How to Enlist in the Army Special Forces - Option 18X

How to Enlist in the Army Special Forces - Option 18XHow to Enlist in the Army Special Forces - Option 18X18X (18 XRAY) isnt actually a Military Occupation Specialty (MOS), but you can select that as your pre-enlistment option as you depart for Basic Combat Training (BCT). You can still get to Army Special Forces from the Army and request a transfer to attend SFAS - Special Forces Assessment and Selection. But, the 18x is a way to guarantee the opportunity once the recruit completes Basic Combat Training, Advanced Individual Training (Infantry), and Airborne Training. A recruit who enlists in the 18X Special Forces enlistment program will attend Infantry OSUT (One Station Unit Training), which combines Army Basic Training and Infantry AIT (Advanced Individual Training), all in one 17-week course. Upon graduation, recruits attend Airborne Training at Fort Benning, GA. Jump School is a three week course where static line jumping is taught on a large scale. After jump school, soldiers w ill be shipped to Fort Bragg, North Carolina and attend a five leiter program that will prepare them, teach them, and test and evaluate their capabilities to join the Special Forces Groups in the Army.Most Special Forces candidates come from the active duty side of the Army versus from the recruiting program. The recruiting option to speed up the SF pipeline is needed to create more eager candidates that may have not been willing to wait a few years in their unit before going to selection. Special Forces Phase One The Special Forces Qualification Course Phase 1A is four weeks long and will be a month of in-processing, intense PT, land navigation courses, and long and fast ruck marches. This leiter was formerly called Special Operations Prep Course I (SOPC I). The Special Forces Qualification Course Phase 1B is a four week assessment and selection program that is designed to expose weaknesses in body, mind, or spirit. Soldiers will be tested psychologically, physically on runs, r ucks, swims, obstacle courses, and more land navigation. Successful graduation and selection of this four week course will allow the soldier to enter the Special Forces Qualification Course to become an Army Special Forces soldier. This phase was formerly called Special Forces Assessment and Selection (SFAS). Special Forces Prep Course (SFPC) - This is a two week instructional course to help bring soldiers up to speed on small unit tactics, conducting raids, ambushes, recon, and patrolling as a small squad sized element.(Formerly known as SOPC II). For soldiers who cannot swim or have difficulty, there is also a two week swim program that they will attend prior to Phase 2. Common Core Training - This 19 day course will take newly selected Q Course soldiers and teach them the leadership methods of Special Forces with the Primary Leadership Development Course (PLDC), Basic Non-Commissioned Officer Course (BNCOC), as well as squad and platoon tactics. Special Forces Phase 2 Specia l Forces Qualification Course Phase 2 is a combined small unit tactics (SUT) and survival, evasion, resistance, and escape (SERE) training program. Here they will learn more advanced patrolling techniques in the squad and platoon sizes, rifle and pistol marksmanship, as well as survival school where surviving in remote areas, avoiding capture by enemy forces, resistance and escape skills if captured. This is a combined 8 week course. Special Forces Phase 3 After fully assessing each Soldiers capabilities by testing his physical, emotional, and mental stamina as well as tactical skills, the soldier now has the opportunity to make a meaningful and educated decision about SF and his career plan. Now, the soldier will start to learn the tools of the trade and his career will be focused in one of the Special Forces MOSs. The SFQC teaches and develops the skills necessary for effective utilization of the SF Soldier.These include foreign internal defense and direct action missions as p art of a small operations gruppe or detachment. Duties at other levels involve command, control, and support functions. Frequently, duties require dezentral orientation, to include foreign language training and in-country experience. The SF places emphasis not only on unconventional tactics, but also knowledge of nations in waterborne, desert, jungle, mountain, or arctic operations. Phases 3 is known as the MOS Qualification Phase. For the enlisted Soldier, the decision concerning the four specialties will be made based on your training background, aptitude, and desire and the needs of CMF 18. During this phase, Soldiers are trained in their different specialties (1) 18B - SF Weapons Sergeant. Training includes Tactics, anti-armor weapons utilization, thefunctioning of all types of U.S. and foreign light weapons, indirect fire operations, man-portable air defense weapons, weapons emplacement, and integrated combined arms fire control planning. Training is conducted at Fort Bragg, No rth Carolina, and is 13weeks long. (2) 18C - SF Engineer Sergeant. Training includes Construction skills, field fortifications, and use of explosive demolitions. Training is conducted at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, and is 13 weeks long. (3) 18D - SF Medical Sergeant. Training includes Advanced medical procedures to include trauma management and surgical procedures. Training is conducted at Fort Bragg, North Carolina and is approximately 46 weeks long. (4)18E - SF Communications Sergeant. Training includes Installation and operation of SF high frequency and burst communications equipment, antenna theory, radio wave propagation, and SF communication operations procedures and techniques. Training culminates with an around-the-world communications field performance exercise. Training is conducted at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, and Fort Chaffee, Arkansas, and is 13 weeks long. Special Forces Phase 4 Language Training. All Soldiers will attend Special Forces Language school at the Spe cial Operations Academic Facility, Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Languages are assigned in relation to the score from theDefense Language Aptitude Battery, (DLAB), which is taken either prior to or at the beginning of SFQC. Each Soldier must score at least a 0/0 to be considered language qualified. The language course in which the Soldier is selected to attend will most likely reflect the SF Group in which he will be assigned. Example language course lengths are Arabic Korean Polish Russian Czech Tagalog Persian Thai Serbo Croat (6 months training), and Spanish Portuguese French (4 months training). Special Forces Phase 5 The culminating training exercise is known as Robin Sage. During this 5 week course, the students will form their own Special Forces Operational Detachment Alpha (ODA), a 12 man team who will be tasked with simulated real world scenarios. Soldiers will be tested in a full array ofSpecial Operations(SO) classes, Direct Action (DA) Isolation, Air Operations, Unconvent ional Warfare classes, Isolation training, counterinsurgency, and foreign internal defense (FID) that ends with ROBIN SAGE. Individuals who fail any of the above training courses will have their enlistment contracts renegotiated to the 11B (Infantryman) MOS and will be reassigned to an Infantry unit. However, under the current policy, they will be allowed to retain any 18X enlistment bonus, unless disqualification is due to misconduct. The Army Special Forces soldiers are warriors and teachers. Being mature going into this profession is a requirement.