by Tom Clancy
The initial phase of formal training usually started the next morning. While this was under way, the A-Detachment assessed and validated the training readiness of the "G" (guerrilla) force for conducting operations. Meanwhile, the detachment commander and the guerrilla chief formulated an operation plan together, with specific targets for accomplishing the overall strategic objective.
In addition to the tactical aspects of the plan, psychological operations and civil affairs played a vital role to ensure the support of the people. The entire effort had to be truly integrated, with the parts supporting the whole.
Of course, I had already started civil affairs work within the community by providing selected guerrillas to work with people like the dairy farmer whose wife had cancer. But more could be done — such as medical assistance missions, for example, where our medic treated minor illnesses in the more remote parts of the county where medical help was scarce. We also had guerrillas (free labor) clean up playgrounds and cemeteries and the like. And to widen and strengthen my intelligence net and base of support, I provided guerrillas (in pairs) to the city and county maintenance departments.
The A-Detachment itself had been augmented with a psychological operations specialist, who (among other things) could produce leaflets (though in a very rudimentary way compared with what we can do today). Nevertheless, we produced and distributed leaflets designed to degrade the will, loyalty, and combat effectiveness of the counterinsurgency force, and to bolster and widen our support among the people.
We distributed our leaflets by airdrop at night, or by hand; and they were amazingly effective, especially in inhibiting the counterinsurgency force. For example, landowners and farmers would prevent them from using or even crossing their land — while at the same time harboring us and providing support.
1 guess this was the beginning of my understanding of the real power of psychological operations. If you can influence and control people's minds, then you are well on the way to winning, while keeping the loss of lives to a minimum.
By the end of the first week, the training of the guerrillas was going well, and they were hitting one point target (a bridge, for instance) each night. Meanwhile, local farmers, bread-delivery distributors, and the county maintenance department were providing trucks for our transportation — and were even scouting some targets for us. By the end of the second week, the guerrillas had progressed to platoon-size (thirty to forty men) raids on larger targets. By the third and final week, they were making even larger raids.
Throughout all this activity (while operating in a community we had never known before), we didn't lose a single man to the counterinsurgency force — although they chased us day and night. Nor did we have a single bad incident from either our A-Detachment soldiers or the guerrilla force. Nobody did anything we would not be proud of.
As a result of our operations, the leftist government of Pincland was overthrown and replaced by a democracy.
Was it now time for the A-Detachment to go home? Not quite yet.
An important aspect of unconventional warfare is bringing it to closure. Quite simply, no new government can exist for long without the support of the force that helped to bring it to power, nor can they risk having a formidable armed band running around out of control. The best way to deal with these possibilities was for our guys to work out a plan to disarm and disband the "G" force. And they had to do it before they could go home. (In real life, the smoothness of this operation usually depended on concessions made by the new government to the guerrilla leader.)
And so ended the Q Course of 1964. I'm proud to say that all the SF students who participated earned the "flash" that made them fully qualified as Green Berets.
SPECIAL FORCES TRAINING TODAY
In recent years, Special Forces mission areas have expanded. As this has happened, so has the scope of the selection process and the training program. Thus today, the initial phase of formal qualification training lasts between twenty-four and thirty-six months, depending on the MOS of the student.
Applicants are all volunteers. They must be airborne-qualified, in good physical condition, and have nothing in their backgrounds that would prevent a security clearance to at least the SECRET level.
The Special Forces Qualification Course breaks down as follows:
Phase I (Camp MacKall): SF Assessment and Selection—25 days
Phase II (Camp MacKall): Land Navigation, Small-Unit Training, Live Fire—48 days
Phase III (Fort Bragg): MOS Training: 18B (Weapons)—2 months18C (Engineers)—2 months18D (Medic)—12 months18E (Commo)—4 months
Phase IV (Camp MacKall): Training to include Robin Sage (2 weeks)—39 days
SERE: Survival, Escape, Resistance, and Evasion (Camp MacKall): 19 days
Graduation: Flash Awarded Language Training: 4–6 months
The toughest part physically is the SF assessment and selection phase, during which soldiers are continuously assessed to determine whether or not they have what it takes. The first week is designed to evaluate a soldier's emotional and psychological makeup, mainly by means of written and practical tests. The second week is structured to test the soldier's endurance, strength, will, and mental toughness. It involves a complete range of physical tests, including timed runs, obstacle courses, rucksack marches, day and night land navigation, and swimming wearing uniform and boots. During this week, the soldier's ability to function effectively in a high-stress environment is also evaluated by means of sleep deprivation and more psychological testing. The third week evaluates his leadership abilities as an individual and as part of a team.
At the end of the three weeks, a board of impartial senior officers and, NCOs reviews each candidate's performance record and makes the final determination about his suitability for Special Forces training. The board also recommends a military occupational specialty for each soldier.
The Assessment and Selection course is conducted eight times a year. In the past, the average selection rate has averaged about twenty-nine percent. Recently, however, the rate has risen to fifty percent. A more stringent preliminary screening process and better-quality applicants have meant that the higher rate has been accomplished without sacrificing quality. Soldiers who fail to make the selection are sent bach to their units with a letter of commendation. Some are allowed to try again, and some of them will make it on the second go.
Meanwhile, those who were selected mill enter the Q Course (Phase II), where they must satisfactorily complete whatever their MOS requires (including Robin Sage and SERE training).
After graduation and award of the "flash," each soldier is assigned to a unit, but before he joins his A-Detachment, he must complete six months (or more) of language training (depending on his unit's area of orientation).
Now he has mastered the basics, but as a member of a team his training continues for the rest of his career. His next formal course of instruction (which comes very soon) will likely he military free-fall (parachute) or combat diver (scuba) training. Additionally, he will hegin to receive intense formal instruction in the culture of his area of focus.
CARL STINER, GREEN BERET
During the two months after graduation from the Q Course, Stiner attended Jumpmaster School (two weeks at Fort Bragg) and continued to improve the proficiency of his A-Detachment in field-training exercises in the Uhwarrie National Forest.
In January 1965, and for the next six months, he was commander of a B-Detachment in A Company, 3rd Special Forces Group. More field, training followed, and on a larger scale.
One exercise I particularly remember (modeled after "Cobbler Woods") involved two B-Detachments — mine in a counterinsurgency role against Captain Charlie Johnson's in a UW role. This exercise was conducted in an area of Florida, bounded in the north by the city of Titusville, in the south by the city of Melbourne, in the west by the St. John's River, and in the cast by the Atlantic Ocean. All of this was civilian-owned land, and virgin territory for military training activities. A large segment
of the civilian populacc was organized and trained by one or the other B-Detachment, and they participated enthusiastically. Army aviation was used extensively in support. Air boats were also used by both sides (great preparatory training for Vietnam!).
At the conclusion of the exercise, and in an effort to desensitize and reunite our civilian friends who had participated (some had gotten a little too involved — they actually wanted to keep fighting their "enemies," some of them with guns), we hosted a barbecue supper — and military demonstration — for the entire community. This worked. Peace was restored.
As we were flying back to Fort Bragg the next day, I noticed a commotion up near the front of the airplane.
Some NCOs had been trying to smuggle a four-foot alligator back as a company mascot. When I checked out the commotion, I discovered that the alligator had gotten loose, and they were trying to subdue him. They eventually did, binding him with rope from one end to the other.
When we landed, we were met by our commander, Lieutenant Colonel Hoyt, and Sergeant Major Arthur. the sergeant major immediately detected the smuggling operation, and took the four smugglers, along with the gator, to the company area and had them spend most of the night digging the gator a pond. They secured him there with leg irons so he would not get loose and cat the real company mascot, a dog.
It didn't stop there. The NCOs allowed that the gator had to be "airborne-qualified, especially since the dog was. So they connived with the riggers into making him a harness and a special parachute. About a week later, during a scheduled jump on St. Mere Eglise Drop Zone, they threw the gator out of an aircraft and followed him to the ground. He made it down just fine, but when they got to where he'd come down, all they found was the harness and chute. He'd eaten his way out of the harness and disappeared.
Thirteen years later, the Fort Bragg game warden discovered a seven-foot alligator in the swamp at the western end of St. Mere Eglise Drop Zone, the only gator ever at Fort Bragg — and it remains a mystery to this day how he got there.
Soldiers, and especially Special Forces soldiers, are always looking for imaginative ways to entertain themselves, and there is nothing wrong with it, so long as it is legal, ethical, and no one is hurt.
In July 1965, following the training exercise in Florida, I became the Company S-3 (Operations Officer), responsible for the training and readiness of the company. 1 remained in that position until the spring of 1966, when I left Special Forces to attend the Command and Ceneral Staff College at Leavenworth, Kansas.
During this period, when all the services were undergoing the buildup for Vietnam, large numbers of draftees were being brought into the Army, and the training centers were filled to capacity.
In August, the entire company, which consisted of the headquarters and two B-Detachments (the third B-Detachment was on mission to Ethiopia), had deployed to the Pisgah National Forest in western North Carolina for training in the higher and more rugged parts of the mountains. This had been ongoing for about a week, when I received a call on my FM radio from Lieutenant Colonel Hoyt, who, I could tell, was in a helicopter, asking me to meet him at a road intersection about ten miles away from our base camp.
I jumped into my leased pickup truck and headed for the intersection, thinking as I went that it was unusual for him to fly this far (more than a hundred miles). Whatever the reason, it must be important.
I arrived at the intersection before he did, and marked a landing zone in a small clearing beside the intersection with the orange panels that we always carried.
When he landed ten minutes later, he came running up to me (the helicopter did not shut down). "How long will it take you to get the company back to Fort Bragg?" he asked — the first words out of his mouth.
"It'll take a while," I answered, "because they are spread out all over these mountains in various operating areas, and we don't have enough transportation to move the entire company in one lift. I guess with the vehicles that we have, and with what they can come up with through their local civilian contacts, we could all close Fort Bragg sometime during the night."
"Good," he said. "Go back and get them organized and moving."
Then he explained: "The training centers have overflowed, and just this morning we received the mission to conduct basic entry-level training for approximately five hundred new infantry draftees that will arrive at Bragg within three to four days.
"Group is working on where to house them," he went on, "and what parts of the training might be done more efficiently by committee" — weapons training and the like—"and this should be pretty well finalized by the time I get back.
"You have more training experience of this nature than anyone else in the Group," he continued, "and the Group Commander" — by then Colonel Leroy Stanley—"and I want you to lead a group of selected cadre to Fort Jackson, departing at six in the morning, to observe how they conduct Basic Combat Training" — in this case he meant the first eight weeks—"and bring back all the lesson plans you can gather up."
"No problem, sir," I answered. "I'll get the company moving right away. As for the basic training part, I've got this cold, from beginning to end, and can teach all the subjects blindfolded. But we'll have to give our cadre some preliminary training to get started, and I can do that in a couple of days, and continuing as we progress through the training cycle.
"What you can do, sir, to facilitate organizing for training," I told him, "is to go back and begin to pick and structure the cadre for a training battalion that will consist of three companies." And then I laid out how the structure ought to work: "These should be commanded by captains, with a sergeant major or master sergeant as first sergcant; four platoons per company should be commanded by a lieutenant, with a master sergeant or sergeant first class as platoon sergeant; and each platoon should consist of four squads, each led by a staff sergeant or sergeant." I also told him that it would be very beneficial if I could take to Fort Jackson with me our three company commanders and one representative (officer or NCO) from each platoon (a total of fifteen), to observe firsthand how it is done.
"Okay," Hoyt said. "You'll be commanding one of the companies. And while you're putting your guys together out here, I'll go back and ensure that the right people are ready for the trip to Fort Jackson."
On my way back to our base camp, I was thinking, "Man, what an opportunity to turn out the best-trained and — motivated battalion ever. With all of these outstanding NCOs, there's no limit to what we can do for these new men."
At the same time, I couldn't help but contrast the performance of our Special Forces guys in a training situation with what I'd had to handle in my last training company at Fort Jackson: It was me and an outstanding first sergeant (Ned Lyle, to my knowledge the only man in the Army authorized to wear the bayonet as a decoration), a Specialist 4 company clerk (who was pending charges for hoarding mail and possessing pornographic materials), four NCOs (all possessing medical profiles that precluded their making the morning twenty-minute run; instead I kept them posted at strategic locations where they could police up the stragglers while I ran the company), a mess sergeant who was addicted to paregorie, and a supply scrgcant I didn't trust. This was all that I had to work with, and I thought we did a good job — considering.
During one period at Jackson, I had two companies of more than two hundred trainees each in cycle at the same time: One company was in its seventh week of training, and the other was just beginning its first week. We managed the training so that one NCO stayed with cach company at all times. The two other NCOs and I would train one company from 4:00 A.M. to noon, and the other from 1:00 to 9:00 P.M.
In other words, considering the talent and caring leadership we were about to bring to bear on this mission, it would be a piece of cake and a very rewarding experience for us and the new recruits.
After Lieutenant Colonel I Ioyt left, I called base camp and instructed my radio operator to have all detachment commanders standing by for a conference call when I arrived.
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br /> During the conference call, I advised the commanders of the new mission, then instructed them to move their units by "infiltration," so as to close on Fort Bragg by midnight. "Infiltration" means authority to move by individual vehicle over multiple routes, rather than by convoy over a single route. I didn't tell them how to do it, because I knew they would figure out the "how."
This was about 3:00 P.M.; they had nine hours to get back.
The next morning at 5:00, I met Lieutenant Colonel Hoyt at the company headquarters. He had followed through on his part. Not only had the names of personnel been slated against the battalion structure I had recommended, but the group selected for the visit to Fort Jackson was standing by and ready to go.
Before we left, I asked him for one other thing: "In order to bring these new troops on right, we need to have the barracks ready in advance, including having the beds made. The sooner we can get this done, the more time we'll have available for training the trainers before the new troops arrive." I knew that some of the older NCOs would probably bitch about making the beds, but I also knew that before the training cycle was over, they would see it was a wise move. This would be reflected in the attitude and motivation of the new troops, who'd have realised they were fortunate to be in the hands of caring professionals.
The day at Fort Jackson proved very worthwhile. We observed the training in action, talked with the cadre, and gathered up all the lesson plans to bring back with us.
After our return to Bragg, we spent the next three days getting organized and putting our common training areas in order. Then we went through a two-day train-the-trainer program, which took us through the first couple of weeks of the training cycle.
And then at 4:00 P.M. on the fourth day after notification, we received about five hundred new inductees straight from civilian life.