Special Operations Personality Test

I get tons of questions about military service - whether or not someone should go into the service, what branch they should go in, all sorts of stuff. And with the stark changes between the different administrations we’ve had over the last twelve years and all the stuff with the jab, it’s a much bigger question than I think it used to be.

The reality is that I have no idea. I don’t know what the Navy is like, I wasn’t in the Navy. I don’t know what the Air Force is like, I wasn’t in the Air Force (though that does seem like a pretty comfortable option. So, if you’re smart, you should probably go Air Force). But if you’re really smart, you probably should stay out of the military, I digress.

Even the Army, I don’t really know what it’s like. I know what being a Ranger was like, but I didn’t really have any contact or experience with Big Army. I got through basic and then went straight to all my Ranger stuff. We had high fences around us, and we really didn’t play with the rest of the Army. That said, I worked a lot with other special operations forces, but the rest of the military - I have no idea.

A Certain Personality Profile

Now, if you’re interested in going the special operations route, there is a certain personality profile that is helpful to have. I’m sure you could muster up some of these traits if you don’t readily have them, but some of this stuff may be you either have it or you don’t, and that’s just life.

Street Smarts

You’ve got to possess a certain level of applicable intelligence, street smarts if you will. It’s being cunning and creative, not necessarily academic in the philosophies and ideologies. You have to have intelligence under fear or pressure. For example, when I experience fear, I become razor focused and solution seeking. I’m trying to solve the problem as quickly and as effectively as possible.

You could have all the other skills, but if you can’t manage fear (which I believe comes from having a certain level of applicable intelligence, a mental control over your circumstance so you don’t freeze and get other people killed) you won’t be able to overcome the problem and keep yourself and your guys alive.

Questioning Why

This one might sound a bit counter intuitive. It is the military after all. There are rules and orders you have to follow, but an individual who thrives in special operations will hate rules and structure put solely in place just for the sake of having rules and structure. If the rules don’t serve a purpose other than just being a rule, and you hate that, then you’ll likely fit in with special operations forces.

Hearing, “that’s just the way we’ve always done it,” in response to questioning processes is the death of the soul to a special operations soldier. If you’re inclined toward creative problem solving, you’ll likely fit in and be successful.

For example, in war, Rangers are so effective at combatting the enemy through creative combat that we’re able to do what other units are unable and therefore become invaluable to the war effort. But in times of peace, Rangers would be so unruly and hard to manage that they would be shut down. You have to be able to follow enough rules to be successful but have enough rowdiness and unruliness to do what others cannot on the battlefield.

Typically, Rangers suck at drill and ceremony. No Ranger is going have shiny boots, because what does shiny boots have to do with anything? Is having shiny boots going to improve our combat effectiveness? And I can hear it now, "shiny boots demonstrate discipline. It builds discipline." Well, can’t we build discipline in a different way?

Sure, we could stand outside in the 120-degree heat at parade rest for three hours to show our discipline, or we could read ten books and workout three times. Wouldn’t that be a better display of discipline that is actually improving the warfighter?

See, that’s the questioning why.

Can’t Quit Attitude

We all plan to quit, we all desire to quit; our bodies will do that to us under stress. This is where the mind has to dominate the body and actually not quit. There’s a drive within those who are successful in special operations that makes it impossible to quit.

You can be successful in everything you do and realize that once you face the prospect of failing you fall right into its clutches. There needs to be some kind mechanism in you that—though you may think of quitting—you actually don’t know how to quit; you would actually die before you would quit.

Having Tough Skin

You need to have thicker skin, tough skin. Today, people (at an alarming rate) are becoming more and more sensitive. You think we’ve seen the height of it, then nope, you get surprised by how fragile everyone’s feelings continue to become. You have to be able to hold the physical, emotional, and mental rigors of the battlefield to be a successful special operations solider.

While going through Primary Leadership and Development Course (which is a Big Army school you had to go through to obtain your sergeant stripes), I was up for honor graduate and expulsion at the same time (I know, I know, typical Ranger stuff, no surprise there). The reason I was up for expulsion from the course was because I “shot” an instructor with blanks as he tried to “shoot” me first with his “God gun” (Think laser tag where the instructors could “kill” anyone they felt like during field exercises). Well, I saw him aiming at me, and so I just lit him up.

Once he recovered from the shock, he was in my face, nose to nose, letting me have it as my fireteam continued to push on the objective. Honestly, I couldn’t care less. I complied, but I thought it was so silly, and I really didn’t care. In the end, I ended up passing the course and getting my stripes, so yay for that.

Why This Self Evaluation is Important

I was in boot camp with 70 guys. Everyone was talking about how they were going to be a Ranger and would recite the Ranger Creed at lights out. It was beyond obnoxious. Out of those 70, only five made it to the Ranger Indoctrination Program (RIP). Of those 5, I was the only one to make it. All those guys on a Ranger Contract failed, and they were shipped out to the needs of the Army. That’s how Big Army fills all those jobs no one wants to do.

Make sure you thoroughly evaluate your capability to ensure that if you take that contract, you make it through and are not miserable for the next six years. You don’t want a suck duty assignment.

It’s Not Getting There, It’s Staying There

Whether it be BUDs or RASP and then on to Ranger School, A&S, OTC, or whatever, it’s not hard to get in the door most of the time. For the right candidate, it may not even be hard to pass those courses and get into your special operations unit of choice, but what’s really hard is staying there where every day is an audition for your job.

I’d tell my Privates that they needed to be excellent at everything. Not some things, but everything. It’s a higher standard, and you have to hold yourself to that. For example, during my entire military career, I never once didn’t max out my PT test.

Every PT test I took, I maxed it out, and I required every one of my guys under me to max out their PT. If you didn’t max out your PT, you were gone. The top standard for the Army was the minimum standard to be on my team, and if you can’t meet those standards, then you didn’t have a place on my team.

Conclusion

So, for you guys out there considering this way of life, if you know you have that internal drive, that mindset, that self-discipline, that never-quit attitude, that creative problem solving, that fear management, then something in special operations might be a good fit for you.

But if you don’t, then you need to have that honest assessment, because you don’t ever want to go to the general needs of the Army or Navy. There are still a bunch of cool jobs you can do in the military without having to do the ones nobody wants to do.

Remember, Train Hard. Train Smart. And be honest with yourself.