A Former ISA Operator Compares Delta Force and DEVGRU

In a video from Mike Ritland, a former ISA operator who spent years embedded with both Delta Force and DEVGRU lays out how the two units actually compare, and the answer has less to do with shooting and more to do with culture. Having worked across all three of the so-called "big three" tier one units, he ranks the five tier one units from most professional to most toxic, putting the Army's unit at the top and ranking DEVGRU and his own ISA background among the bottom two.

Key points

• Toxicity ranking: the operator says intelligence-heavy organizations breed more backstabbing than assault-focused units because solo intelligence work lacks the built-in brotherhood of an assault team.
• Support staff treatment: he says the biggest real difference between Delta and DEVGRU is how each treats its SIGINT and support personnel, with Delta valuing them and DEVGRU, in his experience, treating support as a "necessary evil."
• Freefall course tension: he recalls a freefall jump master course where DEVGRU assaulters and boat guys clashed, with noticeable animosity he attributes mostly to the boat guys.
• 2014 Iraq deployment: he describes leading one of the first American teams back into Iraq against ISIS, working alongside a Delta troop and coordinating with Iranian-backed Shia militias.
• Soleimani tracking: he says he helped pioneer early methods for tracking Qassem Soleimani's aircraft movements back in 2014.

Quick take

This is a rare inside comparison from someone who actually worked both sides, and the support-staff detail is the kind of nuance you don't get from recruiting videos.

Watch the full video: Mike Ritland