I am not American, and do not understand what constitutes Special Forces. I had thought that Army Rangers were Special Forces, but apparently they are not. Is Special Forces an inclusive term, or a designation unto itself?
Completing Ranger training is not the same as being assigned to a Ranger unit.
“Special Forces” are the Army’s Green Berets. “Special Operations” include several different organizations from all services but our news media, being ignorant of military matters often use the term “Special Forces” for all special operators.
In the army it’s a simple yes/no equation...
Either you are authorized the special forces tab or you are not. You can get into deeper discussions of deployments, and unit assignments, but in the end it’s tab or no tab.
Trust me when I say that a soldier is always 100% clear as to whether he is, or is not, special forces.
The Navy and USMC use different language... special warfare and special operations, and even there, the specwar guys know who they are, and the specops guys are clear on their roles.
It might seem like semantics from the outside, but inside the fences a) the boys know who’s who, and b) yes, it matters.
It is its own entity, it goes ranger,special forces, Delta force and for this baboon to claim he was more than he is, is a stolen valor issue and he should be fired, I was a scout in the army nothing special but I have worked with special forces In Iraq but I wouldn’t say I was a green beret because it would be a lie all this clearer now.
I am an American mother with a son who started out in Army moved to 82nd Airborne (which included service in Gulf War 1), then transferred into Special Forces (with 2 tours in Afghanistan). I understand that Special Forces is a distinct entity, but in general I have also though of special forces as including the 82nd, Green Berets, Seals, Delta Force, etc. So, do we know if he was saying Special Forces, or special forces since he was not reading from a script or applying for a job?
In the US Army, there are various ranking of infantry soldiers:
1) Straight-leg-infantry
2) Mechanized infantry (In vehicles)
3) Air-Mobile infantry (Helicopters)
4) Airborne Infantry (Paratroopers)
5) Rangers (Girl scouts wear black berets)
6) Green Berets (Special forces)
7) Delta (if they exist)(BG9)
Claiming a higher status is considered to be in bad taste.