Author Type

Graduate Student

Date of Award

Spring 4-14-2026

Document Type

Thesis

Publication Status

Version of Record

Submission Date

April 2026

Department

Anthropology

College Granting Degree

Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters

Department Granting Degree

Anthropology

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Thesis/Dissertation Advisor [Chair]

Katharina Rynkiewich

Abstract

This thesis examines how United States Army Special Forces veterans of the Global War on Terror narrate the identity of the "Quiet Professional" across training, deployment, and post-service life. Drawing on oral history interviews with four retired Green Berets, as well as archival and material culture analysis, the study approaches Special Forces as a distinctive military institution shaped by narrative, institutional formation, and war. It argues that Special Forces ethos is not a fixed warrior identity, but a lived and contested achievement produced through rites of passage, embodied hardship, informal legitimacy, and collective memory. Participants describe becoming Special Forces as a convergence of personal disposition and institutional authorization, while also showing how legitimacy is continually tested through bodily endurance, team culture, and changing mission demands. The thesis contributes to the anthropology of militarism and institutions by offering an emic, historically situated account of how elite military identity is formed, sustained, and carried unevenly into post-service life.

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