Quote Originally Posted by Ken White View Post
SOF is important and SOF units are needed. SF is important and SF units are needed (and IMO should not be given DA or SR missions among others, that's using a Cadillac de Ville to do a Mustang job and wasting a whole slew of that cultural and language training on a shooter job...). I'm not convinced Rangers are either important or needed but they exist (mostly because the Army realized in 1973 that they were dumbing down the GPF to such an extent that they needed somebody to be a little high speed...). The GPF is important and is needed. Everyone has a niche but the deliberate dumbing down of training for the GPF has had a number of adverse consequences.

Touting the superiority of SF / SOF in some things -- things that it was designed and is funded and equipped to do -- doesn't change the fact that many missions now being done by SF/ SOF were once done by the GPF and almost certainly will have to be again given a larger war. One can put the GPF down but one had better hope one never has to have that GPF come get ones tail out of a sling...
Does this have something to do with the lack of a true mountain warfare unit in the U.S. military I was asking about? My understanding is that mountain units are traditionally like airborne units in that they have a role as elite light infantry in addition to their specialized capabilities.