Page 67 - JSOM Winter 2018

THOR3 program, funded via The Preservation of the Force archival nature of this analysis, the institutional ethics com-
and Family, comprises subject matter experts in the fields of mittee approved the use of retrospective nonidentifiable data.
strength and conditioning, performance nutrition, mental per- The Special Forces Group and the Army Human Research
formance, athletic training, physical therapy, and performance Protections Office gave permission to conduct this investiga-
analytics. For the Special Forces groups, initial priority for tion. Furthermore, this research followed procedures in accor-
4,5
support was to the Operational Detachment Alpha (ODA), dance with the ethical standard of the Helsinki Declaration for
but this later changed to encompass all assigned personnel human subjects.
within ARSOF, with priority given to the ODA. 4
SFAUC stress shoot procedures
At the request of USASOC, Kelly et al. conducted a study to The overall purpose of the SFAUC stress shoot was to evaluate
6
assess the effectiveness of the THOR3 program and to identify the Operator’s ability to accurately engage targets near fellow
areas for programmatic improvement. These researchers con- assaulters, with increasing physiological and psychological de-
cluded that USASOC should periodically ask outside organi- mand. The stress shoot was a timed event consisting of the
zations in the Department of Defense or organizations under ability to maneuver over and around a variety of obstacles,
contract to conduct independent assessments of the THOR3 and acquisition and engagement of several targets (i.e., combat
program to provide objective evidence of its effectiveness for marksmanship). Techniques, tactics, procedures, and accuracy
the SOF Operator. of the Operator were evaluated by the SFAUC instructors.

Therefore, the purpose of this investigation was to determine For the SFAUC stress shoot, Operators wore their duty uni-
if SOF Operators who participate in the THOR3 program per- form, Kevlar vest, and combat helmet, and carried two weapon
form significantly better on a live, outdoor stress shoot than systems (M4 5.56 assault rifle and the 9mm sidearm) with
do Operators who do not participate in this program. three fully loaded magazines for each weapon, and a radio. The
average total weight for all personal protective equipment and
weaponry was approximately 18kg. The THOR3 staff pre-
Methods
sented the Operator with a facial picture of a high-value target
Experimental Approach (HVT) that they had to engage at the conclusion of the shoot.
Deidentified archival data for 64 male SOF Operators (mean Operators followed shot assessment protocols when engaging
age ± standard deviation: 31.31 ± 4.96 years; SOF experience, targets. Two shots were fired on all paper E-type silhouettes
3.44 ± 4.10 years) completed the Special Forces Advanced Ur- (law enforcement targets, International Practice Shooting Con-
ban Combat (SFAUC) stress shoot at the conclusion of nine federation target) and accuracy was assessed by target scoring
flat-range combat marksmanship training days. Time, in sec- zones. Steel targets required two hits with a maximum of five
onds, was collected and comparisons made between users and attempts, and accuracy was assessed as hit or no hit.
nonusers in four categories: raw time, total time, positive iden-
tification (PID) time, and penalty time. All data were collected At the start command, the Operator moved through three
during the stress shoot for the SOF unit by committee instruc- shooting stations (Figure 1) that consisted of various obsta-

tors and the Human Performance Program staff at the military cles designed to physically and mentally stress the individual
base at which the stress shoot occurred. performing the tasks. The tasks were designed to mimic sim-
ilar physiological and psychological demands put on Opera-
Before data analysis, a University of Colorado institutional re- tors in certain combat environments. Upon completion, time
view board (IRB) granted research approval for research with was recorded to the nearest 0.10 seconds using a standard
human participants (IRB Protocol No. 17-156). Based on the stopwatch.

FIGURE 1 SFAUC stress shoot layout.

PID, positive identification.

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