Army Special Forces recruit from civilians/enlisted?

Question

I read on the goarmy.com website that Special Forces now recruits civilians for the first time in however long it said... and a recruiter told me that they did too... but I talked to a guy on the internet playing SOCOM that used to be in the military, and he said that Special Forces doesn't recruit civilians, and you have to already be in the military for a while to qualify, and he said the recruiters were lying to me to get me to join... now I know the recruiters have a job, and have to put a little icing here and there... but I doubted that they flat out lie about stuff to get recruits... so what do I believe?

Answer 1

I have put in 4 Special Forces Recruits without any military experience in almost 3 years. Things change. I would recommend getting in the Army before going SF.

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Thank you everyone for your support. We need more noble people like yourself to assist our fellows soldiers where ever they might be.

US Army 15 years
OIF 2003
US Army Recruiter 3 years running in Texas

Answer 2

Being a veteran of 34 years who just recently retired and growing up in the military before that I see and hear more than the average person concerning it. The Army did indeed have a program going to recruit individuals for Special Forces straight out of basic training but you had to make it through basic and meet all the physical qualification standards which are more strigent than those that you have for basic training and also be selected. Normally they would only recruit from people that had the distinction of being Airborn or Rangers with a minimum of two years expereince. There was an application and testing process that took place and the failure rate was fairly high. Because they received an authorization from Congress to increase their size by several thousand for Special Forces the Army decided to wave this two year requirement in Airborn and Rangers and allow those that entered the Army to apply when they signed up and I believe that you had to select an alternate MOS or job in the event you could not meet the physical standard and were not selected. That was a couple of years ago and I am not sure if that program is still in place and going on.

Besides this you also have the Department of Defense and various military branches who are now allowed to hire independent contractors who have specialized experience, skill, and knowledge (which they usually got while serving in the military) who are hired though companies like Blackwater, Haliburton, etc. to provide those services that a military branch or command has a critical need for that can not be filled or met from within. Because of the War-on-Terriorism there are indeed a small number of individuals that have been hired as independent contractors to serve in conjunction with Special Forces in some theaters of operation based on some of these needs and their specialized knowledge and skill.

Answer 3

Yes, the US Army has a enlistment option called 18x.

In that option, you go to.

One station OUST training / Basic and infantry training combined. 17 weeks.

Then airborne school. 3 weeks.

Then a Special Operations Preparation Course (SOPC)where you are taught map reading and do lots of PT and ruck marchs. 4 weeks

Then you go to SFAS special forces selection course.

Of the 760 so enlistees who have enlisted under the 18x enlistment option.

Less than 2% made it through SFAS.

No data on how many of that 2% passed the Q course.

Only about 25% made it to the start of SFAS.

Believe your recruiter,

Recruiters lie alot less than popular myth would have you believe.

Answer 4

They do and they have done it in the past. In general they dont, but currently they are and back in the 1990's they tried it also. It doesn't work out well and the SF community really doesn't like it. Even among prior enlisted, it has a very high wash-out rate, the civilian wash-out rate is even higher.

You are better off doing something else in the Army and then going the tradional route then trying direct enlistment to SF.

Answer 5

It used to be had had to be in the Army for several years before you could apply. It only changed a few years ago, so the guy you talked to probable did not know of the change. Now you can enlist for SF training. One warning though. You can enlist for SF, but you have to make it through the training first. If you quite or get kick out of SF training they will send you to Infantry or whatever your contract says. You can always go back and try again for SF selection after you fail, if you quit you can not.

Answer 6

In the Uk you have to of served at least 5 years and have to of seen action,so I believe,plus the S.A.S. is probably the hardest unit to be accepted into,I mean our Royal marines are trained to fitness levels of international athletes so most troops in the rest of the world barely come up to those standars,so even less are capable of joining the SAS who incidentally wrote the manual on special forces that even the US follows today,although I hear your delta force are on par with them....I once spoke to a 15 year old american kid who told me he was a navy seal junior cadet and had been shot in a training exercise but his mum didn't find out because he was at camp..but I think that was nothing but pure fantasy as I would say a civilian being good enough to join any special forces is a fantasy..but who knows we live in a funny world..

Answer 7

look into the asymmetrical warfare group. this link should help you with your question: http://www.awg.army.mil/