thedrifter
05-05-07, 01:54 PM
SOCOM celebrates 20th anniversary
By Mitch Stacy - The Associated Press
Posted : Saturday May 5, 2007 11:48:56 EDT
TAMPA, Fla. — The virility of the U.S. military’s special operations forces sank to an embarrassing low when an Air Force transport plane and a Navy helicopter collided on the ground in an Iranian desert in April 1980, killing eight men in a botched mission to rescue 53 American hostages.
The debacle underscored for military leaders and Congress that special operations — those Army Green Berets, Navy SEALS and other elite fighters who carry out highly demanding, specialized missions around the globe — needed more money and major organizational reforms.
A congressional act called for a unified command for all special forces with its own resources, commander and headquarters. U.S. Special Operations Command was activated on April 16, 1987, headquartered at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa. Since then, its commandos have fought in Operation Desert Storm and carried out missions from the Persian Gulf to Somalia, usually with little fanfare.
As the group commonly known as SOCOM celebrates its 20th anniversary, it has been thrust into a front-and-center role organizing and coordinating the war against terrorists in Iraq and Afghanistan, where its highly trained commandos have been key players.
SOCOM’s commander, Army Gen. Bryan “Doug” Brown, said the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and the country’s new focus on smoking out terrorists “changed how we do business.”
“This put us in the lead for pulling together all of the Department of Defense plans for the global war on terror, and that is a big deal,” Brown said in an interview with The Associated Press.
“We had to design and grow a staff, build the facilities and build the processes for synchronizing the global war on terror, when in fact it had never been done before by another combatant command,” Brown said. “So this is all new stuff, and that’s been big.”
Moreover, the number of deployed special operations personnel has grown from an average of around 2,400 before the Sept. 11 attacks to an all-time high of about 7,400 now, Brown said. Personnel under SOCOM’s authority have swollen to a record high of about 48,000 around the world.
“It’s the biggest growth we’ve had since the command was stood up 20 years ago,” he said.
John Carney, a retired Air Force colonel who was involved in the botched Iranian hostage rescue, said special operations were being methodically dismantled and underfunded after the Vietnam War. When called on by President Carter for the Iran mission, he said, “we couldn’t have been in a worse state.”
The unified command gave special operations money and a four-star general at the helm who got to work re-equipping it and clarifying the roles of the individual services and their training programs, said Carney, who worked in special operations for 20 years before his 1991 retirement.
“I saw it rise from the ashes in the desert to the capability it has today,” he said. “Now there is no special operations capability in the world that can compare to what we have.”
As a result of its role in Iran and Afghanistan, SOCOM has had to beef up its training schools to produce more commandos without relaxing its rigorous training standards, Brown said. About two years of training is required beyond basic military instruction.
In this conflict, special operations warriors have, among other things, hunted down high-profile terrorists, trained Iraqi security forces, plucked wounded soldiers from war zones and engaged in the psychological battle for the hearts and minds of civilians.
SOCOM operates from a spacious new building at MacDill not far from the headquarters of U.S. Central Command, which has ultimate authority for coordinating the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
As part of its 20th anniversary celebration, SOCOM invited a group of reporters in for a rare look at the shadowy operation, including a movie theater-sized command center with huge video screens and maps tracking the movements of every special operations unit in the world. The tour also included a white-knuckle ride on a CV-22 Osprey, an innovative airplane-helicopter hybrid designed to get troops in and out quickly.
To date, 194 special operations troops have been killed fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, including Army Ranger and former NFL player Pat Tillman, who was hit by friendly fire while his unit was hunting for the Taliban and Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan in 2004.
The latest announced casualty was an Army Green Beret, Staff Sgt. Michael D. Thomas, 34, who was killed April 27 in Afghanistan.
Lt. Gen. Michael W. Wooley, chief of the Air Force Special Operations Command, which falls under the SOCOM command umbrella, acknowledges that the war has stretched personnel resources, prompting more aggressive recruiting efforts and more efficient training to get qualified people through faster.
“The dynamic we’re dealing with here is the length of time we’ve been continuously deployed,” Wooley said. “The water line is about nostril level — any higher you would be uncomfortable, any lower and you’re not operating at peak efficiency.”
SOCOM is looking for more guys like Lt. j.g. Ryan Peters, a 26-year-old Navy SEAL who just got back from six months in Iraq and expects to return soon. He said he entered the U.S. Naval Academy looking for a fight.
“When I went in [the academy], there wasn’t much going on,” Peters said. “Then 9/11 happened, and we were reminded daily for three years that we will enter a war. That’s what I focused on, being a combat leader, and that’s what they trained us to do. I knew what I was getting myself into.”
Wooley put it this way: “I deal with thoroughbreds, and thoroughbreds want to run the Kentucky Derby or any of the Triple Crown races. Our folks have been training for this war for many, many years.”
Ellie
By Mitch Stacy - The Associated Press
Posted : Saturday May 5, 2007 11:48:56 EDT
TAMPA, Fla. — The virility of the U.S. military’s special operations forces sank to an embarrassing low when an Air Force transport plane and a Navy helicopter collided on the ground in an Iranian desert in April 1980, killing eight men in a botched mission to rescue 53 American hostages.
The debacle underscored for military leaders and Congress that special operations — those Army Green Berets, Navy SEALS and other elite fighters who carry out highly demanding, specialized missions around the globe — needed more money and major organizational reforms.
A congressional act called for a unified command for all special forces with its own resources, commander and headquarters. U.S. Special Operations Command was activated on April 16, 1987, headquartered at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa. Since then, its commandos have fought in Operation Desert Storm and carried out missions from the Persian Gulf to Somalia, usually with little fanfare.
As the group commonly known as SOCOM celebrates its 20th anniversary, it has been thrust into a front-and-center role organizing and coordinating the war against terrorists in Iraq and Afghanistan, where its highly trained commandos have been key players.
SOCOM’s commander, Army Gen. Bryan “Doug” Brown, said the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and the country’s new focus on smoking out terrorists “changed how we do business.”
“This put us in the lead for pulling together all of the Department of Defense plans for the global war on terror, and that is a big deal,” Brown said in an interview with The Associated Press.
“We had to design and grow a staff, build the facilities and build the processes for synchronizing the global war on terror, when in fact it had never been done before by another combatant command,” Brown said. “So this is all new stuff, and that’s been big.”
Moreover, the number of deployed special operations personnel has grown from an average of around 2,400 before the Sept. 11 attacks to an all-time high of about 7,400 now, Brown said. Personnel under SOCOM’s authority have swollen to a record high of about 48,000 around the world.
“It’s the biggest growth we’ve had since the command was stood up 20 years ago,” he said.
John Carney, a retired Air Force colonel who was involved in the botched Iranian hostage rescue, said special operations were being methodically dismantled and underfunded after the Vietnam War. When called on by President Carter for the Iran mission, he said, “we couldn’t have been in a worse state.”
The unified command gave special operations money and a four-star general at the helm who got to work re-equipping it and clarifying the roles of the individual services and their training programs, said Carney, who worked in special operations for 20 years before his 1991 retirement.
“I saw it rise from the ashes in the desert to the capability it has today,” he said. “Now there is no special operations capability in the world that can compare to what we have.”
As a result of its role in Iran and Afghanistan, SOCOM has had to beef up its training schools to produce more commandos without relaxing its rigorous training standards, Brown said. About two years of training is required beyond basic military instruction.
In this conflict, special operations warriors have, among other things, hunted down high-profile terrorists, trained Iraqi security forces, plucked wounded soldiers from war zones and engaged in the psychological battle for the hearts and minds of civilians.
SOCOM operates from a spacious new building at MacDill not far from the headquarters of U.S. Central Command, which has ultimate authority for coordinating the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
As part of its 20th anniversary celebration, SOCOM invited a group of reporters in for a rare look at the shadowy operation, including a movie theater-sized command center with huge video screens and maps tracking the movements of every special operations unit in the world. The tour also included a white-knuckle ride on a CV-22 Osprey, an innovative airplane-helicopter hybrid designed to get troops in and out quickly.
To date, 194 special operations troops have been killed fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, including Army Ranger and former NFL player Pat Tillman, who was hit by friendly fire while his unit was hunting for the Taliban and Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan in 2004.
The latest announced casualty was an Army Green Beret, Staff Sgt. Michael D. Thomas, 34, who was killed April 27 in Afghanistan.
Lt. Gen. Michael W. Wooley, chief of the Air Force Special Operations Command, which falls under the SOCOM command umbrella, acknowledges that the war has stretched personnel resources, prompting more aggressive recruiting efforts and more efficient training to get qualified people through faster.
“The dynamic we’re dealing with here is the length of time we’ve been continuously deployed,” Wooley said. “The water line is about nostril level — any higher you would be uncomfortable, any lower and you’re not operating at peak efficiency.”
SOCOM is looking for more guys like Lt. j.g. Ryan Peters, a 26-year-old Navy SEAL who just got back from six months in Iraq and expects to return soon. He said he entered the U.S. Naval Academy looking for a fight.
“When I went in [the academy], there wasn’t much going on,” Peters said. “Then 9/11 happened, and we were reminded daily for three years that we will enter a war. That’s what I focused on, being a combat leader, and that’s what they trained us to do. I knew what I was getting myself into.”
Wooley put it this way: “I deal with thoroughbreds, and thoroughbreds want to run the Kentucky Derby or any of the Triple Crown races. Our folks have been training for this war for many, many years.”
Ellie