How do you get involved in "Robin Sage"?

I've seen the same episode of "Mail Call".

I am retired from the Marine Corps.

IIRC, something in the episode gave me the idea that the civilians used in the training scenario were civil service employees in/around the base or military dependents. Or possibly retired military folks.

In any event, the only way to get on the inside of one of these events would be to know someone in the school's training/operations (S-3) department. Anybody from the "outside" who tried to contact them to participate would be dismissed out of hand as a flake.

Sorry, no E Ticket ride for you.

For starters it probably involves living in the area .

More than likely living there from birth & involves a REAL extensive background check. Someone moving to the area just for that purpose (even with the best intentions) would more than likely get lots of attention from various people with no sense of humor .

It would be cool though .

Hello from Fort Bragg. I'm here at work in the Command Center at The United States Army Special Operations Command. I don't know which Mail Call you saw but I can tell you without a doubt that NO CIVILIAN is trained in the use of explosives or firearms. They are used as role players. When one of the “role players’ is required to be armed for instance as a rebel fighter that “role†is played by a special operations instructor or out of cycle student. For every cycle of Robin Sage a general request for volunteers within the community is published. There are always more than enough people to fill all the role places. We will sometimes go outside to get a special role player if we need a certain language or skill.

I stand corrected.

Doesn't sting nearly so bad since Crawfish is a fellow .41 lover.

If I remember correctly, they use ROTC cadets to make up part of the OPFOR at Robin Sage... a few friends have done it.

Soldiers at Bragg get tasked for that duty. It's a two to three week duty.

Mark

I had some friends in the reserves who did it as a two or three-week annual training mission. So the answer to your question

How do you get to be one of the guys getting trained?

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would be, talk to a recruiter. Pick a job that is likely to land you on Bragg (Psychological Operations, or SF would be best, but a job in Field Artillery or the 82nd Airborne would get you there too). Spend 11 weeks to upwards of a year on your Initial Entry Training and BINGO, you become a prime candidate for temporary Cortinian citizenship.

FYI

Robin Sage

The Gunny kinda glossed over the reason why it's called Robin Sage. It made me wonder if there's a story behind it. Anyone know?

Robin Sage is the name of the daughter who causes all the grief.

get involved?? Well I could walk outside my front door and go through the woods a bit and tell them "hi"...One of my buds scared the crap out of a group of them last year...Ahhh good times

Asheboro schools recently (last week) went on "lock down" because one of the sheep observed a group of guys dressed in BDU's carry weapons...Wanna guess who they were?

Not long ago a 'Robin Sage' exercise went terribly wrong. A deputy sheriff encountered a couple of armed students. The deputy didn't know about 'Robin Sage.' The students thought the deputy was part of the exercise and tried to overpower him and take him prisoner. The deputy shot both students, killing at least one.

Beware of what you ask for. You might get it.

Pilgrim

Asheboro schools recently (last week) went on "lock down" because one of the sheep observed a group of guys dressed in BDU's carry weapons...Wanna guess who they were?

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Military Exercises Confuse Asheboro Business And Force Two Schools Into Lockdown

Thanks Roy I didnt even think to post a link...<~~~The glue is killing me!

BTW ya gonna throw rocks at the protestors in Fayetnam today???

Tom Clancy's nonfiction book Shadow Warriors: Inside the Special Forces covers this topic nicely, with really interesting focus on the history of the modern US special forces.

BTW ya gonna throw rocks at the protestors in Fayetnam today???

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No.... Just taking a lazy day working on honeydews....

Didn't see that _Mail Call_ but I spent from 1984- 1997 working as a DAC at USAJFKSWCS and took part in the exercise for a couple of years, so maybe I can help. Note that lots of details have changed, I have been out of the loop for a good while now.

"How do you get to be one of the guys getting trained?"

Only one way, join the Army, volunteer for Special Forces, make it through the Q course. Only the Q course students get the training you are talking about going in, ROBIN SAGE is the graduation exercise for the Q course (SFQC, or Special Forces Qualification Course). Graduating enlisted students, led by officer students, are formed up into mock A detachments for the exercise, given a scenario, do an area study, planning drill and then brief back their 'mission,' just as they would in real life. They then get infiltrated into a fictional country (used to be The Republic of Pineland) to run their exercise. No guarantee they will pass either, it is not a done deal going in.

I saw one young captain/A detachment commander fail his ROBIN SAGE, for example- but only because he deserved to. He committed an egregious security breach and the G chief nailed him on it. Real world it would have compromised his entire team and their whole operation, not to mention his G force too. He should have known better than to do what he did in the first place, and definitely should not have kept on as if nothing had happened for two more days and nights. But he did... and it cost him.


"From my understanding its just the civliilan population around the area. How do I get to do that?"

Living in the area and having an interest is a start, knowing someone already involved in the program is a big help. Or you could get a civvie job in the special operations community on Bragg. Biggest help might be having property or buildings someone wants to use in the exercise. A lot of those people in the region have been involved in the exercise for generations. There are lots of good feelings on both sides, Army and civilian, established over a very long time, for lots of reasons. And the exercise is conducted over a WIDE area in western NC, and shifts around.

The civilians are just role players, like I was, never SF trainees, Gs or OPFOR. The OPFOR (opposition forces) are made up of other soldiers, usually active duty infantry types, from Ft. Bragg- they get a chance to hunt guerrillas so it's good training for them too. The Gs (guerrillas) that the student A detachment is supposed to be 'training' to liberate their 'country' are usually active duty soldiers too. Often they were cooks'n'bakers, rear echelon folks with absolutely no idea what they were in for. A friend of mine who was one of the Phase 3 committee folks who worked as a "G Chief" in charge of the 'guerrilla force' always said he could tell when the G force was really going to be special, they would show up on Bragg packed for the trip using their Samsonite luggage.... The committee liked unprepared Gs, it meant their trainee 'A detachment' was in for a real challenge.


"You get to learn how to use explosives, run around with M16s, go camping, comeon it would be a blast!"

Oh, it IS a blast, I assure you. But the civilian roleplayers don't do any playing with automatic weapons or explosives. They do things like playing part of the resistance organization the G's are actually 'supported by' and 'fighting for,' local people who provide shelter, food, transportation, security, information and anything else to help out their Gs. A lot of times that means being up all night helping the G's and then having to go off to their real world job as if nothing had happened. It calls for a lot of work and sacrifice.

By the way, ROBIN SAGE is a code name AFAIK. Doesn't stand for anything I ever heard of. In decades long past the exercise was also called CHEROKEE TRAIL or GOBBLER WOODS.

lpl/nc

crawfish- whatchoodoin on THR at work?? 8^)

Shifts get long; can only monitor CNN, FOX, and MSNBC so long before your brain melts. I can only take so much of O'Reilly. Make visits here and a few other places. You'd be amazed at the useful information one finds on the web.

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robin sage

my son a rotc cadet did robin sage last summer.what a blast.he got to meet the real professional ARMY, yes they shoot blanks but they also learn how dedicated the special forces people are;they the cadets want to do their best so they S F people can pass the course to move on.my .02

Robin Sage

Ok, In all due respect of you awesome military personell that posted, I mean no disrespect with this post.

A few years ago I was part of the Asheboro Civil Air Patrol, and took part in a raid at our base Airport. The first raid we were not supposed to be there and we were captured by the SF students and questioned, after they found out we were CAP and that this was our base airport we sat in a truck and watched the action take place.

After all was said and done before we left, we apologised to the Ltcol. and then asked him if we could take part in the raid next time, he said he would think about it. About 90 days went by and we were at a anual meeting, after the meeting concluded we were talking to one of our C/Sgt's who is now 82nd. Airborne, he told us that the raid might be tonight.

An hour or so went by and nothing, we were about to pack it up and head home. because our senior officers RET USAF, had already left and gone home. About the time we were gathering our 24 hour gear a red truck rushes up to the door in reverse and the Col climbs out and tells us to cover him to the door of our hanger, so we do.

When he gets in the hanger he give us a SIDREP, and tells us to meet him infont of the fuel depot of the airport where the plains fill up on fuel. When we get there we see about 15 SF guys in Woodland camo and they start handing us Weapons and telling us where to go and what to do.

I was handed a M4 with a Aimpoint and M203, never fired it wasn't sure if it was loaded or not, and 4 extra mags and he told me to go support the guys about 200yds down the runway by the grey building. I aitomaticly knew he was talking about the air museum, so I humed down there and told the squad commander why I was there, he asked if I knew how to use that weapon and I told him yes sir, he said ok then welcome to the G force.

We assaulted the air museum and I "Killed" about 7 OPFOR which was awesome especially being these guys were trained paratroopers and I was just a husky CAP cadet, but all that aside it was one heck of an oppurtunity.

After all was over the SF officers and instructors counted up all the weapons and NVGs yeah thats right I said NVGs. When all was accounted for we thanked the Col and he said your welcome and he appreciated the help. As we were taking off the Col. told us he would see us next time and to be ready.

Well some of the guys that were with me were also in my High School JROTC unit at Asheboro High School. They managed to becomme a full part of ODA-922's G force, so me and a couple of my guys asked the Col next time we had the raid if we could play a more full time part in this training, he said if we liked we could be Gs at his base camp in the Uarie Mountains, I can't and won't give the location.

After finding the place, that was fun, we went to the camp and began to help set it up and get all ready for the SF to arrive. The next day we went off the beaten path to meet the SF students and escort them back to camp. After we arrived back at camp we were briefed on upcomming missions and issued our AK47s with 5 extra mags.

The SF students spent half the day teaching us how to work our weapons and how to assault an enemy force. We learned stuff from basic formations like the wedge and stuff all the way up to ambushes and how to tie youly knots for plastic exsplosive using det cord which was rather hard being it was 20 degrees in the mountains in the middle of NOV, if you work with SF you live and work like SF no matter how cold/hot it is.

We were still High School students so we could only stay for the weekend, but in that time we were able to participate in 4 missions and eat some of the best Hog I have ever had in my life. The SF guys are really cool and will teach you anything you want to know about anything unclassified.

At the end of the 2 days we were escorted back to the RP by the Col and ZZ who is one cool old guy. We were picked up and went home, Robin Sage was the best thing I have ever participated in in my life, as of right now and I'm a scenario Painball player, that doesn't even come close to Robin Sage.

So unless they changed the policy, yes civilians can participate in a combat role in Robin Sage. Again to all the Military personel that have posted here and will read this, I mean no disrespect in any way, but I don't want anyone to miss out on this if they have a chance to participate.

I only wish I had time now to do Robin Sage again, but work and life won't allow it.

p.s. The ODA I was with was 936, now they are 925B, the Commander or the Col. is a former Delta operator and has a zero tolerance for horseplay and BS, if you get hooked up with his ODA, know you are going to work as hard or harder than the SF and will follow all rule that apply, even if it means a 12 hour silence period in ehich OPFOR has been spotted and silence is mandatory to not compramise the camp.

just a friendly warning, be professional, this OP is for the SF hopefulls not for your personall pleasure, help them comlpete thier mission and becomme Green Berets, it is very fun tho.

Welcome to THR.

How did you find a 5 year old thread like this one as your first post?

eab said:

OK, I just got finished watching "Mail Call" and they had a thing on special forces training. How the last test is sending a group to work with a "Forgen" "Gurala" group. They have to teach these guys how to fight and use explosives and stuff.

How do you get to be one of the guys getting trained? From my understanding its just the civliilan population around the area. How do I get to do that? You get to learn how to use explosives, run around with M16s, go camping, comeon it would be a blast!

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You make it through the Special Forces Q course.

Just a point to ponder over. You will have to have a lot "on the ball" to even be considered for SF training. All through your training you will be intensly observed. Many start but not many finish completely. It is NOT for the immature in any way.