The Baker team's specializations
The Assaulters (Danforth, Jorgenson, Krakauer, Ortega).
The assaulter's purpose was to face the enemy directly, using the maximum fire power at disposal. A rifleman, machine-gunner, heavy weapons specialist... The Baker team's assaulter could use any kind of light or heavy weapon and foreign made too, given the fact that those men could be sent into 'over the fence' (clandestine) missions too.
Some of them like Danforth and Jorgenson were specialized in demolition devices.
With regard to the fighting formation, assaulters usually stayed in the middle of the column and had the duty of taking over the fight in case of direct, full frontal contact with the enemy.
The Reconnaissance men, also known as 'shadow men' (Barry, Rambo)
The main purpose of the reconnaissance men was moving without being seen.
The shadow man was an explorer, infiltrator and, sometimes, they had offensive roles too, when making a stealthy hit was of the utmost importance to accomplish the mission.
The reconnaissance man was also a hand to hand combat expert.
With regard to the movement formation, they usually moved at the head of the team, showing assaulters the way.
The field medic (Messner)
He was an expert in emergency medicine, stabilization of the wounded and emergency surgery.
In the Baker team, he was usually a radio-operator too.
Inside the team's formation, he would stay close and cover the team leader or the vice-team leader, who usually were too busy (planning or land-navigating the team) to be as vigilant as usually required by jungle warfare.
The selected marksman (Coletta)
Inside the Baker teams, the selected marksman was an expert in long range shooting, land navigation, survival and in track following or track disguising.
During his training, Coletta had to study much more theory than the other soldiers, because he had to know South East Asia's flora and fauna, its seasons and temperatures and even the local people’s diets.
Trautman was a firm believer in the 'going native' theory, a theory that said that the best way to survive in any environment was to observe the way the locals lived and imitate them.
So Coletta spent his time in Fort Bragg learning the local Vietnamese ways of hunting and fishing, and he was taught them during very different courses for selected marksmen only.
This made him a little different from his team members.
Inside the team formation, he used to stay in the middle, to give indications to the scouts at the head of the formation, when the land navigation was considered difficult or dangerous.
The Team Leader (and the vice team leader)
Inside the SOG, the team leader was not chosen because of his rank or length of service.
He was the best in the most important subjects required to lead a team, which were theoretical strategy, practical planning and land navigation.
He also had to show his instructors that he had a 'total' attitude, meaning that he had to be seriously enthusiast about every single subject and possess a genuine desire to be the best in every single one of them. Not competing to be the best in everything - because some subjects were 'less interesting' than other - would put the recruit out of the competition to become the team-leader.
Ortega, Danforth, Coletta and Rambo were the best in most areas, but Coletta was too specialized a soldier, and Rambo too young.
So, within Baker team B, the two real candidates were Danforth and Ortega.
Inside the team's formation, the leader and vice leader used to stay some way back, to coordinate the team from behind.