This guy was a beast. Twenty-fiveprivates and I were going to Ft. Bragg, North Carolinato attend the Special Forces Qualification Course (SFQC). The cadre checked my two plots and released me from the poncho tent. Not at all. I plotted my current position and then the position of my first rendezvous point. I reported in, plotted thenext route of my journey on my map,and showed it to the cadre member. They had both been to foreign language training at the Defense Language Institute (DLI) in Monte Rey, California. I was approached several times in the dining facility on the Naval Air Station and at the Safeway in town by strangers who asked me (words to the effect of), Arent you the guy/maniac I keep seeing rucking/backpacking along the freeway? Of course this was spoken in their most animated WTF tone of voice. Thats the last time I ever saw Rich. russia and china vs nato war who would win. Did I mention that the old man came to Key West from Delta? Minutes later, after post-holing aimlessly through a seemingly misplaced Louisiana bayou, we stumbled onto a military M-880 pickup truck. What does a Green Beret do when he doesnt have something he needs? I had spoiled his scenario. We would travel from Ft. Benning, Georgiato Ft. Bragg, North Carolina by charter bus. 16.8k members in the SpecOpsArchive community. My gaze dropped to his shiny jump boots, and I was positive it couldnt be going well. He sat in the student lounge nightly, clad in a long rider coat like Clint Eastwood and the boys wore in The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. He wore shiny jump boots unlaced for his comfort, and he chain-smoked Marlboro cigarettes with such speed and precision that we joked that he must have little red pull pillows on his cigarettes so that when he was done with one, he could look, grab, and pull, and the cigarette would cut away automaticallybringing the next one to his mouth. The following morning, the fellows bunk was neatly stockaded and he was gone. Courtesy photo Assessment and Selection takes place in the mountains of West Virginia and last for about a month. The equipment packing and carry techniques were pretty standard and straightforward: Pack heavy stuff low and toward the inside of your ALICE pack, close to your back. In my mind, he was back-asswards on both accounts. There was a recommended training outline that Delta published to candidates. In those days, I had no children and an independent wife. Youre not? he puzzled. For that, he got my respectwhether he wanted it or not. THANK YOU FOR SUPPORTING VETERAN JOURNALISM - JOIN SOFREP+ , How the Army Uses the West Virginia Wilderness to Find Out Who Has What It Takes to Join Delta Force, PO Box 1077 MURFREESBORO, Tennessee 37133 United States, P.O. Less than halfway through the train-up it becameclear that I was not capable of the standards published by the Unit. Go for it anyway and make the best of nearly a month spent away from Key West and the old man (my company commander)? It was an issued Maglite, so no harm, no foul. After stress phase, and at the end of the long, 40-mile walk, I sat by the bonfire with my boots off and a canteen cup of hot Long Walker in my hand. He finally squashed his fag into the plate of seven-layer butt dip next to him, and told me the whole story of his brief relationship with my wife. I climbed to the top of the 12-story BOQ building andonly 60 feet? Surely the correct answer is to not dare speak to anyone. 90"s tommy hilflger 62.5 58 60 55 m l . Related Article: 6 Ways To Check If Someone Was In The Military / Verify Military Service. We all spied each other but nobody spoke or gestured. I would open the back hatch on her car and collapse in, unfit to ride up front in the nice bucket seats of her Mustang GT. rucksack. Rather than get stuck in some miserable assignment, I went proactively after an assignment with the deeply revered academy. Received a high enough score on the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery. When the frat returned to the bus and we got underway, a two-legged shithead with chocolate ice cream on the corners of his mouth made his way back to me and said, Corporal, I would like to voluntarily terminate my status in SFQC. I regarded him with irritation and responded, OK stud, but could you please wait at least until we get to Bragg?. As I strained for the next three hours through the rain, rocks, and timber, my path stayed well illuminated the entire time. He was the Marlboro Man! Delta Force typically recruits from the Special Forces and the Rangers. I plotted my current position and then the position of my first rendezvous point. George E. Hand IV. He became the butt of jokes. Aug 4, 2017 - Facing a deteriorating relationship with the company commander, I resolved to engage in a train-up regimen and requested to try out for Delta Force. There was a recommended training outline that Delta published to candidates. He finally explained to me that he could not loan me his Maglight, being that I was probably not going to make it and he would be out a Maglight. Touch device users, explore by touch or with swipe . The proverbial hare had once again been beaten by the tortoise. There was a secret balance of ratio, I thought, between level of physical fitness and speed of cool-guy gear that was required to pass the course. Following Selection, there is the Operator Training Course (OTC), a six-month course that teaches prospective operators the dark arts of close-quarters battle and close target reconnaissance, as well as other skills like military free-fall parachuting and offensive driving. Browns Mountain walks, instructor-led walks, admin walks, he was still with us. My pace was invariable and my wife was punctual, so I seldom had to wait more than just a few minutes post march for my ride back. I stepped back out in the terminal, where I was finally approached by a way-too-tall Latin American brother with a manchu stache, dark Ray Ban shades, a cartel leather jacket, and a tooth pick in his mouth. Tito twisted around and went after the next Cabelas poster boy. There was a rather youngish, meek fellow from a conventional support unit: no combat patch, no jump wings, no SCUBA badge, nonothing. My compass didnt know the first thing about altitude, but it knew everything there was to know about north, no matter where it was, and that is all that really mattered. By this point, candidates are already physically destroyed, having covered hundreds of miles during the previous weeks. The whole thing reminded me ofwhenI graduated jump school at Fort Benning some nine years prior. A major first training requirement of Delta Force when it was first launched back in the 1970s was to teach members an advanced number of driving scenarios. Selection and assessment for Delta takes place over a 3-4 week period. He was not amused. Delta Force is clearly one of the most advanced units in the U.S. Armed Forces. According to Haney they begin with stationary targets before progressing to moving targets. T-Bone had three magnificent daughters and gained even more of my respect and admiration for choosing in their favor. As the Marlboro Man puffed away, he studied my face through the smoke screen that he had laid down between us. The routes and distances were a no-brainer for me: If the ruck march that week were 18 mileswell, Key West is mile zero, and I simply rucked up Interstate US 1 until I reached mile marker 18. There was this South Korean officer in our class whose name tag reflected that he was indeed from the Republic of Koreathe letters ROK were followed by his self-chosen American name. The weight of the rucksack increases as well as the length of the course over repeated marches. Two of my good bros Pat Mac and Mike P. from way back were there at selection with me and both made it through to squadron assignments. He would probably never see my boot prints. backpack (rucksack) twice a day, at lunch and after the duty day. Some of the most popular CAG vehicles include: Delta Force (CAG) has several noteworthy members. Key West is only a few feet above mean sea level and flat as a pancake. Regardless, thats an increase of 22 miles and 5 pounds respectively when you compare the first march to the last one. Over the course of the tests candidates must carry heavy loads in their ruck sacks. Joining the ranks of CAG is very challenging and only a very small pool of U.S. Military members are ever considered for the elite unit. On completion of OTC, the recruits become operational and are assigned to one of the active Delta Force squadrons. The cadre before me that tried out and left for assignments with Delta all went in pairs. Along with being highly prepared and knowledgeable hostage experts, Delta Force also trains members to become skilled in espionage. It reportedly tests the students ability to apply everything they learned from training in one complicated, highly detailed final exercise. Haney reports that the final course of physical testing ends with a 40 mile trek carrying a 45 pound rucksack over the rough terrain. The boots had to be military-issue as a hard and fast rule. For that, he got my respectwhether he wanted it or not. As I threw my bags into the car, I paused to reflect on what the hell I had just done. By fall of 1979 they were granted permission by the U.S. Armed Forces to begin missions, infamously not long before the Iran hostage crisis. In order to join Delta Force, you first need to enlist in the Army and serve in the capacity of a special operations soldier. He seemed to be coping with the phases of the training well enough. Surviving Delta Force Selection and Assessment: Part 1 | The Loadout Room I was stationed in Key West, Florida, at the U.S. Army Special Forces Combat Diver Academy as a SCUBA instructor. I was stationed in Key West, Florida, at the U.S. Army Special Forces Combat Diver Academy as a SCUBA instructor. Worse yet, Key West had a mean altitude above sea level of two feetnavigating the nose-bleed hills of West Virginiawould be tricky. In the barracks, there was the nightly ritual of the preparing of mind, body, and kit. Before that week was over, I had once again received my expected not no, but hell no from the boss on support for my train-up, and I was back up on the 12th floor of the BOQ, looking for my goddamned room.. It was dawn now, and bright enough to see without the flashlight. I had become lost when I got to low ground where the existing streams were swollen and previously non-existing rivulets appeared. Those eligible would get a form letter inviting them to try out. Scores of other misfits went adrift. That alone is enough to unsettle seasoned guys who are used to an 'in-your-face' approach during Selections," the former Delta Force operator added. The 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta (1st SFOD-D), often shortened to Delta Force, is an example of one such elite special mission force. Operation Military Kids was founded to be a resource for teens and young adults who are interested in joining the military, but don't know where to begin. We can rest easier at night knowing these highly trained individuals continue to watch after our well-being as they handle high stakes terrorism missions. He decked himself in field attire and kit that made him look more like he was in costume rather than uniform. It amuses me to this day how wound up I was over the type of gear I thought was essential to successfully pass selection. The Unit, as Delta Force operators refer to it, has been involved in all major and minor US military operations and campaigns since its formation, including in Iran, Panama, Grenada, Somalia, Bosnia, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria. If it were 20 miles, then mile marker 20 it was. For my part, I did enjoy dropping a call to the little woman to tell her all was just peachy keen-o here in the land of steep mud, snow, and fallen timberand oh, by the way, guess who I ran into out here? I had intentionally sought out that assignment to avoid a mandatory levy into the Special Warfare Center (SWC)duty that all Green Berets inevitably faced in their careers at some point. The two elite forces have reportedly been involved in some notoriously famous secretive missions, as well as separate ones from each other. I laced up my boots and started walking. The initial formal training program for entry into Special Force. Ahh the "Long March". I was stationed in Key West, Florida,at the U.S. Army Special Forces Combat Diver Academy as a SCUBA instructor. Additionally, the Committee on Armed Services reported in 2006 that nearly three-fourths of all Delta operators originate from the 75th Ranger Regiment. Stavros Atlamazoglou is a defense journalist specializing in special operations, a Hellenic Army veteran (national service with the 575th Marine Battalion and Army HQ), and a Johns Hopkins University graduate. Male. Related Article CIA Special Activities Division (SAD): 12 Things You Never Knew. It was an unspoken expectation in those days that the unit commander of a Delta candidate would grant time off during the duty day to allow for the intense train-up for the selection and assessment course. The day I was to leave, I picked up my duffle bags and I limped to my car to drive to the airport. I sat in back where I could watch my crowd. I awoke from my restless sleep at 0030 hours to find it pissing rain. I typically started the day off with an early mountain bike ride in the dark to the neighboring annex of the Naval Air Station (NAS) Boca Chica. Alas, the day came when we were to venture out into the hills for the first time all on our own. A Delta Force candidate during the Stress Phase of Assessment and Selection. It was during this time in November of 1979 that Delta Force executed its first highly publicized mission, known as Operation Eagle Claw. Founded by Colonel Charlie Beckwith, it was officially recognized on November 19, 1977. I reveled in the chance to get away from this fraternity and stayed on the bus. He sat on his bunk and listened to the war-story swapping going on between the Rangers and GBs, all in a nervous attempt to gain some notoriety and respect from each other. Eventually I remarked to her in Spanish, No me recuerdo en qual piso me quedo. (I cant remember which floor I am staying on.) There is no yelling, no shouting. Read Next: How the Army Uses the West Virginia Wilderness to Find Out Who Has What It Takes to Join Delta Force. As bad luck would have it, there was snow the morning of the first walk. I observed that in Hans gear layout on his bunk, he had three Maglights. On my first couple of mornings at the BOQ, I kept running into a maid who would use the fire escape to move between floors. In those days, I had no children and an independent wife. All Rights Reserved. I faked a piss to steal one more glance at my orders. I recall seeing his prints many times on the final long walk that gave me a spark of hope that I was on the right track, just on a much slower version of the right track. There in the wetlands, I ran into an equally lost bud of mineMarkey-Mark Cuz C. We exchanged a few words, which was against the rules, but we had not tried to communicate any navigation details. He had a unique custom sole on the bottom of his high-speed boots that I would see daily, printed in the mud and snow, as he was always out in front of the entire class. In his mad dash to leave, he had rifled through his stack of MREsgutting them for the components that he wanted to keep and leaving the rest behind. Delta selection is essentially a PT test, then a series of progressively more challenging ruck marches and navigating up and down mountains. Wasnt Jerry Boykin involved in the founding of Delta? At the end of the day, it all came off, went into the trash, and the same procedure was followed the next day. It is just as well, as selection was entirely an individual effort. Notable operations include the rescue of Kurt Muse in. That status is due in large part to Delta's arduous, and at times brutal, selection process. Eventually it came to a family decision that he would not try out for Delta after all. All of these tasks are completed in order to just be approached regarding the opportunity to get selected for Deltas Operator Training Course (OTC). One poor, disillusioned troop went on record as having lamented, Butthey sent me a letter. It is tasked with handling some of the most dangerous and specialized missions in the world. Well, after much anguish and gnashing of teeth, I ended up at a U.S. Air Force clothing sales store and purchased two identical pairs of basic leather combat boots, labeled them pair A and pair B, kept the basic black boot polish on them, and made sure I rotated them evenly throughout my training phase in Key West. He was the Marlboro Man! I recall one session ended with me blurting out, Sir, youre a dick! He glared at me in disbelief and responded, Well youre a dick, too, Sergeant Hand! A pregnant pause, then I held out my hand. I reported to the cadre poncho tent at 0130 hours for my final departure brief. Barrett is the world leader in long-range, large-caliber, precision rifle design and manufacturing. Rather we all quietly accepted that none of us had a clue what to do next. mtg play any number of lands; empower field at mile high club seats; palm beach school of nursing transcripts; dwyane wade wingspan inches. Delta Force is the primary counter-terrorism branch in the U.S. Military along with Navy SEAL Team Six, or DEVGRU. Read Part 1 of Surviving Delta Force Selection here. Surprised, I affirmed and asked how he knew. My two buds conversed among themselves intentionally within earshot of me so I could eventually pick up on what what happening. Special-operators from other services also volunteer for Delta Force's Selection. He paused for a moment, pensive. Colonel Bob Black Gloves Mountel was tasked with building the new unit after having already served on the 5th Special Forces Group. When I hit the ground in Morgan Town, it was a very small airport, so it was easy to detect several other gents milling about in luggage claim that looked like they all belonged to the same outdoor-enthusiast club: sturdy foot gear, durable trousers with cargo pockets, Casio G-Shock-type watches, REI this and Mountain Gear that. It had all but stopped raining as daybreak took charge of night.