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<blockquote data-quote="Olgar Shiverstone" data-source="post: 5569073" data-attributes="member: 5868"><p>Ayup, 18 years and counting ...</p><p></p><p>On SF officers: Special Forces is its own combat arms branch; SF officers wear the crossed arrows, green berets, and long tab once they complete the SF-Q course. The initial "branch qualifying assignment" for SF officers is leadership of an A-team (or Operational Detachment Alpha, ODA), which is the equivalent of company command in other branches like Infantry and Armor. Subsequent assignments will include staff jobs at battalion and group level, company command, service as a SOF specialist/liaison at other command staffs, jobs in the SF training pipeline, etc. Since the ODAs are the primary operational formation, and there is the usual staff at company (commanded by a Major, rather than a captain), battalion, and Group level, there are a lot of SF-qualified officers not working at the ODA level but supporting/commanding multiple ODAs.</p><p></p><p>PSYOPs and CA officers and enlisted are Special Operations but not Special Forces, if that makes sense -- they are not SF branch personnel, don't get the perqs, and don't perform the same missions. There are also a number of other support personnel, both officers and enlisted, in an SF Group/Battalion/Company who are part of the SF organization but are not SF (examples: the Intel officer, the Signal officer, the supply sergeant) ... those folks will wear a red (Airborne) beret, the SF unit patch w/airborne tab (but no long tab), and their primary branch brass (well, when we wear brass, which isn't often anymore since they pulled branch insignia from our combat uniforms).</p><p></p><p>Given the excess number of SF-qualified officers resulting from a tight "pyramid" I've run into a lot of them working in other fields. My last boss and prior garrison commander were both SF guys that spent most of their careers post-ODA outside of SF Groups, which is a bit of a bummer for them, but given that there are umpteen ODAs but only 15 battalions and 5 group commands they have to find homes elsewhere. My last boss for example had not commanded in SF since the company level but had commanded a Corp HQ battalion, the garrison at Ft Leavenworth, and Bagram airbase. In between commands he served on multiple staffs supporting special operations.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Technically, it's not Marine Force Recon that's Special Operations (though admittedly the Force Recon Marines have skills and missions that are Spec Ops-like); it's MARSOC (Marine Special Operations), who are being recruited and trained for missions very similar to Army SF. Most as you can expect are recruited from the Force Recon ranks, and the initial DET One complement was built by stripping Force Recon so the confusion is understandable, but the Force Recon companies have been reconstituted within the standard force structure in slightly different organizations. (This ignores the "Special Operations-capable" labels that the Marines give some of their MAGTFs, which essentially speaks to the ability to conduct certain types of missions but does not really make the MAGTF a SOF force.)</p><p></p><p></p><p>As an aside -- if you're going for a military-themed roleplaying game, focusing on Special Operations makes a lot of sense, as it can use a mix of skills and backgrounds, provide for a number of different mission types in short order, and otherwise closely model a typical D&D game without sacrificing a certain amount of "realism". You can discount rank a lot, and not worry so much about replicating a formal chain of command. In fact, by making the PCs a sort of Tier 1 "Special Mission Unit" you can keep the game wide open as the PCs perform covert national-level missions. If you take this approach, I'd recommend starting all PCs at 5th level or so to replicate their experience; players can select the first 5 levels of classes/skills/feats etc to replicate the skills and experience gained in "conventional" forces (or even conventional Special Operations) before being assigned to the super-secret SMU that is the focus of the campaign.</p><p></p><p>Happy gaming!</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Olgar Shiverstone, post: 5569073, member: 5868"] Ayup, 18 years and counting ... On SF officers: Special Forces is its own combat arms branch; SF officers wear the crossed arrows, green berets, and long tab once they complete the SF-Q course. The initial "branch qualifying assignment" for SF officers is leadership of an A-team (or Operational Detachment Alpha, ODA), which is the equivalent of company command in other branches like Infantry and Armor. Subsequent assignments will include staff jobs at battalion and group level, company command, service as a SOF specialist/liaison at other command staffs, jobs in the SF training pipeline, etc. Since the ODAs are the primary operational formation, and there is the usual staff at company (commanded by a Major, rather than a captain), battalion, and Group level, there are a lot of SF-qualified officers not working at the ODA level but supporting/commanding multiple ODAs. PSYOPs and CA officers and enlisted are Special Operations but not Special Forces, if that makes sense -- they are not SF branch personnel, don't get the perqs, and don't perform the same missions. There are also a number of other support personnel, both officers and enlisted, in an SF Group/Battalion/Company who are part of the SF organization but are not SF (examples: the Intel officer, the Signal officer, the supply sergeant) ... those folks will wear a red (Airborne) beret, the SF unit patch w/airborne tab (but no long tab), and their primary branch brass (well, when we wear brass, which isn't often anymore since they pulled branch insignia from our combat uniforms). Given the excess number of SF-qualified officers resulting from a tight "pyramid" I've run into a lot of them working in other fields. My last boss and prior garrison commander were both SF guys that spent most of their careers post-ODA outside of SF Groups, which is a bit of a bummer for them, but given that there are umpteen ODAs but only 15 battalions and 5 group commands they have to find homes elsewhere. My last boss for example had not commanded in SF since the company level but had commanded a Corp HQ battalion, the garrison at Ft Leavenworth, and Bagram airbase. In between commands he served on multiple staffs supporting special operations. Technically, it's not Marine Force Recon that's Special Operations (though admittedly the Force Recon Marines have skills and missions that are Spec Ops-like); it's MARSOC (Marine Special Operations), who are being recruited and trained for missions very similar to Army SF. Most as you can expect are recruited from the Force Recon ranks, and the initial DET One complement was built by stripping Force Recon so the confusion is understandable, but the Force Recon companies have been reconstituted within the standard force structure in slightly different organizations. (This ignores the "Special Operations-capable" labels that the Marines give some of their MAGTFs, which essentially speaks to the ability to conduct certain types of missions but does not really make the MAGTF a SOF force.) As an aside -- if you're going for a military-themed roleplaying game, focusing on Special Operations makes a lot of sense, as it can use a mix of skills and backgrounds, provide for a number of different mission types in short order, and otherwise closely model a typical D&D game without sacrificing a certain amount of "realism". You can discount rank a lot, and not worry so much about replicating a formal chain of command. In fact, by making the PCs a sort of Tier 1 "Special Mission Unit" you can keep the game wide open as the PCs perform covert national-level missions. If you take this approach, I'd recommend starting all PCs at 5th level or so to replicate their experience; players can select the first 5 levels of classes/skills/feats etc to replicate the skills and experience gained in "conventional" forces (or even conventional Special Operations) before being assigned to the super-secret SMU that is the focus of the campaign. Happy gaming! [/QUOTE]
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