How dangerous is it really to be a Green Beret?
Hello. My uncle joined the Green Berets recently.
My parents are almost divorced, and they don’t live together. I’m not American, either. My father is incarcerated and my mother is always working in another city so she usually doesn’t come home.
Because of that, I spent most of time with my uncle since I was really young. Actually, he is the only family member who I truly trust, and he is everything to me.
I don’t know much about the Green Berets or the U.S. military, but I’ve heard that they go on more dangerous deployments than other military units. I know that it wouldn’t be dangerous every single time or every single moment, and I encourage my uncle to follow his dream, but I’m scared of something might happen to him.
I know that there are many service members in the U.S., and that many military families live with a certain level of risk because of the dangers their loved ones may face.
This might sound like an immature concern but I can’t help feeling this way. So I’m curious about how often do Green Berets actually go on really dangerous missions where there is a genuine possibility of an exchange of gunfire.
I can’t say for sure, but it seems like he waited until I was old enough before pursuing this dream. I’ll always be grateful to my uncle for everything he has done for me.
I don’t know that much about the U.S. military, other than hearing that during the years of bin Laden and Saddam Hussein, American troops were regularly deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq and saw a lot of combat. I heard that the U.S. withdrew from Afghanistan in 2021. So I’m wondering whether things are actually less dangerous now compared to back then, or whether U.S. service members are still going on dangerous missions in other parts of the world besides Afghanistan and Iraq, meaning that the level of risk is still fairly high.
I’ve been looking into the news a little, and most of what I’m seeing seems to be about U.S. forces occasionally going to South America to carry out operations against drug cartels. I also feel like this might be something can’t really answer in detail because of security...
I know I’ll get used to these worries before long, and I’m going to start being someone my uncle can rely on, too. I’ve been studying really hard, and I actually came in first in my entire school this time. I will get into a good university. But other than that, is there anything else I can do to help my uncle?
I’m not very familiar with military culture or the way things are usually done, so there may be parts of what I wrote that come across as inappropriate or disrespectful. I’d really appreciate your understanding if that’s the case.