Canadian SOF: What Does it Mean to be

Special Forces?
By Wes Kennedy 02.07.2015#World News Email Share Tweet

Looking back, I didn’t have a clue what being Special Forces actually meant. I started my career
in the Canadian Forces as a combat engineer. Out of all the careers I could have chosen, I chose
to enlist as a human mine detector. Frankly, I settled for this trade because infantry seemed too
hardcore at the time and, supposedly, I could be eligible for faster promotion in the engineers if I
showed an aptitude in mathematics. Of course, neither of these hold much truth, but I’m happy
with my initial career choice nonetheless.

Believe it or not, it was at basic training that I first heard about the existence of the Canadian
Special Operations Forces Command (CANSOFCOM), which includes Joint Task Force 2,
CSOR, CJIRU, and 427 Tactical Helicopter Squadron. One of my course mates aspired to go that
route and had a CANSOFCOM recruiting poster in his room for motivation. I didn’t ask him
much about it at the time. But the very next day, while sitting in the mess hall during one of our
‘five-minute’ lunches, I watched a news broadcaster announce the formation of a new Special
Forces unit—the Canadian Special Operations Regiment (CSOR–pronounced ‘see-soar’ in the
community). I still didn’t know what being ‘Special Forces’ really meant, but my curiosity had
been peaked.
It wouldn’t be until two years later that I would have the opportunity to apply to CSOR (which
falls under CANSOF Command). I was serving my first tour in Afghanistan with the Canadian
Battle Group in Kandahar province, taking part in the great game of ‘tactical-whack-a-mole’.
With limited resources, we had a wide area of responsibility to cover. As soon as we had
suppressed the insurgents in one area, they would pop up in another. I am sure you know the
drill.

I found out that several of my fellow soldiers were planning to apply to CSOR while on tour.
The selection phase was set to occur shortly after we arrived back in Canada, and would give us
just enough time to enjoy some post-tour leave before selection began. At first, I thought I would
wait until the next year to allow myself some more time to train, but after talking to some of the
guys, this seemed like an opportunity I shouldn’t pass up. Luckily for me, we were fortunate
enough to have a company 2I/C in charge of us that was planning to apply as well, and he went
out of his way to have our applications processed before we returned home.

Around the time selection was about to begin, I remember a friend asking me what it meant to be
Special Forces. The question stunned me a little bit, not because I was incredulous at the fact that
he would ask such an obvious question, but because it was the first time I had really thought
about it. I reflected on it briefly, and tried to answer it the best I could. I pieced together
something about night raids, and not doing peacekeeping missions, and doing ‘the business’,
which isn’t untrue but, as I would later discover, only paints a very small part of what it means to
be Special Forces.

The first time I really started to understand, it was at the beginning of the course. “Being Special
Forces is about mastering the basics,” an instructor told me. I didn’t understand it immediately,
but after the instructor explained it some more, I got it. Being Special Forces isn’t about cool
shades or sweet kit. It’s not about ‘looking the part’ or being better than everyone else. It’s about
getting really, really good at the basics of soldiering. It’s about always having your gear squared
away and ready to go. It’s about knowing your job so well, you can easily perform even your
boss’ job if called upon to do so in an emergency.

It’s about being the quiet and consummate professional at work and at home. It’s about the
constant pursuit of a more effective way of doing business, whether that’s improving your
presentation skills, placing your gear more effectively on your chest rig, or learning your fire
team partner’s job. It’s about doing all of the above, not because you were asked to, but because
you know it’s the right thing to do and because you know it will make the team stronger as a
whole.

But what sets us apart from other combat arms branches such as the combat engineers or the
infantry? Surely they do all of the above? Some people think it’s the equipment we use. They
could do our job if they had the same equipment. Maybe. Maybe they could perform at a higher
level if they had our equipment. But it’s unlikely, as it’s not the equipment that makes us Special
Forces.

What makes us Special Forces is our high level of physical fitness, combined with higher-order
thinking and cognitive abilities. It’s our unwavering dedication to an unshakeable personal ethos
 that resounds in our very core. And it’s a relentless pursuit of excellence in any and all
environmental conditions. Then, it is enhanced by high-quality equipment.

That is truly what sets us apart from the rest of the combat arms. This isn’t to imply that the SF
operator is better than all the rest. There are many combat arms soldiers that have all of the pre-
requisites to become Special Forces (and many of them do) but don’t due to family, lack of
interest, a good career in their current line of work, etc. There are some that try out for Special
Forces and don’t make it, whether due to a lack of cognitive ability, a lack of physical
preparedness, or other reasons. They have their job to do, and we have ours. It’s that simple.

I was fortunate to make it through selection and onto course, and spent the next five years of my
life working with the fiercest warriors I’ll ever have the pleasure of working with. Why did we
all get selected? I can’t adequately answer that, but I believe it was in part due to our ability to
follow the type of leader present in the SOF community, which I will discuss in part 2/5 of this
series.

Canadian SOF: Selecting the Right Kind of

Soldier
By Wes Kennedy 02.10.2015#World News Email Share Tweet

In part 1 of this series, I discussed my start in the military and my transition into the Special
Forces, as well as the meaning of mastering the basics. In part 2 of this series, I’ll delve deeper
into what being Special Forces is all about and how selection is, in part, used to select the right
kind of follower—an individual capable of not only surviving, but thriving in the SOF
community. A community of warriors.

So what is Special Forces selection all about? To me, selection is about finding the soldiers that
have the physical stamina to get the job done and the unwavering drive to win, no matter the cost
to self. Selection is about finding the soldiers with the mental capacity and cognitive prowess to
function at a high level in high stress and high-threat environments. Selection is about finding
those that can work as part of a small, tight-knit, highly functioning and autonomous team. In a
nutshell, selection is about finding soldiers who can follow the type of leader found in the SOF
community.

The type of leaders you will find in SOF, if you ever have the privilege of working with them,
require a specific type of follower. Without this very specific type of follower, the leader cannot
lead, the team cannot function, and the mission is bound to fail. Without this very specific leader
and follower, the SOF community would not exist as we have come to know it.

Initiative: A good SOF soldier knows how to take initiative, at the right time, and knows when
to wait for orders, do as they’re told, and play it by the book. The operations undertaken by these
warriors require that they be able to do this naturally and consistently.
Interpretation of orders/reading between the lines: They also need to be able to effectively
read between the lines. When orders come down from up on high, they are quickly re-directed
back up through bottom-up planning. The SOF soldier cannot be held by the hand. Most of the
time, due to time constraints and operational tempo, orders, timing, and tasks need to be quick
and to the point. It is up to the SOF soldier to read between the lines and determine what other
timing, tasks, equipment, and readiness is required of them without having it all spelled out.

Attention to detail: The SOF soldier may be asked to conduct high-angle shooting, hostage
rescue, rooftop fast-roping and/or rappelling, maritime counter-terrorism, beach assaults, sniper
operations, explosive breaching, and strategic reconnaissance, among other tasks. Attention to
detail is paramount. It is the not-so-sexy training, kit preparation, and rehearsal drills that makes
the oh-so-sexy Special Ops missions appear so seamless. Also, missions that do get derailed get
back on track quickly because we are masters of the basics and regain control by following
drilled-down standard operating procedures (SOPs)

Clear and concise communication: In high-threat environments, or when working with foreign
government agencies, the SOF soldier cannot afford to communicate in kinda’s and maybe’s and
muddied, mouth-breathing banter. The environment requires clear, concise, and confident
communication between members. It is required from an operator’s fire team partner, their team
leader, their subordinates, and is expected of them from all outside organizations that they come
into contact with.

Aggressive physicality: A SOF soldier is first and foremost a warrior. Only a fit body can
support a fit mind in this environment. The SOF soldier needs to portray a presence. They need
to be physically able to handle anything the world can throw at them, from ruck marching and
mountain climbing to swimming and fighting. They need to be able to exert their will upon the
enemy, even if that means close hand-to-hand combat.

Willingness to step into the unknown: The SOF soldier is allowed to, and even encouraged to,
have fears. But they are not allowed to let those fears keep them in any way from performing
their tasks in an effective and timely manner. Quite the opposite, the fear should be used to
heighten their senses, and make them more situationally aware. Hesitation can result in mission
failure, or worse yet, their death or the deaths of their teammates.

Willingness to take calculated risk: Stepping into the unknown does come with a caveat:
calculated risk. The SOF soldier is a cognitive warrior who has mastered his emotions,
equipment, and drills. In doing so, he is able to understand his limitations and accept the risk
necessary to achieve mission success. He does not become motivated by adrenaline, fear, or
expectations. The warrior analyzes the situation and assumes and bares the full consequence of
his actions. Forget what you see in the movies, SOF soldiers really do think before they shoot. It
is their ability to identify, orient, and act that makes them so lethal. By being a master of the
basics, SOF SOPs become instinct. This gives the SOF operator the ability to assess those risks
more quickly, and react with more control.

Quick study: Due to the nature of complex operations, the SOF soldier needs to be able to learn
on a steep curve. They need to be quick studies—able to learn how to perform a variety of tasks
and functions with minimal instruction. It is true that everyone works as a team, and no one
soldier is the natural-born super hero depicted in the movies. Their craft requires hours, days,
months, and years of consistent and arduous training to perfect.

The quiet professional: In the end, the SOF soldier needs to be the consummate, quiet
professional. Not boastful in their speech, nor immature in their action. They should maintain a
humble and thoughtful mindset at all times, whether at work or at home.

These are what I believe to be the traits of a good SOF soldier. It not only allows them to follow
the types of leader we have in SOF, but over time, allows them to become one. Although every
SOF soldier is a leader in their own right, only with the right training and experience can these
warriors be groomed to foster the unique SOF culture, as I’ll discuss in part 3/5 of this series.

Canadian SOF: The Value of Bottom-up

Planning
By Wes Kennedy 02.15.2015#Featured Email Share Tweet

In the first three articles of this five-part series, you learned what it means to be Special Forces,
how those warriors are found, and how they are groomed over time to allow them to accomplish
the missions they are tasked with. In this article, I’ll explain why, even with great soldiers and
great culture, there still needs to be a special sort of method to the madness to allow these
operators to thrive and excel during their missions.

Most of the guys I train for Special Ops selection will spend a good amount of time prior to
selection mastering the basics. They do this by practicing hand-to-hand combat drills, land
navigation, survival, orders, and other basic soldiering skills until they can perform them and
teach them at a high level. (A side note here: Mastering the basics is a constant pursuit, not an
end state.)

While a solid understanding of how to create a set of orders and execute upon them will certainly
carry over into the SOF community, new soldiers soon realize that things are done a little bit
differently in these units. The SOF world practices what we call ‘bottom-up planning.’ This
planning ideology is what makes some of these units so successful in the first place.

This bottom-up planning process is one of the reasons that SOF units are able to operate the way
they do. It allows them to be quick to adapt, remain flexible, and grasp innovation to move things
forward. It allows a clear, concise understanding of everyone’s tasks and responsibilities within
the mission. However, this planning process wouldn’t work just anywhere.

There are certain characteristics required of the operators in these units for this to work. These
warriors need to be adaptable. They need to be cunning. They need to possess a strong
imagination as to what’s possible, and most importantly they need a keen sense of awareness
regarding when to speak their minds, regardless of rank structure, and when to shut up. This last
piece is the only way it will work, otherwise things turn into ‘kangaroo court’ with everyone the
expert and nothing being accomplished.

The leadership required for bottom-up planning is also key. The team leaders need to be open to
criticism and avoid pulling rank when the facts prove them wrong. They need to spend less time
managing their men, and more time holding onto the reigns to steer the dogs of war, because the
SOF operator rarely needs encouragement or direction to move the mission forward. The SOF
leader merely needs to maintain the focus and guide his men with a critical eye.

In the regular military, the majority of planning occurs from the top down. The government plays
out the political strategy; then the heads of the military and the units lay out the strategic goals;
then the companies, platoons, squadrons, sections, and teams lay out the tactical plan. Now, a
large part of this still occurs in the SOF world, however it becomes a bit of a two-way street. In
the SOF world, the political strategy still occurs at the top, then filters down to the strategic
goals, and finally the tactical goals. One of the main differences is the utilization of bottom-up
planning.

When the tactical plan comes down to the platoons and teams it comes down in the form of a
warning order—an overview of the intended mission. It is an end state or objective passed down
to the SOF soldiers and it is up to the ones on the battlefield to determine the details of the plan.
Beginning with the newest, greenest warrior on the team, each individual takes a share of the
mission, whether that be the insertion method, the defensive and offensive positions, the
breaching technique, the communications, weapons, medical, weather, vehicle load, and many
other pieces.

Once briefed, they develop the plan before briefing it again and choosing which one they will
execute upon. Once the concept of operation (CONOP) is chosen, the team goes into battle prep,
getting everything together that is required for the mission, whether that is de-conflicting with
other units, preparing an air stack, practicing CQB and breaching drills, or creating a rock drill so
the entirety of the defensive and offensive elements can literally walk through the operation.

Utilizing bottom-up planning ensures that every man on the ground understands the bigger
picture. They know where everyone is on the ground, what everyone’s role is, and when each
element or individual is going to execute their part of the plan. This way, when shit hits the fan,
they’re ready to step it up if needed.

This bottom-up planning is another reason why men come first and equipment comes second.
Without the right soldiers and the culture to use the equipment and insertion platforms, the
effects are drastically reduced. With all of this SOF selection, training, culture, and planning,
what has Canada been doing these past years? In the last part of this five-part series, I’ll talk
about Canada’s involvement in the GWOT over the past decades.