thedrifter
08-03-03, 08:27 AM
07-31-2003
From the Editor:
JSOC Rules!
By Ed Offley
The Senate Armed Services Committee is not generally known as a gaggle of revolutionaries, but on a closed-door voice vote this week, the 25-member panel formally launched what promises to be a genuine revolution in military affairs within the embattled U.S. Army.
The July 30 vote to approve the nominations of retired Gen. Peter J. Schoomaker to return to active duty as the next Army chief of staff sets the stage for a comprehensive transformation of the Army being pushed by Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld. In a parallel move, the committee voted to send the nomination of Lt. Gen. Doug Brown to the full Senate for promotion to four stars and confirmation as commander of the U.S. Special Operations Command,
Like most revolutions, this one will involve major battles, guerilla skirmishing and plenty of casualties. As I noted several weeks ago (“Saving the Army from Itself,” DefenseWatch, June 13, 2003), much of the news media coverage has focused on the personalities involved. Reports have labeled Rumsfeld as the corporate chieftain imposing his views on the service, and the stereotyped the generals as bureaucratic obfuscators fiercely protecting their bases, legacy weapons and force structure. But several perceptive analysts have correctly pointed out that the current struggle is actually over competing visions for the Army.
It is, simply stated, the 20th century U.S. Army vs. a military acronym that few people outside the service would ever recognize: JSOC.
Known formally as the Joint Special Operations Command, this elite and highly classified Fort Bragg organization trains and operates the “black” elements of U.S. special operations forces: the Army’s “Combat Applications Group,” a.k.a. Delta Force, the “Night Stalkers” of the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment at Fort Campbell, Ky., and the Navy’s Special Warfare Development Command, formerly known as SEAL Team 6.
Formed in separate Army-Navy moves more than 20 years ago, the components of JSOC specialize in counter-terrorism operations and unconventional warfare. After Delta’s disastrous involvement in the failed 1980 “Operation Eagle Claw” to rescue U.S. embassy staffers held hostage in Iran, the special operations community continued to struggle for personnel, assets and money from the rest of the military, often sparking bitter bureaucratic feuds in the process.
The special operations community was largely held to a support function during the 1991 Persian Gulf War, largely because then-Centcom commander Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf reportedly regarded the commandos – particularly Delta and the SEALs – as cowboys who might upset his war plan. Schwarzkopf also viewed the Special Operations Command as a bureaucratic competitor.
However, both in Afghanistan and now in Iraq, we are learning that the SF community played an even more significant role than initial and incomplete press accounts indicated.
Task Force 20, the “black SOF” unit comprising Delta operatives and Navy SEALs, was involved in the rescue of Pvt. Jessica Lynch as well as the take-down of Saddam Hussein’s two sons. It is also engaged in the ongoing hunt for the deposed Iraqi dictator. But an even more telling account has now emerged.
Rumsfeld himself this year publicly praised the role of Army Special Forces “A-Teams” in Afghanistan who rode horseback into battle to direct pinpoint air strikes against the Taliban. Now, it seems, he has an even more impressive tale to tell. Brig. Gen. Gary L. Harrell, who commanded SF missions in Iraq, told The New York Times this week that when Turkey refused to allow the 4th Infantry Division to invade Iraq from the north, Centcom officials feared that two Iraqi army divisions up north would be able to redeploy to confront the U.S. Army and Marine units that were racing up the Euphrates River valley from Kuwait.
So Harrell ordered a single 12-man “A-Team” in northern Iraq to stop them. As he told the Times:
“One of our missions was to try to do everything we could to keep those Iraqi divisions in place, to keep them out of the war in the south. One day, we were against some of the Iraqi forces. I said, ‘Send one of the O.D.A.’s [Operational Detachment-Alpha, or “A-Team”] down to hit this force.”
Harrell’s intelligence officer reportedly looked at the map and said, “Boss, you know that icon is an enemy division.” Harrell replied, “Yeah, I know. But they’re [the Special Forces troops] having pretty good success.” As in Afghanistan, the A-Team had access to the overwhelming air power force flying over Iraq and could call in massive but highly accurate bombing missions. Harrell told the Times:
“It's pretty easy to take on these large numbers of enemy forces when you’ve got an aircraft carrier in direct support of an O.D.A. Now an O.D.A. is 12 men. So 12 guys and some pesh merga [Kurdish fighters] took on a[n Iraqi] division – and moved it.”
The debate over the future U.S. Army promises to be protracted, intense and waged on many fronts. Everything from the service’s end-strength to its training procedures and personnel system will be under a microscope.
One thing is clear: Rumsfeld has turned away from the traditional Army and embraced the vision – not merely of the Special Operations Command but of its most secretive component, JSOC – for the future of the Army as a whole.
That’s obvious, because both Schoomaker and Brown, on their rise to senior command rank, served not only in its various components, but each commanded JSOC itself.
This will indeed be a fascinating revolution to watch unfold.
Ed Offley is Editor of DefenseWatch. He can be reached at dweditor@yahoo.com
http://www.sftt.org/cgi-bin/csNews/csNews.cgi?database=FTE.db&command=viewone&op=t&id=22&rnd=24.846998508211314
Sempers,
Roger
:marine:
From the Editor:
JSOC Rules!
By Ed Offley
The Senate Armed Services Committee is not generally known as a gaggle of revolutionaries, but on a closed-door voice vote this week, the 25-member panel formally launched what promises to be a genuine revolution in military affairs within the embattled U.S. Army.
The July 30 vote to approve the nominations of retired Gen. Peter J. Schoomaker to return to active duty as the next Army chief of staff sets the stage for a comprehensive transformation of the Army being pushed by Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld. In a parallel move, the committee voted to send the nomination of Lt. Gen. Doug Brown to the full Senate for promotion to four stars and confirmation as commander of the U.S. Special Operations Command,
Like most revolutions, this one will involve major battles, guerilla skirmishing and plenty of casualties. As I noted several weeks ago (“Saving the Army from Itself,” DefenseWatch, June 13, 2003), much of the news media coverage has focused on the personalities involved. Reports have labeled Rumsfeld as the corporate chieftain imposing his views on the service, and the stereotyped the generals as bureaucratic obfuscators fiercely protecting their bases, legacy weapons and force structure. But several perceptive analysts have correctly pointed out that the current struggle is actually over competing visions for the Army.
It is, simply stated, the 20th century U.S. Army vs. a military acronym that few people outside the service would ever recognize: JSOC.
Known formally as the Joint Special Operations Command, this elite and highly classified Fort Bragg organization trains and operates the “black” elements of U.S. special operations forces: the Army’s “Combat Applications Group,” a.k.a. Delta Force, the “Night Stalkers” of the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment at Fort Campbell, Ky., and the Navy’s Special Warfare Development Command, formerly known as SEAL Team 6.
Formed in separate Army-Navy moves more than 20 years ago, the components of JSOC specialize in counter-terrorism operations and unconventional warfare. After Delta’s disastrous involvement in the failed 1980 “Operation Eagle Claw” to rescue U.S. embassy staffers held hostage in Iran, the special operations community continued to struggle for personnel, assets and money from the rest of the military, often sparking bitter bureaucratic feuds in the process.
The special operations community was largely held to a support function during the 1991 Persian Gulf War, largely because then-Centcom commander Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf reportedly regarded the commandos – particularly Delta and the SEALs – as cowboys who might upset his war plan. Schwarzkopf also viewed the Special Operations Command as a bureaucratic competitor.
However, both in Afghanistan and now in Iraq, we are learning that the SF community played an even more significant role than initial and incomplete press accounts indicated.
Task Force 20, the “black SOF” unit comprising Delta operatives and Navy SEALs, was involved in the rescue of Pvt. Jessica Lynch as well as the take-down of Saddam Hussein’s two sons. It is also engaged in the ongoing hunt for the deposed Iraqi dictator. But an even more telling account has now emerged.
Rumsfeld himself this year publicly praised the role of Army Special Forces “A-Teams” in Afghanistan who rode horseback into battle to direct pinpoint air strikes against the Taliban. Now, it seems, he has an even more impressive tale to tell. Brig. Gen. Gary L. Harrell, who commanded SF missions in Iraq, told The New York Times this week that when Turkey refused to allow the 4th Infantry Division to invade Iraq from the north, Centcom officials feared that two Iraqi army divisions up north would be able to redeploy to confront the U.S. Army and Marine units that were racing up the Euphrates River valley from Kuwait.
So Harrell ordered a single 12-man “A-Team” in northern Iraq to stop them. As he told the Times:
“One of our missions was to try to do everything we could to keep those Iraqi divisions in place, to keep them out of the war in the south. One day, we were against some of the Iraqi forces. I said, ‘Send one of the O.D.A.’s [Operational Detachment-Alpha, or “A-Team”] down to hit this force.”
Harrell’s intelligence officer reportedly looked at the map and said, “Boss, you know that icon is an enemy division.” Harrell replied, “Yeah, I know. But they’re [the Special Forces troops] having pretty good success.” As in Afghanistan, the A-Team had access to the overwhelming air power force flying over Iraq and could call in massive but highly accurate bombing missions. Harrell told the Times:
“It's pretty easy to take on these large numbers of enemy forces when you’ve got an aircraft carrier in direct support of an O.D.A. Now an O.D.A. is 12 men. So 12 guys and some pesh merga [Kurdish fighters] took on a[n Iraqi] division – and moved it.”
The debate over the future U.S. Army promises to be protracted, intense and waged on many fronts. Everything from the service’s end-strength to its training procedures and personnel system will be under a microscope.
One thing is clear: Rumsfeld has turned away from the traditional Army and embraced the vision – not merely of the Special Operations Command but of its most secretive component, JSOC – for the future of the Army as a whole.
That’s obvious, because both Schoomaker and Brown, on their rise to senior command rank, served not only in its various components, but each commanded JSOC itself.
This will indeed be a fascinating revolution to watch unfold.
Ed Offley is Editor of DefenseWatch. He can be reached at dweditor@yahoo.com
http://www.sftt.org/cgi-bin/csNews/csNews.cgi?database=FTE.db&command=viewone&op=t&id=22&rnd=24.846998508211314
Sempers,
Roger
:marine: