Special Operations Forces in the Year 2K.

[Raellus]

Originally Posted by oldschoolgm

I have to agree here and I probably should have talked further on it earlier, DA teams or even units involved in those type of misions would have horrific attrition rates in this kind of war. And I was thinking more in terms of the Advisory troops and purely reconnaissance units. That is why I would think meeting a SEAL in the year 2000 in the game would be rare indeed, but to see SF troops that were either advisor or CIV/PSY Ops type operators probably wouldn't be so rare.

Even deep recon units would likely take heavy casualties. Vietnam-era LRRPs and SOG teams did, and they had access to all kinds of air support should they be compromised. In many- if not most- cases, air support was the only reason teams that were detected made it back to base alive. After '97, recon teams would likely have little to no air support when in the field. Operating many miles behind enemy lines, a compromised team would be in big trouble. It wouldn't be unusual to lose entire 5-7 man deep recon teams. That is some serious attrition. And, as a couple of posters have already pointed out, the training to produce soldiers capable of carrying out these types of operations is rather lengthy and involved. Replacing experienced recon troops with quality would be difficult.

Also, after '97, field commanders would have little to no access to satelite or aerial reconaissance images so LRRP-type troops would probably see their workload increase. More frequent missions would most likely result in higher rates of attrition.

It pains me to bring all of this up as I am a huge, long-time fan of LRRP/Rangers and SOF recon troops in general. Also, these are the types of soldiers most RPers want to play so there needs to be a justification to allow them in games set in and after 2000. I just think the GM needs to be realistic about losses in such units. IMPO, in 2000, there would be only a handful of able-bodied prewar SOF operators available in most Corps areas. Much more common would be in-theater, post TDM, field trained (a-la the RECONDO school of the Vietnam era) pseudo-operators.