Special Warfare The Professional Bulletin of the John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School PB 80–02–4 December 2002 Vol. 15, No. 4 From the Commandant December 2002 Special Warfare Vol. 15, No. 4 As the United States military attempts to transform its forces into the most effective organization possible for the future, the Objective Force, no soldiers offer more to that force than Army special-operations forces, or ARSOF. On future battlefields, ARSOF will pro- vide Army and joint-force commanders a force capable of performing full-spectrum unconventional operations. By working with and through indigenous or surrogate forces, ARSOF can wage unconventional warfare to shape the operational environ- ment or to compel adversaries to divert their forces from the primary area of oper- ations. Special Forces, or SF, provide train- tive, mature and intelligent soldiers. Leader ing, from the individual level through the development and specialized training battalion level, that can assist foreign mili- remain key in maintaining a quality force taries and indigenous groups in developing that is capable of meeting the challenges of their war-fighting capabilities. future war-fighting. When the U.S. Army assists friendly While language skills and cultural nations’ efforts in internal defense and devel- awareness are important to ARSOF, the opment, or IDAD, ARSOF can function as an ability to effectively teach warrior skills is invaluable combat multiplier. Soldiers in SF; paramount. ARSOF are capable of building Civil Affairs, or CA; and Psychological Oper- other nations’ armies because they have ations, or PSYOP, can integrate their opera- mastered basic and advanced warrior tions with the operations of other elements of skills and because they are able to teach the U.S. government, of foreign governments, those skills to others. Skills in basic marks- of nongovernment organizations and private manship, patrolling, raids, ambushes, volunteer organizations, and of host-nation movements to contact, and offensive and national systems. defensive operations are also critical to SF. During the 2002 Army Transformation Furthermore, much of the training that SF war game, Vigilant Warrior, which included will provide in foreign environments will a major regional contingency and several focus on operations in urban terrain. The smaller-scale contingencies, ARSOF partici- Special Forces Advanced Urban Combat pated in all scenarios. From the evalua- Course, or SFAUCC, is designed to enhance tions of the scenarios, one common lesson the survival skills of SF teams. SFAUCC emerged: ARSOF are a key component of will continue to progress, and in the future, the Objective Force. It is more important SF soldiers will integrate SFAUCC into the now than ever before that ARSOF be better training they provide to foreign armies. integrated into both joint and Army war- fighting doctrine. Furthermore, ARSOF must continue to integrate evolving doc- trine, tactics and techniques, and new tech- nologies into ARSOF training programs. ARSOF must also continue to train adap- Major General William G. Boykin PB 80–02–4 Contents December 2002 Special Warfare Vol. 15, No. 4 Commander & Commandant Major General William G. Boykin Features Editor 2Transformation: Roles and Missions for ARSOF Jerry D. Steelman by Lieutenant Colonel Adrian Erckenbrack Associate Editor 9 The Special Forces Training Pipeline: Responding Sylvia W. McCarley to Operational Challenges Graphics & Design Bruce S. Barfield 12 Operational Net Assessment: Implications and Opportunities for SOF Automation Clerk by Lieutenant Colonel William Fleser, U.S. Army (ret.) Gloria H. Sawyer 18 Effects of Operations: Psychological Determinants of Blitzkrieg Success by Major Angela Maria Lungu 25 As I Remember It: The SF/Golf Ball Analogy V E R TAS I T R A B E by Major General Sidney Shachnow, U.S. Army (ret.) S LI E T Special Warfare is an authorized, official quarterly of the 28 Civil-Military Marriage Counseling: Can This Union United States Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School, Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Its mission Be Saved? is to promote the professional development of special- by Adam B. Siegel operations forces by providing a forum for the examination of established doctrine and new ideas. Views expressed herein are those of the authors and do 35 Kachin Rangers: Allied Guerrillas in World War II Burma not necessarily reflect official Army position. This publication does not supersede any information presented by Dr. C.H. Briscoe in other official Army publications. Articles, photos, artwork and letters are invited and should be addressed to Editor, Special Warfare, USAJFKSWCS, Fort Bragg, NC 28310. Telephone: DSN 239-5703, commercial (910) 432-5703, fax -3147. Special Warfare reserves the right to edit all material. Published works may be reprinted, except where copyrighted, provided credit is given to Special Warfare and the authors. Official distribution is limited to active and reserve special-operations units. Individuals desiring private subscriptions should forward their requests to: Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C. 20402. Special Warfare is also available on the USASOC internal web (https:asociweb.soc.mil/swcs/dotd/sw-mag/sw-mag.htm). By Order of the Secretary of the Army: Eric K. Shinseki General, United States Army Departments Chief of Staff 44 2002 Index Official: 46 Enlisted Career Notes 47 Officer Career Notes Joel B. Hudson 49 Foreign SOF Administrative Assistant to the Secretary of the Army 50 Update 0230205 52 Book Reviews Headquarters, Department of the Army Transformation: Roles and Missions for ARSOF by Lieutenant Colonel Adrian Erckenbrack ince the end of the Cold War, policy- attacks against the nation will take.”1 makers, military strategists and his- Although the uncertainty remains, there Storians have struggled to predict the is an emerging consensus among military future roles and missions of the United strategists that the attacks of Sept. 11 States military. served notice to DoD that the asymmetric Every four years, in the Quadrennial warfare predicted for the future has Defense Review, or QDR, the Department arrived. More importantly, the attacks of Defense, or DoD, attempts to peer into highlight the fact that even as DoD was the future and to describe the threats and developing a comprehensive description of scenarios that lie ahead. One particular the missions that the U.S. military will paragraph of the 2001 QDR should be have to perform in countering the asym- emphasized as a result of the events of the metric threat, the nature of warfare was Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade changing rapidly. Center and the Pentagon. After noting a Despite the flux and the uncertainty of “changed security environment,” the QDR predicting and preparing for future threats, states, “An assessment of the global securi- certainties do exist. One of those is that in ty environment involves a great deal of order to remain relevant, special-operations uncertainty about the potential sources of forces, or SOF, must base any decisions military threats, the conduct of war in the regarding their future roles and missions future, and the form that threats and on a clear understanding of SOF’s organi- zational nature. SOF must also under- stand the way that SOF organizations may best leverage their critical strengths of adaptability, competency and maturity in a global environment that appears to be becoming more and more asymmetrical. Whether SOF remain the premier fight- ing force and retain their relevance in the future environment will depend in large part on how accurately the SOF leadership envisions the future and identifies the roles and missions for which SOF should prepare. Photo by Gerry J. Gilmore This article will seek to describe future eco- The attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, served notice that asym- nomic, social and military factors that will metric warfare is no longer a problem of the future. affect the global security environment. It 2 Special Warfare Military police escort a detainee at the Guan- tanamo Bay naval station. Revising the definition of an “act of war” will affect the legal rights and privi- leges that the U.S. will accord to terrorists. File photo will also suggest ways of leveraging SOF’s crimes, not acts of war, and our legal system characteristics in that environment. It is the accords rights and privileges to criminals author’s hope that this article will stimulate that it does not accord to our enemies at war. thinking about the role that SOF must play Defining terrorism and other asymmet- if they are to remain relevant. ric threats as acts of war will allow us to use the full spectrum of DoD activities, Vision of the future including psychological operations and Future warfare may involve waging war deception, to counter asymmetric threats. against entities that have no army and no Deploying an armor or infantry brigade to defined geographic borders but which are search for a terrorist organization embed- nevertheless capable of inflicting a great ded in an urban area might not be as effec- loss of human life. Terrorist organizations tive as employing psychological and cultur- represent only one example of such enti- al “weapons.” Through the application of ties. Combating these kinds of entities will those weapons, units of infantry, armor or require a different mindset and, in some Army special-operations forces, or ARSOF, cases, either different means or different may be able to identify and destroy the ways of applying existing means. SOF enemy. In such cases, the timing and the must understand that many aspects of the synchronization of the psychological and security environment are changing, and cultural weapons will be crucial in achiev- that many of the changes have military ing success. implications. • The conventional definition of a weapon of mass destruction, or WMD, is Definitions currently limited to chemical, biological, Among the changes that have military radiological, nuclear and explosive agents.