Unit activates to prepare volunteers for Special Forces selection
By Spc. Jennifer J. Eidson
U.S. Army Special Operations Command
FORT BRAGG, N.C. (USASOC News Service, May 6, 2004) — The unit responsible for training all U.S. Army Special Forces candidates here activated on April 30 a new company with the mission of better preparing Soldiers for the Special Forces selection process.
Company E, Support Battalion, 1st Special Warfare Training Group (Airborne) will oversee the new 25-day Special Forces Preparation Course, which beginning in October will be required training for volunteers attending the Special Forces Assessment and Selection course here.
The company was formed originally as a detachment in November 2001 to train “off-the-street” civilian recruits entering the Army under the Special Forces Recruiting Initiative.
The decision to make the course a requirement for all Special Forces recruits, including in-service Soldiers, was brought about because off-the-street recruits who had attended a similar program already run by the unit were being selected to attend the Special Forces Qualification Course more often than Soldiers who were already serving in the regular Army, said Lt. Col. Todd Dodson, Support Battalion commander.
“Echo Company (selection) statistics have always well exceeded those of active-duty Soldiers (attending SFAS),” said Dodson. “At the conclusion of this last … SFAS, students trained by Echo Company achieved a never-before-heard-of 98 percent selection rate.”
Traditionally, Soldiers already serving in the Army go directly into the SFAS course after volunteering for SF duty, and if selected would soon attend the second of the Special Forces Qualification Course's six phases. However, off-the-street recruits have been required to first attend the unit’s Special Operations Preparation and Conditioning Course I prior to SFAS, and if selected would then attend SOPC II training before continuing in the qualification course.
The SOPC course was implemented to give the inexperienced off-the-street Soldiers the opportunity to further develop their physical fitness and land navigation skills, as well as to learn basic small unit tactics before going to SFAS, which is considered the first phase in the qualification course.
Now, because off-the street recruits have performed so well during SFAS and subsequent training, all SF hopefuls will attend the Special Forces Preparation Course, as well as the training formerly designated as SOPC II, which will now be known as the Special Forces Preparation Course II, said Capt. Pete Huie, a former commander of the unit and the current battalion operations officer.
“Soldiers who have been in the Army in some other military occupational specialty prior to coming here, have had to train up on their own (for SFAS),” Huie said. “The current (selection) graduation rate of the in-service Soldiers is about 40 to 45 percent. Now, about 80 percent of (Soldiers) who go through this program will graduate (from SFAS).”
The preparation course will add 25 additional days to the current 24-day SFAS and Phase I program and an extra 18 days of training for Soldiers selected to continue on to Phase II of the SFQC.
Sgt. 1st Class Rolf Jensen, Company E’s senior trainer, advisor and counselor, said that with the increased student load the company’s instructors will be stretched thin, but the majority of trainees will still learn the required skills they need to be successful.
“Any time you have a large student-to-instructor ratio, you don’t have enough eyes on all the students and some are going to slip through the cracks. That is one of the problems with having too few instructors … but at least 70 percent (of our students) do fine (during the SFQC) and are stellar performers.”
The instructors have proven to be successful, judging by the number of their students selected to continue their Special Forces training, but with the increasing numbers of trainees they will have to work even harder to keep up the current quality of training, Dodson said.
“This company has already made a reputation that it must continue to live up to,” Dodson said. “The Special Operations Preparation and Conditioning Course … set a high standard.”
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http://www.soc.mil/News/releases/04MAY/040506-01.htm
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