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| Science & Technology |
| SOCOM Leads the Way? |
| 2008-05-21 |
| TWO WEEKS AGO, Admiral Eric T. Olson, former Navy SEAL and commander of U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM), complained in an interview that U.S. special operations forces are overcommitted and stretched too thin. "We are going to fewer countries, staying for shorter periods of time, and with smaller numbers of people than historically we have done." ...So what is the answer? The Marines may have hit on the solution: rather than lowering the quality of special operations troops in order to increase the size of the force, they are raising the quality of their line troops to take on some of the missions currently performed by special operations forces. This has been done by training certain Marine Expeditionary Units (MEUs) to be "Special Operations Capable"; such units are now designated as "MEU(SOC)s." A typical MEU(SOC) is built around a Marine rifle battalion reinforced with an artillery battery, an amphibious assault vehicle company, a reconnaissance platoon, and other support elements, with a total of 1,200 men. The MEU(SOC) also has an aviation element with transport and attack helicopters, and its own logistic support element. Members of the ground combat element--specifically the rifle battalion and the reconnaissance platoon--receive training in infiltration and assault tactics, urban warfare, and basic special operations tasks (hostage rescue, raiding, indigenous force training, etc.) They obviously do not have the same level of training in each of these disciplines as dedicated special operations forces, but they may be "good enough" for lower-end tasks, which are thus off-loaded from the over-committed special operations troops. If MEU(SOCs) can take up perhaps 15 percent of the burden, that would be the equivalent of some 7,500 men to SOCOM. The Army could and should follow the lead of the USMC by training some of its light infantry battalions in the 82nd Airborne and 10th Mountain Division to be "special operations capable" as well, further reducing the stress on high-end special operators... |
| Posted by:Anonymoose |
| #3 Please convey our thanks to your Special and G.I. Marines, Pappy. And please tell them we wish them all "Happy Hunting!" As far as I can tell our Armed Forces are working hard to increase the fighting skills of all the troops. It seems right, then, to give them all the challenges they've been trained to handle, especially as the Long War keeps spreading from the big battlefields (is that the correct term?) like Afghanistan and Iraq to smaller ones in Africa, Asia and Far Eastern Europe. Clearly there will still be more projects for our Special Forces than they have to manpower to take on, even as they continue to increase their numbers. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2008-05-21 22:21 |
| #2 Here's a clue: Emeril Lagasse doesn't cook every meal at his restaurants. Of course, by all means - let's keep the 'special' in Special Operations. It's a trademarked word. Surely that "unique and very professional cadre" can handle everything that gets thrown their way. After all, they're just marines - they ain't like you know, capable or anything ( I've worked with MEU(SOC) when they passed through the wadi and they're to regular marines what my CSAR docs are to regular corpsmen). Wanna get really spun up? I have Marines with jump wings! No, seriously. Imagine that. Just my not-so-humble-opinion. |
| Posted by: Pappy 2008-05-21 21:18 |
| #1 There's many a slip twixt the cup and the lip. I'm fairly good on my Weber, but that doesn't make me "Emeril Lagasse Capable." The term or monicur "special" has done it's share of harm to what was once a unique and very professional cadre. Just my thoughts on it. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2008-05-21 19:17 |