In Focus with Curtis Fox: Why Language and Longevity Matter in the Regiment

Editor’s Note: Welcome back to our weekly column with former Green Beret Curtis Fox. This week, Fox argues that language proficiency should be required for promotion and calls for reforms to keep top Non-Commissioned Officers (NCOs) on teams longer while reserving Q-Course instructor roles for only the most qualified.

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Language Proficiency

Many of the men of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) Operations Group (OG) teams and Special Operations Branch were selected based on their existing language proficiency. In fact, in the early Special Forces team rooms in Bad Tolz, Germany, it was rare to hear men having casual conversation in English. There is no more important skill for the men of the Special Forces Regiment to master. People will not trust you in their communities if you can only communicate with them through a translator. Green Berets not only have to win goodwill, but also blend in and participate in the local customs and norms.

Every Green Beret will undergo six months of language training after finishing the Q-Course (Special Forces Qualification Course). This is an area where the American education system does not perform well. With the notable exceptions of immigrants and Hispanics, most Americans don’t speak anything other than English. The instructors at the John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School (JFKSWCS) do a fantastic job helping young Green Berets get up to a basic level of proficiency, and it is a mission-critical skill that allows Special Forces to conduct its unique mission.

Despite all Group Commanding Officers (COs) maintaining standing orders that all Special Forces Operational Detachment Alphas (SFOD-As) will undergo one month of uninterrupted language training each year, administrative requirements frequently necessitate Team Sergeants (18Zs) and officers (18As) to fractionally participate in order to ensure the SFOD-A can hit training hard when their language re-qualifications are over.

Unfortunately, universal foreign language proficiency is only a top priority on paper. The only Special Forces Group that can really operate in their assigned language is 7th Group. This is due to the existing fluency of 7th Group’s many Hispanic Green Berets and the relative ease of learning Spanish in comparison to other languages like Korean or Mandarin.

There are also many young Green Berets who simply don’t take it as seriously as they should. 2/2 language proficiency must be a requirement for promotion to Sergeant First Class (E-7). For the record, this author initially struggled with his assigned language of Russian—so much so that he was reassigned to a separate class for more focused instruction. After spending 2-3 hours a night studying Russian during my first two years in Group, I was rated at 2+/2 proficiency. 

Of course, these kinds language proficiency policies will need to be dialed in. Learning Mandarin is simply far harder than learning French, and Group Sergeant Majors should be able to issue waivers at their discretion for extraordinary circumstances. But it’s also the case that United States Army Special Operations Command (USASOC) encourages its NCOs to take online community college courses to fill deployment downtime. No one can explain how an Associate Degree in the Applied Arts would benefit the mission. Instead, Green Berets should study their languages. Or best of both worlds, get an Associate Degree in your assigned language.

Healthy Changes to the Q-Course

The Army enforces career progression policies for all NCOs, regardless of Military Occupational Specialty (MOS). For Special Forces NCOs, this means rotating back to Fort Bragg (renamed Fort Liberty) as cadre to train the next generation. NCOs are generally considered “in the window” to return to the Q-Course after three years on an SFOD-A.

This is entirely wrong.

First off, three years of team time is the bare minimum amount of time needed to get a young Green Beret’s legs underneath him. The general consensus is that it takes maybe eight years for a new Green Beret to move from apprentice to journeyman to master. This process cannot be short-changed, and it does no good to have underexperienced Green Berets teaching students. Both parties will lose in the exchange.

Secondly, the Special Forces mission and the environment inherent within every SFOD-A requires an enormous amount of trust and goodwill. Prior to the War on Terror, NCOs remained on their teams, moving up in rank and responsibility in the presence of brothers they’d known for years. Team wives and families also became extremely close, relying on each other for support when their husbands were gone for 6-9 months at a time. Leaving the team meant starting a new life for one’s entire family, even if it was a life that was still within the Army.

The Army hates for soldiers to homestead, and the existing policy is meant to force soldiers to grow; however, it is anathema to the proficiency and brotherhood within SFOD-As. Real trust is not built over a six-month pre-mission training (PMT) module. It is developed over years of hard, dangerous work downrange together. Furthermore, allowing men to spend more time on their teams with their brothers would yield dramatic improvements in retention (a painfully obvious problem in today’s Army).

This policy of rotating all Special Forces NCOs to the Q-Course (1st Special Warfare Training Group at USJFKSWCS) also creates another problem. Only the best Green Berets of the Regiment should have contact with students. Teaching cannot be a rite of passage for everyone. It is just too important.

The Army is replete with jaded, frustrated people who have been wronged by “the system”. If given the opportunity, such individuals will poison the minds of the next generation. Not every Green Beret is cut out to be an instructor. Some are simply hard-nosed warriors and gun fighters. Some love the cloak and dagger mission set. Some really enjoy teaching. SFOD-As need all of these individuals.

This is Special Forces. Let them specialize. 

The Q-Course should rely on GS-12 civilians as primary instructors, and USASOC can canvas for retired Special Forces Sergeant Majors and Team Sergeants (18Z) to fill these billets with the best men available. Secondary instructors and facilitators can be brought on as contractors. It would also be beneficial if the schoolhouse brought in outside talent. There’s no reason a SEAL or Recon Marine or Ranger Instructor (or a British Royal Marine Commando) couldn’t teach small unit tactics in the Q-Course.

Advocates for Army career progression policies rightly point out that teaching is an important gateway in NCO development and facilitates their growth into true combat leaders. This may be true, but NCOs need to have proper experience to base their instruction on. It would be better if only Green Berets who are being assessed for Team Sergeant (18Z) journeyed to the schoolhouse to serve as co-instructors alongside GS-12 civilian (veteran) mentors.

This system will ensure that students are only receiving the best instruction from the most motivated and disciplined men the Special Forces community has to offer—the true believers. And it will ensure students do not inherit the jaded experiences of frustrated NCOs. And it will preserve the unity and brotherhood that is vital for SFOD-As to function.

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Stay tuned for the last part of the “Practice of Unconventional Warfare,” where Fox wraps up with bold recommendations to future-proof Special Forces for the next era of global conflict.

You can read the previous column here.