Do you think it's a good idea for Soldiers to be assigned to SOF Units directly from AIT?

Not to Special Forces. But in my experience it hasn't ever been a problem with a young man going to one of the Ranger BNs after basic, ait, jump school, and what they now call RASP. But straight into Special Forces as initial duty assignment? NO.

No

The reason I ask this is because it's my opinion that the atmosphere (in my experience) in a SF Unit is completely different than the atmosphere in a "Big Army" unit.  Support personnel, regardless of identifier, will NOT spend their whole career in Spec Ops.  I think it's more beneficial to new Soldiers to go to a regular Army unit first to get that initial introduction the Army life, then be assigned to a SOF Unit.  Fact is that the Soldiers who go to SOF Units first are in for an eye opening experience when they PCS back to the regular Army.  We get just as much, if not more experience doing MOS specific tasks in SOF units because OP tempo dictates such, however, basic Soldiering skills seem to be lacking in younger Soldiers assigned to SOF Units.  Their fault? No, NCO' s fault?  Possibly.  I'd say that they are more likely a product of their environment.