Of course in todays military everyone is in an "Elite" unit and are "Combat medics" or "Combat" mechanics, truck drivers, tactical fuel specialists etc, etc. You should see all the "bad ass" logos and nicknames they have for themselves. "Ultimate Warrior" logistics and the Fighting 50whatever military police "Gunfighter" battalion.
The fact that a large portion of them are undisciplined, overweight and incompetent in basic tasks or gun handling skills never crosses their minds. They are after all in an ELITE outfit.
Nobody is average in todays military.
The funny/sad part is that in todays military it is all about feeling elite and looking cool rather than actually performing at a higher standard.
We used it to describe a person who worked hard, didn't mess about with the bullchit and basically did whatever it took to get the job done, with a high level of accomplishment, minimal level of BS and ceremony.
None of us were issued weapons - we were issued people to protect our azzes so we could accomplish the mission. The only time we really had the weapons and training was to go down range and do what we had to do.
Damned bet you our unit was "elite" - very few can do what we did and we didn't feel the need to have any "group" name at all. I am damned proud of what I did and know that out of about 352,000 people in the Navy there were about 2000 of us (IIRC) - Basically you were a sailor attached to a command that prosecuted a mission and that was it.
