SOF Career Changes?

[JiJoMacLE45]

I've read a few pretty interesting bios of various enlisted SOF types who have gone into different career fields. For instance there is a Marine Corps general on active duty(he may have recently ret.) who served as an enlisted Green Beret in Vietnam, got out, went to college, got a commission, and flies helos for the USMC. I've also read about enlisted Rangers or Special Forces sergeants who have gotten commissions to warrant officer and gone on to become helo pilots, a few even into the 160th SOAR. I've heard of a Navy SEAL officer who went to medical school and is a Navy doctor and two more enlisted SEALs who received commissions and became Naval physician's assistants. I was wondering if anyone else knew of anymore of these strange career switches?

[Trigger]

Richard Carmona - Surgeon General of the U.S., most recently a Deputy Sheriff here in Pima County,AZ, began his career as an Army Special Forces trooper in Vietnam.

[David]

i signed up for army sf, but i don't really plan on doing it forever if i make it so i don't know why you call it a strange career switch, i plan on going to college eventually and i was actually thinking about then joining back up and flying something like a jet or helo.

[JiJoMacLE45]

Not strange in a 'your a freak' kinda way. But to see guys stay in the military and switch from the special operations career field to a totally different one interested me.

The Marine Corps general I mentioned, BG Samuel Helland, the deputy commander for the Marine Corps forces in Southern Command joined the Army in 1968 and served with the 5th SFG(A) in Vietnam then got out went to school and got a commission in the Marine Corps and has spent nearly thirty years as CH-53 pilot. Or Captain Frank Butler who was a Navy SEAL platoon officer in the early 1970s with SEAL Team One then went to medical school and is now a staff opthalmologist at a Naval Hospital. A Navy officer who recently died in Yemen, had been an enlisted SEAL, received a commission and was serving as a physician's assistant.
If any of you had read the 'Warrior Elite' it mention another former enlisted SEAL who received a commission and was a PA. If you've ever visited the Night Stalkers web site and read some of the bios on the memorial page you'll find a few of the pilots had been Ranger and SF sergeants before becoming pilots. There was also a Navy SEAL who had served in Bosnia, then went on to join the Air Force and become a PJ.
There are a few Marine Corps captains who have become SEAL officers. I've heard of an Australian F/A-18 Hornet pilot who was on SASR selection.
Marines and Rangers becoming SEALs, PJs, CCTs, and SF. A Special Forces sergeant who became a PJ. A former enlisted Ranger who later went onto become a SEAL team C/O and later a SWAT cop.

Just a topic that interested me.

[96B]

That is pretty cool, no offense to anybody but I am kinda wondering why somebody would trade being a SEAL for a PJ.

I joined the Marines and my MOS is Aviation Mechanic which basically translates to me being a Crew Chief. Not too long after I get through with my schooling and get put on base, I plan on trying out for Force Reconaissance. woot

I would consider this a pretty dramatic change of job if all goes as planned :D

[Piccolo]

Indeed, it is an interesting topic. I have heard of many former Recon marines switch over. I can only guess this is due to the fact that Force Recon is set up on 5 year (Believe thats right) enlistments. I recall Marcinko recruiting a former FR guy for Redcell.

U.S. Navy CDR (ret) T.L. "Bo" Bosiljevac first served in the Rangers in the 70's, and then went on to the Pathfinders, followed by College, and then SEALs (Team one, two, four, six, and eight) .

[96B]

Yea I dont think you can really make a career out of Force as you could with Rangers, SEALs etc. If this USMC SOCOM unit comes around and is activated then I dont know if we will see as many Force guys switching over because such a new unit would be very similar to the SEALs.

[David]

maybe the SEAL decided he liked the jumping out of airplanes part of the job more than anything else so he thought he'd be a pj..? or maybe he just got sick of the nasty ocean. thats one reason i didn't consider joining the navy, the oceans dirty, you can't drink it, and theres too many things that can kill you in it and it overall just freaks me out. and plus i wouldn't wanna be stuck in a stupid boat for months on end at my height (6'3").

[JiJoMacLE45]

The reason he gave for joining the PJs was that he wanted to be in a career field where saving lives was the priority over taking them.

I just came across an article about special operations/medical related information. One of the contributors was, Bob Mabry. Mabry was one of the Delta operators involved in Somalia in 93. He completed med school a couple of years ago and is an officer and an Army doctor now. You also might recall that Rob Marsh, Delta's unit surgeon was an SF medical sergeant before he went to med school.

To the best of my knowledge Force Recon is a five year assignment with an additional two year option. A year or so for initial training and then enough time to do two workups and deployments. I believe, but I'm not quite certain, the additional two year option is for team leaders. You can also come back into Force after completion of another assignment.

One of my sergeants was a Marine with battalion recon. He had a couple buddies get out of the Marine Corps and go into Navy to become SEALs. I don't know if they made it or not. His reasoning for there going into the Marine Corps before going to BUD/S was that they wanted to have some solid infantry-type training behind them before they gave BUD/S a shot. Whereas there seems to be the natural progression ladder in the Army of infantry-airborne-ranger-special forces that does not exist in the Navy. The only unit close to the Teams in the Navy is EOD and that is primarily with their insertion/extration capabilities but not in the operational requirements.(Not that EOD techs are not first rate guys.)

There was a book written by a guy by the name of Jeff Kraus a while back called "You Want Me To Do What?". Kraus had completed Ranger School, the Q Course, and BUD/S. Pretty admirable. I can not find it however.

But back on topic though, I just find the level of concentration and commitment it takes to go through two intense training enviroments like say SF training and then helo flight school pretty amazing or to go from BUD/S and life in a SEAL platoon to going through the special tactics pipeline, you gotta have a hell of a internal drive.