The Art of Manliness - #477： The History and Future of America's Special Forces

00:00:00.000 brett mckay here and welcome to another edition of the art of manliness podcast when people talk

00:00:19.120 about military special forces the navy seals are often the first to come to mind but there are

00:00:23.400 several special forces in the military that have a storied history and play a fundamental role in

00:00:27.500 america's military defense my guest is the only person to have been allowed to audit and write

00:00:32.320 about the training programs of the respective special forces units of every branch of the

00:00:35.880 military his name is dick couch he's a retired u.s navy seal and the author of several books on

00:00:40.020 america's special operation forces today on the show we particularly discuss his book sua sponte

00:00:44.300 the forging of a modern american ranger we begin our conversation discussing the history and varied

00:00:48.600 purposes of the military's different special operations forces dick then explains how a

00:00:52.140 soldier becomes an army ranger and why going to ranger school isn't the thing that makes you a

00:00:56.660 he walks us through the process of becoming a ranger including ranger assessment and selection

00:01:00.280 and we end our conversation discussing the role special operation forces will play in the future

00:01:04.200 of america's military after the show's over check out our show notes at aom.is army ranger dick joins 0.97

00:01:09.820 me now via clearcast.io all right dick couch welcome to the show thank you so you've written 0.97

00:01:26.520 several books about america's special operating forces what got you started with that well i uh

00:01:33.740 i i've had a very interesting service career in that i spent time in both the underwater demolition

00:01:40.020 and seal teams and subsequent to that i went and spent about four years at central intelligence agency as

00:01:47.300 a paramilitary officer and i thought well with this background i'd i would love to write a book so i

00:01:53.560 started on a spy book and i was part way through it when i saw a book on navy seals on the shelf and i

00:02:01.140 picked it up and i read it and it was wasn't about navy seals it was about some very brave sailors who

00:02:07.780 were on river patrol boats so i called the editor up and i said gee this these aren't navy seals these are

00:02:15.560 somebody else and he said well navy seals are really hot right now and i thought okay i think

00:02:21.140 i get it so i i started writing about a navy seal story it turned out to be seal team one and i never

00:02:28.580 looked back from there and why do you think it's important for civilians to understand how you know

00:02:33.300 the navy seals or other special operating forces work well i'm before 9-11 they were

00:02:39.080 becoming more important but they were another member in the mix of our our ability to project

00:02:46.460 power overseas and a part of our department of defense since 9-11 they've taken a more central role

00:02:53.900 in the global war on terror i think that they maybe get a little bit too much attention quite often at

00:03:03.360 the expense of some very capable and brave and much needed army navy and air force marine personnel

00:03:10.600 but they seem to be the first forces you're right now and they're you know there's again i'm i'm

00:03:17.160 certainly not the only guy writing about navy seals now and then they've they've made some very

00:03:21.140 successful film films on seal operations well as you said earlier you know you found that book that

00:03:26.820 the publisher purported to be about navy seals but it wasn't about navy seals so it seems like there's a

00:03:31.380 lot of misconceptions that people have about special operating forces what are some of the most common

00:03:36.840 ones that you've come across as you've talked to civilians about about your work well i think that

00:03:44.320 special operations across the spectrum are various communities and the primary ones being navy seals

00:03:52.240 army special forces the 75th ranger regiment which is an army organization and the marine special

00:04:00.300 operations command each one of them are separate cultures they have separate missions they there's

00:04:06.660 some commonality in how they execute their missions but they're they do very different things

00:04:11.840 so i think that uh and they've grown tremendously since 9-11 and they're very much you know even as

00:04:21.800 we draw down perhaps in syria and afghanistan those special those special operators are still hard at work

00:04:28.360 overseas and so you know you mentioned some how they're different they have different cultures

00:04:33.120 so how how do they differ from each other in sort of broad strokes well perhaps the let me start with

00:04:41.220 the navy seals they have as many of them admit they're jack of all trades and master of none they have a

00:04:48.500 maritime portfolio which means they have to be good in the water and they have a lot of their training is

00:04:53.720 focused around the water it takes about a third of the time to keep those combat

00:04:58.280 swimmer skills intact and and up to speed there even though they we don't hear about them being used

00:05:04.680 very often they've got air operations to train for they've got land warfare to train for so there's a

00:05:10.740 very broad spectrum it takes about a year and a half to train basically train and qualify a navy seal

00:05:18.440 and and then perhaps another year of training with his operational unit before he's ready to deploy

00:05:24.920 so it's a long training pipeline the specialty of seals are maritime operations but been primarily used

00:05:32.640 in a direct action role which means they're they're out there uh on patrol looking for bad guys and

00:05:39.420 dealing with them army special forces which is another culture in itself but i and i've said this

00:05:47.560 much to the chagrin of my fellow seals i think they're the most important special operator on

00:05:52.700 the battlefield because their primary goal is to train other militaries other security forces so

00:05:59.380 if they do their job right and they do it well then we get to come home so i think they're very

00:06:04.680 important they take on a lot of combat roles and direct action missions like seals but they're primarily

00:06:11.080 trainers the third special operations component i'll mention are the 75th rangers the 75th rangers are

00:06:21.160 the best light infantry in the world they have a very short training period perhaps two months to take a

00:06:27.560 young infantryman and make him into an army ranger and then he may have four or five months of pre-deployment

00:06:35.840 work out but they don't have they don't do a lot of things but what they do is light infantry work

00:06:41.960 they're very good at conducting combat assaults and they do that very very well the fourth member

00:06:49.580 of the special operations mixture in the ground combat area is the marine special operations command

00:06:55.540 with the marine raiders and they do in some ways like the seals they do a bit of everything over the

00:07:01.940 beach work in water work they're more of an agile expeditionary force and they do spend a lot of time

00:07:09.320 like army special forces in training other security forces but next to seals i would say that you know

00:07:16.700 the army special forces and the marine raiders are among the most highly trained special operations

00:07:23.300 ground combatants that we have well i'd like to dig in more into the army rangers here because you wrote

00:07:28.100 a book about sua sponte about them and about their training and their culture but before we get

00:07:32.640 there like how did what were the origins of you know america's special operating forces did like each

00:07:38.320 branch did it happen sort of organically and they said they saw a need where they needed something a

00:07:44.220 little more specialized and then they you know sort of over time formalized it or was it from the get-go

00:07:50.220 they knew they needed a very formal structured special operations and they started it well i think that i mean

00:07:56.640 we can trace the origins of special operations back to richard rogers and rogers rangers that we

00:08:03.940 remember from spencer tracy and in northwest passage but each of the components today has kind of their

00:08:11.540 roots as far as the seals go they came from the navy frogmen of world war ii after the landings at tarawa

00:08:19.040 and the need for hydrographic data because we lost an awful lot of marines because we didn't know the

00:08:25.260 the coastal conditions that they were going to have to advance across in order to make these landings

00:08:30.720 so that's where the birth of the navy seals happened in 1943 after the landings of tarawa and we needed

00:08:38.560 navy frogmen so that's where the seals came from army special forces they they can kind of trace their

00:08:45.920 roots maybe back to the special operators in the civil war and the men who operated behind the lines

00:08:53.540 formerly they were kind of a cold war organization as we built a special forces capability to go behind

00:08:59.980 the lines in case the soviets came in and took europe then we'd have some people to go behind the

00:09:05.020 lines and create partisan forces so they've always been a training component but they have their roots

00:09:11.680 in the cold war and certainly they were very well deployed in vietnam the army rangers again they're

00:09:18.680 just an outgrowth of light infantry that is by extension has been almost seconded from the army to the

00:09:26.420 special operations command and they rotate soldiers good soldiers through the ranger regiment back to the

00:09:34.140 army and back into the ranger regiment the marines are new to the special operations mix they came about

00:09:42.840 in 2006 be you know secretary rumsfeld suggested without taking no for an answer that the marines

00:09:50.600 needed a special operations component there were marine raiders two or three battalions of marine

00:09:56.400 raiders during the second world war they were stood up at the insistence of president roosevelt whose son

00:10:03.500 was a battalion commander of the marine raiders the marines have had kind of a checkered career with

00:10:10.020 special operations and and special units in general the marines feel that they

00:10:15.300 in the in among themselves are special and i have to agree with them they are special but they've built

00:10:23.140 a very robust capability since 2006 and now i think they're a very valued member of the special operations

00:10:30.820 ground combat mix so all these different organizations and forces have different goals different objectives

00:10:39.000 different cultures would you say since 9 11 that there's been more integration like you you see

00:10:45.280 seals working with arming ragers like there's more i don't know what's the right word i'm looking for

00:10:49.960 a collaboration i guess is the right word i don't think so they they tend to operate with their own

00:10:57.060 they prepare as a team they're a very team-centric organization they sometimes sometimes some of the

00:11:04.520 other ground combatants will be conducting a direct action mission and they might use an element of

00:11:10.700 the 75th rangers as a blocking force but they typically don't work together per se i think that

00:11:17.660 has to do with a it's it's not that they can't it's just that they prepare they know each other everybody

00:11:25.120 has a role on a certain type of mission they know how each other's react they have a commonality in

00:11:31.160 their weapons how their gear is placed on their body and how they've trained up to do certain

00:11:37.540 missions in a certain way they almost don't have to talk to each other they they it's not that they

00:11:42.960 don't operate together and they have in the past but by and large they pretty much stick to their own

00:11:49.940 groups when planning and executing special operations so i'd like to dig deep into the army rangers

00:11:57.720 because you know as you said thanks to i guess the osama bin laden raid there's been films maybe

00:12:03.160 about made about navy seals a lot of people know about navy seals but the army rangers often get

00:12:08.340 licked over and i didn't honestly before i read sua sponte i knew hardly anything about army rangers i

00:12:14.000 just knew my barber was part of was an army ranger and that was it because i saw his his patches on his

00:12:19.600 on his wall so let's talk about ranger school there's a ranger school right right but not everyone who

00:12:26.900 goes through a ranger school as a ranger well there's there is a great misconception about

00:12:31.860 army rangers and ranger school first of all ranger school is an army leadership school it's a very

00:12:39.480 difficult school it's a hard school it's it teaches young army officers that even though they haven't

00:12:46.980 slept or eaten or are very hard pressed that they can still go out and make decisions they can fight

00:12:55.340 and they can lead in very trying circumstances so it's a leadership school if you go to army

00:13:04.580 ranger school and you pass it you are technically ranger qualified but you are not an army ranger

00:13:11.820 army rangers are those who serve in the 75th ranger regiment they have three infantry battalions

00:13:19.420 one special troops battalion and they have a very high standard of in the execution of

00:13:28.300 combat assault and light infantry tactics typically a young army ranger will sign up he'll go to

00:13:36.700 basic school he will get his infantry qualification he'll go to airborne school and then he'll go to

00:13:43.540 ranger assessment and selection and it's currently a two-month process you might think gosh that's not

00:13:50.500 too long two months but they have quite an attrition it's a very difficult period of time for these young

00:13:56.860 men and that attrition is probably 75 percent only 25 20 or 25 percent will make it to the end and then

00:14:04.180 they're caught they get their tan beret and they are an army ranger the real making of that army ranger

00:14:10.540 he's he's been through the school we know he's a tough guy but he really learns how to be an army

00:14:16.600 ranger when he gets his to to his infantry platoon his ranger platoon and starts working up for combat

00:14:24.560 deployment when i was with the rangers i never met a ranger first sergeant that didn't have at least 12

00:14:31.880 combat rotations in they typically overseas for four months back for eight and they go again and again and

00:14:39.000 again i think one thing that distinguishes rangers from the rest of the army and the rest of special

00:14:45.740 operations they have a very strict adherence to what a being a ranger and doing the right thing they

00:14:55.740 consider warriorship and the ethos of being a ranger to be a very high calling and they have very high

00:15:03.360 standards and they hold themselves to very high standards i remember one ranger first sergeant

00:15:09.040 saying to me our standards are just like army standards there's no difference but we enforce

00:15:14.660 them to the letter and they do they take a great deal of pride in that and i have nothing but great

00:15:19.260 things and great admiration for the 75th ranger regiment we're going to take a quick break for your

00:15:24.280 word from our sponsors and now back to the show well let's talk a little bit more about ranger

00:15:30.020 assessment and selection so you said it's two months high attrition rate like what does that

00:15:34.380 process look like is it similar to buds or is is it different it has some similarities to buds they

00:15:41.720 they don't they have you got to be able to swim 15 yards across the pool so there is almost no

00:15:47.900 water requirement for them they're all airborne quality you know have they've all been to jump school

00:15:53.700 but their training is around some very arduous physical examinations they basically to put it

00:16:03.540 in a nutshell they go out with they have a range called coal range and they go out there for three

00:16:08.460 or four days and that ranger first sergeant says you will not become a ranger until you show me you have

00:16:15.980 the heart of a ranger and they run them right in the ground to see if they have heart and the best

00:16:23.100 thing i can say it's a test for a man's heart past that the the the skill building has to do around

00:16:29.680 combat shooting and shooting with somebody on either side of you at night under certain conditions they

00:16:36.580 have you have to have some sense of of a team and awareness of those around you while you're conducting

00:16:46.920 shooting operations so it starts them down the road on being a good light infantryman and good at

00:16:54.580 combat assault and the again a great deal of what makes these young men into good rangers are the

00:17:01.840 pre-deployment training and their deployments with the ranger veterans in their in their ranger

00:17:07.900 platoons and their ranger companies so just to clarify something you don't have to go to ranger school

00:17:13.520 and get your ranger tab to do the ranger assessment and selection correct no you don't and very few

00:17:19.560 are what will happen as a young man is he will he will might make two or three combat rotations before

00:17:27.500 he goes to ranger school you can't become an nco you know an e4 sergeant in the ranger regiment unless

00:17:37.160 you have your ranger tab so these young men they they all want to go to ranger school they want to

00:17:43.240 get through that they have a much high have much lower attrition rate for the guys from the ranger

00:17:49.840 regiment who go to ranger school but if you're going to stay in that business and make a career

00:17:54.500 of it and move up to the ranks you have to have your ranger tab and they go at great lengths to see

00:18:00.240 that everybody gets there i might kind of we've talked about these are the progression of a enlisted

00:18:07.080 soldier in the ranger regiment officers are assessed by a different program and every officer

00:18:14.560 in the ranger regiment who rotates in and then rotates out has to have that ranger tab and and

00:18:20.960 that includes uh i know an officer came in he was a veterinary a doctor of veterinary medicine who

00:18:26.720 sought to the uh canine aspects of the ranger business and he he was a good officer but he was

00:18:34.020 he was having to go to ranger school to become ranger qualified to serve in the regiment

00:18:38.380 so in sui sponte you kind of highlight different young men who go through ranger assessment and

00:18:45.620 selection i mean kind of give us a thumbnail what are the type of men who are attracted to to doing

00:18:51.160 this well i think that it's kind of the same type that are attracted to all special operations i think

00:18:57.260 they they want to serve they want to be in a unit that's something that's special i think that they

00:19:03.240 maybe it's proving something to themselves a lot of them come in because their dads or uncles or

00:19:09.740 or mentors or maybe a high school coach was in the army or it was an army ranger and they've seen

00:19:17.320 something in that young man and said here's something you might want to consider or you might

00:19:21.300 want to do i get a lot of young men come to me thinking they want to be seals and i said well

00:19:25.560 that's good and i wish you well and what have you but take a look at army special forces uh the marines

00:19:32.260 uh but also take a look at uh the the 75th ranger regiment uh that's a great place to uh if you want

00:19:40.500 to serve your country and be with a what i consider a high quality organization i i can't say enough about

00:19:46.960 the 75th ranger regiment after a ranger assessment selection program they start going on combat rotations

00:19:52.620 and you said that you know some of these guys can go two or three combat rotations before they even

00:19:56.920 start ranger school correct i mean what what does a typical combat rotation look like for a ranger like

00:20:01.900 how long are they deployed they're only they'll be deployed typically four months it may be if they

00:20:07.920 overlap a little bit they'll stay for a five-month tour or they may shorten it up a little bit but

00:20:12.760 they're overseas rather quickly only for about four months and then they're back for about eight uh but

00:20:18.640 they're making like i said when i was with the ranger regiment they were going some of them were

00:20:24.240 going back on shorter tours than that but they go back again and again and once more they their

00:20:31.220 mission is primarily combat assault they also have another mission that they train for is air airfield

00:20:38.660 seizure uh it's a very highly orchestrated thing where they parachute in and take over an airfield and

00:20:46.320 land aircraft and and set up uh small arms and defensive things so that they can take over

00:20:52.520 an airfield just about anywhere in the world so they have to have they maintain that capability but

00:20:59.260 in the battle space in afghanistan iraq they're primarily used for combat assault light light arms

00:21:06.700 or light small arms and combat assault and their their work in special operations is primarily

00:21:15.220 as blocking forces for some of our special missions unit and some of uh and missions that might be

00:21:21.640 conducted by army special forces or seals and do rangers like stay in a specific like geographic

00:21:26.920 rotation like or location i mean so like sort of like seals there's like seal teams where they all

00:21:31.400 kind of sit together in the west coast or the east coast and they well they're the ranger regiment is

00:21:36.320 is is located at fort benning that's where they have their headquarters they have one battalion at fort

00:21:42.380 lewis the joint fort lewis base in washington state they have one battalion at hunter army airfield

00:21:48.880 and savannah and one one battalion actually two battalions at fort benning and so they're pretty

00:21:55.900 much in those battalions and they go overseas as a battalion and come back as a battalion the one

00:22:02.340 special troops battalion has certain capabilities that they will deploy with the other infantry battalions

00:22:09.520 to support them as they need it and so i imagine in between deployments there's training that goes

00:22:14.100 on to keep their skills or learn new skills there is there it's constantly they get a couple weeks off

00:22:19.500 and then they start back in working up to deploy again i talked with some of the the some of the

00:22:26.560 platoon officers and platoon sergeants and said how do these guys measure up you know tour after tour and

00:22:34.120 he says you know about 20 percent of them are really not after their first deployment we tend to let

00:22:42.900 them go just because they find out not that they're not trying their best but doing that kind of work

00:22:49.160 takes not only toughness it and skill it also requires a certain aptitude and talent and not everybody has

00:22:56.040 it he might be a tough kid who can get through the initial training but he may just lack what it takes

00:23:02.880 to do the job it's a skill-based profession they expect certain things out of them on their second

00:23:09.100 and third deployments and it's not for everybody so while there's attrition in the basic training

00:23:16.180 there's also attrition in the operational components because some of them just don't measure up when it

00:23:22.600 comes to doing you know running around with automatic weapon at night and shooting with other rangers in

00:23:30.180 close proximity is um like with uh ranger assessment and selection is that something if you wash out i

00:23:37.380 guess the right you know there's attrition can you try again or like say you get you do that first

00:23:42.180 deployment and they say well no this isn't for you can you try again or is it pretty much a done deal

00:23:46.720 i think they roll some they roll some back if they're hurt or they're injured or what have you uh i've seen

00:23:53.460 that uh several times i think that if sometimes somebody is it's clearly they're not quite up to

00:24:01.280 this maybe it's by youth or by conditioning uh they'll go back to the regular unit and try again

00:24:08.680 and i think the ranger regiment prides itself when they have somebody come to that training and it doesn't

00:24:15.080 work out for them that they send that soldier back to his unit better than when they he came there

00:24:21.720 so uh there's some who try it once if they don't make it can come back and try it again

00:24:27.260 so besides iraq and afghanistan are there any places where army rangers are you know part of the 75th

00:24:34.720 are they're doing a lot of combat rotations i don't think so i i i only know of those deployments in

00:24:43.200 those areas i can't imagine them not having some presence in north in africa especially north africa

00:24:50.840 northwest africa and even somalia type where we have our special operators deployed i think they

00:24:57.440 deploy in support of special operations wherever they are and of course we remember the battle of

00:25:03.360 mogadishu where they were primarily rangers involved in that engagement so you mentioned donald

00:25:08.480 rumsfeld earlier and i remember back you know when the lead up to the iraq and afghanistan wars and

00:25:14.400 those are going on there's an emphasis placed on special operations or special operating forces

00:25:19.240 what role do you see special operating forces playing in the future of america's military

00:25:24.860 well i think that remains to be seen they have expanded their portfolio to things like weapons of mass

00:25:33.060 destruction and counterinsurgency operations you know it it used to be a rather narrow focus now it

00:25:40.720 seems to be expanding i would like to think that again this is just my opinion that

00:25:47.600 as it becomes clear in areas like syria afghanistan and iraq that even if our best efforts are made

00:25:59.000 there may not be a clear-cut solution or a victory or a victory to be won within those populations so i

00:26:08.060 would hope that we would scale back some of our deployment there because i'm not sure there's a

00:26:14.080 clear path to victory there may be some other there are other issues that are kind of uh maybe maybe

00:26:21.520 needs to have more attention it could be chinese expansion into southwest asia it could be certain areas of

00:26:28.700 of africa and it could be you know certainly the the soviets would like to expand into uh maybe

00:26:36.420 reclaim some of their lost empire uh and we perhaps might need some special operators to train and be

00:26:44.380 ready for those contingencies do you see any changes coming to special operating forces and how

00:26:49.720 they operate at all or is it sort of more the same there's going to stick that ethos that they have

00:26:53.540 because it's worked for you know 50 60 sometimes 100 years i i don't know i think that uh you know

00:26:59.720 the the the threat defines the mission and how you train toward it and uh we've got some very good

00:27:06.660 mountain fighters and what have you army special forces will always they're the largest of our ground

00:27:12.000 combat component special operations components i think there's always going to be a need to engage

00:27:17.580 with and train other security forces whether it's in south america or africa or where have you or to

00:27:24.980 maybe even train ukrainian forces against uh potential russian aggression there i think that seals

00:27:32.560 probably you know they've ignored a lot of their maritime capabilities and and fleet support duties

00:27:38.060 because they've been running around uh the mountains of the hindu kush chasing uh taliban

00:27:43.840 a regular so i think looking hopefully you know and as as an old warrior here i'm thinking we i'd like

00:27:52.300 to see it has a less deployed presence a little bit more of a manageable operations tempo as we deploy

00:27:59.940 these people so that they're not so hard pressed overseas and maybe a little more careful aligning of

00:28:07.140 our special operations components that are in line with a more narrow definition of our national

00:28:13.580 interests you know you mentioned uh army special forces um how they focus a lot on training that

00:28:18.980 seems like it's a job that requires a lot of soft skills people skills i mean all these jobs

00:28:23.380 all these special operating forces require those kind of people skills soft skills but it seems like army

00:28:28.360 special forces require that especially someone who's sensitive to culture and thinking in systems and

00:28:34.060 management is that the case like that it kind of does it attract that kind of person i think it

00:28:39.460 absolutely does and of course i mentioned it takes about two and a half to three years to make a navy

00:28:43.800 seal it takes maybe two years to make a special operations soldier and my definition of a good special op

00:28:51.120 a good special forces soldier an army green beret i mean he's somebody who's who's a people person uh

00:28:58.860 he'll stop a car driving down the street just to talk to the driver what's your name where you going

00:29:03.420 how are you what are you up to it's not that they don't want to do direct actions but their primary

00:29:11.440 thing is teachers they have to understand people understand other cultures and a lot of their

00:29:16.980 training and their role playing and how they go about it is to make that guy an outgoing person

00:29:23.040 i've seen it when the in special forces training i've seen uh green beret instructors take a young

00:29:30.440 head aside and say look at you're a bit of an introvert that's not going to cut it in the work

00:29:35.200 we have to do here and i want you going out on the weekends going into a bar whether you order

00:29:39.540 a beer or coke it doesn't matter sit down beside somebody and start talking to them and draw them

00:29:44.940 out and find out where they're from what they do what they like what they don't like

00:29:48.420 how they vote what sports teams they root for but you have to be a people person to survive in

00:29:55.380 that business also i would point out that the average age of a navy seal platoon is maybe 28 or

00:30:01.480 29 years old but the average age of a special forces a team might be 32 or 33 they're very experienced

00:30:08.880 soldiers and it takes a while to to acquire those skills along with certain language capabilities that

00:30:15.060 go with conducting the missions that they have to do and how long does like a career last for say

00:30:21.140 a green beret well as long as i mean they're they put in 30 years and they may put it even more than

00:30:28.640 30 years if they are up to it physically i don't the physical demands uh probably the on a pure pain of

00:30:38.680 meter pain-o-meter indication would be that navy seals is physically is the most grueling of the

00:30:45.560 training pipelines but special forces and rangers and the marines are not far behind them in the

00:30:51.660 demands they put on it and some of these guys when they get up into their mid 40s early 40s mid 40s

00:30:58.700 they have all the tools they need to do this business but physically they they just have to

00:31:04.120 work harder at staying fit and staying in shape army special forces their business of training others

00:31:11.200 isn't quite so physically demanding is perhaps some of the other disciplines uh even with the marines

00:31:17.460 in their over-the-beach operations and the things that they have to do to be physically fit to do the

00:31:23.260 mission there's probably not a lot of 50 year old army rangers or navy seals but you probably see that

00:31:28.280 as a green break not so much i think that and you know there may be some who stay on who have had an

00:31:33.560 enlisted career and then an officer career and have been able to stay on for a while it just gets

00:31:39.400 harder and harder to stay fit to do those to do those particular missions especially if you're in

00:31:44.840 a line combat unit if you're in one of those operating platoons uh you work pretty hard to be

00:31:50.920 able to carry that 40 or 50 pounds of operational gear and to run up and down mountains and to go a

00:31:57.400 couple days without sleep it wears you down it is a bit of a young man's game but there's an awful lot

00:32:03.660 of those guys that are in their mid-30s and early 40s that managed to stay on top their physical

00:32:09.760 conditioning and are still able to to go out there and perform with the younger men someplace people can

00:32:15.120 go to learn more about your work well as far as my work and what i write about it you can go to

00:32:20.680 www.dickcouch.com and there's kind of a short squib on each of the books i've written i've been

00:32:28.620 privileged to be able to go to each of the special operations training venues and audit the class with

00:32:36.040 you know walk through with a with a number of those going through their basic training and even into

00:32:41.720 their pre-deployment training so i've been very fortunate to do that as far as any current official

00:32:49.360 data as to what do you do and where do you go to sign up i think you go online each of the special

00:32:55.820 operations components has a very excellent website that tells you what you need to do and how you need

00:33:00.940 to go about it if you want to be one of them past that there's any number of books out there on on

00:33:07.400 all special operations forces but i'm proud to say that i'm the only person who's written who's who's

00:33:13.540 attended all four major special operations training basic and advanced training venues and have been

00:33:20.080 able to allowed to write about it well dick couch thanks for your time it's been a pleasure it's been my 0.71

00:33:24.560 pleasure thank you my guest today was dick couch he's the author of several books today we discuss 0.91

00:33:28.800 sua sponte it's available on amazon.com and bookstores everywhere you can find out more 0.70

00:33:32.720 information about his work at his website dick couch.com also check out our show notes at aom.is

00:33:38.600 slash army ranger where you can find links to resources where you delve deeper into this topic

00:33:42.480 well that wraps up another edition of the aom podcast check out our website artofmanliness.com

00:33:59.540 where you have thousands of in-depth well-researched articles and just about anything

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00:34:14.860 a friend or family member you would think we get something out of it as always thank you for your

00:34:18.840 continued support and until next time this is brett mckay encouraging you to not only listen to the

00:34:22.500 aom podcast but put what you've learned into action

00:34:41.420 so i think i would like to believe you've been part of it

00:34:51.680 but i am going to forget this you're welcome to keep the key time

00:34:55.640 and i think that you can find positions here on theDAH side

00:34:57.840 so give it an overview of how you can do that link to what you5th and what i think

00:35:00.820 do you think that you have mentored are saying going in on how you need for it

00:35:04.060 to have something fall to your feet that will beكر mo overall

The Art of Manliness - January 28, 2019

#477： The History and Future of America's Special Forces

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