An absolutely exceptional young man makes it through to acceptance into Special Forces.

I know this young man, who is the son of perhaps one of the four best friends I've got... who was just selected for Special Forces.

While not unusual in and of itself, the fact that a scant 6 or 7 months ago, he was a 20 year old civilian who had never served makes him absolutely exceptional.

To get to this point, he had to excel during every phase of his training.  Of the group he started with, of 37... many with college degrees, many with athletic backgrounds of many years duration, all exceedingly bright with solid backgrounds... 3 actually survived the strenuous process of selection.

This included Basic Training and Infantry training, Airborne Training, and an almost indescribable effort to get him to drop out or fail that lasted for at least 6 months... ( Here's a link to get a pdf download of much of what they go through ) constant pressure and physical challenges... and he passed them all in ways I know damned well I likely could not have done at his age.

In being selected, he was picked and outlasted tab-qualified Rangers, West Pointers, combat vets with multiple tours in Iraq and Afghanistan... some with company level command tours and many others who, you might think, should have been better prepared... but weren't.

Congrats, C.  I never doubted you'd make it.  Well done.  See you at Christmas.