SF Regimental Supper Speech

[The Reaper]

From an SF Regimental supper speech by a retired SF Warrant Officer. Typical team guy, no special education or speech writing skills. It was from the heart, though. You new kids reflect on the topics he covers. Terry, he even talks about you guys. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

TR

Special Forces: What Makes It Special?
by Chief Warrant Officer 3 Charles E. Simmons, U.S. Army (ret.)

What's so special about Special Forces? I agree with Command Sergeant Major William Edge that what is special is that SF is the only combat unit in the United States Army in which enlisted men can and do command troops - in schools as teachers, in guerrilla bands as organizers and leaders, and in foreign armies as advisers and leaders. Where else can staff sergeants serve as platoon leaders, sergeants first class as company commanders, and master sergeants as battalion commanders?

Perhaps you don't believe that three companies of 150 men and a 40-man scout platoon could be a battalion? Why? Because they were Montagnards, Cambodians or Chinese Nungs? Think again. Did you ever hear of the Mike Force? Delta? Sigma? Omega? CCN? All of those units were led by SF; some of them were even
led by E4s.

But they were not led by the bare-chested, snake-eating, guitar-playing Rambo types portrayed by the media as the "Green Berets." A green beret is nothing more than a hat - a symbol to the world of what you are: an SF soldier. No, the Special Forces I am referring to are the men who worked at Khe Sahn, the Ashau Valley, Phu Bai, Kontum, Dak To, Lang Ve, and a thousand other places that were denied to the enemy because six to 12 SF soldiers lived there and dared "Charlie" to come and take it.

In many cases Charlie tried, but the SF soldiers and their Montagnards, Cambodes and Chinese Nungs in the Mike Force denied him the victory. There were no 175 mm howitzers or eight-inch guns for artillery cover - just air cover when we could get it, and we got plenty of it in Vietnam. It was deadly accurate, usually called in by sergeants. The Hueys, Cobras, bombers
and sleek fast movers all brought death from the sky to our common enemy.

The heart of the SF group is the A-detachment, which is composed of 10 sergeants and two officers. The A-detachment is a self-contained, do-anything group of men. And yet those men are the first to tell you thatthey could not do their jobs without the support of the unsung heroes who man the supply, commo, personnel, psywar, civic-action and flightorganizations farther back.

You see, the A-detachment is only the blade of the axe. But it takes the whole axe to cut a tree, and that's the real SF: the whole axe. Officers - good men who had blisters and cuts from stringing wire, sunburns and bug bites from filling sandbags, and bruised shoulders from firing BARs - were right there in the mud and blood with their men.

These officers wore oak leaves and bars, but usually you could not see their rank, because they hung their shirts on tree limbs while they worked and sweated with the troops. They had nerves of steel; they were leaders you respected and never forgot. There was the major who personally led a relief party to rescue a wounded sergeant who was cut off, lost and pursued by the remnants of an NVA company - and brought him out alive. There were the lean and mean "slick" pilots who stood their groaning Hueys on their tails in order to load wounded Montagnards. Or perhaps they yanked you out of the jungle on a McGuire rig for a ride you would never forget. There were also
the soft-voiced chaplains who gave comfort to the dying in a bloody mortar pit in the drenching rain.

And the medics - they are truly the eighth wonder of the world. Their routine feats read too much like fiction, but they were and still are more than medics; they are also super riflemen and scouts - killers as well as healers. They are often your first link in establishing rapport.

That was and still is Special Forces. Vietnam wasn't Saigon bars; it was hard reality and too much death. We had our crooks and drunks and quitters, all to our shame. We also had our giants, and by God, most were there because they wanted to be there. Professionals every one, trained as force multipliers. they were few in number, but they were strong in mind, heart and spirit.

Yes, I miss them. I miss their friendship and their respect. It's all a part of being special. Webster defines special as "distinguished by some uncommon quality; designed or selected for some particular purpose; having anindividual character that is noteworthy; unique."

SF NCO/officer interoperability

The demands of SF operations, then and now, are directly proportional to the interoperability of SF NCOs and officers. We are not a squad in the 82nd, the Rangers or some other conventional unit. We are all highly competitive, proactive self-starters who require the absolute minimum of supervision and
guidance to get the job done. We are able to work alone for long periods of time, if necessary, with no light at the end of the tunnel. But our most endearing asset is the innovative, intelligent, thinking NCO.

It is imperative that newly appointed SF officers fully understand seven facts:
* SF NCOs are experts at their jobs.
* The officers don't know the NCOs' jobs.
* SF NCOs don't want and don't need close supervision.
* The team sergeant is the detachment commander's first point of reference.
* The warrant officer and team sergeant can do the detachment commander's job.
* The team can function without the detachment commander.
* The detachment commander should be prepared and willing to take off his shirt and get down and dirty with the team.

Detachment commanders, if you want to earn the respect of your team members, don't show up with the attitude that you know it all, because you don't. Be a team player. Lead by example and, most of all, trust your men and their advice. They have been
performing real-world missions for years, and you are the new kid on the block who must prove his worth.

SF's role in the war on terrorism

On a night in mid-October 2001, 11 members of an A-detachment from the 5th SF Group dropped into a valley deep inside Taliban territory in central Afghanistan. The austere, wild gash in the earth prompted some of the team members to remark to one another, "This place looks like the back side of the moon." Gentlemen, every man on that team was carrying America's foreign policy on his shoulders, and that's one hell of a responsibility.

Out of the darkness stepped Hamid Karzai, now the interim leader of Afghanistan, but who was then merely the head of a modest militia force that the U.S. hoped could galvanize the Pashtun tribes of southern Afghanistan against the Taliban authorities. The success or failure of uniting those tribes and the conduct of America's war on terrorism rested entirely on the
shoulders of each member of that team, regardless of rank. These are some of the responsibilities you will face when you wear the green beret. Can you handle it?