03-02-2016, 11:25
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#1
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Area Commander
Join Date: Feb 2009
Location: Clay House Stuttgart, Germany
Posts: 2,671
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LTG Raymond Thomas chosen to lead SOCOM
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/2...s-command.html
Last edited by mojaveman; 03-02-2016 at 11:40.
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mojaveman is offline
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03-02-2016, 17:17
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#2
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Asset
Join Date: Dec 2015
Location: South Carolina
Posts: 49
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Perceptive Observation
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.
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Premsore is offline
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03-02-2016, 17:45
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#3
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Quiet Professional
Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: Orange, Ca.
Posts: 4,950
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"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?
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mark46th is offline
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03-02-2016, 18:02
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#4
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Quiet Professional
Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: Just above the flood plain in Southern Texas
Posts: 3,611
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What's an 'illustrative' career?
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Old Dog New Trick is offline
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03-02-2016, 19:41
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#5
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Area Commander
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Northeast Utah
Posts: 1,712
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Old Dog New Trick
What's an 'illustrative' career?
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He finished filling out a lot of coloring books?
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PedOncoDoc is offline
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03-02-2016, 20:35
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#6
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Area Commander
Join Date: Nov 2005
Location: Cochise Co., AZ
Posts: 6,200
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Quote:
Originally Posted by PedOncoDoc
He finished filling out a lot of coloring books?
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Do you repair hernias, Doc? 
Pat
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PSM is offline
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03-03-2016, 00:40
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#7
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Quiet Professional
Join Date: Sep 2010
Location: Italy
Posts: 1,989
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Yet another in a LONG, LONG line of Ranger / JSOC background GOs to run SOCOM.
What a surprise. 
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sinjefe is offline
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03-03-2016, 10:56
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#8
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Area Commander
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: Hobbiton
Posts: 1,204
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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
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Last edited by Scimitar; 03-04-2016 at 17:23.
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Scimitar is offline
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03-03-2016, 14:32
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#9
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Guerrilla Chief
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: In the Woods
Posts: 882
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SOCOM
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.
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/...cas-commandos/
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Surf n Turf is offline
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03-04-2016, 07:57
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#10
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Quiet Professional
Join Date: May 2010
Location: C.S. Colorado
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Scimitar
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
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SF has never been part of JSOC
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WarriorDiplomat is offline
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03-04-2016, 08:30
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#11
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Richard is offline
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03-04-2016, 17:22
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#12
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Area Commander
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: Hobbiton
Posts: 1,204
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Quote:
Originally Posted by WarriorDiplomat
SF has never been part of JSOC
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Shit, sorry WD, I mis-spoke, I meant SOCOM.
S
__________________
"Do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be stronger men! Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers. Pray for power equal to your tasks."
-- Phillip Brooks
"A man's reach should exceed his grasp"
-- Robert Browning
"Hooah! Pushing thru the shit til Daisies grow, Sir"
-- Me
"Malo mori quam foedari"
"Death before Dishonour"
-- Family Coat-of-Arms Maxim
"Mārohirohi! Kia Kaha!"
"Be strong! Drive-on!"
-- Māori saying
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Scimitar is offline
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03-04-2016, 18:38
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#13
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Quiet Professional
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: The Woodlands, Texas
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A GO with a background as an SF officer running SOCOM? It's NEVER going to happen.
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Basenshukai is offline
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03-05-2016, 07:39
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#14
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Quiet Professional
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: Hope Mills, NC
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Basenshukai
A GO with a background as an SF officer running SOCOM? It's NEVER going to happen.
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Well, the folks over at SOCNET hold him in high regard...
But you are correct...an SF GO at SOCOM...blasphemy...
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glebo is offline
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03-09-2016, 19:14
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#15
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Guerrilla
Join Date: Nov 2011
Location: CONUS TX when not OCONUS
Posts: 177
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Quote:
Originally Posted by glebo
Well, the folks over at SOCNET hold him in high regard...
But you are correct...an SF GO at SOCOM...blasphemy...
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That would seem too unconventional.
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