View Full Version : LTG Raymond Thomas chosen to lead SOCOM
mojaveman
03-02-2016, 11:25
Have always wondered how many SOCOM commanders didn't spend any time in Special Forces and how it might have reflected on their position.
http://www.military.com/daily-news/2016/03/02/thomas-is-picked-to-lead-us-special-operations-command.html
Premsore
03-02-2016, 17:17
I agree. When I was in SF, General Flanagan was over JFK and he wasn't SF qualified. A few of us wondered the same thing about his decisions of leadership pertaining to SF. In Group, we sure did pick up a lot of pine cones.
mark46th
03-02-2016, 17:45
"General Thomas has big boots to fill, but he has proven himself as a soldier, special operator and leader time and time again over the course of his illustrative career," Carter said.
Hey- What could go wrong?
Old Dog New Trick
03-02-2016, 18:02
What's an 'illustrative' career?
PedOncoDoc
03-02-2016, 19:41
What's an 'illustrative' career?
He finished filling out a lot of coloring books?
He finished filling out a lot of coloring books?
Do you repair hernias, Doc? :D
Pat
Yet another in a LONG, LONG line of Ranger / JSOC background GOs to run SOCOM.
What a surprise.:rolleyes:
Scimitar
03-03-2016, 10:56
Wasn't there some discussion about spliting SF off from JSOC (Correction SOCOM) at some point, for the very reason of the door kicking vs hearts and minds conflict?
S
Surf n Turf
03-03-2016, 14:32
SOCOM
A January 2016 article extolling the JSOC model, and praising the "door kickers" over a more long term approach to counter-insurgency. This is as bad an idea as having a Naval Admiral leading Army ground forces in a ground war far from salt water. :rolleyes:
SnT
The shadowy JSOC general expected to be next leader of America’s special operations
the Army’s two most senior special operations officers, Gen. Joseph Votel and Lt. Gen. Raymond “Tony” Thomas, are the Pentagon’s new picks to lead two of its most influential four-star headquarters.
Thomas’s striking assessment—that the U.S. military is losing its wars at the same time that it is relying on special operations forces more than ever before—buttresses the argument that the commandos are a band-aid, used to patch over long-term problems with temporary fixes. This may be especially true with the “direct action” raid forces of JSOC, which draw more resources and more acclaim than Green Berets and other less classified special operators who specialize in training foreign armies.
But Thomas’s promotion, if confirmed, would appear to affirm the primacy not only of special operations within the military, but of JSOC’s hunter-killer units within the bigger special operations community. That trend began under the George W. Bush administration — it was who Bush famously told the Washington Post’s Bob Woodward, “JSOC is awesome” —and has only intensified during the Obama years.
Thomas would be the third former JSOC commander in a row to head up SOCOM; a career Green Beret has never held the post, even though Green Berets account for by the far the plurality of SOCOM’s special operators and are seeing increased use from Africa to Afghanistan as the military tries to shape the war efforts of allied militaries and irregular forces.
“Even more than other guys who’ve made the JSOC-to-SOCOM leap like Votel, Thomas has spent a disproportionate amount of his career in JSOC units,” explained Sean Naylor, a journalist whose recent book “Relentless Strike” chronicles the hunter-killer command’s rise. “If confirmed, it underlines how much senior leaders identify with the direct action side of special operations, as much lip service as they may pay to the indirect approach guys,” like Green Berets. “No president has relied on JSOC as heavily as Obama has.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2016/01/07/lt-gen-tony-thomas-the-shadow-soldier-tapped-to-lead-americas-commandos/
WarriorDiplomat
03-04-2016, 07:57
Wasn't there some discussion about spliting SF off from JSOC at some point, for the very reason of the door kicking vs hearts and minds conflict?
S
SF has never been part of JSOC
'Bare bones' resume'.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/tony-thomas-3b5491a
Richard
Scimitar
03-04-2016, 17:22
SF has never been part of JSOC
Shit, sorry WD, I mis-spoke, I meant SOCOM.
S
Basenshukai
03-04-2016, 18:38
A GO with a background as an SF officer running SOCOM? It's NEVER going to happen.
A GO with a background as an SF officer running SOCOM? It's NEVER going to happen.
Well, the folks over at SOCNET hold him in high regard...
But you are correct...an SF GO at SOCOM...blasphemy...
Pericles
03-09-2016, 19:14
Well, the folks over at SOCNET hold him in high regard...
But you are correct...an SF GO at SOCOM...blasphemy...
That would seem too unconventional.
They tell me that if I don't have anything good to say about the man, don't say anything...
Yet another in a LONG, LONG line of Ranger / JSOC background GOs to run SOCOM.
What a surprise.:rolleyes:
I am sad to see him leave the command.