U.S. Special Operations: Personal Opinions

[SWJED]

U.S. Special Operations
Personal Opinions
by Colonel John M. Collins, Small Wars Journal

U.S. Special Operations: Personal Opinions (Full PDF Article)

Many true believers throughout USSOCOM have memorized SOF Truths, here are the first four of five bullets that I conceived and Congressman Earl Hutto signed in the Foreword to U.S. and Soviet Special Operations on 28 April 1987:

- Humans are more important than hardware
- Their quality is more important than quantities
- Special Operations Forces cannot be mass-produced
- Competent SOF cannot be created after emergencies occur

When General Stiner sent me on a Cook’s tour of his subordinate commands in 1993 the first stop was Fort Bragg, where USASOC commander Lieutenant General Wayne Downing proudly concluded his formal presentation with a slide that displayed SOF Truths. He did a double take when I told him “they’re wonderful,” then said, “I wrote ‘em.”

If asked to start over from scratch, I would add one word to the fourth bullet so it would read “Competent SOF cannot be created RAPIDLY after emergencies occur.” Otherwise, I believe they are still solid as bricks, but wish that whoever enshrined the first four had retained Number 5, which says “Most Special Operations require non-SOF assistance.” That oversight was a serious mistake in my opinion, because its omission encourages unrealistic expectations by poorly tutored employers and perpetuates a counterproductive “us versus everybody else” attitude by excessively gung ho members of the SOF community.

[Bob's World]

I don't believe that I have ever had the pleasure of meeting John, but next time you are down at USSOCOM I will gladly buy you beer for as long as you'd care to entertain my endless questions.

This piece is spot on, and entertaining to read as well. Thanks.

To lend my own reinforcing fires to this, the top issue that will be coming out of Tampa as we roll into QDR is the need for the development of SOF enablers.

Thanks John.

COL Robert C. Jones

[Ken White]

...the top issue that will be coming out of Tampa as we roll into QDR is the need for the development of SOF enablers.

hopefully by that you mean this most important point from Colonel Collins (he's older'n I am so he gets a title... ):

"Number 5, which says “Most Special Operations require non-SOF assistance.”

[Bob's World]

Exactly. In fact, i'll see what I can do about getting number 5 added back on.

[SWCAdmin]

Exactly. In fact, i]ll see what I can do about getting number 5 added back on.

Your timing is impeccable, Bob. You seem to be the first poster after our ~17 hours of downtime. Glad to see the Council is resilient. Now for the Journal side of things....

[Bob W.]

Special Forces Groups now have support battalions as part of their organization. This is a substantial improvement in logistic capability for SF. There are drawbacks, though, especially with the manning and organization of these units. For instance, there are no Special Forces Officers/NCOs on that Battalion's staff, which is a mistake, done more to make the CSS community happy for the additional personnel slots than anything else. As a result, I have seen a lack of knowledge and experience on the staff's part in sustaining Special Operations Forces/missions. This may be remedied over time, as junior CSS Officer/NCOs serve in multiple roles at different ranks in the support battalion, and the unit matures.

This next comment is anecdotal, but sure to be controversial: Are the 03/04 CSS personnel that HRC identifies to go to SF Support Battalions the log branches' "best and brightest"? Recent experiences with these guys suggest this may not be the case, especially when compared to their counterparts throughout the Army. It will be interesting to hear see what other people write in here on this subject. Cheers.

Bob W.
Acreofindependence.com