What you remember is absolutely true. Up until 1985 Special Forces Qualification was so haphazardly controlled that almost any Adjutant with a mimeograph machine could cut orders awarding a soldier a “3” or an “S” qualification on his MOS indicating the soldier was Special Forces qualified. In reality, only those who graduated from the Special Forces Qualification Course at Fort Bragg, NC and then gained a total of three addition Special Forces MOSs were actually Special Forces Qualified, but unless you looked closely at a soldier’s records, you couldn’t tell who was really qualified and who wasn’t.
There were quite a few of these “Paper Qualifications” in the Special Forces community when BG Joe Lutz pushed the Special Forces Branch through Department of the Army in 1985, and Special Forces, for the first time, had its own branch with it’s own MOSs. With the now activated Special Forces Branch, Special Forces MOSs converted as follows: 11B became 18B, 11C became 18C, 12B became 18C, 91B became 18D, 05B became 18B, and 11F became 18F.
It was show and tell time. Now, no matter how long a soldier had been in Special Forces, for him to be awarded an 18, he had to produce his training records. Paper qualifications weren’t accepted.
During this “Show and Tell” transition to the 18 Career Field, it was discovered, to no one’s surprise, Special Forces Reserve and National Guard units were predominately “Paper” qualified, very few had ever been formally trained in a Special Forces MOS. They were, for the most part, conventional 11B, 12B, 91B, etc who had been accepted into Reserve/Guard Special Forces units and then OJT’d their Special Forces Qualification. After they had participated in three Special Forces operations, their Adjutants cut their orders for a 3 or and S, and just like magic, they were Special Forces Qualified in the eyes of the Army.
That all ended with the 18 MOS Special Forces Career Field. Now, to be considered Special Forces Qualified and receive an 18 MOS, a soldier had to prove he had been formally trained at Fort Bragg. There were some exceptions to this, and one was if a soldier had served with a Special Forces unit in Vietnam and had OJT’d his Special Forces Qualification in combat. If he had done that, his “Paper” Qualification was accepted and he was awarded an 18.
It’s a strange twist of fate that I happen to know of several of these combat OJT Special Forces Qualifications and one of them, like Levy, was assigned as a base station radio operator at a Special Forces Training Camp near Long Binh in 1970. But that’s where the similarity ends. He had orders assigning him to a Special Forces unit in Vietnam, and he had orders awarding him an S, and apparently Levy has neither.
As for the man you knew in the Texas Guard with a “Paper Qualification,” (actually we referred to them as “Paper Flashes” as the Flash they wore on their berets was only paper.) I’m sure he got his SF Qualification the same thousands did before 1985, he got it the easy way.
DJ Taylor
11B/11C became 18B, 12B became 18C, 91B became 18D, 05B became 18E, and 11F became 18F.
As for the man you knew in the Texas Guard with a “Paper Qualification,”
Like I said he earned it in combat in Vietnam and wore the patch, he was a very good guy and Rottman seemed to have a lot of respect for him.
There were about 7 more SF in the company and the Captain was SF, some of them like Rottman were active duty.
Your information was excellent and I appreciate it much, that is stuff I had never read about, yet it is commonly known that many Rangers weren't tabbed.