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Behind friendly lines: enforcing the need for a joint SOF staff officer

Military Review - May 1, 2004

Continued from page 3.

(1.) Rowan Scarborough, "Rumsfeld Bolsters Special Forces." Washington Times, 6 January 2003, 1.

(2.) Glenn W. Goodman, "Expanded Role for Elite Commandos," Armed Forces Journal International (February 2003): 36.

(3.) Experienced SOF commanders are hesitant to expand higher headquarters unless doing so would benefit SOF missions in the field. Otherwise, expanding headquarters is seen as bureaucratic and wasteful of critical manpower assets.

(4.) U.S. Chiefs of Staff Joint Publication (JP) 3-05, Doctrine for Joint Special Operations (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office [GPO], 17 April 1998).

(5.) For more information concerning the pros and cons of establishing a JSOTF, refer to "Special Operations Forces Joint Training Team," Joint Special Operations Insights (June 2002).

(6.) JP 3-05.1, Joint Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures for Joint Special Operations Task Force Operations (Washington DC: GPO, 19 December 2001).

(7.) COL Ed Phillips, E-mail message to authors, 6 February 2003.

(8.) COL Mark Boyatt, "Haiti-Unconventional Operations," command briefing, Fort Bragg, NC, October 1994, videocassette.

(9.) Greg Jannarone, E-mail to authors, 10 January 2003.

(10.) JP 3-05.

(11.) USC, Title 10, Armed Forces, Section 167, "Unified Combatant Command For Special Operations Forces." See on-line at <www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/10/167.html>, accessed 20 April 2004.

(12.) The White House, National Strategy for Combating Terrorism (Washington, DC: February 2003). See on-line at <www.whitehouse.gov>, accessed 20 April 2004.

(13.) For an in-depth look at the principal SF missions in foreign internal defense in Colombia, see Linda Robinson, "Warrior Class: Why Special Forces Are America's Tool of Choice in Colombia and Around the Globe," U.S. News and World Report, (10 February 2003): 34-46.

(14.) Center for Strategic Leadership, The U.S. Army's Initial Impressions of Operation Enduring Freedom and Noble Eagle (Carlisle, PA: Army War College), October 2002.

(15.) U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM) Publication 1, Special Operations in Peace and War (MacDill Air Force Base, FL: GPO, 25 January 1996), C-6.

(16.) SOCOM Directive 621-1, "Joint Special Operations Education System," 9 March 2001, 5.

(17.) SOCOM Publication 1, C-6.

(18.) Thomas P. Odom, "SOF Integration: A JRTC Tradition," Center for Army Lessons Learned, JRTC-CALL Cell, 4th Quarter, 2002, on-line at <https://call2.army.mil/call/ products/trngqtr/tq4-02/odom.asp>, accessed 29 April 2004.

(19.) Steven Biddle, Afghanistan and the Future of Warfare: Implications for Army and Defense Policy (Carlisle, PA: Strategic Studies Institute, U.S. Army War College, November 2002) and Don D. Chipman, "Airpower and the Battle for Mazar-e Sharif," Air Power History (Spring 2003): 34-45.

(20.) JP 3-05.

(21.) Special Operations Command Joint Forces Command (SOCJFCOM), Joint Special Operations Insights: Issues and Lessons Learned (Norfolk, VA: June 2002).

(22.) LTC Wes Rehorn, interview with authors, 12 February 2003.

(23.) Center for Strategic Leadership.

(24.) Rehorn.

(25.) General Accounting Office (GAO) 03-238, Report to the Subcommittee on Military Personnel, Committee on Armed Services, House of Representatives, "Military Personnel: Joint Officer Development Has Improved, but a Strategic Approach is Needed" (Washington, DC: GPO, December 2002), on-line at <www.gao.gov/new.items/ d03238.pdf>, accessed 29 April 2004.

(26.) JP 3-05.1 and SOCOM Directive 621-1.

(27.) JP 3-05.1.

(28.) This model is an updated version of an original program of instruction, which was proposed in 1989. See "Fighters vs. Thinkers: The Special Operations Staff Officer Course and the Future of SOF," Special Warfare (Spring 1989): 33-37.

(29.) One recent RAND report notes that distance learning supports asynchronous learning (that is, learning whenever an individual chooses to) and allows learning programs to be redesigned and offered as modular units, thus tailoring the material to current skill levels, new assignments, and time constraints of individual soldiers. Also, distance learning can more easily provide refresher training and just-in-time training, allowing soldiers to remain proficient in a wider range of skills or to have proficiency restored when and where needed. See "Army Distance Learning Can Enhance Personnel Readiness," RAND, on-line at <www.rand.org/publications/RB/RB3028>, accessed 8 April 2004.

(30.) GAO-03-238.

(31.) Ibid.

(32.) MG Sidney Shachnow, quoted in Special Warfare (October 1995). Commander Steven R. Schreiber, U.S. Navy, serves in the Operations Department, U.S. Special Operations Command. He received a B.S. from the University of Arizona and an M.S. from the University of Tennessee. He was the commander of an anti-submarine squadron aboard the USS John F. Kennedy in support of Operation Enduring Freedom.

Major Greg E. Metzgar, U.S. Army, is the J7, Special Operations Command-Joint Force Command. He received a B.S. from Boise State University and an M.S. from Central Michigan University. He has served in many troop leadership positions and Special Forces assignments and was with the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) during Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm.

Major Stephen R. Mezhir, U.S Air Force, is Chief, Nuclear Security Policy, United States Strategic Command. He received a B.S. from the U.S. Air Force Academy and an M.S. from Webster University.

THE EVENTS OF 11 September 2001 and the Global War on Terrorism (GWOT) have resulted in a significant expansion of U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM) and special operations forces (SOF) roles and missions. At the direction of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, the Army has also placed SOCOM in the new and unfamiliar role of a supported combatant command. (1) The combination of expanded roles and missions with a higher demand for SOF assets and capabilities and increased command responsibilities poses a daunting challenge.

SOCOM's expanded roles and missions increase manpower requirements for SOF personnel who can plan at the strategic level. (2) As more SOF operators begin performing strategic planning duties, SOF units risk losing capabilities. (3) Given SOF truths (people are more important than hardware, competent SOF cannot be created or mass-produced in an emergency, and quality over quantity), the expanded requirement for operators and planners presents a dilemma. (4)

How does SOCOM educate enough SOF planners for its expanded mission without compromising its capabilities or disregarding SOF truths? SOCOM cannot simply strip tactical SOF units, already critically short of experienced manpower, to meet the demand for educated strategic planners who can function effectively on a combatant commander's staff or on a joint special operations task force (JSOTF).

SOF field grade officers receive no formal education to prepare them for joint special operations (SO) at the operational level except that obtained in the intermediate service schools (ISSs). This lack of formal joint SO education limits these officers' ability to contribute and integrate SOF capabilities into joint staffs. The Army must address these limitations by introducing SOF officers to joint special operations early in their careers, either through formal joint SO classroom instruction or distance learning, to prepare them for service with regional combatant commanders, theater special operations commands (TSOCs), joint task forces (JTF), JSOTF, or joint staffs. The SOF staff officer must be able to rapidly transition from SOF operator to effective JSOTF staff officer.

Defining the Problem

Joint doctrine is authoritative and followed except when, in the commander's judgment, exceptional circumstances dictate otherwise. After the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks, operational planners at U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) tasked Special Operations Command-Central (SOCCENT) to prosecute the opening phase of the campaign in Afghanistan against al-Qaeda and the Taliban. After an initial mission analysis, SOCCENT tasked the Middle East-oriented 5th Special Forces Group (SFG) to form a JSOTF, which eventually became known as Task Force (TF) Dagger.

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