U.S. Army Special Forces Selection and Training

What Does it Take to Become a Green Beret?

Aug 8, 2009

Special Forces, or Green Berets, are supposed to represent the "best of the best," so a rigorous screening and training process is in place to ensure quality candidates.

“One hundred men we’ll test today. But only three win the Green Beret…” Another verse from SSgt. Sadler’s famous ballad would seem to indicate a pass rate of 3%, but this is somewhat of an exaggeration. Although the dropout rates are high relative to the regular branches of the armed forces, an increased need for Special Forces due to the War on Terror has led to some slackening of the requirement. This article will focus on the screening and training process. Also note that as mentioned in the previous article, “Green Beret” is the term used by the public to refer to the U.S. Army Special Forces, but is not the term used by Special Forces to refer to themselves, so as such, the rest of the article will refer to them as Special Forces.

What Are the Requirements?

At one time, only enlisted men were allowed to join the Special Forces, but this requirement was dropped in the wake of 9/11 to include ANYONE that meets the criteria. As Major General Dennis D. Cavin said, “We have not lowered the standards.”

So what exactly are the criteria to become a Green Beret? According to the U.S. Army, a candidate must:

4) receive a General Technical score of 107 and a combat operation score of 98 on the Armed Service Vocational Aptitude Battery,

8) achieve a minimum of 60 points on each event and overall minimum score of 229 on the Army Physical Fitness Test,

Although women are allowed to serve in combat aircraft and aboard ships that have aviation units (repeal of Title 10, USC 8549), they are still barred from land combat roles. The age and other aptitude requirements are standard.

According to Clancy and Gresham, the Special Forces has had trouble recruiting minority candidates of Asian, Hispanic, Arab, and Slavic backgrounds since there are better opportunities for advancement in the regular army rather than in the Special Forces. Recruiting candidates from this group has been an important priority for the Special Forces given the areas of the world they operate in.

Training – Special Forces Assessment and Selection

It is very expensive to train a Special Forces soldier, so the Army wants to make sure that they get the very best candidates who are serious about the job. That is the purpose of the assessment and selection part of the training – weed out the “men from the boys” so to speak. Only those that fulfill the requirements mentioned in the last section even make it this far.

The process lasts about one month, and it is a brutal month, meant to push each prospective candidate to his limit, both mentally and physically. It consists of:

· Obstacle courses – test overall physical fitness and identifies any fears like claustrophobia or fear of heights.

· Marching – carried out with heavy equipment for the sole purpose of wearing down the candidate

· Land/Navigation/Fieldcraft – candidates are trained to navigate terrain with nothing but a map, compass, and protractor

· Situation and Reaction – exhausted and tired candidates are given a situation they must solve creatively by working as a team

In addition, they are trained to function on less sleep, less rations, less water, no access to proper hygienic facilities, etc. in order to simulate real combat situations.

Once the assessment ends, there is some downtime to recover while the powers that be make their decisions. By this time, there have been numerous voluntary dropouts, and by the time final decisions are made, more candidates may be asked to leave for any number of reasons.

Those that make the cut get to proceed to the Special Forces Qualification Course (‘Q’ course), which will be described in greater detail in the next article, along with the specializations Special Forces candidates can enroll in, and the culmination of their training in the "Robin Sage" field exercise.

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