Individually, I was treated very well as a support guy in 5th Group. Organizationally, it was a different story. "I" was treated very well. "We" were treated like shit.
Before continuing this post, I want to make it clear that I am not shitting on 5th Group or the SF Regiment. 5th Group was very good to me. I commanded twice there, had my first deployment there, earned my first Bronze Star there, got my first-ever "top block" OERs there (from SF officers, no less). Being in an SF unit set me up for everything that came after. I am grateful for all of that. One of the reasons I'm passionate about this issue is because I care about the SF Regiment, even though I'm not part of it. And I have seen, based on personal experience in, and observation of, other SOF units, how good an organization can truly been when everyone on the team is specially selected, trained, and evaluated before being brought into the unit, and valued for what they do when they get there.
But having experienced Group as well as other SOF assignments outside of Group, as a support guy I would never go back to an SF unit and I advise other support types to only go to Group if that's literally the only way you can get your foot into the SOF door. Here's why:
Setting aside the aforementioned issue of "we put you in a different color hat to remind you of your subservient status," I have a couple of other vignettes, which I think I mentioned here on the site more than once. Early in my time in Group, I was at a Group-level staff meeting once when the Group S2 mentioned that he was sending two intel analysts to Pathfinder database training. One of the SF field grades in the meeting pitched a fit over "sending support guys to Pathfinder School." First of all, this wasn't Pathfinder School. It was training for an intelligence database program called Pathfinder. And he wasn't mad that support guys were taking school slots away from team guys; we had a Pathfinder school right there at Fort Campbell and SF guys seemed to have no problem getting into the course if they wanted to, which, frankly, most of them did not. This guy's issue was that a support guy would get to go to Pathfinder at all. "Support guys don't need it." Let's be honest, no one "needs" to go to Badgefinder Pathfinder School (that's why it doesn't exist anymore). But if you could give the people in your unit the opportunity, why wouldn't you? "Because fuck you, support guys."
Also, shortly before we left for my first tour in Iraq, we received a large shipment of the then-new MICH helmets. I had built some rapport with the SF guy in charge of the supply room, and when I asked him for helmets for my guys, the Group MI Detachment, he balked. He gave me a MICH, because "you're the commander" and he liked me. But he wouldn't let my guys come sign for them, guys that included the SOTAs that were going out on missions with the Team guys. Why? "Because support guys don't need them." But... this is the new hotness, an objectively better helmet, supposedly better for jumps and everything, and you have enough to go around for everyone... Nope. "Fuck you, support guys, you don't need it." I gave my MICH to my driver and used the old Kevlar. I wasn't going to have something that my people didn't.
Because none of the SF guys wanted to command the Group Support Company (an 18-coded MAJ position), they put me (35E CPT) in charge of it. When I did the change of command inventories I found boxes and boxes of optics (EOTech and ACOG) and oodles of other goodies, boxed up in the supply room. Why? "Support guys don't need it." Bro, we're going to Iraq. I want all of this shit issued out before the next time we go to the range. And yeah, I want everyone in the company in a MICH.
What the actual fuck... .
When I was at the 160th, the culture was totally different. I attribute that to two things that were absent from Group. First, pilots innately understand that they can't do everything themselves, and they don't want to. Culturally, SF guys are taught that they can do everything meaningful themselves, and that support guys are just there to do the shit they don't want to do. Secondly, every other comparable ARSOF unit has a selection, assessment, and training program for its support troops. SF didn't when I was there 20 years ago, and I don't think they have one now. So there was no sense that one had to "earn" one's way into Group as a support guy... and rightly so. And because an assignment to Group was "needs of the Army," we got some real dirtbags in the unit. I remember when I was in the 160th we booted an intel analyst over an OPSEC violation, and he went across the airfields and got picked up by 5th Group.
Great job, guys!
Going back to the example of Pathfinder School, in the 160th we regularly got slots to Pathfinder but there was a very high attrition rate in the program. Not quite as bad as Jumpmaster, but still up there. So one day my battalion got two slots, and the conversation went something like this: "Who do we have who is probably smart enough to pass Pathfinder? I don't know, maybe the S2." And that's how I got to go. I would never have been allowed to do something similar in Group. That was the attitude in the 160th--what can we do to help our people? ALL of our people, not just the ops types. Between having a tryout process, and treating their support people well, you might imagine that there was a noticeable difference between the level of support provided in the 160th compared to 5th Group. And that made the 160th a better unit (as in, 160th was made better internally because of it, I'm not comparing the 160th to 5th Group overall).
It was very similar at JSOC. I had to try out to be there, and I had to demonstrate competence to stay there. JSOC thought intel was important, and they had highly competent intel types doing it. In 5th Group, the best intel guy was the 18Z on your team. Very different cultures. Very different results.
If so, it started back in 1953 when the Air Rescue Service (ARS)/CC told his squadron commanders the flying mission statement of the ARS is to deploy and support pararescue and to never forget it. Well, they forgot it and this is why ARS is no more, but we still have the bus drivers that still need to be reminded of their place. 
