# Do Special Forces guys have to know how to drive a stick shift? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 7, 2008, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-special-forces-guys-have-to-know-how-to-drive-a-stick-shift/455583 "2008-07-07T18:01:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2008, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-special-forces-guys-have-to-know-how-to-drive-a-stick-shift/455583/21 "2008-07-07T20:54:22Z")
Similarly do the special forces train on motorcycles? I doubt that the movies is a good indicator of real life, but I’m constantly seeing guys jacking motorbikes in action movies too. I assume that this could conceivably be something that a special ops guy or secret agent would need to know. I would guess that most guys in the special forces are country boys who grew up riding dirt bikes, but if someone doesn’t know how to handle a bike, do they teach you? ---
**Author:** ![Shamozzle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shamozzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shamozzle)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2008, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-special-forces-guys-have-to-know-how-to-drive-a-stick-shift/455583/22 "2008-07-07T21:12:43Z")
[QUOTE=Really Not All That Bright] Eh? Shift patterns are almost always standardized except for where reverse gear goes. [/QUOTE] Not necessarily. Among the big trucks we have at work, there are 10-speed transmissions and 18-speed transmissions. Their shift patterns are completely different. ---
**Author:** ![pestlewhipped](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/eb9ed0/32.png) [@pestlewhipped](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pestlewhipped)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2008, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-special-forces-guys-have-to-know-how-to-drive-a-stick-shift/455583/23 "2008-07-07T21:28:43Z")
All Delta Force members know how to drive almost anything they encounter, according to Delta Force: The Army’s Elite Counterterrorist Unit by Charlie Beckworth. ---
**Author:** ![pestlewhipped](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/eb9ed0/32.png) [@pestlewhipped](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pestlewhipped)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2008, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-special-forces-guys-have-to-know-how-to-drive-a-stick-shift/455583/24 "2008-07-07T21:28:55Z")
All Delta Force members know how to drive almost anything they might encounter, according to Delta Force: The Army’s Elite Counterterrorist Unit by Charlie Beckworth. ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2008, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-special-forces-guys-have-to-know-how-to-drive-a-stick-shift/455583/25 "2008-07-07T21:41:00Z")
[QUOTE=Argent Towers] Similarly do the special forces train on motorcycles? I doubt that the movies is a good indicator of real life, but I’m constantly seeing guys jacking motorbikes in action movies too. I assume that this could conceivably be something that a special ops guy or secret agent would need to know. [/QUOTE] Well, you know those movies where the secret agent doesn’t jack a motorcycle? Those must be the guys who never learned. Seriously, I’m amazed that it breaks someone’s willing suspension of disbelief when they see a movie with an American who knows how to drive a stick. Seriously? ---
**Author:** ![Bear\_Nenno](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bear_nenno/32/3358_2.png) [@Bear\_Nenno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bear_Nenno)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2008, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-special-forces-guys-have-to-know-how-to-drive-a-stick-shift/455583/26 "2008-07-07T21:55:24Z")
The very vast majority of US ARMY vehicles are all automatic. The large FMTV/LMTVs don’t have a shifter of any kind–not even an auto one. All it has is push buttons to go from R, N, D. . . BUTTONS!! The Stryker, the Bradley, the Hummer… all automatic. LHS? Automatic. Huge ass HEMMT? Automatic. As for SF. There is no vehicle training in the SF course. After a person is already SF, he may be sent (if he is extremely lucky, it’s not a super common thing) to a school to learn to drive vehicles all Hollywood style with J Turns and all that. Enterestingly enough, this would be a civilian school. The same one that high class body guards and VIP Protection type people go to. I believe that Army MPs and CID get way more cool-guy type _driving_ training than SF. ---
**Author:** ![LouisB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dfb087/32.png) [@LouisB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LouisB)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2008, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-special-forces-guys-have-to-know-how-to-drive-a-stick-shift/455583/27 "2008-07-07T23:11:00Z")
> [@](#): > > Posted by **Bear\_Neno** : > All it has is push buttons to go from R, N, D. . . BUTTONS!! IIRC, the now defunct DeSoto had button shifting in the mid to late 1950s, as did the much maligned Ford Edsel. Nothing new about button shifting. ---
**Author:** ![hekk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/50afbb/32.png) [@hekk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hekk)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2008, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-special-forces-guys-have-to-know-how-to-drive-a-stick-shift/455583/28 "2008-07-07T23:28:24Z")
The buses here have buttons to shift as well. My grandmother had a Gogelmobile (sp?) that supposedly had some weird 3 position switch to shift gears with. ---
**Author:** ![ivan\_astikov](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/58f4c7/32.png) [@ivan\_astikov](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivan_astikov)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2008, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-special-forces-guys-have-to-know-how-to-drive-a-stick-shift/455583/29 "2008-07-07T23:32:59Z")
[QUOTE=Bosstone] It’s not like it’s some special trick, either. _It takes all of a day to learn how to drive stick, if that._ [/QUOTE] Which doesn’t help if you are forced to suddenly requisition a vehicle! ---
**Author:** ![TheLoadedDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@TheLoadedDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheLoadedDog)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2008, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-special-forces-guys-have-to-know-how-to-drive-a-stick-shift/455583/30 "2008-07-07T23:43:51Z")
[QUOTE=Really Not All That Bright] Clutch weights, not so much, but if you’re commandeering a vehicle you aren’t going to be all that worried about burning out the clutch so you can just dump it each shift. [/QUOTE] Normally, I’d agree. I can get into pretty much any manual vehicle and drive away smoothly without kangaroo hopping or stalling. But there is one exception - sometimes I have driven small utility trucks (borrowed or hired, so I didn’t know the clutch) that have had that awful American style handbrake that you pull out from the dash, usually because of a bench seat in front. I’m a big guy, and I can’t use this when my foot is on the clutch because my knee blocks it. This means I have to do hillstarts without the parking brake. This is no drama in my own car, but last time I found myself in a hired pickup on one of sydney’s steepest hills at the lights, with a BMW behind me, I was sweating it to say the least. I laid some rubber, as I recall. ---
**Author:** ![Labrador\_Deceiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7c8e57/32.png) [@Labrador\_Deceiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labrador_Deceiver)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2008, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-special-forces-guys-have-to-know-how-to-drive-a-stick-shift/455583/31 "2008-07-07T23:55:17Z")
[QUOTE=TheLoadedDog] Normally, I’d agree. I can get into pretty much any manual vehicle and drive away smoothly without kangaroo hopping or stalling. But there is one exception - sometimes I have driven small utility trucks (borrowed or hired, so I didn’t know the clutch) that have had that awful American style handbrake that you pull out from the dash, usually because of a bench seat in front. I’m a big guy, and I can’t use this when my foot is on the clutch because my knee blocks it. This means I have to do hillstarts without the parking brake. This is no drama in my own car, but last time I found myself in a hired pickup on one of sydney’s steepest hills at the lights, with a BMW behind me, I was sweating it to say the least. I laid some rubber, as I recall. [/QUOTE] American style? I’ve only seen those on small, japanese-made pickup trucks. Maybe they’re on some american trucks too, but the default American emergency brake on a truck seems to be the left foot pedal. ---
**Author:** ![TheLoadedDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@TheLoadedDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheLoadedDog)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2008, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-special-forces-guys-have-to-know-how-to-drive-a-stick-shift/455583/32 "2008-07-08T01:44:43Z")
[QUOTE=Labrador Deceiver] American style? I’ve only seen those on small, japanese-made pickup trucks. Maybe they’re on some american trucks too, but the default American emergency brake on a truck seems to be the left foot pedal. [/QUOTE] Aah, you’re probably right, given that I was actually _in_ a small, Japanese-made pickup truck. For some reason, I’ve always associated them with big Detroit metal. ---
**Author:** ![diggleblop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ac91a4/32.png) [@diggleblop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/diggleblop)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2008, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-special-forces-guys-have-to-know-how-to-drive-a-stick-shift/455583/33 "2008-07-08T02:13:23Z")
I was told by a good friend in the Army special forces HALO team that the people who belong to _CIA paramilitary squads_ learn how to drive pretty much anything that moves, flys or floats. I would assume that he wasn’t lying since the things they do are more specialized than a lot of other military squads, but who knows. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2008, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-special-forces-guys-have-to-know-how-to-drive-a-stick-shift/455583/34 "2008-07-08T02:45:50Z")
[QUOTE=Labrador Deceiver] American style? I’ve only seen those on small, japanese-made pickup trucks. Maybe they’re on some american trucks too, but the default American emergency brake on a truck seems to be the left foot pedal. [/QUOTE] The previous generation Mercedes E-Class has that too. ---
**Author:** ![AmunRa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@AmunRa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AmunRa)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2008, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-special-forces-guys-have-to-know-how-to-drive-a-stick-shift/455583/35 "2008-07-08T05:12:03Z")
[QUOTE=Bear\_Nenno] The very vast majority of US ARMY vehicles are all automatic. The large FMTV/LMTVs don’t have a shifter of any kind–not even an auto one. All it has is push buttons to go from R, N, D. . . BUTTONS!! The Stryker, the Bradley, the Hummer… all automatic. LHS? Automatic. Huge ass HEMMT? Automatic. [/QUOTE] For that matter the ONLY vehicle still in use by the US Army with a stick shift, as far as I am aware, is the deuce and a half; and it is pretty much an obsolete vehicle that survives only on a select few installations. ---
**Author:** ![KCB615](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ea666f/32.png) [@KCB615](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KCB615)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2008, 12:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-special-forces-guys-have-to-know-how-to-drive-a-stick-shift/455583/36 "2008-07-08T12:08:28Z")
[QUOTE=Lemur866] In other words: cite that most Americans can’t drive a stick? [/QUOTE] I can’t talk for most Americans, but I can, anecdotally, tell you that every new firefighter I have trained in the past 7 years (more than 30), with the exception of one, could not drive a stick. That one new guy could drive anything with wheels, sails, or a screw, so he doesn’t count. One of the laments of fire service instructors over the past 5-10 years is that the “new ducks” don’t have the same mechanical knowledge that those of us who came in 15+ years ago do. I haven’t had (with the exception of the one guy above) anyone who can open up a chainsaw and repair a stuck starter cord, or who can start a small gas engine with a finicky choke. Of course, the new ducks are stunning at joystick operated devices and can navigate a computer console with amazing ease, but they don’t get the true mechanical stuff. Call it a change in the times, and an oversimplified generalization, but those kids today can’t drive sticks. Wow, I’m officially a dinosaur now. That hurts. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2008, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-special-forces-guys-have-to-know-how-to-drive-a-stick-shift/455583/37 "2008-07-08T13:43:54Z")
[QUOTE=KCB615] Call it a change in the times, and an oversimplified generalization, but those kids today can’t drive sticks. Wow, I’m officially a dinosaur now. That hurts. [/QUOTE] You could always recruit foreign drivers… Virtually all of us who grew up outside the US learned to drive manual first. \*That said, I’ve only ever _owned_ automatics and I’ve only driven one manual-transmission vehicle in the last 9 years. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2008, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-special-forces-guys-have-to-know-how-to-drive-a-stick-shift/455583/38 "2008-07-08T14:15:34Z")
[QUOTE=Really Not All That Bright] I was already deathly afraid of bears. Now you have ensured that one day I will be deathly afraid that bears will eat my as-yet not conceived daughter. :eek: I hope you can live with yourself; I couldn’t. [/QUOTE] Quick, somebody call _The Colbert Report_! ---
**Author:** ![Renee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/renee/32/287_2.png) [@Renee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Renee)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2008, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-special-forces-guys-have-to-know-how-to-drive-a-stick-shift/455583/39 "2008-07-08T15:01:34Z")
[QUOTE=KCB615] I can’t talk for most Americans, but I can, anecdotally, tell you that every new firefighter I have trained in the past 7 years (more than 30), with the exception of one, could not drive a stick. That one new guy could drive anything with wheels, sails, or a screw, so he doesn’t count. [/QUOTE] That’s just sad. Firefighters are suposed to be manly, and real men drive stick. I’ll never look at firemen the same way again. FWIW, I know several SF guys and they can all drive a car with a manual, although such cars are difficult to find here in Japan. I’d say about 50-70% of the people I know in my age group (say, 25-35) can drive a manual. ---
**Author:** ![TheLoadedDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@TheLoadedDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheLoadedDog)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2008, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-special-forces-guys-have-to-know-how-to-drive-a-stick-shift/455583/40 "2008-07-08T15:07:47Z")
I work in a large workplace, and I frankly don’t know if most of the workers can drive a manual or not, but I do know that for whatever reason, most of the very few manual cars in the staff carpark are owned by women. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-special-forces-guys-have-to-know-how-to-drive-a-stick-shift/455583.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-special-forces-guys-have-to-know-how-to-drive-a-stick-shift/455583.md?page=3)