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Thread
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What secrets lurk in the filecards?
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02-20-2010, 12:05 AM
oliverbox
I Ride with Claymore!!!
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: Alexandria, Virginia
Posts: 6,821
Quote:
Originally Posted by
zuludelta
The SF Warrant Officer was formalised in the early 1980s. The following document gives a pretty thorough historical background on the specialisation:
http://www.usawoa.org/woheritage/Hist_SF_WO.pdf
The short summary is basically this: Special Forces needed detachment XOs, but finding lieutenants that had the necessary experience to serve as SF executive officers was hard. Most infantry lieutenants were too young and inexperienced to serve meaningfully in the SF XO role. Special Operations Command initially floated the idea of creating a limited-duty officer program (similar to what the Navy and the Marines have) exclusively for senior SF NCOs, but eventually settled on working in these NCOs within existing warrant officer structure.
Yeah, this is something I know a bit about. I actually had an extensive briefing on this once by a retired SF General and an SF Major.
Lieutenant have never worked very well in SF.
In Vietnam, Butter Bar Green Berets made a lot of mistakes and got a lot of guys killed. Since the early 80's, the earliest an officer can apply for SF is as a First LT who is already on the Promotion list for Captain, and those are very rare. As a general rule, only Captains apply for SF.
So the Teams needed an XO, and they needed the XO to be an officer... why? Simple, because Green Berets work with indiginous military forces all the time, especially in South America (in the 80's). And in working with Spanish speaking armies, Rank is very important... it's cultural.
So let's say that a Green Beret A-Team arrives in Coloumbia or Panama and needs to work with the local army on counter narcotics operations which will include training local forces. This will mean that the Captian and the XO will need to give a lot of briefings and blocks of instructions to the Columbian/Panamainian Officers and commanders.
And the bottom line is: NO Spanish speaking officer is taking any suggestions/instructions from an enlisted soldier. It's simply not happening. It's a class issue.
This is also sometimes an issue when SF has to deal with our own conventional forces. Let's say SF has been in country for several monthes and now the conventional forces are showing up to reinforce or take over an AO (area of operation). This happened all the time in Afghanistan early in the War. Now, obviously SF knows what's up and are the experts. However, most conventional (Infantry) Battalion Commanders (or higher) or going to take orders/suggestions from an NCO. Just not going to happen. It's a class/respect issue.
So, by creating the Warrant Officer position within SF, it gives experienced NCO's with leadership potential and opportunity to be commisioned and much more "respectable" when talking with other officers from outside SF. Within the Group, everyone knows who is in charge, but regardless of rank, people with expertise and intelligence are respected and listened to.
I was told this story:
An SF Team XL from 7th group was briefing a General in Panama. Prior to the meeting, he switched rank with his Team Leader so he wore Captain's bars for the briefing. He needed them to listen, and he new they would listen to a Captain. After the briefing, he went back outside, put on his correct ranks, and got back to work.
Because SF Teams often split into 2 teams (they're designed to be able to do this), it was determined that it's best to have at least 1 Officer in each team because, concievably, each team would have to work with different indiginous groups, or conventional forces.
__________________
Why aren't there more Joes from the Deep South?
And would it kill Hasbro to give us a Marine Corps Officer?
oliverbox
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