An SF Soldier's skillset
 

Quiet Professionals,

I've been reading the forum as well as SOCnet in order to learn about SF and have encountered a bit of a puzzle.

An SF Soldier has a clearly varied skill set allowing them to undertake a wide variety of operations ranging from DA to FID.

Many posts will indicate, though, that an SF soldier on an ODA is a "shooter" first and foremost before they are anything else (not unlike other SOF units). Their MOS will indicate what skills they possess in addition to that.

Another post indicated the opposite and stated that an SF soldier has a variety of skills and that shooting is an important of it but they are much more skilled at teaching.

Another QP stated that SF soldiers can do what members of any other SOF unit can do and that this may lead to people believing that they are a "Jack of All Trades, Master of None" and that this is not necessarily true but did not elaborate further.

So, which one of these statements is correct? Maybe I'm looking at it from the wrong viewpoint and all of them could be correct as I have seen a QP note that each ODA is different from the other and so each of these statements is correct in a way as the QPs had a different set of experiences.

Regards,
P

Yes.

And so it goes...

Richard :munchin

I concur.

I was going to say "usually," but "yes" suffices.

I like the "teacher" part but you better be able to shoot if you want to teach later. And I've always felt pretty comfortable around the various SF MOS's doing thier jobs, expertly.
I never liked that "Jack of All Trades; Master of None" crap. Seemed like I heard it mostly from people who didn't want to take the time/exert the effort to become a Master.

Quiet Professionals don't let a little thing like ignorance get in the way.

Battalion Commander gave a team a mission in a far away place with a short lead time. Someone ventured the assessment of "ah Sir, I don't think we actually know how to work those things . . .
LTC pointed out, "Ya'll can READ, right? Ya'll gonna be on a plane for 16 hours." As a matter of fact everyone could read and 16 hours is plenty of time to figure out how to operate something and rehearse and rehearse and rehearse. . .
When it's needed now, it doesn't have to be perfect it has to be right. And that is NOT being a Jack of All Trades, Master of None"

"Yes".......;) :D

Big Teddy :munchin

An ODA is 12 guys that can (and often do) any damn thing!

SFOD-A
 

A deliberate set of highly trained individuals capable of working together as a team in remote, varied, and austere environments with or without other forces to accomplish missions of national and strategic import.

:lifter

We used to claim "A Jack of all trades; a master of some." ;)

Richard :munchin

Masters of whatever trade is needed at the time.

That's it right there.

Adaptable to any environment, situation or skill required as a team alone, with a trained ancillary force or one that must be trained to accomplish a given mission.

The kinda skill-set / mind-set possessed by Rowan. Yes.

Given your three possible choices, which we will call options A, B and C....

We choose "D"

The problem here is that no individual is a master of all, thus we have team. Of which, all the skill sets come together in a cohesive group of motivated individuals with the mind set to do just about anything. The team can be broken into 2 six man, 3 four man, or even 4 three man. Each division slightly diminishes the whole but with proper planning by team daddy and leader the objective will easily be met.

If the mission requires a shooter skill set then the team can do it. If the mission is UW/FID then the team can do it through the ability to teach. While each individual in the team cannot do it all the team as a whole can do most if not all.

Too much emphasis on individual, SF is based on the team, the ODA, the A Team, not the individual.

MOO, and my 2 cents on this one. :munchin

Don’t Let the Perfect be the Enemy of the Good – Voltaire

DB