This article is published with permission of SOB Tactical
This goes way back to when even the D-FO used just regular army gear. Seriously we wore Army BDU, knee pads, M4 you name it. The only thing not Army in this pic was individual night vision goggles, Adidas assault boots and a 1911 pistol.
I feel like these times led to better training as operators. I’ve even talked to younger operators who refer to my generation as the best operators. We were asked to do extraordinary things and given almost nothing to do it with. We had to modify our own gear and tailor to each mission. We had to be better, stronger and faster than anyone else. But most importantly we had to make very smart decisions in microseconds or less.
The true story here is the Army produces the hardest, fittest, strongest. Special Forces and Rangers always say they could do everything we do if you gave them the same amount of money. Having served in every one of these units I can tell you this is not true.
Survival of the smartest
However, it’s not what set us apart. The true barrier to entry is being smart, adaptable and flexible to the point of ignorance. War is never the survival of the fittest. What does this even mean? The fastest runner lives? The guy doing the most push-ups lives?
No, I should say the survival of the smartest. Being smart on the battlefield is the major difference between the Varsity and the Junior Varsity. When I was a troop sergeant major 2006 I was in charge of 56 men’s lives every night. Hot landing zones, IEDs, fuckhead savages, you name it we encountered it. We never took a wounded or worse. What you never hear about is the successful missions that nothing happened because of meticulous planning and timely adaptable smart decisions by every operator at every level.
Let me break down some combat math for you. More bullets fired at you higher percentage you have of being shot. Fewer bullets fired at you more chance for survival. Overwhelming the enemy, timely decisions and planning for every contingency leave the enemy to “give up or die” as the options. Believe me, we killed all the dumb guys at the beginning of the war. Besides most humans will surrender. But sometimes the ones who don’t…the savages, that’s my jam.