This post is a roll-up repost of the notes I shared as part of my campaign to get SW to take on the challenge of charting the future of the Green Berets.
As I said in the LinkedIn post, while I may disagree with some of your points in the series, I 100 percent agree that the discussion needs to happen. Self-reflection in a community is a sign of maturity and growth, and questioning and healthy debate should never be discouraged.
Some good points overall. It is necessary for GBs inside the regiment to drive the conversation but not sufficient.
Ultimately, SF needs decision makers in DC and GCCs to understand and truly value SF. Unfortunately, (at least in my experience) this is not that case. And this is mostly on the big Army and SOCOM to sell.
Most in DC do not understand the unique capabilities of SF. Some do understand it but don’t value it, particularly within the IA/IC.
SF needs better integration with the IC if it ever expects to be seen as UW/IW experts at the national level. Roger Trinquier understood this principle. I don’t think many in Army SF truly understand their deep disconnect from the IC.
Separately, GCCs want units that can solve immediate problems not long term IW experts. GCCs are mostly just putting out fires not “campaigning” as they like to claim.
GBs drive the conversation in the team room but someone needs to sell that to those in the NCR…
All solid observations/recommendations, even if we might disagree on some details. DOL.
Thanks for posting these and for consolidating them now. I pushed to JSOU who is running a consolidated reader page with the ongoing debate.
https://www.jsou.edu/Press/SOFRelatedReadings?type=SOF-Related%20Readings
As I said in the LinkedIn post, while I may disagree with some of your points in the series, I 100 percent agree that the discussion needs to happen. Self-reflection in a community is a sign of maturity and growth, and questioning and healthy debate should never be discouraged.
Some good points overall. It is necessary for GBs inside the regiment to drive the conversation but not sufficient.
Ultimately, SF needs decision makers in DC and GCCs to understand and truly value SF. Unfortunately, (at least in my experience) this is not that case. And this is mostly on the big Army and SOCOM to sell.
Most in DC do not understand the unique capabilities of SF. Some do understand it but don’t value it, particularly within the IA/IC.
SF needs better integration with the IC if it ever expects to be seen as UW/IW experts at the national level. Roger Trinquier understood this principle. I don’t think many in Army SF truly understand their deep disconnect from the IC.
Separately, GCCs want units that can solve immediate problems not long term IW experts. GCCs are mostly just putting out fires not “campaigning” as they like to claim.
GBs drive the conversation in the team room but someone needs to sell that to those in the NCR…