Originally Posted by
BoringGuy45
I had asked a former SF guy about this awhile back. For the most part, most of the 19th and 20th SFGs are former active duty SF guys, but you CAN join the National Guard and, if one of the two NG SF groups has a company in your state's guard, you get an 18X contract (it's called something else for NG, but it's essentially the same thing). One of the nice things about the NG 18X is that you're pretty much guaranteed your choice of Group and MOS, unlike AD, where you'll be asked your preference but assigned to whatever they need you to do.
I was also told that if you want to go SF in the Guard, don't expect one weekend a month and a two weeks a year; it'll be quite a bit more than that. It's not near the commitment of active duty, but it's a LOT more time commitment than the rest of the Guard, and a lot higher chance you'll get activated and deployed. You may be in the Guard, but you're still a Green Beret, so you'll need to keep your skills sharp. If you get activated, you'll have the same long, intense train up that active duty SF groups get before they head overseas.
You guys do know there are Reserve SOF units in every branch, don't you? Some examples: Air Guard - combat controller, pararescue, TACP; Marines - 4th RECON BN; Navy - SEAL teams 17 and 18; Army - 19th and 20th SF Groups.
Here's a blurb from the Army NG SOF site:
Guard Special Forces live throughout the United States and train with their units one weekend (three to four days) per month, plus an additional two to four weeks of training per year. Deployments are also less frequent, generally once every two to three years for six to 15 months, allowing Guard Green Berets to live as both civilians and Special Forces team members.
I worked/trained with 12th SFG (deactivated now), 19th SFG, C Co 4th Recon BN, and the East Coast Reserve SEAL Team while I was a Reserve Pathfinder from late-70's to 1989.
The SEALS were the sloppiest jumpers I ever jumped with, they thought they were too high speed to rope jump.
The reserve airborne units during my time period got extra active duty for training days, and extra Unit Training Assemblies (drills) we called them AUTA's. For example once a quarter my unit did a four-day drill which during which we jumped into a training area, Fort McCoy, as an example, did our training and then on Monday returned to Wichita, generally jumping into a drop zone near Wellington, Kansas. Additionally, we would often get additional AT time, usually another 4 or 5 days.
During those days we were usually funded for any course that would be considered as supporting our ARTEP tasks. I'm not sure how it is today, back then Reserve/NG SOF stuff was as choice as you wanted to make it.
I trained with some other units that were duds because their AGR's were lazy, and the unit command didn't want to do more than the minimum. As an example, in our platoon. we were generally able to finagle enough AUTA's to do voluntary 'airborne proficiency operations' (AKA as hop and pops) several times a year. I've made as many as five jumps in a day before all the chutes were burned. This wasn't an easy thing to accomplish, you had to arrange aircraft, get rigger support, get medical support, secure training areas, etc. in addition to the admin stuff that routinely goes along with a drill. The few times we drilled with other reserve/NG airborne units they were like, 'wow, we don't do that.'
As I said, unless things have changed, there is a lot of opportunity on the NG/Reserve side of the house in all branches.
Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the President... - Theodore Roosevelt, Lincoln and Free Speech, Metropolitan Magazine, Volume 47, Number 6, May 1918.
Every Communist must grasp the truth. Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun. Our principle is that the Party commands the gun, and the gun must never be allowed to command the Party Mao Zedong, 6 November, 1938 - speech to the Communist Patry of China's sixth Central Committee
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