#ARMY SF CADRE GOES IOFF HOW TO#

Four E-7s and a bunch of kids right out of basic. They broke our company up alphabetically, which means that four of the SF guys, Ross Andrews, Brian Bewley, Chapple and myself were in one squad. “Hey, at least we asked the right guy…er Sir.” The TAC almost laughed then caught himself and promised to keep a close eye on us two. “Yes thank you, sir.” My response wasn’t good enough for Wade. “You find your way BUDDY?, PAL, BROTHER? ” he screamed in my face. He tore thru the formation looking for you know who. The warrant was scanning the crowd and sure enough, he spotted us at the back. Then the door to the Tac Shed burst open and the big black dude appeared. It scared the hell of the high school kids, for us it was like …meh, whatever. A bunch of Warrant Officer TAC-Officers descended on the formation, trying the old intimidation game. Our very first student formation set the tone. We got our stuff out of the truck and made our way to the barracks, an old Army WWII building at the end of the street. We pulled into the parking lot, walked up to the door and signed in. Pulling over, I yelled, “Hey buddy, are you going to the head shed to sign in?” He turned and said, “Are you, two students?” …Suppressing my smart-ass response, since we needed an answer, I said, “That’s right pal, students.” “Second door on the right,” he said. After driving around aimlessly for 30 minutes, we saw a huge black dude with a shaved head and carrying his luggage. You’d think there’d be a sign right? Wrong. Putting two smart-assed Yankees together on a road trip to the south should be a piece of cake right? We drove down to Rucker, got on the base about 3 in the morning and were searching in vain for the Student Company. “This should be fun.” Little did I know … Rather than fly commercial, Wade was going to drive his truck and was looking for some company. There were six SF NCOs and a couple of CID agents. Our class was filled with about 50 high school kids who wanted to fly helicopters.

#ARMY SF CADRE GOES IOFF HOW TO#

The Army in its infinite wisdom decided that SF NCOs who are transitioning to the Warrant program need to go back to a sillier time and learn how to roll t-shirts the size of a Coke can, stand numerous inspections and step back in time for grade school antics. We’ll feature more of that in a later date.īut back when we were just a bit younger, we attended the Warrant Officer Candidate School (WOCS) together. He later moved on and was the American advisor to the two Colombian Special Forces Battalions, that were co-located at the site of the Lancero School and the NCO Academy. Bragg, we both were team leaders as at that time there was a dearth of Captains in SF Branch. After a short time as A-Team XOs in 7th Group in both Panama and Ft. Wade was one of the most tactically and technically proficient officers I’ve ever known. We spent the entire time remembering the good, funny times of our careers and my sides literally hurt from laughing so hard. He’s also one the funniest guys you’d ever meet and an absolute character. My buddy Wade Chapple is a retired Chief Warrant Officer CW4 from 7th SFG(A). I spent the better part of Saturday afternoon on the phone with one of oldest and dearest of friends.

Army sf cadre goes ioff