European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - February 11, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse From Page 13 included among the physical tests during the assessment phase soldiers will be required to climb obstacles 20 to 30 Leet High by use of a rope swim 50 meters while wearing boots and fatigues and travel great distances Cross country while carrying a Rucksack the literature says a vigorous five week get in shape training regimen on a Soldier s own is strongly recommended before even entering the assessment course after five weeks the candidate should be Able to run three Miles at a six to seven minute per mile Pace swim 500 meters non Slop and Hump 18 Miles on a forced March with a 50 Pound Rucksack 1 swimming fails More people than any other physical task says Daniels and land navigation traversing terrain with maps and Compass knocks out the most on the mental Side they re also put under a lot of emotional stress things like getting them up at Midnight after a 15 mile March " it candidates make it through the assessment phase they re eligible to enter a 121-Day qualifying course of which 100 Are spent in the Field by the time its Over another 20 percent have bitten the dust once through the qualifying they in. But really Only beginning much specialized training Cross training and experience await them before they re a reliable part of an a team beyond the emphasis on the physical and the Force aspects of of. Veterans like no ale repeatedly Lap then Heads in response to the question what makes a great Green Beret words like class. Character " smarts political Are As much on the Agenda As physical prowess and Mastery of weapons and Quality repeats Neale. A two Lour combat Veteran and experience when you re doing things like strategic reconnaissance far in the enemy s rear when you re on direct action or other special missions when you re building a guerrilla Force from scratch. 01 building a Force to fight guerrillas you can t know too much so much organizing and planning goes Mlo it so Many skills Are required you re doing everything i Ihrk the critical Factor in the makeup of a special forces Soldier is the ability to work with virtually any people anywhere " it s not All Rah Rah and glowing career opportunities says sol a Ernest a Jensen also with thu 10th. Who Sor Edas a special forces medic in Vietnam see related Mory it s not just wearing the Beret and Pla ing the role that s riot of ally the mentality we re looking for what void he Tell a Soldier on the borderline who thinks he might have that special stuff that it takes More than a big Knite and a gun to make in Moie than throwing on a 110 Pound Ruck and lumping out cil an air plane i d ask him what he s looking for in the Short term Long term7 that if he s thinking about a Job alter the army there s not much future for ust a trigger Puller unless he wants to pin the mafia special forces gives him a lot More. We re the most highly trained soldiers in the world we get depth raining nobody else does take medical six months hard line training take communications equipment that can shoot a coded message from Here to America take jumping a lot of time spent falling from 10.000 feel Lor 32 seconds falling from 20.000 feel for 56 seconds ii gets exciting there s scuba school and ski training and you need great proficiency in land navigation like finding your Way out of some Jungle and expertise in weapons from everywhere you learn to tear them Down four at a time drop them in a bag. Shake them up throw them out on the ground and put them Back together in six minutes demolitions you need to know math like using a Del Cord timer fuse being Able to Cut it off just right How Long do you want it to Burn before you blow something not yourself up 30 seconds. 10 seconds9 and engineering we build things and language school you have to be Able to speak and write to Leach Lead and help it. Col. Vilas Schaffnit. Is photos by Ken Gur to v a helicopter in bad Tilz West Germany terries special forces and other troops to a training Lump while others wait their turn. Dedication says it col Jim Hascal they better have that it s Tough they train year round under the most Adverse weather conditions they re living off res Lor works and months at a time dedication and intelligence it likes a smarter Soldier and each Guy has to to Able to t j an Independent operator the kind of places they Rio they can t rely on the system backing Thorn up the Way scr Julner troops can Rascai who von the Silver Star in Vietnam a regular division Ectore he put on his Beret vips. They were food / soldiers but the
