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| A Marine with Special Operations Training Group conducts helicopter rope suspension training from an MV-22B Osprey with Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 263 June 13 at Landing Zone Vulture aboard Camp Lejeune. |
Its emphasizing Force Recon in the form of Maritime Raid Force (which uses the Battalion Landing Team as basic fire watch) yet at the same time pushing its conventional Infantry Units to attain skill sets which normally reside in the Special Ops Community.
Which begs the question.
What makes Special Ops, Special Ops? Is it training? The average grunt in a good unit...Marines, 82nd, 10th Mountain, 25th ID for example all get variations on the same skill set that you find in Navy SEALs and Rangers....
Is it how they get to work??? Besides the more exotic forms of insertion (and I'm mainly talking HAHO, HALO and SCUBA) they basically get to work the same way...either Helo, by boat or by some type of armored vehicle....
So what makes Special Ops, Special Ops?
Is it unit size?
Uh, forgive me but quite honestly, you're seeing the Rangers fight mainly as Company sized elements. We've seen the smaller 3 or 4 man teams get mauled in Afghanistan and they were a non-starter in Iraq due to the urbanization that was found.
So if you're talking Company and Battalion sized fighting units (Brigades in the Army) then what makes the elite units elite?
Yeah.
That's the rub.
Rumsfeld had a love affair with SOCOM but failed to follow through with his famous metrics. He went off his experience in Vietnam and suddenly every mission was a Special Ops mission.
He ignored history.
History tells us that the individual soldier is getting more effective and more lethal. The higher the education requirements the more responsibility that can be passed to the conventional units. And finally our current JCS and most especially our own Commandant is failing to acknowledge the work done by conventional units. SOCOM focused entirely on raids and dropped a whole series of missions. Those missions were picked up by conventionals and now we're seeing them rush back to reclaim them.
Quite honestly the opposite should occur. SOCOM should be downsized to make it truly elite again. We should also carefully tailor their mission sets. If a conventional unit can do the job then its not a SOCOM mission. SPECIAL OPERATIONS SHOULD BE SPECIAL!!
It is the amounts of money and time that is spent on training versus mickey mouse garrison crap. You can see how much support was given to SOCCOM from the conventional forces during Iraq and Afghanistan.
ReplyDeletei'm so conflicted when it comes to SOCOM. NAVY SEALs piss me off with all the publicity bullshit. McRaven just irks me with all his arrogance that oozes from every pore of his body. on the other hand we were supporting Special Forces and those guys were golden. any benie' they got they made sure to pass along, they included us in all briefings etc...so i don't know. i've heard stories of units being pulled to provide outer security and SEALs come out drinking coke and hamming it up with the protected person while conventionals are sweating it out in 120 degrees sweating like slaves and sucking down hot water while the SEALs were inside in AC comfort having a good time.
Deletelike i said. conflicted. but if SOCOM is only doing raids then SOCOM can get much smaller. one other thing though. whats this garrison talk and mickey mouse games? last i heard you head out to the ranges early monday, get back late friday do liberty and thats week in and week out for the duration when in training. has that changed????
oh and standby for an e-mail this afternoon.
DeleteI had good memories of working with Army SF. We sat in their briefs and planning sessions. They opened their budgets and supply rooms to my unit. TF160 are the best pilots. A great working relationship. Over the past 13 years, conventional units have picked up and incorporated a lot of SOF TTP and training. If we can keep good company grade officers and NCOs the force and republic should have a capable fighting force.
ReplyDeleteI am like everyone else in that I don't have cyrstal ball, but SOCOM and the Special Forces may be the way of the future. I look at our Western European allies and see major downsizing - the Brits in particular. The Brits, Italians, French, Germans, Australians, and the Canadians have anywhere from three to nine or ten active duty brigades. The Australians, Brits and Canadians are reorganizing with roughly two reserve brigades per active brigade. With 17 trillion in national debt this could be our future. I find SOCOM interesting because it's a JFCOM and seems to work well. Special Operations may mean in the future all operations that are not major conventional war. So, instead of 3,4, 5 or nine brigade combat teams on active duty in the U.S. Army, SOCOM could be our future active force. For example a future army reserve could consist of 15 Armored Brigade Combat Teams and nine Stryker Brigade Combat Teams (I took the 57 ARNG combat maneuver battalions and moved em to the reserves). The ARNG would consist of CS and CSS (or sustainment) forces which are useful for national emergencies. The active force would have a small number of active armor, CS and CSS companies to assist with SOCOM missions. Remember, the tern Special Operations means anything not major conventional war.
ReplyDeleteObviously this would require a change in training for the reserve forces, possibly rotating brigades into an active duty status based on QDR/national security concerns. Another concern would be having a large enough pool to recruit special operations forces from, but the Rangers, Seals and I believe the Air Force recruit directly into their respective units, in that I mean first enlistments. I believe the Marine Corps could do the same thing, but SOF-D, DevGru, and SFG are a concern. SOF-D and DevGru would remain Tier 1 organizations - intended for the mos delicate jobs with the best operators. MarSoc would be Ranger like instead of what it is now. Personally, I don't see a big difference between MarSoc and the Seals (based on current missions). The question is, how do we get enough qualified and accomplished soldiers to fill the ranks of the SFGs? I heard mixed reports on the 18x-ray program. Some say it worked, others not so much. Recruiting from the reserves is a possibility. To me its mindset and training and with a downsizing of active conventional forces a large enough pool of qualified people can be found to keep the SFGs at full strength.
I'm not saying this is my preference, but I do think it will happen one day.
Just my two cents.