SPECIAL FORCES GRADUATE

For years, retired Gen. Peter J. Schoomaker has carried a picture of the
wreckage of U.S. helicopters in the Iranian desert from the failed
hostage-rescue mission in 1980.

''Underneath that, I had a thing that said, 'Never confuse enthusiasm with
capability,''' Schoomaker said.

The retired four-star general spoke Friday to Special Forces Qualification
Course graduates and their families at Reeves Auditorium on the Methodist
College campus. The graduates will soon be on the front lines of the drug
war in Latin America and the war on terrorism in Asia and the Philippines.
The class included officers and sergeants with extensive training in
weapons, engineering, medicine and communications. The graduates included
the first five soldiers in recent years who were directly recruited out of
infantry basic training and went through the entire course.

Rescue party

Schoomaker and William G. Boykin were members of the rescue party who
escaped the refueling site known as Desert One after a fiery aircraft
accident left eight rescuers dead. Boykin is now a two-star general and
commander of the John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School. The
center and school oversee the entry-level training of Special Forces
soldiers, often known as Green Berets.

''Gen. Boykin and I stood on the ground in Iran many years ago on a long
night in April 1980, trying to serve this nation on an important task,''
Schoomaker said. ''The fact of the matter is, the nation didn't have the
capability to get there and pull it off.''

Schoomaker and Boykin in 1978 became some of the original members of the
Delta Force, which was established at Fort Bragg to give the Army the
capability to fight terrorism and rescue hostages. Among problems that
surfaced in the Iranian desert were a lack of coordination among the armed
services in the area of special operations and an inability to get a strike
force into hostile territory over long distances.

However, military leaders credit the disaster with motivating the United
States to pump money into special operations during the 1980s. Schoomaker,
who was a major at the time of Desert One, became a general and was the
leader of three special operations commands created to remedy the
shortfalls - the Joint Special Operations Command and U.S. Army Special
Operations Command at Fort Bragg and U.S. Special Operations Command at
Tampa, Fla.

''His retirement responsibilities are probably as great or greater than
what he was doing when he was still on active duty,'' Boykin said. ''He
continues to serve in a variety of capacities, working with our military,
working with the Defense Department on a lot of projects to help continue
this momentum that SOF (special operations forces) started, really, under
his leadership.''

Staff photo by Steve Aldridge Special Forces soldiers put on their green
berets during the Special Forces graduation ceremony at Reeves Auditorium
at Methodist College.

Schoomaker said, ''There's always room for enthusiasm and motivation, but
it's not worth a rip if it's not backed up by capability,'' Schoomaker
said. ''You don't get that capability without working very, very, very hard
to get it. You've got to push all the time to the edge to ensure that
you've got the kind of things the nation will call upon you to do.''

'Quiet professionals'

Special Forces and special operations soldiers undergo rigorous tests for
intellect and physical training. Then they receive months of training.

Special operations soldiers, who often work in small groups on low-profile
and secret missions, call themselves the ''quiet professionals.''

''So when I'm talking about quiet professionalism, I'm talking about a
quiet competence,'' Schoomaker said. ''I'm talking about a community that
is not chest-beaters, that is not dragging its knuckles. It is thoughtful.
It is value-based and is competent, so that when it's called upon to play,
it will perform to the expectations of the nation.''