FM 3-24

[uboat509]

Got a question. I was asked a question by a guy over at the SWJ. I'll post it directly to avoid any issues with paraphrasing. The guy who asked it is a Major, who is currently at Leavenworth.

Simple question,

When the Army did wise up, why didn't the SF provide the expertise to the Ft. Riley mission, FM 3-24 team, etc? Why did they voluntarily opt out of these? Your argument about us 'Johnnie come lately's' to COIN would hold more water if SWC had offered to help the GPF get better, from most all sources I have talked to the response was "Talk to the hand, we're busy". Even today, there is little interest from JFK SWC in getting involved with big army COIN efforts. SOCOM, on the other hand, is making an excellent effort to reach out to the GPF.

He's a smart guy and I don't have an answer to this one. I was wondering if anyone here has visibility on this. I seriously doubt the SF community just blew off Big Army but I don't know what did happen. I do know from experience down range that quite a few Big Army commanders still want nothing to do with us but this is the only time I have ever heard of our community blowing off Big Army.

SFC W

[Pete]

"they" could cover a lot of people in a number of commands or it could be just some guy who picked up a phone once.

I would have to know who all and what commands were asked before I could even begin to come up with an answer.

[optactical]

Not sure if this is exactly what you are talking about, but this is how I read this:

This addresses personnel that come from USASOC, if they ask USASOC for support, then USASOC should task it out, probably to USASFC, and they may task it USAJFKSWCS.

The Major command needs to be addressed, it sounds like they called SWCS and asked for volunteers, SWCS said "we're busy" and hung up.

Day 1 shit, use the proper channels, and shit gets done right.

I could be wrong, maybe that did happen, but it reads like they tried to bypass some of the big stars and went straight to the little ones.

[mffjm8509]

While it may appear so to this individual, and I dont know at what level of the organization he is in, I doubt much of his argument is accurate. A couple of observations from my perspective:

SWCS as the SF proponent is probably the likely source of assistance not USASFC.

CSM Dave Bruener has been the CAC and Fort Riley CSM for a couple of years now. He was selected and appointed by then MG Patreus. Dave's previous assignment had been the USAJFKSWCS CSM for MG Parker. I'm sure the contacts there were sufficient to get all the help needed IF MG Patreus felt necessary.

While the SF Branch SGM in 2006, I assigned a couple of 18Zs to CAC positions; not sure how they have been utilized, but the asset has been there for a few years now.

just my 2 cents....

mp

[Dozer523]

I've been away from the "school house" for a long time. So lots may have changed but . . . doesn't SWC still fall under TRADOC? Actually we answered to CAC and then TRADOC. When I was in DOT-D we got tasked to look at all sorts of stuff (I was assigned to Unit Training / Individual Training) . We found or set up SME's (from the committees and the "end-users" -- Groups). We conducted Critical Task Selection Boards and the like. Back then, SWC might not have always known the answers but we knew who did and we had a process to bring all the players to the table. I am specificly thinking of when it was decieded to speed-up production of the ARTEP / AMTEP. (Alot may have changed.)