Mindset Rant - Entitlement, arrogance, and thinking being part of SOF makes you better than others

I became an indoc instructor because I felt that I had a good amount of experience to go help raise the next generation. The Indoc course is always getting better. There are a lot of smart instructors here that have poured everything they have into making a quality product (PJ Trainee). It was different when I went through, for sure, but I'm not the type who tout's "rocks were heavier and everything was uphill" to the students, as comments like those have no merit and discount the difficulties that today's students endure. That, and those comments undermine the course as a whole and drive a wedge between old and new generations of PJs. Some students do stand out as stellar performers, but at the end of the course, they all are. The one's that I prefer to see are the ones with the ability to think outside-the-box, maturity, integrity and quiet professionalism.

I don't tell stories that often because I do not dwell on accomplishments of my past. All that matters are my actions of the present and future. My faults and failures of the past are what I will talk about more so that others do not repeat mistakes that I made (i.e. Triple check your lowering line, on your rucksack, for rips or tears; make sure your parachute doesn't squeeze all of your water out of your camelbak prior to an extended ground operation).

On a somewhat side-note: I do hear grumblings of students that the instructors can be dicks, but as I'm sure any other SOF member can relate, it is for the reason that we would rather be hard on our students now, rather than for them to go to Airborne/Freefall/Dive and look like a douche in front of other services. Freefall school is a prime example where our young 18-22 year old students are intermixed with seasoned SF/SEAL/Ranger/Etc. types that are not afforded this school at the beginning of their career and would not react well to a mouthy kid. I'm not saying that we hear that, but if word did come our way, it would be dealt with swiftly.

All-in-all, the learning curve is very steep for PJ candidates/PJ Trainees in terms of embracing the mindset of a Pararescueman because they will quickly find themselves in a joint environment as a representative of Pararescue.

Thank you for the post. What I meant by the stories question is if you have any especially memorable stories from Indoc or training or otherwise. Like any PJ candidates that stood out as being great/stupid/funny/etc?

Well said.

lol, I can relate with that....hahaha

I don't think the reasons are as noble though...

Being a new PJ is the same. I've spent a lot of time maintaining and inventorying equipment, emptying trash and rolling streamers with chem lights. It made me very confident in my humility;)

The author of American Sniper needs to read this thread...

JustAnotherJ -

I've enjoyed reading your posts in this thread about being a Instructor and your motivation for taking that position. One thing I've always been curious about is what it's like to come back to a SOF-entry school as an Instructor. After being a student and going through the course, and now being the man you at one time feared/hated/admired/wanted to be, what is it like?

I see it as a huge responsibility to my students and brotherhood alike. I understand the sacrifice and effort that my students have made as a career choice, but the consequence of overlooking quality for quantity could get my brothers killed, plain and simple. However, as an instructor, one must realize students are not you or at your level, so you have account for the fact that a two year training pipeline awaits them to mature them further. The question is did they achieve the goals set forth by the Indoc course? If so, they just may achieve the goals of all the other courses, and have earned a chance to prove it.

Our Indoc instructors were all very approachable. Unless you fucked up... There were only a handful of evolutions during Indoc that were truly designed to kick our teeth in. BCT, all bets were off though. Most of it was actually being instructed in the pool or on the beach. Intro to O-course, Basic Water Survival and the like. Of course guys dropped, myself included, but it was more of a gradual progression. Everyone of our Indoc instructors, all the way up to our LCPO, told us we could contact them 24 hours a day if need be. We all had their phone numbers. I don't think anyone ever used them, but I also don't think there would have been any repercussions had we done so.
Just my $.02