From: JASON WILLIAM JARVIS <003166j@ace.acadiau.ca>
Subject: Re: North American Special Forces Units
Organization: Acadia University
Date: Fri, 11 Dec 1992 17:29:02 GMT


From JASON WILLIAM JARVIS <003166j@ace.acadiau.ca>

In article <ByyApB.87M@law7.DaytonOH.NCR.COM> cgellasc@silver.ucs.indiana.edu (Chris Gellasch) writes:
>From: cgellasc@silver.ucs.indiana.edu (Chris Gellasch)
>Subject: Re: North American Special Forces Units
>Date: Tue, 8 Dec 1992 17:17:35 GMT
>
>From cgellasc@silver.ucs.indiana.edu (Chris Gellasch)
>
>
>>From gdnikoli@undergrad.math.waterloo.edu (Greg Nikolic)
>
>>I'm curious.
>>
>>How does the US Special Forces (SEALs, Green Berets, etc.) recruit their
>>men? In other words, how does one become a member of these elite outfits? Also,
>>does Canada actually have parallel army units, similar to these or perhaps
>>based on the British SAS model?
>>
>>--------------------------------------------------------------------------------gdnikoli@descartes.uwaterloo.ca
>>"Auribus teneo lupum."
>>
>In the US Army Special Forces (Green Berets) the requriments are a
>minimum E-4 (if enlisted) or 1LT (P) if an officer.  There are MOS
>requirments for the enlisted (ie. you have to have certain skills) but
>I'm not sure what the other qualifiers are (they told us back in ROTC
>camp).  I have heard of some Signal Corps officers being in SF units
>without actually being SF but this is all second hand info.
>
>For the Rangers, most units have RIP (Ranger Indoctrination Program) for
>their enlisted troops.  If you pass this "mini Ranger school" you may
>get to go to the real thing.  For officers, it depends on your branch.
>Most officers go to Ranger school right after Officer Basic Course (OBC)
>and each branch has a certain number of slots (Infantry has the most).
>Ranger school is 8 weeks of hell from what my friends tell me and many
>people do not make it through.  One interesting thing is that you have
>no rank while there so the differences between officers, NCO's and
>PVT's are gone.
>
>I don't think either unit needs to do much recruiting since there are
>many people who want to join.
>
>Chris Gellasch    cgellasc@silver.indiana.edu
>2LT, USAR
>
>
     Since Canadian and American units train together quite often, our army 
often sends candidates to the Ranger school.  These officiers generally tend 
to come from the three Mobile Commmand infantry regiments (RCR, PPCLI and 
R22R), and *maybe* from the engineer and armoured regiments, but I'm not 
sure.  These candidates tend to be the best available at the time, and if 
they make it through (which most of them do, I believe), then they usually 
finish toward the top of the course.  Upon graduation, they are entitled to 
wear the Ranger flash on their dress uniform.  Like I mentionned earlier
(and somebody may have corrected me since then - it's been a while since I 
checked this column), the recon platoon of the Canadian Airborne Regiment is 
probably our most elite unit (HALO, HAHO, Arctic training, etc.), and they 
often train with the British Parachute Regiment, U.S. Airborne and Recon 
Marines and the French Foreign Legion.  Tough company for sure.

Jason W. Jarvis
History Department
Acadia University
Wolfville, Nova Scotia
Canada

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