Military History | How To Make War | Wars Around the World Rules of Use How to Behave on an Internet Forum
Commandos and Special Operations Discussion Board
   Return to Topic Page
Subject: Life in a SOF team
GOP    3/6/2006 1:11:31 AM
What is life really like in a SOF unit? From what I have read, it is hard training during the day, followed by the unit hitting the bars, in which they get drunk and loud...then they usually get agressive and beat up a few Marines (or regular Army)...then they get laid (by a different women every night)...then they restart
 
Quote    Reply

Show Only Poster Name and Title     Newest to Oldest
Pages: PREV  1 2 3 4   NEXT
PARATROOP    RE:Life in a SOF team   3/7/2006 11:51:17 PM
As i said, there are a few who do practice that life style; most treat it as a profession and remember that there is alot of peer pressure in units such as SOF, it can be come very easy to have a soldier removed from a 'group'.
 
Quote    Reply

xylene    RE:Life in a SOF team   3/8/2006 4:37:11 PM
<> Actually it will surprise you, but there are alot of people that no matter what you do, you can never like them. You may be able to work with them if you have too, but some people are too distant, obtuse, or just plain shifty. Not everyone becomes friends, some people you may not want to be friends with.
 
Quote    Reply

Horsesoldier    RE:Life in a SOF team   3/8/2006 9:09:35 PM
>>Actually it will surprise you, but there are alot of people that no matter what you do, you can never like them. You may be able to work with them if you have too, but some people are too distant, obtuse, or just plain shifty. Not everyone becomes friends, some people you may not want to be friends with. << And, when it is all said and done, the people you want to be friends with outside of work and the people you want stacked up behind you when you go door kicking may or may not be one and the same . . .
 
Quote    Reply

ZackG    RE:Life in a SOF team   3/19/2006 2:32:12 PM
GOP, The way you describe "life" for sof sounds quite similar to how my buddy spends his weekends, although, he is only a marine in AAV school. I'd have to agree with the person who said it is a habbit of the junior enlistees, and my friend just does it by choice cause there's not much else to do. Keep in mind, going into the city and getting a hotel and drinking in bars isn't cheap...most of his monthly pay goes to that, which is his decision. I'm not in the marines yet, i do plan to go out for RECON once in, but, i'd have to imagine that there is no specific "life" you have to live while you're not training/working...i'm quite sure how you spend your off time is completely up to you.
 
Quote    Reply

mough    RE:ZackG   3/19/2006 4:52:50 PM
not if it effect's your job, sure party away all you like, but when the call come's, you had better be wide eyed and bushy tailed....or find another line of work
 
Quote    Reply

ZackG    RE:ZackG   3/23/2006 11:08:28 PM
Agreed.
 
Quote    Reply

Bluewings    RE:Life in a SOF team   3/25/2006 12:10:28 AM
PARATROOP said : ".for the most past SOF members live a mostly ordinary life: work ( they usually are off work by 2pm) sleep, eat, sex. Reapeat. Ver few live that 'balls to the walls' formulae u mentioned. Deployments are another matter however." Exactly . But for my part , I rarely finished at 2pm besides Saturday . 1 week-end out of 2 , you 're on "Standby" . In fact the atmosphere is relax , everybody has a good laugh and ranks are not really relevant . Life in the Foreign legion ~as an exemple~ is much "harder" . Cheers .
 
Quote    Reply

distorted       2/25/2007 2:08:56 AM
Failing out of BUD/S results in 4 years worth of painting ships/saying yes sir to morons/wishing you did something else with your youth, that being said, succeeding may be worse.  SF careers generally come at the cost of absolutely everything else

If you're a SEAL, or in one of the more 'public' units, you may be able to tell people about it in bars, but don't expect to develop any meaningful relationships outside the Navy.  You will not be able to 'get aggressive' and kick someone's ass, as it could come back to haunt you career-wise, or legally.  You will probably become adept at picking up one-nighters in bars, but beyond that, don't expect to find any meaningful female companionship. 

If by some miracle, you end up in a mythical tier 1 unit, things get harder--at least as a SEAL, you get to be a big huge angry alpha male and engage in dick-waving.  In something like DEVGRU or SFOD-D, you can't do that.  You get to be evasive when people ask you what you do.  Your parents will probably think you're a failure, and you won't be able to tell them any different.  Your wife or girlfriend if you have one will know that you're in the military, that you have to travel for long periods on short notice, and that when you come back, you look, feel, and probably act like shit.  When you aren't travelling, you come home from training tired, dirty, in a bad mood, and smelling like gunpowder.

Look forward to living on bases in shithole countries filled with people who hate you, doing absolutely nothing most of the time while you wait for some kind of 'job' to materialize.  You'll spend a lot of time babysitting VIPs, PTing, and wondering if a man you can't see 800 yards away is going to decide that today is your day.  When you're sitting in a cafe in Iran, dressed in civilian clothes, unarmed, gathering intelligence for the future invasion, you'll wonder if lunch today comes with a side order of car bomb.  Look forward to jumping into a shitty city in some country nobody has ever heard of filled with people who want you dead, with nothing but your rifle and the blessing of a government which doesn't feel like sending 'the cavalry' to save your ass.

The high points of your life will come when you get to dive out of a plane, walk across miles upon miles of rough terrain filled with people who hate you, and lie down under a bush for a week praying that some retard doesn't decide that your bush looks like a good place to sit down and take a shit behind, eating 1 MRE a day (if that) while you wait for a HVT and his four wives and 3 teenage kids to arrive at a meeting, so you can direct an air strike onto their mud hut.  Then, if you make it out alive, the only thing you ever get to say to anyone, even the people in your unit who didn't go is 'I was travelling'. 

When you show up to your 20-year high school reunion (if you make it) alone, you'll see everyone else talking about their loving families, stable jobs, and bright futures, while you'll answer 'so what do you do' with 'I work on the base at Ft. Bragg, and make a tiny, shitty military salary, lets talk more about you'.  And you won't be a big sexy schwarzenegger type either, in order to succeed your body will be trained for max strength, max endurance, minimum size, and minimum attention-getting.  Sometimes, years after you retire, you'll wake up in the middle of the night shaking, because you can see the face of that 15 year old kid with an AK-47 who never saw you coming and died in silent agony when you stuck a knife in his kidney and silently lowered him to the ground.  And speaking of retirement, when you finally leave the military, your only marketable skills will be 'breaking things, hurting people, and bodyguarding', but you won't be able to use them, because your resume will go 'spent three years as a navy seal, spent twelve years working at ft. bragg doing a lot of absolutely nothing', so expect to either work in a government job that is set up for you by your unit, or doing shitty manual labor while you wonder where your life went.

Judging by the fact that most of the posts on this board are you GOP, I don't think 'I can never attract any attention, ever' will work for you, you probably won't be able to drink or party much outside your unit--or even inside your unit, and this is how you can expect to look if you make it:

Decide if you really want to be this guy.

http://www.pbase.com/illusive_airsoft/image/17164975

http://media.militaryphotos.net/photos/devgru



 
Quote    Reply

GOP       2/25/2007 3:02:09 AM

Failing out of BUD/S results in 4 years worth of painting ships/saying yes sir to morons/wishing you did something else with your youth, that being said, succeeding may be worse.  SF careers generally come at the cost of absolutely everything else

If you're a SEAL, or in one of the more 'public' units, you may be able to tell people about it in bars, but don't expect to develop any meaningful relationships outside the Navy.  You will not be able to 'get aggressive' and kick someone's ass, as it could come back to haunt you career-wise, or legally.  You will probably become adept at picking up one-nighters in bars, but beyond that, don't expect to find any meaningful female companionship. 



If by some miracle, you end up in a mythical tier 1 unit, things get harder--at least as a SEAL, you get to be a big huge angry alpha male and engage in dick-waving.  In something like DEVGRU or SFOD-D, you can't do that.  You get to be evasive when people ask you what you do.  Your parents will probably think you're a failure, and you won't be able to tell them any different.  Your wife or girlfriend if you have one will know that you're in the military, that you have to travel for long periods on short notice, and that when you come back, you look, feel, and probably act like shit.  When you aren't travelling, you come home from training tired, dirty, in a bad mood, and smelling like gunpowder.

Look forward to living on bases in shithole countries filled with people who hate you, doing absolutely nothing most of the time while you wait for some kind of 'job' to materialize.  You'll spend a lot of time babysitting VIPs, PTing, and wondering if a man you can't see 800 yards away is going to decide that today is your day.  When you're sitting in a cafe in Iran, dressed in civilian clothes, unarmed, gathering intelligence for the future invasion, you'll wonder if lunch today comes with a side order of car bomb.  Look forward to jumping into a shitty city in some country nobody has ever heard of filled with people who want you dead, with nothing but your rifle and the blessing of a government which doesn't feel like sending 'the cavalry' to save your ass.

The high points of your life will come when you get to dive out of a plane, walk across miles upon miles of rough terrain filled with people who hate you, and lie down under a bush for a week praying that some retard doesn't decide that your bush looks like a good place to sit down and take a shit behind, eating 1 MRE a day (if that) while you wait for a HVT and his four wives and 3 teenage kids to arrive at a meeting, so you can direct an air strike onto their mud hut.  Then, if you make it out alive, the only thing you ever get to say to anyone, even the people in your unit who didn't go is 'I was travelling'. 

When you show up to your 20-year high school reunion (if you make it) alone, you'll see everyone else talking about their loving families, stable jobs, and bright futures, while you'll answer 'so what do you do' with 'I work on the base at Ft. Bragg, and make a tiny, shitty military salary, lets talk more about you'.  And you won't be a big sexy schwarzenegger type either, in order to succeed your body will be trained for max strength, max endurance, minimum size, and minimum attention-getting.  Sometimes, years after you retire, you'll wake up in the middle of the night shaking, because you can see
the face of that 15 year old kid with an AK-47 who never saw you
coming and died in silent agony when you stuck a knife in his kidney and silently lowered him to the ground. 
And speaking of retirement, when you finally leave the military, your only marketable skills will be 'breaking things, hurting people, and bodyguarding', but you won't be able to use them, because your resume will go 'spent three years as a navy seal, spent twelve years working at ft. bragg doing a lot of absolutely nothing', so expect to either work in a government job that is set up for you by your unit, or doing shitty manual labor while you wonder where your life went.

Judging by the fact that most of the posts on this board are you GOP, I don't think 'I can never attract any attention, ever' will work for you, you probably won't be able to drink or party much outside your unit--or even inside your unit, and this is how you can expect to look if you make it:

Decide if you really want to be this guy.
 
Quote    Reply

colts       2/26/2007 7:00:19 PM
That was a great post distorted.

Hey GOP, have you read Warrior Soul by Chuck Pfarrer?  Its one of the best books I have ever read, and I do believe it to be a real telling of life in the Teams, training and all, from when he was in SEAL team four, to when he was in SEAL team six/Dev group.  He went through the drinking and all, then in Dev group it calmed down big time.  Talks about life in Dev group, how after he went somewhere in the Civilian world a team went in after he had left and asked questions regarding him, if the people were able to find out if he was a SEAL then he cut.  Its and EXCELENT novel.  You should most definatley read it if you havent yet.
 
Quote    Reply
PREV  1 2 3 4   NEXT



 Latest
 News
 
 Most
 Read
 
 Most
 Commented
 Hot
 Topics