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liked their missions, in many cases the SF guys were the spear of the action where the Rangers picked up after them.  As a Second Lieutenant he wouldn’t have been allowed to go to the Q-course (Special Forces Qualification Course).  At the end of his tour in Iraq he would be a First Lieutenant and would be able to go if the regiment let him. 
                  Once back in the States he applied and was granted permission to attend the selection course, so off to Fort Bragg and Camp Mackall he went.  The selection course was roughly three months long, three long months ending up with the final exercise, Robin sage, pass that and for the most part you get your long tab and green beret.  In his mind he felt the Q-course was no tougher then Ranger School, but it was at the same time harder, they were just different with a different set of expectations.  After graduation from the Q-course it was off to language school, SERE, and others, once he completed those he would be wrap it up with 18A Detachment Commander School.  This was additional months and months of schools in addition, to the selection course.  Once he completed everything he had been promoted to Captain and was assigned to 5th Special Forces Group, 4th Battalion at Fort Campbell Kentucky.  Once there he became a Detachment Commander for an A-Team, but was there a short time before being sent off to the Free Fall School at Yuma Proving Grounds in Arizona.  After that he returned to the team and was sent for his first of several tours in Iraq, from his previous tours overseas and working with SF units as Ranger he had an idea of what to expect so it wasn’t totally foreign to him.
                  After that assignment he and his team returned to the states and once back at Campbell he applied to go to the US Army Combat Diver Qualification Course in Key West Florida and was accepted.  About that time he was really wondering if he was just a glutton for punishment.  By and large the Combat Diver Course was the most physical and grueling course he had done to date, at the end of it he was pretty beat down but happy that he had completed it, he vowed no more schools.  Besides, he had pretty much hit most of the been there done that courses, outside of Air Assault and Sapper, if you saw him in uniform he had all the bells and whistles and the t-shirts to prove it.
                  He returned to his team and was sent on another tour to Iraq, this repeated itself several times while he was with the 5th. They would return home, then train, train, train for a few more months than head off for another hot spot not always Iraq or Afghanistan.  Then back to Campbell and train, train, train then back to Afghanistan or Iraq.  Even that was getting old after so many years of it.
                  He started shopping around for other opportunities, he didn’t want to get out of the Army, he loved it.  He wanted more, but more of what he didn’t really know one day recruiters started showing up for 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta.  He talked to them quite a bit so he thought about it, he did have all of the qualifications, but he swore no more schools, at least voluntarily.   Before he knew it he decided what the fuck and went for it.  He submitted his request to attend the Delta Selection Course and it was approved, so off to Bragg he went, again.
                  The selection course is four weeks and it wasn’t that tough so he thought, he was selected to move onto the OTC (Operator Training Course) which would be six months long.  Thinking back through those six months he found that he made some of the best friends in his life, many among the men he was currently with.  He got through the mentally and physically tough OTC within the six months and found himself assigned to a team as team Commander, although rank was seldom used.
                  Operators when in the states