List of United States Army Special Operations Forces

Motto: Rangers lead the way

If you ever heard of any elite forces in the Army, then you probablly have heard of the Army Rangers. Rangers are an Elite group of soldiers that area available to deploy anywhere in the world within 18 hours. Rangers are highly experienced, and trained in a multitude of operations including air assault, direct action, raids, ambushes, and personal recovery. Rangers are expected to complete their mission no matter where they are sent.

There is a despute though within the Military community about who is considered a Ranger.
Some say you become a Ranger after passing Ranger School. Others say it is when you make it into the 75th Ranger Regiment.

Applicants are sent to Ranger School, where they must go through a 9 week course where only a 1/3 of applicants make it through. Students are put through constant stress and are under constant attack from instructors. You get an average of 4 hours a sleep a day, and are given around 2200 Calories a day to eat(from your MRE's). You do not eat until you are given permission to. This is to put your mind in survival mode to make you a better Ranger. Students on average lose about 30 pounds by the end of the course.

Motto: Verbum Vincet (The Word Will Conquer)

PSYOP sounds like a group in some Military Sci-Fi movie who use their minds to win the war against the nations enemies. Well, its not that far off from what they actually do. PSYOP Soldiers are trained to speak to the people of Foreign nations, whether they are enemies or friendlies. PSYOP talks to them and try to change their views that go along with US Policies.

You can join PSYOP right after Basic training, and attending a 16 week AIT training at Fort Bragg. You also must take language training for the region you will be deployed in.
PSYOP is the only Special Operations unit that allows females to join, since PSYOP's role is not to engage the enemy, but to promote policy and desuade possible enemy activities by lowering their morale. Some operations that PSYOP have been reported to be part of is when the statue of Saddam Hussein was toppled in Baghdad. The following video has a good explanation at the begining on how PSYOP was utilized to make the world think that it was the very citizens themselves who were pulling down the statue.

Motto: De oppresso liber (To free from oppression)

Here is where the biggest misconception of Special Forces lie.
Most people call them Green Berets. They hate being called that. The real name for them is Special Forces. They have been around unofficially for years. Dating back all the way to the Vietnam War where they were know as MACV-SOG(Military Assistance Command, Vietnam - Studies and Observations Group) where there job was to do covert action and reconnaissance to figure out enemy locations and weaknesses. It has been reported that not one SOG member, left Vietnam without a wound from battle. The US Government has try to keep information about this group secret, until the 1980s where knowledge of the group became public.

Ok, now fast forward to modern days.

The duties of a Special Forces soldier has changed very little compared to the old times.
However, Special Forces now inflitrate behind enemy lines to meet with the locals or nearby rebel troops to train them to be a capable fighting force so they may overthrow and replace the current government. This is known as Unconventional warfare. This goes along with the Special Forces motto, De oppresso liber(To liberate the Oppressed).

In order to train these rebels, Special Forces units are trained in various skillsets to teach the forces which includes...
-Engineering
-Weapons
-Medical
-Communications(As in the radio)
-Intelligence

Special Forces are able to cross train in these fields as well, so that they are able to have a more effiecent team. Usually a Sergeant is assigned primarily to one of the specializations.

Special Forces units operate in 12 man teams called an ODA(Operational Detatchment Alpha);
ODA's are the forefront of Special Forces as they conduct more opperations.
ODB(Operational Detachment Bravo) plays more of a support role by acting more as a headquarters for ODA.
There are also ODC(Operational Detatchment Charlie) where they play a bigger support role by assisting in the training and support of the 3 companies.

A cool part about being a Green Beret(my personal opinion) is that you do not have to follow most Military standards and regulations. Since you must keep your identity secret and cannot allow people to pick you from a crowd, you are allowed to grow your hair and facial hair outside of normal Military regulations. You also do not have to wear your uniform most of the time since you are doing special tasks.

Joining Special Forces is not easy task. You will be training for about two years before you earn you green beret. I would try to explain the process, but there is enough info need to fill up a whole Lens, and I only want to talk about the different Special Operations Forces. Maybe I will write a Lens later about the process and journey, but for now there are already some great documentaries made by National Geographic and others about Special Forces.

While the United States Governemt and US Army does not officially acknowledge exist, there are former Operators from Delta Force that talk about the Unit. Although the information given out is little, it is hard to seperate fact from truth this day in the internet.

Delta Force's structure was modeled after the British SAS(Special Air Service)

Delta Force is top secret. With that being the case, there are no official requirements to join or prerequisites.
I would show a video, but you will not find any photos or videos of Delta Operators online without censors.

There are some good books on Delta Force from former Operators, and those are good reads.

Motto: Night Stalkers Don't Quit | Death Waits in the Dark

Night stalkers are an Elite group of Pilots dedicated to provide top notch aviation abilities to general forces and Special Operations units. They have been trained to manuever in the most hostile enviroments, while getting the job done.

You might be thinking about why the Army needs a dedicated unit to work on Special Operations. There is a story to how SOAR was created and how Special Operations units now train.

In 1980 during the hostage taking in the US Embassy in Tehran, the US Government sent out a unit to rescue the hostages. That unit was Delta Force. They were being flown to the Embassy in helocopters when they ran into fueling problems and the helocopter crashed. Everyone on board died. This made the Government realize that they needed a Unit to handle these types of missions.

In the Battle of Mogadishu, SOAR was piloting the Blackhawks in the raid that were shot down.

In order to be considered for SOAR, you must already be assigned to a aviation unit. You must also already have your Airborne school completed. Look for postings on your base for when they are recuriting. SOAR hires support crewmen, but also have pilot positions and gunner positions.

SOAR is THE best of the best air crew trained for some of the worst conditions you can run into. They were the ones who flew the SEALS in the Bin Laden compound. They also have access to the newest and most secret aircraft, as noted when they crashed a top secret helocopter in the compound.