18A family life.
 

I know this question has been touched on in numerous other topics, but succinctly, i am curious:

For the SF officer, outside of the 24 months (avg.) you are on a team, what is the avg. seperation time between a sf officer and his family?

I know every career is unique and that "averages" are often not reflective of current demands, BUT for those 18A's out there...what has been your avg. seperation from families?

Also...if you were to look back on your career (be it from a retired position or a in the midst of a position) what is your avg. day? 5am to 9pm? More? Less?

For an 18A, what is your avg. time on station? A year? Two? Seven? How much of a career is spent at Bragg? If you do 20 years in SF, how many PCS’s would one expect?

And just an fyi--- i completely respect ANY sf trooper--- you are truely among the few and most elite of all of this nations troops. My earliest memory of meeting an SF trooper was at the snack-bar of the bx in Ramstein when i was in 2nd grade. We were eating hot-dogs and my dad said, "hey...my son thinks he can stand amongst you..." I was very embarrassed, but remember thinking, "this guy is skinny, this guy doesn't look like a giant, he just looks like....a normal guy." and rather than discouraged i thought....hey, maybe its my drive, not my genetics that decide if i make it. Ad to all reading this...i may never make sf, i may never even try...but i know full well that the thing that makes you unique, and a good soldier unique is less about inborn ability and more about determination and personal strength.

As i said, i probably wont end up SF (statistically, not my opinion) and very well might end up another branch entirely, but do know that your MISSION (ie not the superman aspects...not the cool tv portions but the reality of a day-to-day mission which is primarily tedious in that it requires repetitive prodding, and no rambo heroics) will remain important to me....You are among the few for a reason.

Thanks again,

-Andrew.

Now this is going to vary a lot with folks, but over a career my wife and I have been separated for half of it counting non-accompanied tours, TDYs and training events. I missed the birth of 2 of my 3 children.

My average day started at 0400 when I got up and did my PT so that I could be on station with the troops by 0630 and either do PT with them or just see what was going on. My day closed anywhere from 1730-midnight depending on what my duty assignment was, what I wanted to check on, or what event I was participating in. In short there is no such thing as an average duty day, especially if you are in a command position.

Average time on station will vary with your duty assignment and the needs of the Army. The longest I ever stayed in one place was three years and the shortest was 6 months.

I had 15 PCS moves over my career and to this day I still find moving stickers on the back of my furniture from my very first move back in 1965.

As to your size/stature and your Dad's comments, everyone of us have stood in the shadow of giants and the length of the shadow we cast is often a matter of someone else's perception.

After a 23 year career, my wife and I sat down and figured I was gone an average of 235 days a year; longest single deployment was 10 months. While I was on active duty, we didn't pay any attention to the amount of time we were apart--it was what it was. I just wish I could start all over again.

Average day: 0500-1730 or so.

Avg time on station: varied 1 - 5 years for me

Time at Fort Bragg: depends on Group affiliation and personal desires; I had 3 tours with the 7th SFG therefore a total of 9 years at Fort Bragg (SFTG + 7SFG)

PCS in 23 years: I had 15 (shortest 30days, longest 5 years)

Richard :munchin

Mr. Richard,

Sir, could you elaborate? I don't want to assume (regrets or pure enthusiasm and fun you had) anything and i am very interested in hearing what you might change if you could start all over again.

Stickey

The only thing I'd think about changing--based on what I know now--is that I would have volunteered for SF as soon as I got out of high school instead of waiting to be drafted so I could have gotten to SEA 2 years sooner than I did.

Richard's $.02 :munchin

That sounds like a good place to start a story me thinks...

Scimitar

Of the nearly five years at Group, I deployed for a total of 24 months. This does not include training deployments in CONUS, nor does it include time spent away from home while training locally.