The United States armed forces are split into four branches: Army, Navy, Air Force, and the Marines. Everyone willing to serve the country by volunteering for any position in any branch of the military are heroic and deserve recognition; however we are going to talk about some of the hardest and most coveted position in each branch. The branches of the military all have their own several versions of special forces we will briefly discuss one for each.
Army Green Berets
The United States Army Special Forces are colloquially known as the Green Berets. The Green Berets have five primary tasks: counter- terrorism, special reconnaissance, direct action, foreign internal defense, and unconventional warfare. They might be most well known for their specialize of unconventional warfare and the unique situations they train in, due to this they are often tasked with training and working with foreign troops.
Navy Seals
The United States Navy Seals may be the most publicized and well known group of Special Forces thanks to movies and books making public some of their most high profile missions and operations. Navy Seals are trained to conduct small unit operations that either originate or involve in some way a river, ocean, swamp, coastline, etc. SEALs (SEa, Air, Land) are trained to operate and be proficient in all environments, which is needed as they are often utilized to conduct military operations that are deemed beyond the capability of conventional military forces. Which is why they are trusted to handle high profile missions like the well-known mission led against the Osama bin Laden.
Air Force Pararescue
The United States Air Force Pararescuemen (PJs) are a combination of Air Force special operations command and air combat command operators. PJs are often tasked with recovery or medical treatment of individuals in humanitarian need and combat environments. PJs have also worked along with and been used to support NASA missions, as they have been utilized to recover astronauts after water landing on multiple occasions.
Marine Raiders
Formally referred to as MARSOC, the United States Marine Raiders seem to for some reason be less known then the Navy Seals or Army’s Green Baretts; however, they are equally well trained and versed in combat. For the last few years, the Raiders role is somewhere between training foreign troops (currently Iraqi police and military) and outright in the middle of combat against ISIS troops.
