How is life once you become a Special Ops soldier?

De Oppresso Liber

time for entertainment huh... the job is the entertainment. Being an operator is not just a job either, it's a life style that has its own traditions and culture. You may be deployed over 265 days out of 365 daily. Your time at home is quite brief and when you are home, you wish you were back downrange...Your wife will end up cheating on you and taking your kids away, so a divorce is pretty common. 70% actually. Live a life of secrecy and even isolation at times. There is no finer honor than to wear the Green Beret in combating terrorism. Depending on which SFG you end up in, your OpTempo might be higher or lower depending on what AO your Group serves in. I can only speak of Army Special Forces though, can't quite say what it's like for SEALS, pararescue, force recon, etc.

It definately isn't meant for everyone and not many are capable. I personally think it's the most rewarding career in so many ways. You get to interact with so many cultures and truley expand your horizon of knowlege on the world. You learn about other customs and traditions that are so unique and interesting to be a part of. Your knowledge of life and the world expands and has more meaning. Something bigger than satisfying your own greed sitting behind some office. Most people have not a clue as to what life is like outside these borders.

Life spent downrange could be either extremely energy consuming or it can be extremely relaxed depending on the operation. You spend a lot of time in embassies during most operations involving FID or Foriegn International Defense. These are the most common mission types today in places such as Iraq. Sleep will become a long lost friend in some months, maybe 3-5 hours on a good night. Time spent back home is somewhat limited as well. Training takes over a lot of home time. When you're back from one operation, you start training for the next and running war games to prepare or refreshing language skills. The 5th SFG has been overwhelmed in the past 5 years with downrange time. The 5th is responsible for the Middle Eastern area of Operation controlled mostly by CENTCOM. Every deployment brings a new and rewarding experience you will perhaps never forget and the honor is something you will take with you to the grave.

Your closest buds will be the guys from your unit or in this case your ODAs. Spend more time together than any healthy husband and wife I know of. Bottom line, an SOF soldier lives a very fast paced life. It's all about what you make out of it and how you use what you have to live to the fullest. I know many SF guys that got out to work for the private sector such as Blackwater who are now making somewhere from $90-180k a year. There will always be job opportunities for an SOF soldier once he gets out and the demand is extremely high.

lconnor65

My husband was in the 160th for awhile. It seemed he was gone more between all the schools and there deployments. Deployment times were shorter but rotation came faster.

When not in school or on a mission he had free time.

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