A board will meet in mid-April to consider qualified junior officers of the Regular Army for enrollment in the Special Forces, psychological operations and civil affairs assessment and selection process.
The annual Special Operations Forces Officer Accession Panel, scheduled for April 18-22, is the single point of entry into these three career branches.
When the panel selects an officer, the officer’s control branch will be changed by the Human Resources Command so the training pipeline can be completed. However, an officer’s basic branch will not be changed until he or she graduates from the appropriate qualification course.
Officers who do not complete the demanding training regimen will be returned to their basic branch.
The basic zone of eligibility includes all year group 2013 first lieutenants with dates of rank of April 1, 2014, through March 31, 2015. Most of these officers will be in the primary zones for the captain promotion boards that meet in fiscal 2016.
Officers from all career branches may apply, provided they are members of the active component. National Guard and Army Reserve officers are not eligible.
In addition to the date of rank criteria, applicants must be airborne qualified or be willing to volunteer for jump school. They must be medically cleared for worldwide deployment.
All Special Forces applicants and male candidates for psychological operations must have a valid Special Forces physical.
Male and female candidates for civil affairs, and female candidates for psychological operations, must have a valid physical for SERE-C (Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape Course).
Physicals will be considered valid for this board if they were conducted no earlier than April 18, 2015.
Key requirements and training pipeline for each branch are:
Special Forces: This branch only is open to male applicants who meet the eye and vision standards of Army Regulation 40-501, or who are willing to undergo refractive eye surgery for correction.
An applicant’s physical fitness test score must be no older than six months, and must behave a score of 240 or higher, with no less than 60 points in each category. Candidates must score 85 or higher on the Defense Language Aptitude Battery.
Selected Special Forces candidates will attend the SF Assessment and Selection course, which is a 19-day TDY and return course at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Officers who pass that course will be moved to Fort Bragg for Phase I of the SF Captain Career Course, followed by the SF Detachment Officer Qualification Course. Candidates who are not jump qualified will attend airborne school.
Psychological operations and civil affairs: These branches are open to women, and the PT and language test score requirements are the same as for Special Forces.
Applicants selected by the October board will attend either the Psychological Operations or Civil Affairs Assessment and Selection Course, which are 10-day TDY and return events conducted at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Women candidates must report to these courses with a negative pregnancy slip that is within 30 days of their course start date.
Officers who complete the assessment and selection course will attend Phase I of their branch’s Captain Career Course, followed by the Psychological Operations or Civil Affairs Qualification Course.
The application deadline for the April board is March 14, unless the applicant requires a waiver, in which case the deadline is February 22.
Applications will be processed through the Special Operations Recruiting Battalion (Airborne) at Fort Bragg, to the Human Resources Command. For information, go to http://www.sorbrecruiting.com, and MilPer Message, dated Aug. 11.
