These days, if you are in a SOF unit that's on the bubble for deployment OCONUS, odds are that you're going to Iraq or Afghanistan and pulling real-world, shooting war operations. There's some possibility that you'll be pulling some non-combat operations of some sort somewhere besides those two places, but that's not really the safe way to bet. Even the guys in units that are not geographically tasked for the Middle East are getting plenty of time downrage helping cover sustained operations in support of OIF and OEF.

Does anyone know the how often SOF(ODA, SEAL Platoon, and other operators) train/simulate real world ops and what they might consist of? That was something I was always curious about.