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

Military Review - May 1, 2004

Continued from page 6.

Special Forces Qualification Course attendees and other SOF personnel in initial entry-training should receive a joint SO doctrine and procedures overview -not to make them doctrinal experts, but to address jointness early in their careers. By the seventh or eighth year of service, most officers no longer command SOF detachments or platoons, but normally occupy assistant staff positions. The time to expose them to joint SOF doctrine in preparation for ISS and field grade officer responsibilities is when they become staff officers.

The proposed model is similar to one originally established in 1989, with a few modifications to account for updated doctrine. (28) The focus must be on educating SOF personnel for the joint operational level. Integration of SOF joint operations, such as in the Special Forces Qualification Course, should fall under the JSOU's direction and be taught in residence or by mobile education teams (METs) traveling to outlying SOF duty stations. Some selected instruction might occur by CD-ROM or interactive web-based learning. (29)

Joint SOF education should also be injected into the ISS. About 75 percent of all SOF ISS students attend the Army Command and General Staff College each year where an established SOF track includes over 200 hours of instruction supported by JSOU in both core- and graduate-level tasks in four areas: civil affairs, psychological operations, special operations, and special operations aviation. JSOU must also offer joint SOF instruction at the Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force (USAF) ISS and through their respective Advanced Military Studies (AMS) programs. According to one SOF officer responsible for ISS education, placing a larger number of SOF officers in the AMS programs is a priority, along with follow-on placement of them in areas where they can make the greatest contributions to SOF and the joint community. In addition, programs must continue to be developed for officers selected to fill joint billets but not selected to attend a resident ISS.

According to DOD data, one-third of officers serving in joint positions in fiscal year 2001 participated in both phases of the joint education program. (30) A recent GAO report notes, "The Joint Forces Staff College, from which most officers receive the second phase, is currently operating at 83 percent of its 906-seat capacity." (31) One possible solution to achieving higher attendance is to have SOF personnel attend ISS, go on temporary duty enroute to the Joint Forces Staff College (JFSC) and then report to their units. This would put more SOF Joint Professional Military Education-Phase II (JPME-II) graduates into units but would require a flexible personnel system. Having a JPME-II-qualified officer in SOF tactical units, headquarters, or joint staffs would be valuable to operations and planning teams and a great investment in and benefit to SOF and conventional forces. These are near-term solutions, but developing a long-term plan is crucial, too. Focused joint education and training for SOF officers is essential for operational success in joint or JSOTF environments.

Does SOCOM need to have a separate ISS? One senior SOF officer pointed out that in the 1930s airmen worked through the theory and mechanics of air-power application at the Air Corps Tactical School (ACTS) at Maxwell Field, Alabama. Because of their efforts, when World War II began, their theories and experiments eventually gave birth to a new military service-the USAF. This change came about because the Army could not provide the education, training, and resources airmen required.

Obviously, SOCOM is far from establishing its own ISS or a separate SOF service. However, the National Security Strategy and National Strategy for Combating Terrorism rely on preemptive actions and expanding SOF roles, thus it would be premature to rule out such a possibility in the coming decade.

With SOCOM's and SOF's GWOT missions and the requirement to conduct operations in a joint environment, junior field grade SOF operators and planners must obtain quality educations and training for the operational and strategic levels of joint operations in order to function effectively on a combatant commander's staff or on a JSOTF. Joint SOF staff officer training should focus on, but not be limited to, the following skill sets:

* Joint operations and planning.

* Full-spectrum operations.

* Synchronization of joint operations.

* Familiarity with all service components' doctrine and capabilities.

* Joint fires employment.

* SOF and conventional force interoperability.

* Joint force air component commander and air targets officer coordination.

An ideal place to conduct this standardized joint training would be at each service's ISS as part of SOF officers' required curriculum. If this is not feasible, the JSOU and SOCJFCOM in residence or in mobile education and training teams could conduct education and training. SOCOM, with JSOU and SOCJFCOM, must be the lead headquarters to ensure unity of effort and standardization.

In October 1995, U.S. Army Major General Sidney Shachnow stated, "Undoubtedly, some people will point to the magnificent manner in which SOF has] succeeded in meeting all challenges to date. These same people will remind us not to fix something that is not broken. My response is [as Thomas Edison said]: 'Show me a thoroughly satisfied man, and I will show you a failure.' Of all our human resources, the most precious is the desire to improve." (32) MR

NOTES

(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.

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