Green Berets’ numbers fall short

The Army’s Green Berets, a key weapon in the war on terror, are operating at under their authorized strength because of the high-attrition qualification course and because of the lure of higher-paying security work at private companies, military officials say.

A number of military analysts and politicians have noted the Green Berets’ importance in hunting al Qaeda terrorists and called on the Pentagon to increase significantly the Green Berets’ ranks. For example, Sen. John Kerry, Massachusetts Democrat, said during the presidential campaign that the number of Green Berets — officially called Special Forces — should double.

But an examination by The Washington Times shows that there has been no budget authorization for significantly more Green Berets because Army Special Operations Command cannot fill all the billets it had before the September 11 attacks.

“Special Forces cannot be mass-produced overnight,” said Maj. Robert Gowan, a command spokesman. “We work very hard to maintain our standards.”

A Green Beret, who asked not to be named, said, “We are always understrength because we cannot find enough qualified candidates. … The notion of expanding Special Forces was always a pipe dream. Special Forces could never get bigger without the Army getting bigger. The more milk, the more cream.”

Elite Green Berets are a perfect fit for the war on terror because they train for the kind of unconventional warfare now going on in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Today, a Green Beret force of five active-duty groups stands at 98 percent of billets. It had been at 94 percent before the September 11 attacks. The soldiers deploy from the 1st, 3rd, 5th, 7th and 10th Special Forces groups headquartered at bases in North Carolina, Kentucky, Colorado and Washington state.

The Army is producing slightly more Green Berets as the chiefs of U.S. regional commands, called combatant commanders, place increased mission demands on the commandos. The five groups boast 3,950 Special Forces-qualified soldiers today, compared with 3,850 three years ago.

The Army managed the slight increase of 100, not by increased budgets for more billets, but by graduating more soldiers to both meet the mission demand and to cover losses as some soldiers left for higher-paying private-sector jobs.

Still, only about one-third of recruits successfully complete the grueling 63-week qualification school and earn the unit’s signature green beret. The Army was graduating about 350 soldiers per year in 2002, but last year nearly doubled the number to 620.

“We are slightly understrength, but we are working to fill those shortages,” Maj. Gowan said. “The training to become a Special Forces soldier is tough, rigorous and long. To produce the type of warrior we want, it has to be.”

The standards helped produced victory for the United States in Afghanistan. Green Beret A Teams infiltrated the country, teamed with local Northern Alliance and other guerrillas and defeated the Taliban with the help of pinpoint air strikes.

Green Berets, long kept out of counterterrorism on a large scale, suddenly saw their reputation and popularity skyrocket.

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, very much a fan of what special operations forces can do, further enlisted Special Forces to fight in Iraq, Yemen, the Horn of Africa and the Philippines. Green Berets have even been tapped for clandestine spy missions in some al Qaeda-heavy countries.

In Iraq, Green Berets teamed up with Kurdish fighters to destroy the al Qaeda-linked terror camp of Ansar al Islam. It was one of dozens of Special Forces missions, some conducted behind enemy lines.

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