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SOCOM

The military Special Operations Command can be broken up into four districts, and those districts themselves have units that follow under them. The first one is Joint Standing Battle Staff(JSBT). JSBT itself is a command structure that works in order to gather intelligence, form missions, and supervise refine and inspect operations. Next is USASOC, which can be identified by the "Spearhead" on their unit citation. The Navy Special Warfare Command is what most people hear about which includes Navy Seals, and amphibious operations. Finally, The Airforce Special Operations Command, the individuals located under this are highly adaptable and oftentimes are attached to other units within SOCOM.

The collective of these allows for an organizational structure of leadership. There is an extreme amount of moving parts within the Military let alone Special Operations. These four components all have the same goal overall though, to accomplish the mission. The only constant in life is change and this applies to threats too. 100 years ago cyber warfare, psychological operations, civil affairs were not the biggest assets that we had. We flexed our military might by weaponry and land. Now years of trial and error of proxy wars, conventional warfare, and unconventional too. We learned that there is much more to winning a war than just a weapon itself. You need teams, specialized teams, and highly trained individuals that are willing to operate within these teams.

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Primary Source Interview

I had the opportunity to call one of my friends located in the Ranger Regiment. He is a twenty-one-year-old enlisted Infantryman. I had when to basic combat training with him about three years ago. Once I had completed my basic combat training and Infantry school he was off to attend Pre-RASP, and RASP One where he would earn the coveted Ranger Regiment Scroll.

His Identity will remain anonymous as to allow him to speak freely as an individual.

[ME] :: Firstly, for the audience who is not aware of the prerequisites to get into the Regiment can you please elaborate what that process is.

[REDACTED] :: For a civilian to get to the Regiment in the fastest manner possible they must enlist with an option 40 contract. The option 40 contract gives you the opportunity to try out once you complete basic combat training and military occupation school.

[ME] :: Can you touch on how long that process took for you?

[REDACTED] :: It took about six months to complete basic combat training, Infantry school, then you're sent to pre-RASP which is the preparation phase which could take 3 weeks-6weeks it all depends on when instructors decide you're ready to attend the 8-week long RASP One program. For me, the entire process took 10-11 months fresh out of high school.

[ME] :: Now how soon after that were you ready for a combat deployment?

[REDACTED] :: Once my initial training was complete you'll go through airborne school which is another two weeks I forgot to add that, But from there it was just continuous training for another four months until I deployed

[ME] :: Nowadays only 10-20% of individuals within the Army are sent to combat deployments let alone an even smaller percentage are engaged in combat. How has your outlook on life changed since that first deployment?

[REDACTED] :: You always hear people say "Oh the world is small bla bla bla" For me, it was the opposite I realized that a year ago from that time I was sitting in math class staring at a whiteboard. Now I'm thousand of miles away in a foreign country where the enemy is closer to me than my family is.

[REDACTED] :: It made me realize how evil humans can truly be, and that there is still people in the world making a direct impact to impede that evil.

[ME] :: To people who haven't seen that type of violence or are just oblivious to what's going on how would you describe the world to them?

[REDACTED] :: We live in a time of absolute comfort where the smallest things upset people, but they have zero clue what the world is like outside of Instagram or Snapchat. I'm not saying everyone should join the Military, but I'm saying that we shouldn't take what we have for granted and do everything we can do benefit the people who truly need help.

[ME] :: Although were both young, I one hundred percent admire your achievements do you have any words for individuals wanting to be in a Special Operations Roll?

[REDACTED] :: Never quit, failure is a substance that you can acknowledge and great growth from. Quitting is not only deserting yourself and your well-being, but your team, and also people who are depending on you to do your job.

[ME] :: And one last question and I'll let you go man, what do you have planned in the future to progress your career overall?

[REDACTED] :: I hope to continue to train up, I want to go on every mission and look back to be proud of all of the things I was apart of because it's bigger than just myself.

[specialoperationsforces]

Average Department of Defense Powerpoint be like.....

In all seriousness most PowerPoints presented within the military are cluttered, everything is in bold, and it takes a rocket scientist to elaborate to you whats going on.

[specialoperationsforces]

Informative Reconnaissance

While gaining more information on my topic what I noticed is being able to separate keywords from actual nomenclature. Within the military, there is a ton of acronyms so it's difficult to narrow down a specific topic that would make sense to an audience who has never heard similar words before.

Now with that being said the term "Special Operations" or "Special Forces" are two different things but a lot of literature uses them interchangeably too. So having to look through the library system all came down to determining if they were qualified enough to be talking about the topic, more primary sources essentially.

The library did offer some interesting books about National Guard Special Forces which was cool to see reserve SOF units to get some recognition. There is one book that I plan to include called "Can't Hurt Me" by David Goggins. This book I've read about three times now and it's the story of a man whose life complications never hindered him from completing his goals in and out of Special Operations

Overall I would rate this a positive experience. Once I figured out the keywords I needed to use I was able to get more appealing results for myself. The database itself is an awesome tool and I would recommend other students to take advantage of it for their own work.

[specialoperationsforces]

Dick Couch, Former Navy Seal

Dick Couch is an American writer who has written countless books on American Special Operations life. He was a part of Seal Team One, a graduate of the Naval Academy, and an example to all Americans.

He graduated from the Naval Academy in 1967 and would become a Seal Team Commander during the Vietnam war. Following that he then would become a professor at the Naval Academy too.

Being a part of Seal Team One allowed him to branch out and meet with all types of units within special operations. His literature shows his deep background and well-documented accounts of speaking with these units. Several of the books are even dedicated to the units such as "Sua Sponte" which is the Ranger Regiments moto, that book tells the life of young Rangers and what they expect as a standard for Rangers.

Sua Sponte

The Forging of a Modern American Ranger

Couch, Dick. Sua Sponte. First ed., One, Penguin USA, 2013.

This book dives directly into what creates operational success for the premiere direct action raid force of the Ranger Regiment. Dick couch speaks on his experiences, the battles, and the meaning of what it is to be apart of the Ranger Regiment.

"Sua Sponte" -of one's own accord. This is the Motto of the Ranger Regiment. This motto can be elaborated as getting the job done without external influence.

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History

Special Operations Command (SOCOM) has been leading the directive with its units to conduct operations all throughout the world. This is the full-encompassing power with the power to deploy, plan, and maintain special operation missions and tasks.

Commander - U.S. Army Gen. Bryan P. Fenton

Command Sergeant Major - US. Army CSM Shane W. Shorter

Location - MacDill Air Force Base, Fla.

" In 1982, the 1st Special Operations Command was established provisionally as higher headquarters for SF, Ranger, PSYOP, CA, and SOA units. In 1988, Gen. Vuono, approved the creation of an ARSOF MACOM. USASOC was established in provisional status on December 1, 1988."

Only 36 years have passed since having a centralized headquarters unit cohesion for the multiple branches between their SOF detachments.

De Oppresso Liber!

1st Special Forces Group(Airborne), United States Army

1st group is stated at Joint Base Lewis-McCord, Washington. This unit's area of operation is located in Asia and the Pacific.

[specialoperationsforces]

Introduction

The tip of the spear, the modern Spartans, the best of the best.

That is Special Operation Forces.

The Dictionary of American History elaborates on the mission of Special operations stating. "Special Operations Forces (SOF) of each military service have participated in most U.S. conflicts since World War II. Exploiting their unique operational capabilities, SOF units can execute a variety of missions, many entailing the clandestine insertion of SOF by land, air, or sea."

(Source)

The provided photo is America's premier direct action raid force known as Ranger Regiment. Direct action raids are just one of the many task, that are to be completed on a mission objective. Those within Ranger Regiment can be distinguished by their Tan beret in uniform, along side with the "Ranger Scroll" as their unit identifier.

Within this blog it will go in detail specifically on SOFs role within the Global War on Terror, Ranger Regiment along side other units were major assets when it came to their specific mission set.

High Value targets, and assets that the enemy values became key target interest. Some of these targets included building compounds, power stations, or individuals. They were noticed to be the nuclei of insurgent operations and a task to distrupt said operations is to cut it off at the source.

Using these highly specialized unit proved to be a crucial asset for United States Special Operations. Being able to arrive by land, sea, or air within a days sometimes hours notice created a highly adaptable force asset that provided safety and security over United States interest.