Someone asked why are Special Forces guys so sensitive about the term Special Forces and people falsely claiming to be one. So here is our response:
As of 2017 the estimated population of the United States is 309,350,000. Of that number 1,281,900 people are on active duty with an additional 850,000 in reserves. The percentage of active forces is .04% when you add the reserves that moves the number to .06% of the United States population that serve in the defense of this country.
The rough number of active Special Forces qualified soldiers is 14,000. This number includes active duty and National Guard groups. The percentage of Special Forces members in the United States military is .01%. The percentage of Special Forces among the United States population is .004%.
The rough estimate of casualties since 2001 comes to 6689 personal with an estimated 199 being Special Forces. In short .01% make up 2.97% of our fallen warriors.
Maybe this is the reason when a Special Forces "Green Beret" sees or hears someone use the term Special Forces when referring to a SEAL, PJ, or Ranger his blood begins to boil. If you don't understand, ask a Marine how he feels when someone refers to the Corps as soldiers. There is only one unit in the US military called Special Forces we are part of Special Operations Command.
When someone poses and claims to be SF (Green Beret) many of us are offended. We do not feel that imitation is the greatest form of flattery. They are not part of this very small group and never will be. They were not tested, they were not selected, they did not qualify, they did not deploy and they did not lose brothers so close that they knew them better than their own family.
Guess we have the right to be sensitive.
Special Forces soldiers exist ONLY in the US Army. They are commonly referred to as "Green Berets". SEALS, Rangers, USAF STS, MARSOC, JSOC, SFOD-D, SOAR, CA and PSYOPS are NOT Special Forces. They are collectively what makes up the military's Special Operations Forces or SOF which also includes Army Special Forces. The term "Special Forces" uniquely applies to US ARMY SPECIAL FORCES (Green Berets)