Quote: (01-14-2013 07:03 PM)Btbob Wrote:
Quote: (01-14-2013 04:52 PM)tenderman100 Wrote:
Quote: (01-14-2013 01:02 PM)AntiTrace Wrote:
82nd is not elite. You can get DA orders for 82nd, which means any swinging dick can be in the 82nd. Much like the 101st. Or Big Red One. Or 1st Cav. They do have a pretty legit history, but they are still regular army. Regular army is regular army, anyone who claims otherwise is a glory hound.
And your buddy is simply spouting hater aid on SF. Sure they don't live up daily to the ungodly pedestal some people put them on, but I assure your if your ass was on the line you would be much better off with an SF unit coming to save you.
First, he never claimed to me that 82nd was "elite." I said that. I said it because the combat arm of the division trains to for very specialized combat tasks, such as taking airfields and the like. Just so you know, when Libya was going down, a full brigade of the 82nd was on full time alert.
As for SF, I can only take his word for it. He spent 18 months attached to SF in country and the SF guys did nothing more or anything better than what the 82nd did in the operations they were involved in -- and there was some bad shit that went down. He was actually looking forward to working with them in close quarters and was actually considering going to selection, but the experience in Afghanistan soured him on that.
As for glory hounding, you don't know him and what you say is out of line, especially since he was injured while he was there.
Point by point I'll address the off topic stuff first.
82nd is not the premier airfield siezure force and will never get that mission. It's part of the METL for the Ranger Regiment.
Yeah, It's called the Global Reaction force and it's been a 18th Airborne corp task since goldwater-nichols.
I know where he was at and which SOTF he worked for. To put it succinctly he was conducting resupply and base security missions. Most likely he was pretty bored and it's easy to look at the guys with the relaxed grooming standards and all the cool gear and be a little jealous.
Everyone gets injured on a long enough timeline in Afghanistan. Most people several times. I'm not denigrating anything he has done, but a lot of guys have done the same thing.
As for the movie: the NextLevelUp post covers everything pretty well. The SEAL stuff was as accurate as it could be without giving up operational techniques and the knowledge of actual capabilities.
Also, Red headed chick could get it.
I was in the 82nd before moving on to other things. There's quality guys in Division for sure but no selection process for the line units and there are some shitbags. Having said that, there are some douches in SOF units as well for sure.
In my opinion it comes down to funding, training, and personnel selection. SOF units are able to perform at a higher level because of on one hand they select for higher-performing individuals but on the other hand they usually get a blank check for training and are outfitted with top of the line support. They're usually not wasting training days doing Division Review, parades, and DRF-7 support operations (painting rocks, picking up trash in the base housing areas, etc.).
If every unit got these resources though, the costs would be astronomical. And even though it's not sexy, operations like base security, convoy security, supply, etc. are necessary to the total effort. Division of labor and all that.
If you gave a good rifle company commander in the 82nd, (or 10th Mountain, or 101st, etc.) solid NCOs, the ability to selectively recruit personnel, and high levels of funding and training time, that unit would become capable of some amazing things (see Ranger battalion).
As far as the attitudes of SOF personnel, what you had after 9/11 was personnel being able to go straight from the street into special operations. Usually people had to cut their teeth and gain experience in unglamorous line units before going to a selection process. Now people can go straight from basic training to doing the cool guy stuff and in some individuals this can breed a "too cool for school" attitude (how do you know a SEAL is in the room? He'll tell you haha), but most guys are just normal dudes, there's gonna be assholery everywhere.
At the end of the day I'll take the kid who did 3 tours in Baghdad as a regular joe 11B with a line unit than Joe Cool who went straight to SF when he was 21.
For the record I think Zero Dark Thirty and Hurt Locker both sucked donkey balls.
But what do I know, I'm just a civilian now