Demise of Special Forces-capstone project

[Lefty]

Might be appropriate to throw this in here -

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Not to detract from this thread, as these are valid observations, but a little clarification of the traditional SF mission. The original mission of SF was to advise and train insurgent and guerrilla elements in countries occupied by hostile forces. The roots of SF were in the three man OSS teams created during WWII to work with the French Maquis and similar partisan groups behind enemy lines. (One of the more notorious teams was the Deer mission which, ironically, worked with Ho Chi Minh against the Japanese in Indochina)
In the post-WWII era this was expanded into the original SF units which had hopes of working with partisan groups in the Soviet bloc in the event of WWIII. Incidently, this gave rise to many unsubstantiated stories of small "rehearsal" ops run in eastern Europe or teams being inserted during crises such as the Berlin Wall.
With the creation of the US supported Republic of SVN and the ensuing guerrilla war, SF was called on to provide COIN assistance, the prevailing wisdom being "who better to fight guerillas than our own troops trained to BE guerrillas"
This morphed into the additional groups (3rd, 6th, 7th) who were assigned other parts of the world, such as South America and Africa. There were a lot of MTTs run world wide at this time. SF was allegedly involved with the Bolivians who caught Che Guevara.
SF has actually been turned on its head from it's original mission of the Cold War era.
Should a conventional general war ever erupt again, SF will be tasked again with working behind enemy lines to support partisan groups.
Of course, I am years removed from my days in SF, but I know the original mission bore little resemblance to today's ops.

[Silverback]

And a damn good thought brother. This is exactly why SF wont go away. While we may carry a high price tag, you cant deny the effectiveness.

"We"? Are you even in the pipeline yet? Man you changed shirts quick!

We, as in Special Operations.

I hope the intended humor translated effectively.

[Nomad]

We, as in Special Operations.

I hope the intended humor translated effectively.

It did, just felt the need to show my lack of humor.

Now THAT is funny!

[GoldCoast]

Another fine SF link.........

http://www.veteransofspecialforces.org/ ... rials.html

That was an interesting link.

[dyks]

The Capstone concept has been around for some time now, it was reprinted in SOF making it more accessible. Personally this whole thing is frustrating. Its been said before, but we have Quiet Professionalized ourselves into this. And you would be surprised that yes there are people out there that have no clue what an ODA is, and actually try to pronounce it. "What's an oo-Duh?"......Anyways, I'm short on wind right now but Im sure there will still be jobs for us down the road, or just have to jump another fence.

Oh SGM Puck, to answer your question, yes. The teams that are doing FID Downrange are doing it quite successfully, you just don't hear about it as much. Those discussions are better saved for another venue.

Another fine SF link.........

http://www.veteransofspecialforces.org/ ... rials.html

thanks for the perspective-