I get a lot of kids looking to join the Army, as well as active duty soldiers, e-mailing me with their questions about Special Forces.  One of the rumors going around right now is that all Special Forces candidates graduate from HALO School and get an Associates degree as a part of their training.  This didn’t sound quite right to me so I made some phone calls to get to the bottom of the matter.  I got this information straight from the source so we can cut through some of the misconceptions going around.

The Special Warfare Center (SWC) has been working for a while to get the Q-Course arranged so that all new Green Berets will graduate with an Associates degree.  They almost have it worked out, Soldiers in the Q-Course will have to take eight or so college level courses which when taken into account with their Special Forces training will earn them an Associates.  There are also plans in the works for Special Forces Sergeants to get their Bachelors and Masters Degrees, in fact, it might become a requirement in order to get promoted into senior level positions.  I think it’s a great initiative to further professionalize the force.  However, this program is not yet in effect.  It’s going to take a little time for SWC to get everything up and running.

Second, HALO is not a part of the Special Forces pipeline.  This would require a massive overhaul of the HALO School at Ft. Bragg and Yuma, Arizona.  They would have to quadruple the size of the school house.  Usually, it’s difficult enough for those assigned to HALO teams to get a slot much less every single Green Beret.  Making HALO a part of the pipeline is something that is being looked at and may be implemented in the future but it is not something that exists at this time.

I hope this clears up some of the RUMINT going around.