[Archangel]

Originally Posted by Leozinho

I'm going to assume you are familiar with the different phases of the pipeline for 18x-rays.

With one exception, everyone in my class that didn't pass SOPC 1 the first time was given one chance to go through SOPC 1 again. Usually land navigation was the problem, though a few times it was PT scores. The one exception that didn't get a retry was an extremely incompetent individual.

Notice I said SOPC 1, not Selection (SFAS). Once you complete SOPC 1, you'll likely only receive one chance at SFAS at that time.




You can normally go back to SFAS. There might be cases of people that left SFAS with Never to Return marked on their records, but I don't know of them.

Chances are you'd have to go the 82nd for a while before going back to Selection. You'd have to be an E-4, and you might have to wait until the timing is right. (You won't likely be brought back form a deployment for Selection, for example.)

One of my pet peeves was watching 18x-rays fail SOPC 1 or Selection and then do everything possible to avoid going to the 82nd. Often they try to go EOD or PsyOps. I never understood. They signed up to be "shooters," and after the Ranger Battalion, the 82nd is in my opinion the next closest thing to SF. These guys always say they are coming back to SFAS, but the best option would be go to the 82nd, go to Ranger School and then come back. I think they are more interested in the status of SF, rather than soldiering.

But it might not be a coincidence that the guys that don't have what it takes to make it at SOPC 1 are also scared of being in the regular infantry.

Full disclosure: I've never been in the 82nd, though, and you do here a lot of guys from there complaining about it.

Good sound advice there Leo. The 82nd has a lot of history & a lot of great people. Though they are not SpecOps, they are one of the best units in the military (in the world).