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The Special Forces Soldier |
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 The FIRST special
operations personnel able to employ their capabilities by Land, Air, or
Sea.
Unquestionably the world's finest
unconventional warfare expert. Often (and wrongly) compared to Navy
SEALs, the Special Forces Soldier is much more than a warrior of
uncommon physical and mental caliber, he is also a skilled teacher.
Special Forces Soldiers are the Army's
cutting edge. Only the most technically proficient and highly-motivated
soldiers will ever wear the Special Forces tab. Special Forces demands a
tremendous amount of inventiveness and self-reliance. As its name
implies, it deals with special combat situations you won't find in most
textbooks.
A Special Forces Soldier is capable of
thinking "outside the box" - ignoring the often inept conventional
mentality to find intelligent solutions to unconventional situations.
This is what makes the Special Forces what it is.
Special Forces sergeants must be
experts in their individual MOS plus other related duties and
specialties important to their far-reaching missions. The Special Forces
Soldier must also be able to teach these same skills to the people with
whom he works.
Besides the individual skills of
operations and intelligence, communications, medical aid, engineering
and weapons, each Special Forces Soldier is taught to train, advise, and
assist host-nation military or paramilitary forces. Special Forces
Soldiers are highly skilled operators, trainers, and teachers. These SF
soldiers are area-oriented, and specially trained in their area's native
language and culture.
The operators of the
20th SFG portray a wide and varied cross section of civilian
professionals. The very fabric of Special Forces is based on a diverse
pool of skilled civilian operators (just like the OSS of WW II), and a
National Guard SF unit provides just that.
By every definition, the men of
the 20SFG offer a seasoned pool of operators.
Most members have over 10 years of SF experience and hold civilian jobs
such as: Paramedics, Police, Federal Agents, Firefighters, Attorneys,
Building Contractors, SCUBA Instructors, Teachers, Language Instructors,
Security Consultants, Business Managers, Physical Therapists, Physician
Assistants, Engineers, and yes, even a Rocket Scientist or two.
The merging of these civilian job
skills with Special Forces skills makes for a very effective and capable
force.
Such a wealth of experience further
enhances the capability to fulfill the unconventional missions of
Special Forces.
Life in a National Guard SF unit
sometimes exacts a great toll on the unit members- held to the exact
same standard as their active duty counterparts, the Guard SF soldiers
have to deal with finding time from their civilian jobs to attend
mandatory schools, some of which can last nearly a year. Deployments are
another consideration- the Guard SF soldier operates way outside the
normal "one weekend a month - two weeks a year" of regular National
Guard duty. The monthly drills and yearly deployments are nearly twice
as long as the normal Guard requirements.
Of course this is not mandatory, all
one has to do is transfer! But their dedication to SF and their desire
to remain SF operators will not allow them to leave.
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| Special Forces Recruiter MSG Aaron Edwards 20th SFG (A) 5601 Oporto-Madrid Blvd Birmingham, AL 35210 E-mail: aaron.edwardsjr@us.army.mil | ||
