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**The Reaper** · 05-14-2007, 07:59

Doc Keaton is a character, isn't he?

I guess that there is a lesson to be learned here, as well as being prepared.

Some of it is luck, as in not getting hurt. Selection is not designed to injure people or to even be unusually hazardous. At the same time, we are looking to grind people down and see what is under the mask that they show everyone else. Every person who completes the course is blistered, tired, and sore, and those who understand that and use it for self-motivation are usually successful. I saw a Marine LT arrive at SFAS who did a swim test back home and immediately went for a long ruck, just a week before SFAS. This is a BAD idea. He got to Camp MacKall with the majority of both feet badly blistered and made it through. Despite doing something stupid, he refused to quit, met the challenges, and was selected.

For those who have not yet been to SFAS, we don't just select everyone who shows up. SFAS is physically, mentally, and emotionally demanding, and the majority of people who show up are not selected, whether they get injured, VW, or fail to meet standards.

It is called Special Forces for a reason. And we try to keep it that way.

TR

05-14-2007, 07:59	#8
The Reaper Quiet Professional Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Free Pineland Posts: 24,825	Doc Keaton is a character, isn't he? I guess that there is a lesson to be learned here, as well as being prepared. Some of it is luck, as in not getting hurt. Selection is not designed to injure people or to even be unusually hazardous. At the same time, we are looking to grind people down and see what is under the mask that they show everyone else. Every person who completes the course is blistered, tired, and sore, and those who understand that and use it for self-motivation are usually successful. I saw a Marine LT arrive at SFAS who did a swim test back home and immediately went for a long ruck, just a week before SFAS. This is a BAD idea. He got to Camp MacKall with the majority of both feet badly blistered and made it through. Despite doing something stupid, he refused to quit, met the challenges, and was selected. For those who have not yet been to SFAS, we don't just select everyone who shows up. SFAS is physically, mentally, and emotionally demanding, and the majority of people who show up are not selected, whether they get injured, VW, or fail to meet standards. It is called Special Forces for a reason. And we try to keep it that way. TR __________________ "It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat." - President Theodore Roosevelt, 1910 De Oppresso Liber 01/20/2025
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