{"id":38075,"date":"2020-09-14T07:21:50","date_gmt":"2020-09-14T07:21:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/uncategorized\/2020\/09\/14\/19-years-into-war-on-terror-overstretched-afsoc-at-a-crossroads\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T21:06:45","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T21:06:45","slug":"19-years-into-war-on-terror-overstretched-afsoc-at-a-crossroads","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/news\/your-air-force\/2020\/09\/14\/19-years-into-war-on-terror-overstretched-afsoc-at-a-crossroads\/","title":{"rendered":"19 years into war on terror, overstretched AFSOC at a crossroads"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Air Force Special Operations Command is once again at a turning point, its commander, Lt. Gen. Jim Slife<\/a>, said in an interview Sept. 11.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the attacks exactly 19 years earlier, AFSOC<\/a> quickly adjusted to help the United States fight wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere. Special warfare airmen jumped into action right away \u2014 and largely kept fighting for nearly two decades straight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But AFSOC paid a price for that devotion to duty. As it adopted a culture focused primarily on accomplishing its war-time missions, other requirements slipped, such as training rigor, adherence to standards and oversight of high-risk activities, Slife said earlier this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Nov. 5 death of Staff Sgt. Cole Condiff, a combat controller who was pulled from an MC-130H over the Gulf of Mexico when his reserve parachute accidentally deployed, spurred AFSOC to pause and take stock of what the relentless pace of operations had done to the command.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An investigation into Condiff\u2019s death, released in July, found that the mistake that led to Condiff\u2019s parachute being improperly configured was a common one, and resulted from a \u201cculture of complacency\u201d that had gradually developed. Slife said at the time that the high operations tempo had taken a toll.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, as the Air Force shifts to an era of great power competition \u2014 and, in all likelihood, reduced budgets \u2014 AFSOC is going to need to adjust again, part of a broader shift in how the Air Force operates, and to make the special warfare community more sustainable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gen. Charles \u201cCQ\u201d Brown, the Air Force\u2019s new chief of staff, laid out his call for the service to \u201cAccelerate Change or Lose\u201d<\/a> in a white paper released earlier this month. He is expected to expand on that call in his address to the Air Force Association\u2019s Air Space Cyber conference Sept. 14.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe AFSOC that we needed [after 9\/11] is going to need to be supplanted by the AFSOC we will need for the future,\u201d Slife said in the interview Friday. \u201cWe clearly see the future coming at us full speed ahead, so we have to change ourselves before the environment does it for us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\t