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Although the green beret is issued as standard head gear, and required by regulations for uniform and military ceremony, Special Forces (SF)* soldiers for the most part usually don't wear a green beret. And many don't really like being called a "green beret". SF soldiers never call each other green berets.
In the movies and in the minds of Americans, Rambo is THE "Green Beret". Rambo isn't even qualified to try out for Special Forces. Rambo never could have made it through the first half day of Phase I Tactics & Techniques in Special Forces Training Group. He would not even be able to pass the initial screening written test and so never would get the chance to go to Ft. Bragg and fail that Phase I course.
There is no example for a typical Special Forces soldier because you are not going to find one. The best stereotype for Special Forces is an extremely physically and mentally fit person who learns fast, has a tremendous ability to adapt, and makes fast solid decisions. On duty individual SF operators adopt whatever stereotype the current mission requires. One mission had me in earrings, a loincloth and bracelets, living for months in caves with rats and cobras and native people. That was not unusual, and a good SF operator can find himself appointed, say, Secretary of Agriculture of Korea, which actually happened to one Special Forces sergeant. The Pentagon frowned upon the SF sergeant's moonlight job as a high ranking official of a foreign government and transferred him to another SF group located quite far away from Korea. And so The Republic of Korea was forced to find a new Secretary of Agriculture.
Whenever someone calls me a Green Beret I usually feel stereotyped. Once I spent a few weeks in a wheelchair, and a cane to walk after an injury to my foot. Everywhere I went people were TOO polite to me, patronizing, condescending as if I was an inferior person who isn't very smart. It was the Wheelchair Stereotype and now I know why most people in wheelchairs like you better if you don't categorize them for it.
I talk to many SF people, and one thing is for sure: We do not mind people calling us 'The Green Berets' or 'The Howdy Doodies' or 'The Mickey Mice' if doing so will bring positive action and attention to what really matters. As always in SF what matters is "Accomplish the Mission".
The official motto in the Special Forces crest insignia "De Oppresso Libre" means "Liberate from Oppression".
Today's mission is eradicating the practice of government sponsored systematic terror and genocide. House Bill HR-1587 goes a long way to make our immediate mission of preserving the indigineous hill tribes peoples of Asia much easier to accomplish. Tomorrow's mission will be something else, but today our allies and brothers and sisters, the Montagnards in Southeast Asia are being killed and tortured.
We need to stop this genocide before our friends are all dead.