QUESTION: DELTA FORCE LIFE EXPECTANCY

A READER WRITES: "Hi, I just came across your blog yesterday and I find it very entertaining. Recently I've been reading a lot about the Army, specifically Rangers and Delta Force. Now, word on the web is that for Delta, life expectancy of an operator drops to about 49% in the span of 6 years, that one can only be in Delta for around 6 years due to becoming mentally drained, and, if you're one of the lucky half to survive all 6 years, your physical health rapidly deteriorates in the process.

"I can't say that I believe or disbelieve these statements because they do appear to hold some degree of sense, however, as I'm sure you know, the Internet is very unreliable in general, let alone about something as secretive as Delta.
So I come to you, since it would seem to have a knowledge on this sort of stuff but also have connections to people who may possess some degree of awareness on the subject.
 
"In other words, do you by any chance know whether or not any of that is true?"
 
"Thank you for your time, -J.A."

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Dear J:
I don't know where you're getting this six-year statistic from; the sergeant-major in my last operational unit was in CAG from mid-eighties until late nineties - more than ten years. I've known several guys like that.

Now I can't say much about Delta because I wasn't in the CAG but I can assure you The Unit is VERY physically challenging but not necessarily more than any other combat arms MOS - just in different ways. They don't have the mind-numbing, daily grind of back-breaking, soul-killing tasks. Hell, they have support choagees to tote & carry their bags; they don't even clean their own weapons.

Soldiering is hard work no matter what outfit you're in - at least as hard as professional football, lumberjacking or rodeo cowboying. Unless you take a bad wound, our long-term injuries tend to be knees, lower back (working & marching with 80+ lbs worth of kit starts to wear on you after ten or twenty years in the harness).

I knew a guy who retired as Command Sergeant Major, 82d Airborne Division. Charlie Thorpe went from private to First Sergeant in A Co/1st 325th Airborne Infantry Regiment, with only a two year break to do drill sergeant duty. The man was harder than woodpecker lips. I guarantee you a tour as a grunt in Division is as hard if ot harder on the body than a tour in Special Operations.

Me? I was still on a Special Forces Operational Detachment at age 45 - still loading ammo cans up onto the GunVee, still jumping out of planes & helicopters, still running around with 80 lbs worth of lightweight gear strapped to my body. Nowadays my back & my knees are talking to me, let me tell you. My ears are blown out, I've got this weird skin rash I picked up in Bosnia, have more dead friends than living and I have to deal with the demons inside my skull.

Other than that I'm ready willing and able to drive on for the next 20 years - going into my third year of contracting and let me tell you I'll take a hard-charging paratrooper or Marine lance corporal on my team any day over a whining, spoiled rotten prima donna Spec Ops guy who's got better things to do than bust ass on a job that more often than not includes mundane tasks like pulling maintenance on the vehicles or maybe doing the obligatory goat-grab with your indig' counterparts.

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Thank You For Your Support,
-Sean L.

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