Another SFAS prep question

[CDG]

Unrelated to the recent goings on in this thread, and getting back to the OP, polls about your career are fucking dumb. Figure out what YOU want to do, and go for it. Asking a bunch of strangers on the Internet to make your decision for you? Guys have been becoming SOF since it was nothing more than, "Who wants to live in the suck for a while and get to do cool shit after? Raise your hands. Ok, go get on the bus." The birth of the Interwebz, Google, etc has given rise to a lot more "paralysis by analysis". Nothing is guaranteed, everything is earned. So either ruck up and join the fray, or sit on the sidelines and cheer for the varsity. Your call.

 

[Ball N' Chain]

@WanaB
If you are prior service 18x you will still go through Infantry OSUT, but you will be given separate quarters, pass privileges, your phone, and be the platoon sergeant. You will more than likely jump into training at the start of white phase, or weapons qualification phase, and you will be required to pass and complete all the requirements of the other privates. You will learn the basics of land nav, and if you are lucky you will get experience on the red diamond course which will test you for sure.
If you go 11x, the above statement still applies, entirely. But you will be considered 11x, which still leaves you with options. Within the first 6 weeks of OSUT, you will have a chance to sign up for a Option 40 contract to goto airborne school then RASP. You should take that contract.

Sometime in weeks 8-11, a Special Forces Liaison will come and pull aside a very small group of individuals to offer 18x contracts too. I know this because I was one. Without going in with an 18x contract, to be considered you must have a 110+ GT score, 270 APFT, and qualify Expert in rifle marksmanship. The only way to get around not having a 270+ PT score would to have above like a 130 GT score and above a 240 PT score because you will be looked at as a potential 18D.

If you want to go the 11x route, you will be more than likely, but not one hundred percent, be given opportunities to go either Opt 40 or 18x, after you get a feel for what everything is like.

Worse case scenario, you goto the line and will more than likely have to finish your contract before you get another chance to goto SFAS>
Decent scenario, you go Option 40, make it through RASP, get Airborne and Ranger qualified, possibly some other high speed schools, and be a land nav machine ready to go to selection and make it through.
Best case scenario, you skip the utter bullshit you will have to go through to get to selection and go 18x. If you know you wanna end up there, as stated by others, just go 18x and get there. 18x is the golden ticket, you will get experience on the star course before you have to actually complete the star course, and you will be prepped more than the other guys. You will be in shape, and have fresh knowledge because of the extra courses you take.

BLUF: Probably take 18x if thats where you want to be.

 

[Ranger Psych]

I don't want to quibble either @AWP, but in practice I don't think you are right here. For example, I can think of probably 25 times where some cadre had "all the X-rays raise your hand" or otherwise separate the 18X's from the group, almost all ofnit for negative reasons.

In the Q course 18X's used to attend courses others did not, like SOPC 1 and 2. Later it became any soft skill MOS got SOPC 2, then it was suddenly just no SOPC 2.

All your course paperwork until the day you graduate denotes you as an 18X, it says PMOs, 18X, Training MOS:18D. Good luck being like, "well actually I'm an 11B"...

Now maybe my ERB changed to 11B, I don't recall. I know that after SOCM my MOS actually changed to 68WW1. Nevertheless I was an X-ray all through SFMS, language and Sage....

Just some insight on how it is/was. As an instructor I also regularly asked studs if they were 18X's. Sometimes it helps to know how best to talk to the studs.

I am pretty sure MOS "bump ups" happen with longer pipelines as if you bolo, you are now at least "mission capable" as the previous step in that pipeline... just like if you're 18X you start off being adequate for 11 series should you fail SFAS... pass SFAS and SOCM, you're now better qual'ed than most medics across the Army therefore you're a Medic should you bolo later on. 18C probably has some variant putting you into 12-series positions, as someone who was a non-qual is probably still better equipped as a 12B than those guys coming out of lost in the woods, ya know?

Once you're out of the pipeline and actually have earned your shit, you're whatever job you got trained as. Your case, it was 18D. Your being 18X only had importance when it came to being able to relate as cadre to "fellow" 18X'es trying to do what you did. You directly knew what they had/didn't have in terms of instruction and experience that was something they would need to either be taught, or work to overcome via proper mentorship, etc.

SOF is sorta like the FFL: Your past matters little compared to the present and future. Once proven, Imports to Ranger Regt lost their stigma and were wholly accepted into the community circa CSM Boley, or else held onto prior crap like a LT we had who we couldn't get rid of fast enough. SF it probably plays along as well, although there's additional utility with "soft skills" that actually have what it takes as that tertiary skillset can help with things either in the field or in administrative capacities (PAC specialist turned 18E, as a random hypothetical... you think that team's ever gonna have pay issues not get solved?)

 

[TLDR20]

I am pretty sure MOS "bump ups" happen with longer pipelines as if you bolo, you are now at least "mission capable" as the previous step in that pipeline... just like if you're 18X you start off being adequate for 11 series should you fail SFAS... pass SFAS and SOCM, you're now better qual'ed than most medics across the Army therefore you're a Medic should you bolo later on. 18C probably has some variant putting you into 12-series positions, as someone who was a non-qual is probably still better equipped as a 12B than those guys coming out of lost in the woods, ya know?

Once you're out of the pipeline and actually have earned your shit, you're whatever job you got trained as. Your case, it was 18D. Your being 18X only had importance when it came to being able to relate as cadre to "fellow" 18X'es trying to do what you did. You directly knew what they had/didn't have in terms of instruction and experience that was something they would need to either be taught, or work to overcome via proper mentorship, etc.

SOF is sorta like the FFL: Your past matters little compared to the present and future. Once proven, Imports to Ranger Regt lost their stigma and were wholly accepted into the community circa CSM Boley, or else held onto prior crap like a LT we had who we couldn't get rid of fast enough. SF it probably plays along as well, although there's additional utility with "soft skills" that actually have what it takes as that tertiary skillset can help with things either in the field or in administrative capacities (PAC specialist turned 18E, as a random hypothetical... you think that team's ever gonna have pay issues not get solved?)

Yeah except now they make you a truck driver if you fail early like in SOPC or SFAS....

 

[Ranger Psych]

Yeah except now they make you a truck driver if you fail early like in SOPC or SFAS....

They're going to fill whatever MOS is low, so whatever works. I can't make AS much fun of 88M's anymore, though.

ETA:

In retrospect, that is probably more insulting than coming in aspiring for being a green beanie, then failing out.... congratulations, you're now one of the most mocked duty positions within the military, only surpassed by MP's...

 

[LNGRNG]

I didn't say that. At all.

My point, which you missed entirely in your effort to officer-splain to me, was to be what you are not what you were. When I got to a team I wasn't an 18X anymore. I was an 18D. I didn't preface anything with saying I was an x-ray. Especially not after my senior shared that wisdom with me.

Officer-splain I nearly spit my drink all over my computer