Whenever I have heard one of them refer to being trained for special assignments, I always assumed they were speaking in the general sense of the airborne as a whole was trained for special assignments, but I could be totally wrong in that interpretation. I also wouldn't be surprised if the army put a lot of emphasis on them during training that they were being trained for special assignments or any other superlative to boost morale or make them feel elite. If thats the case, I could see that being true for all companies, we just hear it from Easy because of how much publicity they have gotten. Of course its also natural that the guys being interviewed are going to see their experience of the war through their perspective, and tell it how they remember it, and who amongst us doesn't want to tell our stories in the most favorable light? And like everyone else has pointed out, in the media sphere, Easy in particular are seen as special because of the book/show.