. We’ve all heard the wife’s tales and myths of the Special Forces soldier, right? “You have to be 10-feet tall and bulletproof.” “SF guys have to have the athletic ability of NFL players.” Yadda, yadda, these are total fabrications.

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. You don’t have to look like an NFL linebacker to pass the course. 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. 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. 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 guys who need constant reassurance. They want soldiers who will go the extra mile and keep going on their own.

The extra mile is a good place to go back to the being fit part. Don’t come to Selection fresh from being a couch potato. There are plenty of guides of 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 the art of rucking for long distances. 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.

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. 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.

And another thing, don’t worry about the instructors. Too many times I saw candidates withdraw because 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. To interject a personal note, I went thru the Q-course before there was a selection course (yes I am really dating myself here). So, when I was assigned there as an instructor, I had to go thru the next course with five other already tabbed SF guys. It was fresh off a deployment to Honduras where I caught dysentery and lost about 25 pounds.

It wasn’t the most fun time of our lives but there were moments. As we climbed into the truck to go to the land navigation course, one of the candidates asked why already tabbed SFers were going thru the Selection course.

It was a question we weren’t prepared for. But one of our guys, I believe it was Art Ebinger who said, “NASA is sending up three SF guys on the next Space Shuttle launch, and our training begins here with Selection and then we’re off to astronaut training. You could have heard a pin drop. I had to look out the back of the truck to keep from breaking up laughing.

While the technology will continue to change and evolve for our Special Forces, the one thing that doesn’t change are the men who wear the Green Beret. If you have it in you to succeed, nothing will stand in your way. It was the best time of my life, the years I spent in SF, and many of the men I served with back then, I’m still close to today. You’ll make friendships that will last a lifetime.

Image courtesy of DoD

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.

#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

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.

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