U.S. Special Operations: Personal Opinions

[ODB]

Think all of those terms neatly explain what everyone is talking about and yet they are the way we judge soldiers today. If I'm disciplined and force those around me to be disciplined then none of the other terms apply to how I act or how I present myself. ACUs I hate them personally, but will I be caught in something else? No, I am still a soldier and do as soldiers should. In todays kinder, gentler Army we have issues such as these. Yes we want intelligent, free thinkers, but they also must understand the institution that is the Army. Sorry to admit this but it is not the officers job to enforce uniform adherence. Unfortunately it has started to come to this, many NCOs today are nothing more than glorified privates. As assholish as it sounds I make a point to make a uniform correction everyday. We kinda make it into a challenge to get other NCOs involved, before you know it, it catches fire. Be, know, do! Do they still teach that?

Nothing like hot brass. I absolutely love it when hot brass goes down the back of my uniform. Think I want that on my wrist? I got it, it is flippin' hot out but not as hot as hot brass. I'd have to venture out and say if your dying while conducting movement then you may want to reevalute your physical conditioning. When was the last time you did body armour runs? Funny the more you use it the easier it gets, just a thought. For a truly unique experience throw the promask into the mix. Goes back to training and pushing yourself and those around you beyond your normal limits. There is plenty of talk on here about training won't beat that dead horse anymore. Basics, basics, basics.

Funny the other day as I was logging into AKO there was this great picture of a soldier in a shop in Iraq wearing a ball cap. Perception it must be a SF guy, reality it was some conventional officer. What is the picture we are trying to paint? Sorry not a fan of the doesn't matter how you did as long as you looked good doing thought process. Know your job, know the regulations and present yourself in a professional manner and the rest will take care of itself.

As far as other kit, I've never understood why people would want to carry all sorts of extra gear. If anything I'm going to buy the farm because I leave something behind because I dont want to carry it. The sterile ACUs thing I defintely get though for many reasons, the aforementioned protective measure, as well as the elimination of rank as a concern when working with centers of gravity.

Kit. Want some I got 7 tough boxes, 2 duffle bags, and 3 kit bags of Army kit. Everytime I get ready to go back I have to go through RFI and add to it. There is stuff that has been in plastic for 5 years, more kit than you'll ever think about using. Hell I just about could outfit my own indig force, wait already have my wife and kid. Sterile does little to nothing except that on occasion we make CF staffs think we out rank the team sergeant and team leader, can be quite comical at times, especially when they find out it's actually the opposite. When dealing with locals it does absolutely nothing since your PPE covers it all anyways.