Stormer_117
Unverified
Hi,
I read a piece on SOFREP a while back, (during one of their all-access free weekends) that claimed that SEALs were having difficulties in Afghanistan due to not having an infantry background. It made sense, since SEALs are usually from a non-infantry background. The article claimed that Rangers were providing support to SEALs in certain situations, and picking up their slack when it came time to "switch from operator to grunt mode" (that may be an exact quote, although I don't have access to the article anymore so can't be sure.) The article was basically claiming that Army SOFs have the ability to make the switch from 'operator' mode to 'grunt' mode, because they were all grunts at one time, but the SEALs don't have a grunt "mode."
But I was wondering how big of a problem this actually is. Keep in mind the author of SOFREP is from an Army background (Ranger I think), so maybe that article was a little biased. But it does raise an interesting question... Does the lack of a basic infantry background cause issues for SEALs, now that they are not just deploying in specialized maritime roles, as they were originally meant to be?
Thanks
I read a piece on SOFREP a while back, (during one of their all-access free weekends) that claimed that SEALs were having difficulties in Afghanistan due to not having an infantry background. It made sense, since SEALs are usually from a non-infantry background. The article claimed that Rangers were providing support to SEALs in certain situations, and picking up their slack when it came time to "switch from operator to grunt mode" (that may be an exact quote, although I don't have access to the article anymore so can't be sure.) The article was basically claiming that Army SOFs have the ability to make the switch from 'operator' mode to 'grunt' mode, because they were all grunts at one time, but the SEALs don't have a grunt "mode."
But I was wondering how big of a problem this actually is. Keep in mind the author of SOFREP is from an Army background (Ranger I think), so maybe that article was a little biased. But it does raise an interesting question... Does the lack of a basic infantry background cause issues for SEALs, now that they are not just deploying in specialized maritime roles, as they were originally meant to be?
Thanks