A good part of the respect afforded SOF also comes from the very difficulty ofentering them in the first place. Out of a total US armed services of 1.5 million activepersonnel (plus the same in reserve), just 66,000 belong to the US Special OperationsCommand (SOCOM), and only a fraction of those are actual active frontlinecombatants. The demands placed upon the troops in the field, both physically andintellectually, mean that anyone wanting to enter SOF ranks has to pass through selectionand assessment programs designed to test applicants virtually to destruction.