U.S. Army Special Forces

SFC Steuck - Afghanistan - 2002
Afghanistan Picture

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With the exploits of the U.S. Military being a lead story in a number of different media outlets, certain terms used to describe special units in the military are being used incorrectly. The general public, due to no fault of their own, have used the term "Special Forces" to represent any and all special units found in the different branches of the U.S Military forces. I would like to inform people on the correct terminology to use when talking about these units, and to also provide a brief look at the background, history and organization of the U.S. Army Special Forces.

3rd GRP Flash The first thing everybody should know is that each military branch has its own special units. These special units fall under the organization of the United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM), and these special units are commonly referred to as "Special Operations" units or sometimes as "Spec Ops", for short. The best known of these special units are Navy Seals, Army Rangers and the Army Green Berets. All of these units are considered Special Operations, but not "Special Forces". In the U.S. Military only the United States Army Special Forces (or SF for short) go by this name. It can be confusing; especially to someone not acquainted with the military but hopefully after looking at the information presented on this site it will become a little clearer. For general information about the organizational breakdown and Area's of Responsibility check out the organization page.
SF Tab What makes me qualified to talk about this subject, glad you asked. The first thing I want to know when someone is talking about the military is that person's background. It lets me know how much knowledge and experience that person has about the subject he or she is writing or talking about. Here are few facts about my background. My name is Ken Steuck, I'm originally from Philomath and I did 20 years in the Army, 5 years in the Infantry and 15 years in Special Forces. I retired as a Master Sergeant in 2008. I've been stationed in Colorado, Texas, and North Carolina. In my 20 years I've done tours of duty in over a dozen countries including Egypt, Germany, Afghanistan and Iraq , just to name a few. For most of my career, I was stationed in Ft. Bragg, NC with the 3rd Special Forces Group, where I held positions as a Special Forces Medical Sergeant, as the Non-Commissioned Officer in Charge (NCOIC) of a training unit, and as an Operations Sergeant for the Special Forces Assessment and Selection course. To a lot of people that "resume" probably doesn't mean much, but I like to think I had a very diversified background and was exposed to a number of different areas where I feel I can comfortably talk about. I don't claim to be "Subject Matter Expert" on all topics about Special Operations and Special Forces, things change so fast in this area that things I did a little over 6 years ago are considered ancient history. I would just like to inform a small group of fellow students on some of the generalities involved with the US Army Special Forces and pass on some good to know information if you should ever talk to someone with this type of military background.

Military Branches and some of their special units: