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Accession Number:
AD1126748
Title:
Net Benefit of Performance-Enhancing Drugs Within U.S. Army Special Forces
Descriptive Note:
[Technical Report, Master's Thesis]
Corporate Author:
NAVAL POSTGRADUATE SCHOOL MONTEREY CA
Report Date:
2020-12-01
Pagination or Media Count:
93
Abstract:
The United States Army Special Forces USASF depends on high fitness levels to accomplish higher-risk missions in various environments and under the most extreme conditions. USASF stresses the importance of improving an operators strength, endurance, and cognitive ability. Soldiers within USASF undergo a rigorous selection process to secure the right person for the right job and adhere to the Special Operations Forces SOF truth humans are more important than hardware. Thus, performance-enhancing drugs PEDs can serve a vital role in an operators ability to become bigger, faster, stronger, or smarter. To understand the use of PEDs within USASF, we ask How much does USASF benefit from researching and implementing performance-enhancing drugs given the current knowledge of biotechnologies Our thesis explores research on PEDs from competitive sports and overlays it with the USASF mission sets while considering the mechanics of PED use and side effects to gain a better understanding through an operational lens. We argue that PEDs can be beneficial to USASF but only in certain capacities. Our personal experiences as Green Berets and the use of declassified missions support our conclusion. Furthermore, our findings depict how PEDs could be beneficial in both capacity-building and capacity-restoring roles however, due to limited data on PED use in the military, a more in-depth review is needed to determine the impacts on the USASF Regiment.
Distribution Statement:
[A, Approved For Public Release]
