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Army Special Forces Question

L

LordRaiden

Banned
Hi all. Got a quick question. I remember back in 1991 when I was in the army I ran into a sergeant in our unit who wanted to get into the army special forces. One thing that stuck with me over the years was his mentioning that the special forces required a soldier to be able to carry a loaded pack of gear weighing a certain amount over a certain distance in a certain amount of time. Problem is, time and age have caused me to forget most of it. I think the requirement was 5 miles in under 4 hours with 120lbs of weight on your back. But I might be wrong. The reason I'm asking is I have a friend who's wanting to meet the same physical fitness requirements as the special forces require before going into the army, but he doesn't know what they are and I can't remember. That was a long time ago. Heck, I'd have gone into special forces myself if it weren't for a bum knee I had at the time. I can help him with his training, but we need to know what the goal is that we need to shoot for.

Does anyone know what the physical fitness requirements are to gain entry into the special forces? I know they're something really crazy. Especially the backpacking/road marching thing. Your help would be welcome. Thanks. I'd ask our local recruiter, but they closed our local recruiting office. The closest one now is miles from here.
 
Originally posted by: LordRaiden
Hi all. Got a quick question. I remember back in 1991 when I was in the army I ran into a sergeant in our unit who wanted to get into the army special forces. One thing that stuck with me over the years was his mentioning that the special forces required a soldier to be able to carry a loaded pack of gear weighing a certain amount over a certain distance in a certain amount of time. Problem is, time and age have caused me to forget most of it. I think the requirement was 5 miles in under 4 hours with 120lbs of weight on your back. But I might be wrong. The reason I'm asking is I have a friend who's wanting to meet the same physical fitness requirements as the special forces require before going into the army, but he doesn't know what they are and I can't remember. That was a long time ago. Heck, I'd have gone into special forces myself if it weren't for a bum knee I had at the time. I can help him with his training, but we need to know what the goal is that we need to shoot for.

Does anyone know what the physical fitness requirements are to gain entry into the special forces? I know they're something really crazy. Especially the backpacking/road marching thing. Your help would be welcome. Thanks. I'd ask our local recruiter, but they closed our local recruiting office. The closest one now is miles from here.
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Do you mean Rangers? Dood 5 miles in under 4 hours with 120lbs of weight on your back is not even close to being hard. You can walk a mile even with that weight in <30 minutes. You have your numbers crossed somewhere

I remember seeing a special on TV about the Rangers - something like 3 days, a 19 mile run a day or something, they only got like 30 minutes of sleep per day and like no food. I could be wrong though
 
Do you mean Rangers? Dood 5 miles in under 4 hours with 120lbs of weight on your back is not even close to being hard. You can walk a mile even with that weight in <30 minutes. You have your numbers crossed somewhere
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No, special forces. Not rangers. I think he's looking at general special forces or green barrettes (sp?) Although I'm sure the rangers have much the same requirements. Especially by the end of graduation after RIP. (ranger intruduction program to the uninformed) As far as the range and time and all that, I did figure I might have my numbers wrong. Hence why I asked. 🙂 I knew those sounded way too easy. Any idea what the fitness requirements are for special forces? I remember the SF requirements being a bit more. I know you have to be at least the rank of Sergeant to even apply for them. With rangers you can be a buck private and apply for them.

I hope that's enough information for ya. Like I said, I'm trying to pull this from the dusty side of my memory. So I might have some facts wrong.

 
There's not really any published standard for either selection or the Q course when you're talking about special forces. You're normally told to ruck from point A to point B and not given a time requirement (being caught with a watch is reason for expulsion in fact), and the point is to get there as quickly as possible without killing yourself, as you'll be doing the same thing for months on end. In practice, if you can't maintain a pace of 15 minutes/mile or less you're not going to make it. I can and have seen people who are slower make it depending on other factors. I know one fellow who got selected after taking 20 hours to complete a 16 mile ruck march, which would normally not be acceptable. Of course, the fact that he broke his leg during it and completed the march anyway (dragging himself the rest of the way) probably had more to do with it than his time.

Normal minimum weight loadings during selection and the Q course is 70 lbs.
 
Thanks guys. This should be a good start for training him. Do you know how much hand to hand combat training they expect or will be giving you? Cause I'm planning on mixing in a little of what I know and remember to keep things interesting. 😀

OH, and by the way, Mr. Bodycast will be out of the hospital and sitting happily in jail come the 1st of June. 😀

(see one of my other posts about the 4 idiots who tried to rob me for clarification if you have no idea what I'm talking about. hehe)
 
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