How to join the Army Special Forces

in this video I'm explaining how someone becomes a part of the elite Special Forces in the United States Army what's up I'm US Army veteran Christopher Kaos and in this video we are talking about how an individual becomes a part of Army's elite Special Forces also known as the Green Berets now this is the elite of the US Army the Navy has the Navy SEALs the Marines have their thing and I think the Air Force even have something too but we're gonna focus in this video on the Special Forces which is the United States Army so before we get started a little bit of a disclaimer just like with previous videos usually there's things that I leave out for time purposes but with this particular video there's also some things I have to leave out due to it being kind of considered classified now it may not be as harsh as saying it's classified but essentially there are people that go through this training and they are told that they are not allowed to talk about the specifics as to what was involved in the training to become Special Forces this is because the army wants individuals that are elite that are highly skilled individuals not just people that were well-prepared enough to know what to expect and was able to practice for it so for that reason and out of respect there are certain things in this that I will not talk about as far as how process goes and everything that I'll be talking about is stuff that's just public knowledge stuff that you could research by going to go army comm or other online resources things that are classified I'm just simply not going to even bring up so now that that's out of the way let's dive right into it now there are two avenues that someone could potentially take one being someone coming straight off the streets they join in the army and they want to go straight onto the path of becoming Special Forces another path is it may be someone already is in the army and later decides they want to become part of Special Forces I'm going to start off with the explainin Avenue from stray off the streets going right into training for the Special Forces at some point that does lead into a portion where if individuals are already in the army they would then join into that process so before we dive into the routes let's talk about just some of the requirements now an individual is gonna have to be a US citizen it's not like house or in other cases where an individual could come into the army as a green card holder and later get the citizenship now this one's straight up you have to be US citizen you're also gonna have to be at least twenty years old you will have to be between the rank of an III or an e6 there is exceptions for East 7 which I'm not gonna dive into all that there's also some different things as far as officers and warrant officers as those are positions available in the Special Forces but do not to overcomplicate this video for the most part I'm really going to talk about the enlisted side I've become Special Forces most of the stuff I'm going to talk about apply to all for the enlisted for the warrants and for the officers but there are some little things here in there that I'm not gonna dive into there are extra things that a Warrant Officer or an officer would have to have as a requirement now going back to that last requirement where I talked about you have to be an III now that is the rank of a private first class and some people may be confused how am I going to be a private first class just coming into the army there are gonna be a couple different ways you could go about that for example if you did JROTC in high school you might be able to come into the army as a private first class but if you didn't do that is how it's gonna kind of work as your recruiter during the delayed Entry Program is going to give you a series of tests and different tasks and everything that will allow you to earn a little bit of rank when you first come into the army and be able to come in as a private first class so start off with that first option of coming into the army straight directly on path towards becoming a member of the Special Forces this is known as the 18 x-ray option that meaning that you're going to be coming into the army with the intent of becoming a part of the Special Forces now the 18 is the series for Special Forces x-ray just means you're yet to be assigned an MOS within the Special Forces until you complete the training so if a soldier is at least 20 years of age they have somehow earned the rank of PFC they would then move on into the army and go to OSes osis stands for one station unit training and it is the same path that a soldier who is going 11 Bravo would have to take posted is really just made up of basic training and advanced individual training all combined into one and this training will last 14 weeks now these individuals would not just be solely with 18 x-rays they're gonna be with 11 Bravo's possibly 11 Charlie's other soldiers that are not necessarily trying for Special Forces so they're all gonna be kind of combined together so after a soldier completes the 14 weeks of OSA they would then move on to Airborne School everyone in school is conducted at Fort Benning Georgia and it is three weeks long I'm not going to go into detail as to what is involved Airborne School at some point in time on this I will go a little more in-depth as to what to expect from Airborne School and depending on when you're watching this video it may be up so check out my channel maybe after this video but basically this is to teach a soldier how to jump out of an airplane with a parachute and be able to land properly into a combat zone so after the soldier completes airborne training they then move on to this Special Forces specific style training from here on out their training is going to be taught by actual individuals that are member of the Special Forces part of the career path of a Special Forces member is that at some point in the career they are gonna have to become instructors and so all these schools are taught by actual individuals that have been in the Special Forces for a matter of time so next phase of a soldier doing 18 x-ray option after Airborne School is going to be stopped see and that stands for Special Operations preparation course this course is really designed just like it says in the title preparation is to prep a soldier for the next phase in their training towards trying to become a member of the Special Forces it is very heavy on physical fitness as well as land navigation training to prepare you for the next phase now this course is two weeks long and is conducted at Fort Bragg North Carolina now as long as the soldier doesn't quit doesn't get injured and doesn't break any rules they will then be able to pass and move on to the next phase of their training the next phase of their training is sfas which is Special Forces assessment and selection now this is also the phase where if someone was already in the Army and at a later point decided they wanted to join the Special Forces they would join in at this phase as soldiers that have already been in the Army for a little bit and already achieved the rank of private first class and are at least twenty years of age do not have to go through that previous phase of soft sea top sea is really only a phase that has to be done by individuals who are first coming in the army straight towards Special Forces without aging x-ray option so sfas be a mixture of those individuals straight out of basic and Airborne School as well as individuals that are already been in the military for a little bit of time and are now looking to become a part of the Special Forces now sfas is also conducted at Fort Bragg North Carolina and it is three weeks long and it is broken down into different categories per week during week one is the individual week during this phase there's a lot of running a lot of ruck marching a lot of physical fitness as well as a lot of tests the soldier is able to make it through week one not quit and not fail anything then they would move on to week two and we - is the land navigation weak during this week soldiers are doing a lot of land navigation on top of physical fitness and other tests and the land navigation is really the main focus of week 2 as it takes up day and night now this is not just your regular land navigation course this course has rivers it has trees it has bushes it has all sorts of crazy terrain the points are not very close together it may take you several hours to get from one point to the next point and this can be an all-day event for some soldiers so those are having to navigate from one point to another point over crazy terrain for multiple miles during the day and during the night and very very little sleep and very little food so if a soldier is able to get through week 2 meaning they pass land that they're able to get through all the crazy tests they're able to get through all the enduring process without quitting they then move on to week 3 now week 3 is called team week during this phase there's a lot of different things they're tested on and working together as a team just to give you an example of one of the events the soldier may do during team week they could be given maybe let's say 3 4 tractor tires with an axle and a bunch of other equipment and they're told to get this equipment from point A to point B now they're not told what the distance is between point A to point B they're just told day hey follow this road follow this trail whatever the case might be and we'll tell you when to stop now this could be maybe three miles five miles it could be 20 miles you don't know how far it's going to be but you have to get this equipment from point A to point B however far it might take you if a soldier is able to survive week three they will then move on to selection now this means that a soldier can do great they can go through all three weeks doing well but if the instructors don't feel like they are Special Forces material they might not make selection now during that three weeks there are also other factors that could determine someone getting kicked out or being let go from the sfas training if the soldier fails or gets injured they are able to return to try us a fayus again or even if they go to the whole process and just don't get selected as well now the time limits as far as when they come back kind of vary just to give you an example if the soldier was to fail any event they may have to wait anywhere from six months to a year before they can come back and retry SFA and then if a soldier gets injured it can depend as well it could be anywhere from three months to a year before they're allowed to come back to read us FAS but a lot of times it's really just up to the instructors discretion as to when you can come back now the soldier was to cheat or do something they're not supposed to do get in trouble or whatever they may receive a never to return this means they would never be able to return to sfas to try out for the Special Forces or any special operations that includes Rangers or psyops or any other organization they would simply just go back to a unit and do regular army stuff related to their MOS now with that being said for a person who comes in as an 18 X ray if they were to fail during SFA yes they would essentially become an 11 Bravo maybe 11 charlie it would then be assigned a unit and they would go to a unit and be that MOS if an individual came into the army as say an 88 Mike or a medic or whatever the case might be and fail sfas they would then just go back to the unit that they came from and continue doing their normal army job so after a soldier completes sfas and is selected they would then receive a language as well as an MOS within the Special Forces there are several different 18 series a Miles's that a soldier could possibly receive you have an 18 Bravo which is a weapons sergeant you have an 18 charlie which is an engineer sergeant you have an 18 Delta which is a medical sergeant an 18 echo which is a communication sergeant and an 18 Foxtrot which is an intelligence sergeant now you'll notice that all those positions are called a something sergeant and I'll get to that later but basically if you're going into the Special Forces before you go to your group you're going to be at least a a 5a sergeant now again don't forget there are other categories for officers and warrant officers but in this video I'm not explaining that I'm just kind of to keep it simple a little bit we're just sticking with the enlisted side so the next phase in the Special Forces training is really gonna depend on if you're coming in from 18 xray side or from already being in the army as if you are coming in from already being the army and you don't yet have your airborne wings you haven't been through Airborne School then at this point that soldier would go through Airborne School but obviously the 18 X rays would have already gone through it and they will move on to the next phase which is for VLC VLC is the basic leaders course now if you came in from already being in the army and you already have PLC you also get to skip this portion but individuals doing the 18 X ray they will then move to BLC now the Special Forces have their own special BLC it's not the same basic leader of course that a soldier would go through if they were just in the Regular Army this is a special Special Forces PLC it's gonna be a lot tougher a lot more physically demanding than just a standard basically your course so the next phase in the training is known as sfqc also referred to as the q course sfqc stands for Special Forces qualification course now the Q course could be anywhere up to a year but there are some circumstances that could cause an individual to spend longer than a year during this training so let's get into some of the details that is the Q course now there are several phases and tasks that are involved with the Q course and the order of those tasks could get mixed around based on different circumstances some really just gonna be explaining the different phases involved in the Q course but this is not necessarily the order in which they are conducted in so one of the phases is the tactics phase and that is 13 weeks long now there are a lot of tactics training is like the name says but also involved in this 13 weeks is the sere course and sere actually stands for survival evasion resistance and escape so essentially it is teaching a soldier how to deal with if they were captured how to deal with the pressure of not giving up some vital information and then of course how to resist any escape from being a prisoner now I've heard but it's really just a rumor sight can't verify it but I have heard that during this training the instructors are allowed to break a small bone nothing serious obviously maybe like a finger or something while they are torturing an individual to prepare them for how to deal with being tortured by an enemy but again I'm not 100% sure if that is true or not that's just what I've heard before another phase during the Q course is going to be MOS specific so the individual is likely to be an engineer or medic or whatever they're going to be doing that specific style training to that MOS and that MOS training could last anywhere is up to 15 weeks now if a soldier is not able to pass that MOS training depending on the instructors and how much they've liked that individual based on how much effort they've been giving or whatever the case might be they may allow them to kind of restart MOS training and try again or any may suggest that they tried different MOS and maybe this other MOS would be more suited for that individual or they may even just kick him out of the queue and if the soldier gets kicked out of the queue course it kind of varies as far as if they can just restart the queue course or if they'll have to go back to sfas a lot of times that just depends on how long it's been since they went through sfas another phase during the queue course is a collective training event known as robin stage this is where soldiers we're broken down into squads and then insert it into a fake country known as Pineland and Pineland is spread over several counties in North Carolina that includes role players involved with the exercise as well as these tiny villages that are also involved and so that squad will be inserted into that area given a mission they'll have role players up to interact with laughter navigate through the terrain to get across through Pineland and execute that mission that they are assigned another phase the soldiers gonna have to go through in the queue course is language and cultural training this phase lasts approximately 24 weeks and during this phase where soldiers going to learn that language they're assigned now either prior to sfas or in SFA as a soldier who have taken what is called the D lab test and this test is used to determine what language that soldier might be able to learn the best this language also comes into play as to what group that that soldier could be assigned as each group has their own specific area in the world so they have to be able to know the language for that area now if the soldiers is able to make it through all the phases and pass everything they then move on to the final week in this week there is a lot of out processing this is also the time when they will go through graduation though the soldier will then be given the green beret as well as these Special Forces tab and then after they have out process they will then move on to their assigned Special Forces Group now there are seven total Special Forces groups five being active duty and to be a National Guard there's not a Special Forces Group for the reserve so this is something that an individual have to be on active duty or in the National Guard if they want to be a part of the Special Forces so this video was highly requested by individuals in the comments section wanting to know more about how someone can join the Special Forces but along with that people are also curious about Delta so I feel like I have to address a little bit about Delta Force so let's talk a little bit about the first Special Forces operations detachment-delta also known as Delta Force now they also have several different names that they may be known as for example some people may call them CAG which stands for combat applications group or some may know the mass Task Force Green and then there are a couple other ones but I'm not going to get into everything that people call to Delta forces delta force is usually the more commonly known one as that's usually what they use like movies and stuff now members of the delta force are selected from this Special Forces the 75th Rangers and other Special Operations units now this unit is tasked with very specialized missions things like hostage rescue counterterrorism reconnaissance of high-value targets and more now a lot of things about Delta Force is actually classified such as the size of the unit and who the commander of the Delta Force unit is but there are some stuff you can look up and I'm not gonna get too in-depth but just know that Delta is not completely made up of Special Forces they do have people from the Rangers that are selected to go to this so this isn't something you can just simply join the army with the intention of going directly into Delta Force this is something you have to work up to with either going through the Special Forces and then getting selected out of the Special Forces or going through the process to become a ranger or another special operations unit and then go through the process of trying to get selected from those Special Operations to go to Delta Force so my question to you is let's assume that you have to pick a special operations unit in the US Army to try out for it whether it be the Special Forces the Rangers psyops or any other special operations unit that I didn't mention in this video what do you think he would go towards I like the Special Forces they have pretty badass equipment the rangers seem pretty cool too but a lot of those two have some pretty crazy training leading up to it so I might be more tempted to try psyops I understand psyops is still pretty hard to do as well it's not no walk in the park but I think I would probably maybe enjoy being in Sai a little bit more so if you liked this video make sure to hit that thumbs up also be sure to share the video if you think there's other people out there that may be interested in the knowledge of how an individual becomes a part of the Special Forces you want to check out some more of my content I got a couple of videos over here that I suggested if you were not already subscribed to this channel go ahead and hit that subscribe button down there it's there hit it I'm Christopher chaos thanks for watching and I will see you next time see ya

Channel: Christopher Chaos

Views: 341,585

Rating: 4.9083028 out of 5

Keywords: How to join the Army Special Forces, special forces, army, green beret, special operations, sf, how long does it take to join the army special forces, army special operations, army special operations training, army special operations forces, sfas, special forces training, sfas selection, sfas prep, sfqc, q-course, sfqc training, sfqc length, sfqc phases, explaining special forces training

Id: 1C0V7HidpoQ

Length: 17min 15sec (1035 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 06 2018