Who has the best Special Forces ?, page 26

All of the U.S. Special Operations forces are active all-year round in operations we don't hear about and they all do different things. THE "Special Forces" are of the United States Army. The term "Special Forces" is just a generic term used by the media. The Special Forces are one of the U.S. military's Special Operations Forces.

These are:
U.S. Army Special Forces - specialize in going into foreign countries, learning the culture and language, building rapport, knowing how to blend in, and teach foreign soldiers. SF soldiers are teachers. They do not have mandatory HALO/HAHO training and SCUBA training, however, many SF soldiers attend SCUBA school and Military Free-Fall (MFF school that teaches HALO/HAHO). There are MFF SF teams and combat SCUBA SF teams. There are SF Mountain teams too.

Delta Force - No one really knows if there is a Delta Force or not. It is believed to exist, but no one knows for sure. There is a former Spec Ops guy who wrote a book on Delta and got a lot of heat and lost all respect from the Special Operations community. Whenever any Spec Ops soldier writes a book about their career, there is a committee that they are encouraged to have review the book to make sure it has nothing confidential in it. This author did not give his book to the committee, published it, and thus released a lot of classified stuff on what is supposedly Delta Force. One of the Generals supposedly wanted to hang him for it.

Supposedly, Delta was started when, in the 70s, an SF soldier came back from training with the British SAS and said America needed something similar (though this might be the Special Forces Detachment-Delta you hear about, too; I am not sure there).

U.S. Navy SEALs - These guys are a commando unit. They are the king of combat SCUBA diving operations in the U.S. Special Operations community. There was a push by the Navy some while ago to have the Rangers and the Special Forces give up their SCUBA teams and hand all SCUBA missions to the SEALs. The Rangers agreed but SF said no because SF and SEALs are different, and while SEALs are the SCUBA kings, there are certain missions that may require a team to go in via SCUBA that only SF, and not SEALs, could do, or would be best suited for. SF SCUBA gets most of their combat SCUBA knowledge from the SEALs, though (and SEALs get knowledge from SF on things too). I read one SF soldier saying when he was on a SF SCUBA team and they did a mission with the SEALs, the SEALs thought they would be a hazard, slowing them down, but then he said the SEALs were "pleasantly surprised" with them. SEALs, like SF, specialize in everything from desert to arctic to jungle warfare.

U.S. Army Rangers - Rangers are the most elite Infantry out there, pretty much. For infantry troops, you really don't get any better. You have your line/leg units, you units that specialize in Air Assault (101st Airborne Division), your Airborne units (82nd Airborne Division), your Mountain units (10th Mountain Division), then you have the Rangers, who can do all that. Rangers do the most intensive physical training of all the Spec Ops soldiers. They get much more funding then regular Infantry units, get much more training (more physical training, more martial arts training, more land nav, much for shooting practice, etc...). Many regular Army Infantryman don't like Rangers and say they aren't that good (they hate SF too). It really depends. A new recruit fresh to the Ranger Regiment probably won't have as much knowledge or be nearly as good an Infantryman who's been with a regular unit for more years, or one who has been through Ranger School especially.

Rangers these days aren't just plain 'ole Infantryman with the best infantry training, though; they are Spec Ops soldiers, and thus do lots of unconventional training, with SWAT-style tactics and all that.

Ranger School teaches leadership and is a very tough school (one of the most difficult in the world). SF soldiers, Navy SEALS, regular Infantryman, etc...all attend Ranger School (and since reg. Infantryman go through Ranger School and SEALS go through it too, many regular Infantryman get really hot and bothered when people say SEALs are much better then they are). Again, I think it just depends on who has been through what training, experiences, etc..... Ranger School has the initial phase, the Jungle phase, the Desert phase, and the Mountain phase. Soldiers are taught everything from bayonet fighting to hand-to-hand martial arts, to advanced rappelling techniques (both U.S. and foreign rappelling techniques), rope-bridge building, all sorts of patrolling and land navigation, etc...while putting soldiers through grueling conditions ranging from sweltering heat to freezing cold to lack of food and severe lack of sleep. They learn jungle and mountain and desert warfare. Ranger School essentially teaches a set of very valuable military skills that in our time of being so technologically advanced, the military still reveres greatly. A soldier from the old Roman days or a knight from the Middle Ages would be at home in Ranger School, aside from getting used to the modern equipment.

And BTW, that is why it is stupid to say the U.S. military relies solely on technology, the way so many people love to harp.

U.S. Air Force Pararescueman - These soldiers are the rescue guys of the Spec Ops community. They specialize in trauma medicine, and have mandatory combat SCUBA training, MFF training, mountain training, etc....essentially they are trauma medics who can go in via any delivery method.

This is how you can see how Spec Ops differ. You might have an SF SCUBA team that can go in and live in secret for months behind enemy lines, building rapport and teaching foreign soldiers, but that particular team won't have the skills of MFF or the advanced trauma medical skills that the entire team of Pararescueman will. Nor the mountain training. SF has medics trained the same as Pararescueman, but not all SF guys are medics. On the flip side, while the Pararescueman are trained in all sorts of delivery methods and trauma medicine, you can't send Pararescueman into a foreign country to live in secrecy and build rapport and teach the foreign soldiers. It isn't what they do. No Spec Ops team can do everything. Pararescueman are the best at what they do, though.

U.S. Air Force Air Combat Controllers - In short, they are the same as Pararescueman, except instead of being trauma medics, they go in and act as air combat controllers, capable of being delivered in any method. They are the troops you would deliver via SCUBA, MFF, or whatever, into a foreign country, so that they can guide in the fighter jets that need to bomb that area. SF soldiers can do this too, but not as well.

This is one of the reasons where they say no matter how much tech you have, you always need to put boots on the ground.

Marine Force Recon - These teams used to be considered on par with Spec ops teams and "Spec Ops-capable," but now the Marine Corps has made them part of its own Special Operations command, so I think they are officially Spec Ops. They get combat diving training I believe, lots of reconaissance training, etc...I have heard they are underfunded, though. Although each version of the U.S. Military's Spec Ops belongs to a certain branch of service, they don't get their funding from that branch. So Navy SEALs don't get any funding from the Navy, Army SF don't get funded by the Army, etc...they get funded by the Special Operations Command. This is because much of the regular military does not like Spec Ops and won't give them the funding they need, which is what started the Special Operations Command in the first place. Since Marine Force Recon is part of the the Marine Corps and not Spec Ops Command, they get funded by the Marine Corps instead. If they are now part of Spec Ops, hopefully this will change. Recon guys would get old equipment and not enough rounds, whereas SF soldiers would get all the brand-new equipment they wanted and too many rounds, to the point that they'd sometimes just have to burn them off.

U.S. Navy Special Warfare Combatant-craft Crewman - These soldiers get similar training as SEALs. They are Airborne-qualified. They specialize in the boats that carry the SEALs and other Spec Ops into their missions. If you see a big boat carrying a group of SEALs on it, the men manning the guns on the boat and the driver are most likely SWCCs, not SEALs. They get lots of weapons training, as is expected.

U.S. Army 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (SOAR) - These are essentially the best helicopter pilots on the face of the Earth. They fly the most advanced helos around and are experts at the ability to fly very low and very fast in complete darkness, through bad weather. Their "customers" include all the Spec Ops, from SF to Rangers to SEALs.

U.S. Air Force Special Ops pilots - These are basically the Air Force's version of the SOAR. They too fly the most advanced helos around (they fly different helos than the Army does though), and I guess depending on what helos a mission needs decides if the SOAR or if the Air Force is called to fly whatever team in.

As you can see, there is no way to classify any "best" Special Operations Force, because they all do different things. You wouldn't send SEALs in on a mission best suited for Special Forces soldiers just because it requires entrance via SCUBA. You'd use an SF SCUBA team. On a similar note, you don't send SF in to do a Pararescueman's job either. It differs though. There is SEAL Team Six, the fabled hostage-rescue team of the SEALs, so you might send them in instead of Pararescueman for some things, I don't know. PJ's I believe are who rescued Jessica Lynch, so who knows. All of them cross-over somewhat in skills.

You will hear Navy SEALs say SF soldiers can't swim, you will hear SF soldiers say the land-navigation skills of SEALs stink, you will hear Rangers knock them both on things, etc...but there is no official "best." They each are the best at what they do, and they all highly-respect each other as far as I know.

One other thing; if a Spec Ops team is sent in to do a mission that bombs out, many times it isn't even their fault, it is the service's fault. For example, in Panama, many people say the SEALs messed that up badly. In reality, the SEALs did what they were told to, the problem was the Navy itself. The mission was to retake an airfield, which was best suited for Army Rangers, which was the original plan. Send in a battalion of Rangers and they'd retake the field. The Navy wanted a piece of the pie, however, and said the SEALs could do it. The Rangers were far greater in number, specialized in this kind of stuff, and would've parachuted in. The SEALs went in via the water and came up on the beach. The bad part was this: for one, there weren't enough of them, so the Navy increased their size (there aren't as many SEALs as Rangers). Since SEALs usually operate in smaller numbers than Rangers, they weren't used to having larger numbers like this. Also the beach they came up on had some guys (or one guy) with a big machine gun and night vision. They could very clearly see the SEALs come out of the water. Thus they opened fire and mowed down the numerical equivalent of a couple SEAL Teams. The SEALs had not been given proper intelligence, they had not been given the proper equipment, and they were not doing the type of mission they were trained to do.

It was the NAVY that messed up, not the SEALs.

Other great Spec Ops teams around the world are the famous British SAS and SBS, the Australian SAS, the British Royal Marine Commandos etc...South Korea has SOF teams too, even Brazil, and they are all highly-trained. And contrary to the belief of some, no, SAS do not train the U.S. Army SF, they all cross-train. SF teaches the SAS stuff, the SAS teaches SF stuff. When you look at the resumes of many high-ranking SF soldiers, it will mention things like "British Commando Course," British this or that, etc...and the Australian and British soldiers have training at U.S. Schools too. You will actually find this with the regular Army as well. My Drill Sergeant when I went through Infantry training had a German marksmanship badge from training with the German Army. At Airborne School, I saw soldiers from all the branches of the military (Air Force PJs, Navy SEAL BUD/s graduates, Rangers, SF soldiers, etc....one time I walked into the Subway there and the place was chock full of solely SF and Ranger guys), soldiers from Middle Eastern countries, one of the instructors was even an Australian Army guy. The SF soldiers were there mainly because of all the 18X (Special Forces contracts) guys that were going to be going through the Special Forces Assessment & Selection Prep Course after Airborne School.

Now many argue about which are the best in the world. If you mean which team is the best in the world, there ain't none, because there are TOO MANY DIFFERENT SKILLS to master to be the best!! Unless you are superman or something. If you mean which country's are the best, again, you can't really say. I am sure that, in general, any SF soldier and any SEAL and PJ and SAS and SBS and Royal Marine commando/soldier all are pretty much on the same level of mental toughness and physical fitness and shooting skills. They are all experts in land navigation, survival, etc...but some know it better than others. They have their own respective skills that they use in Spec Ops.

If you mean which country has the most capable Spec Ops, that would be the United States. The United States Special Operations Forces have the most funding, the most modern equipment, the most wide amount of capabilities, and to help them they have the best aircraft, the most capable Navy, the most capable Air Force, the GPS system which many other countries don't have, etc...also it is the fact that the U.S. itself has so much to offer. Many countries don't have the funding to have lots of different Spec Ops forces, but even if they did, they don't have the terrain to train them. The U.S. has jungle, mountains, desert, frigid cold (Alaska), etc....all right at home here in the good 'ole USA, and all that is very helpful for the training of the soldiers. Army Mountain Warfare School is on the East Coast. Marine Corps Mountain Warfare School is on the West Coast.