Speaker 1: Welcome to Stories of Special Forces Operators podcast. Listen to
Speaker 1: some of the bravest and toughest people on the planet
Speaker 1: share their stories, Sit back and enjoy.
Speaker 2: So we'll take a look today at special forces the
Speaker 2: United States Army Special Forces green Berets selection process. Just
Speaker 2: to kind of give you a basic idea, the United
Speaker 2: States Army Special Forces, known as green Berets, are elite
Speaker 2: soldiers trained for unconventional warfare, tana terrorism, and foreign internal defense.
Speaker 2: The selection process encompasses a couple of things. One is
Speaker 2: a special force with assessment and selection and the Special
Speaker 2: Forces Qualification course. They're among the most brewing in the
Speaker 2: US military. Eligibility for the Special Forces pipeline requires candidates
Speaker 2: to be US citizens, active duty soldiers or National Guard
Speaker 2: VIAREP sixty three contract aged twenty to thirty two, airborne qualified,
Speaker 2: or willing to train and physically and mentally robust. Candidates
Speaker 2: might score at least two to sixty on the Army
Speaker 2: Physical Fitness tests with a minimum of eighty points in
Speaker 2: each event that includes push ups, sit ups, and a
Speaker 2: two mile run, and achieve a general technical score of
Speaker 2: one hundred or higher on the ASVAB. The eighteen x
Speaker 2: enlistment option allows civilians to inter apter, completing basic training
Speaker 2: and infantry school. The process begins with a Special Forces
Speaker 2: Preparation Course, a six week program on Fort Liberty SFPC
Speaker 2: focuses on physical conditioning rucksack marches carrying fifty pound loads
Speaker 2: over twelve to fifteen miles, land navigation with map and compass,
Speaker 2: and small unit tactics. Candidates build endurance with a subsequent
Speaker 2: SFAs and conducted at Camp Call in North Carolina. The
Speaker 2: SFAs lasts about twenty four days and it's the heart
Speaker 2: of the selection process design to tests pysical stamina, mental resilience,
Speaker 2: and character under extreme stress. Candidates face time rucksack marches
Speaker 2: up to twenty miles with a fifty to seventy pound load.
Speaker 2: So if you're preparing to try it out for the
Speaker 2: Special Forces, these are some ideals for you to start
Speaker 2: training now, and I would train past the amount they want,
Speaker 2: So if they want you to do twenty miles, I'd
Speaker 2: go twenty two, maybe with seventy pounds to start getting
Speaker 2: better than what they want you to be. You also
Speaker 2: have obstacle courses fifty meters, swims and boots, and uniform
Speaker 2: land navigation challenges across rugged terrain, often at night. Psychological
Speaker 2: assessments will be there, including peer evaluations, gauge leadership, and
Speaker 2: team and teamwork. Team Week involves collaborative tasks such as
Speaker 2: carrying heavy logs or equipment over long distances to reveal
Speaker 2: how candidates perform under pressure. In twenty nineteen, just about
Speaker 2: thirty percent of candidates were selected. Many were dropping out
Speaker 2: due to voluntary withdrawal, exhaustion, some due to injuries. Those
Speaker 2: selected proceeded to the SFQC or Q course lasting fifty
Speaker 2: six to ninety five weeks, so quite a bit of time.
Speaker 2: You're talking here about almost what is that fifteen to
Speaker 2: twenty months, it's almost two years. Depending on the chosen
Speaker 2: military Occupational specialty or MOS. Weapons is eighteen B or Beta,
Speaker 2: Engineering eighteen Charlie or C, Medical eighteen D or Delta
Speaker 2: or Communications eighteen ECHO. The Q course includes five phases
Speaker 2: small unit tactics, weapons and Patrolling, Survival, Evasion, resistance and
Speaker 2: escape which you probably heard the acronym see your training.
Speaker 2: In addition to that, they also learn foreign languages Spanish,
Speaker 2: Arabic or Pashti requiring a one to one proficiency score,
Speaker 2: and MOS specific training. Medical sergeants, for instance, undergo ten
Speaker 2: months of advanced trauma care training. The final phase, Robin Sage,
Speaker 2: is a four week unconventional warfare exercise in a fictional
Speaker 2: land called pine Land, where candidates lead guerrilla forces against
Speaker 2: a simulated enemy. Graduates earned the Green Beret support a
Speaker 2: Special Forces tab an assignment to an Operational Detachment Alpha
Speaker 2: or ODA. So really, to wrap it up, the Green
Speaker 2: Beret selection process through SFAs and SFQC regulously test physical endurance,
Speaker 2: mental fortitude, and adaptability. It's high attrition rate ensures only
Speaker 2: the most capable join special Forces and something for you
Speaker 2: to think about. It's not just about your physical prowess,
Speaker 2: it's also about your mental fortitude. One of the things
Speaker 2: that I've learned after interviewing over one hundred Special Forces
Speaker 2: operators is that they have the ability for cognitive flexibility.
Speaker 2: And what does that mean When they have a problem,
Speaker 2: if something goes wrong, they'll think about another way to
Speaker 2: solve it. They're always looking to get to the goal,
Speaker 2: no matter what it is, They're finding a way to
Speaker 2: get there. They don't give up, and this is a
Speaker 2: big quality that I've seen with most special Forces. That's
Speaker 2: it for now