Backlighting Posted February 23, 2016 Share Posted February 23, 2016 All you need to know about them...their training, their missions, etc. http://www.businessinsider.com/difference-between-navy-seals-and-the-75th-ranger-regiment-2015-9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
merjet Posted February 23, 2016 Share Posted February 23, 2016 Fine. How are Army Special Forces (Green Berets) different? Their only mention is an 18-series MOS. If Barry Sadler or John Wayne were still alive, he would protest the neglect. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brant Gaede Posted February 23, 2016 Share Posted February 23, 2016 You have basically different operating environments with some overlapping. In army Special Forces you have a variety of specialties on the operational A-Team level with cross-training. I was an Aidman. In Vietnam I also had some psy-op First Lieutenant responsibilities. I was my own boss in a way that wasn't possible anywhere else in the army. Many in SF get Ranger qualified too. Seals tend to have in and out missions and are highly trained for that. Generally SF tend to go in and stay in although with exceptions. In Vietnam SF ran "Studies and Observation Group" (SOG). One man I knew got killed in Laos, along with others not extracted, when they were accidentally inserted right into an NVA unit. SOG didn't want to engage. SOG wanted to gather intelligence, which sometimes included taking a prisoner. SF training today is even more intense than in the 1960s. This includes swimming and second language skills. The Seal training has to be the hardest to get through. While I had the mental strength for any of it, my swimming abilities were zilch. If I were a young man going into SF today, I'd spend a year working on running, upper body strength and swimming. And you have to have the brains. As much brains as you will find on the general officer level. The regular army has always disliked SF because it drains off the best enlisted men. Unlike officers in SF, the enlisted men tend to stay in SF as long as they are in the army with the officers being rotated in and out. One reason is officers' skills are generalized throughout the army. Ironically, the enlisted men are more competent in what they do than their junior officers. The smart ones simply stand aside and let them do their jobs. (But when the shooting starts the officers are all bad ass.) One (of many) reason(s) I'd not go into combat arms today--if I were of that age--is all the gear and weight you have to lug around. Ugh! I'd be a flyboy and an officer through ROTC. --Brant Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Backlighting Posted February 23, 2016 Author Share Posted February 23, 2016 Nicely said Brant... thanks. -J Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike82ARP Posted February 26, 2016 Share Posted February 26, 2016 Thanks you for your service, Brant. I spent 4 years at Bragg. E5, 1/508 Inf, 82nd Abn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brant Gaede Posted February 26, 2016 Share Posted February 26, 2016 Myrtle Beach? All you need is gear. --Brant Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike82ARP Posted February 26, 2016 Share Posted February 26, 2016 Looks like it. Doesn't it? Nope, Sicily DZ. Probably supervising a parachute recovery detail or something. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brant Gaede Posted February 26, 2016 Share Posted February 26, 2016 I think I did a night jump there or nearby. C-130. My 13th and last jump was out of a helicopter. A whole different experience. Because of the lack of a standard slipstream to jerk the chute open, I felt just as I would have felt jumping off a thousand foot building. My stomach went up into my throat. --Brant Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Backlighting Posted February 27, 2016 Author Share Posted February 27, 2016 The only jumps I did were from my bunk at reveille. lol -J Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brant Gaede Posted February 27, 2016 Share Posted February 27, 2016 Jump pay was another $55/mo. That was what I got in 1965-67. I wonder what it is today. --Brant edit: only $150--that's less than inflation Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Backlighting Posted February 27, 2016 Author Share Posted February 27, 2016 It was $80 in '69 when it was offered to me by the C.O. _j Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike82ARP Posted February 27, 2016 Share Posted February 27, 2016 I was in during the mid 70s. Jump pay was still $55/mo, but that was about 10-15% added onto your base pay. Not a bad deal then and it was actually a higher percentage added onto your pay than what the Army pays now at $150/mo. Another plus being in the 82nd was that the airborne troops were a big cut above the leg infantry units. Brant, coming from S.F. group should appreciate that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brant Gaede Posted February 27, 2016 Share Posted February 27, 2016 2 hours ago, Mike82ARP said: I was in during the mid 70s. Jump pay was still $55/mo, but that was about 10-15% added onto your base pay. Not a bad deal then and it was actually a higher percentage added onto your pay than what the Army pays now at $150/mo. Another plus being in the 82nd was that the airborne troops were a big cut above the leg infantry units. Brant, coming from S.F. group should appreciate that. The end of the military draft meant enlisted pay was ramped up. As a private E-1 (1964) my base pay was 83-87 bucks a month. Since I started jumping 6 mos later, it was like 40 - 50% added to my base, if not more. I don't remember my promotion dates to E-2 and E-3 and E-4. I went to Vietnam as an E-4 and was promoted there to Sergeant E-5. I think in Vietnam I got another 55 as combat pay. When I revisited Bragg in 1973 as a civilian, I discovered the troopers doing my training 8 years later could afford much better cars, but not as nice as one guy who owned a 1965 brand new GTO. He was a Dodge heir. Killed in Vietnam riding in a Jeep hit by a Claymore. Shrapnel wound to the head. You could draft men into the army--the Marines took a few too--and pay them shit, but you had to pay them to volunteer to jump out of airplanes. How high should jump pay be today? Only as high as needed to get enough men to jump for the 82nd and 101st. That's high enough for the rest of the military's paratroopers. --Brant Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike82ARP Posted February 27, 2016 Share Posted February 27, 2016 The 101st don't jump anymore and not since was in. They are air mobile (helicopter-borne). The big pay raise happened shortly after I got out when Reagan was elected. Today, the military pays nearly what equivalent civilian jobs do (assuming you're married and getting housing allowance, etc). I would have jumped whether I got paid for it or not. FWIW, I had the honor, and I mean honor, to serve under William B Caldwell, now retired Lt General. I was his RTO when he just got out of Westpoint and was assigned to the 82nd as a cherry 2LT platoon leader. He was a fine officer who knew he'd learn more listening to his senior NCOs than being a know-it-all a$$ wipe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brant Gaede Posted February 27, 2016 Share Posted February 27, 2016 I think air mobile in my day (Ist Cav.) got the same as jump pay. RTOs tended to get shot, you know. I went off the 250' tower at Benning. Then it was shut down for safety reasons. Then I think they started using it again. The key to airborne training was the 34' tower. Some guys refused to jump. Others didn't have the right form--me--and had to repeat the first week. So I spent four weeks at Benning. I was the only one (of about 20) who didn't quit who didn't qualify. If you didn't quit they wouldn't quit you. Making it through jump school was the most prideful thing of my young life. --Brant I never wanted to be a junior officer in the army: you had to salute everybody Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike82ARP Posted February 27, 2016 Share Posted February 27, 2016 Brant. You were a S.F. medic IIRC. I keep in touch with ] old buddies and Army stuff since I was teaching high school until retiring a year ago. You know what they are giving out for reenlistment bonuses for SF medics? About $75K. A recruiter friend just gave a $25K enlistment bonus to a enlisted man Intelligence Analyst. Decent bucks, IMO. Do you attend the annual SF veteran meetings? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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