Special forces skills.....

[.45cultist]

Does anyone add Instruction and leadership to the first term skills since training forces is a major part of the job. Training is the major pass/fail for the Robin Sage test.

[pmulcahy11b]

Leadership comes with becoming an NCO or Officer. Instruction is a good idea, though.

[.45cultist]

Originally Posted by pmulcahy11b

Leadership comes with becoming an NCO or Officer. Instruction is a good idea, though.

I don't have my books with me. It just seemed a minor mistake, it is in the next term list, but I understood Instruction was in the course. Careful use of the skills would dictate job slot: Medical NCO, Engineer, Weapons, etc. To "Sheepdip" and make a paramilitary operative, next term can be"agent", though operative is a better term.

[Rainbow Six]

Originally Posted by pmulcahy11b

Leadership comes with becoming an NCO or Officer. Instruction is a good idea, though.

Instruction comes with being promoted to NCO as well, as does Persuasion.

From Pg 30, BYB (2.2)

When an enlisted man is made an NCO,
he receives one skill level in each of the three
NCO skill areas listed on the NCO Skills List
below. In each subsequent term he may take
one of his skill points as an NCO skill instead
of the normal term skills for that career. This
three-skill package is a one-time benefit, and
is taken in lieu of the normal single skill
earned with a promotion.

The NCO Skills List referred to are Instruction, Leadership, and Persuasion.

I haven't looked this up, but don't you have to be at least an E5 to apply for US Special Forces? (If so, that isn't addressed in character generation)

[StainlessSteelCynic]

The rank requirements (i.e. being E5) to apply would seem to be standard in only a few armies, such as the US and a few European forces. A lot of other armies would allow Privates of at least two or three years service to apply for Special Forces.
So in terms of PC generation, rank requirement might have been deliberately ignored perhaps?

[.45cultist]

I guess that the green beret school refines that package or refreshes skills atrophied by the job the nco was in. Hence the option to improve the next term.

[pmulcahy11b]

Originally Posted by Rainbow Six

I haven't looked this up, but don't you have to be at least an E5 to apply for US Special Forces? (If so, that isn't addressed in character generation)

You have to be an E4 (a Corporal and not a Specialist) to apply for SF. In addition, you need to have been boarded and have been to PLDC (in other words, eligible for promotion to Sergeant as soon as you have the time in grade or promotion points). In this case, you don't get promoted to Sergeant until you finish training (but before Robin Sage).

There used to be a program where you enlisted with an SF option, and from basic you went straight to jump school to SF training. You could start SF training as an E-3 in this case, be promoted to E-4 during training, and E-5 before Robin Sage. They were getting too many washouts and substandards, and they stopped that program. However, the Rangers have an equivalent to this program and are still running it, AFAIK.

[Rainbow Six]

Originally Posted by pmulcahy11b

You have to be an E4 (a Corporal and not a Specialist) to apply for SF. In addition, you need to have been boarded and have been to PLDC (in other words, eligible for promotion to Sergeant as soon as you have the time in grade or promotion points). In this case, you don't get promoted to Sergeant until you finish training (but before Robin Sage).

There used to be a program where you enlisted with an SF option, and from basic you went straight to jump school to SF training. You could start SF training as an E-3 in this case, be promoted to E-4 during training, and E-5 before Robin Sage. They were getting too many washouts and substandards, and they stopped that program. However, the Rangers have an equivalent to this program and are still running it, AFAIK.

Thanks...IIRC it was something I read in a book somewhere that got me thinking along those lines...I think it might have been the opening chapter(s) of American Sniper, which I flicked through in a bookshop last weekend.