Operation Debnam Pass

Alright, so we've talked about Operation Highlander. Now, let's talk about Operation Debnam Pass.

Oh, you've forgotten about Operation Highlander? Well, let's recap.

In mid-2010, after nearly three years in Virginia - the first time - I was getting bored, and none of my attempts to shift into a different job had panned out. So, one of my mentors recommended that I look into graduate school in Scotland. I found a program that I liked, and for the next three and a half years, that became my primary focus. Later in 2010, I got a proverbial "gravity assist" when I was about to be laid off, which allowed me to transfer to a position in Kuwait that paid me an exorbitant amount of money - sort of a key prerequisite, as it were.

About two years after I'd originally identified the goal, I had the money, and I'd been admitted. I arrived in Scotland, learned a lot about the world, and followed Johnny's advice by doing my best "to taste and to touch, and to feel as much, as a man can before he repents." I finished my dissertation, made my way up to Orkney for a long weekend, sat on a bench in Stromness beside the Hoy Sound, and thought to myself, "What next?"

For various reasons, most of which had nothing to do with me, "what next" didn't really pan out the way that I'd intended. I didn't have grounds to complain, exactly - as everyone ought to know, I eventually got to move home, I married an incredible gal, we bought a cool house, and we invited an amazing dog to join our household. Even so, when I turned forty, I did a bit of a retrospective, and decided that I wanted to start getting more out of my life. I developed a plan for Operation Alchemy, which was aimed partly at getting more out of my forties than I'd been getting out of my late twenties, but also at figuring out what I wanted to accomplish with my fifth decade.

Operation Alchemy was, and is, divided into nine projects: Madrigal (personal goals), Stronsay (spiritual health), Harray (physical fitness), Egilsay (academics), SouthRon (financial management), Tigerlily (professional development), Granite Lodge (work projects), Westray (travel goals), and Wyre (miscellaneous special projects). It's been a good framework for focusing on some of my long-term goals, and it will continue. However, I think that the scope of the remaining years of my forties are coming into focus.

So, what's Operation Debnam Pass? Simple: I'm going to become a Green Beret.

Well... Not actually, but hear me out. I'm nearly a decade outside the qualifying age window. Oh, and that circulatory irregularity that some of you may have heard about? That's permanent, and it prevents me from running. So, actually joining the Army on an 18X contract and attending Special Forces Assessment and Selection is well and truly out. Fortunately, that doesn't stop me from developing a framework of goals to improve my life and accomplish my goals, based upon the Green Berets' training pipeline and operational focus.

Let's start with physical fitness. I've already been working at this with Operation Alchemy's Project Harray, but around three years of aggressive swimming haven't done much in the way of reducing my weight. What did seem to help reduce my weight? Walking. In the latter months of the pandemic era, I unexpectedly discovered that all of the walking that I'd been doing with Tango had reduced my weight from around 315 pounds pre-pandemic to about 270 in late 2021. As we spent less time walking, the weight came back. Late last Summer, I was able to drop some of it again - ironically, when I was walking with a pack to offset several weeks of annual maintenance closures in the local municipal pool network.

For years, one of my life goals has been to complete a modified version of the BUD/S Warning Order, a workout designed by the Navy SEAL teams to prepare candidates for the SEAL Physical Screening Test. As it's written, the Warning Order involves running, swimming, push-ups, sit-ups, and pull-ups. That'll be the initial basis of my program. In lieu of the running, I'm walking with a pack. In lieu of the pull-ups, I'm using a lat pulldown machine to work my way up to doing an actual pull-up - presumably, this will get easier as I begin to drop weight. I've also added kettlebell presses and kettlebell squats. Week by week, I'll slowly add reps and weight. By the time I hit forty-five years of age - a little more than a year - my goal is to be able to complete, if not outright pass, a modified SEAL PST/SFAS PT Test: seventy push-ups, seventy sit-ups, fifteen pull-ups, swimming and rucking objectives that I'll determine at some point between now and then, and a goal weight of 245 pounds.

Why 245 pounds? Because Green Berets jump out of perfectly good aircraft, and to do that as a civilian, you have to be 250 pounds or lighter. As I'm writing this, I've got a year and some change, and I'm already partway into the sequence. It's ambitious, but if I keep myself focused, I believe that I can achieve that goal, and celebrate my forty-fifth birthday by jumping out of a perfectly good aircraft. Oh, by the way, I've wanted to get Accelerated Freefall certified for the best part of twenty years, so it's about time that I made it happen.

A lot of people picture the Green Berets as steely-eyed commando types, carrying out kinetic raids, eliminating terrorists, rescuing hostages, and such. In all fairness, they did a lot more of that in recent conflicts than they should have; but their actual role is to leverage regional cultural knowledge, to include language fluency, to interface directly with partner forces. Translation: once again, it's time to get serious about learning to speak and read Arabic. The main challenge in that regard is making time to study, but if I can spend a few months doing a couple of flash cards a day, I should be able to be efficient about things at a projected start date.

Furthermore, Green Berets operate in twelve man "A-Teams," short for "Operational Detachment Alpha" (ODA). These consist of an 18A Special Forces Officer as Detachment Commander; 180A Warrant Officer as Deputy Detachment Leader; 18Z Operations Sergeant as Team Sergeant; 18F Intelligence Sergeant as Assistant Team Sergeant; two 18B Weapons Sergeants; two 18C Engineer Sergeants; two 18D Medical Sergeants; and two 18E Communications Sergeants.

Do I foresee doing thirty-six weeks of intensive medical training, to include a four-week-long residency at a major trauma center, in order to satisfy the qualifications of a Medical Sergeant? No, I do not. Am I going to learn how to turn a bunch of household chemicals into the implements for breaching a door? Also no. Do I think I could stand to use these occupational specialties to develop some skills to make me more useful as an adult man? Yes, I do. A few initial thoughts...

18B - WEAPONS SGT // Special Forces Weapons Sergeants become experts in the world's weapons. I don't need the bulk of that knowledge, but I could stand to learn a little bit. Since around 2014, I've wanted to complete a Bushmaster Armorer Course, though it would appear that they're tougher to find than they were back then. Otherwise, it might be nice to take a couple of shooting courses from Thunder Ranch in Lakeview, Stoneridge Tactical Academy in Central Point, or Rogue Protection Group in Rogue River.

18C - ENGINEER SGT // Special Forces Engineer Sergeants are basically combat engineers on steroids: experts in building and maintaining a range of simple structures, but also in highly kinetic demolitions. I don't really need to know any of that, though some sort of handyman course to improve my home repair skills might be in order. In lieu of becoming a civilian version of a combat engineer, I might look into some basic automotive familiarization training.

18D - MEDICAL SGT // Special Forces Medical Sergeants go through extensive medical training, the better part of a year, culminating with a four-week-long residency at a major American medical center's trauma department. Obviously, that's not in the cards; but maybe I could renew my long-lapsed American Red Cross first aid certification? A colleague recently informed me about a Wilderness First Responder certification course through Oregon STate University, which could be a good option.

18E - COMMUNICATIONS SGT // One could say that as a cyber security specialist of considerable tenure, I've already got this covered. In reality, there's always more to learn. There are some hands-on technical training projects that I've wanted to do for about ten years, and haven't had the time to dig into them. Additionally, it would be nice to read a couple of books, or take a class or two, on radio theory; and maybe get my ham radio operator certification.

18F - INTELLIGENCE SGT // Once an 18B, 18C, 18D, or 18E have done at least one tour, they can apply to re-classify as an 18F, and if they're accepted, undergo the Operations and Intelligence (O&I) Course. I've had an interest in intelligence for years, and I have a collection of both field manuals and more academic literature discussing strategic and security intelligence. I'm also very interested in geospatial information systems, and translating actionable data into map form. Additionally, I've already mentioned the Arabic, and I'm obviously interested in continuing to monitor the Middle East and learn more about its history and cultures. I don't know what the overall plan for the 18F portion of the plan is, but there's a lot of room for growth there.

Additionally, an ODA is led by an 18A (Special Forces Officer), an 180A (Special Forces Warrant Officer), and an 18Z (Special Forces Operations/"Team" Sergeant"). I'm not sure if I need to unpack any of these three roles (maybe a Project Management Professional certification?), postpone them until I've finished the first five, or dispense with them altogether. Maybe that turns into something less formal or structured? We'll see.

As a whole, the concept is loosely inspired not only by the U.S. Army Special Forces Groups themselves, but less so by The Preparation, a "practical, radical alternative to college." The ODA is structured around the question, "what core skills would the United States need to be able to nurture in a foreign partner force in order for that force to win a war"; while The Preparation is structured around the question, "What are the core skills that a young man needs to learn in order to be successful in life?" I'm too old for SFAS or The Preparation, but there's no time like the present to come up with a system for becoming a better version of myself.

So, why "Debnam Pass"? When I worked for the Army at the Fort Irwin National Training Center, one of the key terrain features was Debnam Pass, a corridor that connected the northwestern portion of the training area to the central area. I figure that it makes as much sense as any other sufficiently vague name, right?

So... Watch this space, because big things are coming!