While covering a story recently, I had the opportunity to tour some facilities with a number of current and former elite operators hailing from various military branches and government agencies.  Although these men may have different abbreviations on their identification cards, the community of people with their unique skill set and level of expertise is small, and it isn’t uncommon to find that most of them know each other.  Even within this community, Delta Force is held in an extremely high regard, as I came to find when I mentioned my fellow contributor, George Hand in conversation.

“You know George Hand?” One of them asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Yeah, he’s a great guy, have you worked with him?” I responded.

“No… I just know of him… reputation only.” He answered.  I knew our beloved Geo was a badass, but even I didn’t know he was held in such high regard among other badasses.

But then, there’s a lot we don’t know about America’s most elite fighting units, and that’s by design.  Even SEAL Team 6 got the numeral portion of its moniker as a part of a misinformation effort intended to convince the Russians that there were at least five more groups of elite SEALS to contend with (of course, there actually wasn’t).

Among the world’s elite war fighting units, few can compare to America’s Delta Force.  Like SEAL Team 6 (DEVGRU), Delta operators are recognized as the best of the best, many of whom serve in special operations units like the Rangers or Green Berets before ever heading to the selection process to even try out to become a part of CAG, or the Combat Applications Group, which Delta traditionally goes by.

Like the missions they complete, little is publicly known about the official process a soldier must go through in order to become a full-fledged Delta operator, but this video provides a brief description of just how elite these soldiers truly are.  As you’ll see in the video, even some Delta operators aren’t able to articulate exactly what it takes to be selected, as much of the process remains classified even to those who experience it.

SOFREP subscribers may even see a familiar face among the special forces experts brought in to discuss the ordeal that is Delta selection and operations.  If this video gets the gears of interest turning in your head about Delta, make sure to check out the series on Delta selection written by SOFREP’s resident Delta operator, George E. Hand IV here.

Image courtesy of YouTube

*Originally published on SOFREP and written by ALEX HOLLINGS