{"id":70607,"date":"2019-07-26T20:42:28","date_gmt":"2019-07-26T20:42:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/uncategorized\/2019\/07\/26\/socom-bulk-of-war-casualties-may-be-operators-but-sof-readiness-is-at-all-time-high\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T03:25:37","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T03:25:37","slug":"socom-bulk-of-war-casualties-may-be-operators-but-sof-readiness-is-at-all-time-high","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/news\/your-military\/2019\/07\/26\/socom-bulk-of-war-casualties-may-be-operators-but-sof-readiness-is-at-all-time-high\/","title":{"rendered":"SOCOM: Bulk of war casualties may be operators but SOF readiness is at all-time high"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Commando readiness<\/a> across the service branches is at an all-time high thanks to a reduction in global missions<\/a>, but the casualties they have taken in war zones are also up compared to the rest of the military, a U.S. Special Operations Command official acknowledged Wednesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All 10 U.S. deaths in Afghanistan to date this year, with the exception of three Marines killed by an IED<\/a> near Bagram airfield<\/a>, were Army special operations troops or their enablers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of 13 deaths last year in Afghanistan, nine were special operators and their enablers and three were troops on advising missions killed by insider attacks. All but one combat casualty \u2014 a special operations airman \u2014 belonged to the Army.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhile it\u2019s true that the majority of casualties have been special operations forces, the majority of the missions and some of the intricate tasks we\u2019ve been asked to accomplish have \u2014 unfortunately or fortunately \u2014 fallen to special operations forces,” Command Chief Master Sgt. Gregory A. Smith, SOCOM\u2019s senior enlisted leader, said at the Pentagon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI will tell you that the readiness of the force is at an all-time high right now,” Smith added. “We\u2019re actually at a 25 percent reduction on global SOF taskings.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Smith said that SOCOM\u2019s current deployment-to-dwell ratio is 1:2 or greater, meaning a unit is at home station for at least double the amount of time that they\u2019re deployed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the last two to three years, SOCOM has taken a look at operational tempo and specific missions to ensure its operators are tasked to do only what special operators are capable of, leaving other missions to conventional forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
LOGAR, Afghanistan — Attached infantry soldiers from 4th Infantry Division, on patrol with Afghan Special Security Forces, return fire during a Taliban attack on their position in Logar province, Oct. 12, 2018. The Taliban use Logar province\u2019s proximity to Kabul as a staging area for men, weapons and equipment destined for attacks in the capital area. There are now more than 20,000 Afghan Special Operations Forces, dedicated to ensuring Afghanistan does not become a terrorist safe haven. (NSOCC-A Photo by SPC Casey Dinnison<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

For instance, the Army created the Security Force Assistance Brigade concept to help alleviate the need to train and advise allied nations\u2019 fledgling militaries. The first two SFAB deployments have been to Afghanistan, with a third on the docket<\/a> this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dedicating conventional forces to training partners frees up SOF troops to focus on kinetic missions. But that also means operators, as well as their infantry uplift, EOD techs and other enablers, take the brunt of combat casualties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the U.S. Forces-Afghanistan side of planning, efforts have been made to ensure troops rotate into theater for periods of time that make sense for their manning levels, Command Sgt. Maj. Timothy L. Metheny, the senior enlisted leader for troops in-country, said Wednesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cObviously a unit that\u2019s getting ready to go gets increased personnel to max out what their authorization is under their boots-on-the-ground number,\u201d Metheny said. \u201cBut then we have the ability to tailor that to either shorten their rotation or lengthen their rotation based on the time of year, based on the enemy contact and then we can request assistance from some of our partner forces.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Summer is traditionally the \u201cfighting season\u201d for the Taliban, meaning the hottest months of the year are also the most kinetic. Metheny added that those combat missions, even for SOF troops, are still not about putting U.S. forces in the lead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe operations are partner force driven,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s Afghans out front, where the SOF are just training, advising and assisting to the point of need.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
A U.S. Special Forces soldier assigned to Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force-Afghanistan leaps over a creek while pursuing insurgents with Afghan National Security Forces in Gelan district, Ghazni province, Afghanistan, Feb. 8, 2014. ANSF engaged the insurgents after being fired upon while en route to their original objective and cleared the village in which the harassing fire originated, forcing insurgents to retreat. (U.S. Army photo by Pfc. David Devich)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Advise and assist missions are not immune to the turbulence of Afghanistan. Insider attacks appeared to spike last fall, including one the top U.S. commander in country, Gen. Austin S. Miller, was present for in October.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kandahar police chief Gen. Abdul Raziq<\/a>, a critical part of Afghanistan\u2019s security, was targeted in the attack and killed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Preventing those attacks in the future largely comes down to \u201cawareness” training for troops pulling security, Metheny said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the U.S. also must be engaged in the information space and understand how the Afghan citizenry and the militants use social media as rumor mills, according to Metheny.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA perfect example is the Raziq assassination last year,” he said. \u201cThat was probably the direct result of three different green-on-blue attacks. The Taliban was able to spin that narrative that it was a U.S. conspiracy and we didn\u2019t catch onto it for about a week and a half.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was a lot of tension after Raziq\u2019s assassination between the U.S. and Afghan security forces, said Bill Roggio, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies\u2019 Long War Journal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn fact, there was a shootout between the U.S. and Afghan forces as the U.S. ushered General Miller away from the attack,\u201d Roggio said. \u201cThe Taliban capitalized on this by seeding a conspiracy theory about the attack.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That was especially odd, because the Taliban also claimed responsibility for the Raziq assassination immediately following its occurrence, publishing pictures and video<\/a> of the bodyguard for the governor of Kandahar who had turned sides.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Czech soldier was killed<\/a> Oct. 22 in another insider attack following the one against Raziq on Oct. 18, and Maj. Brent Taylor<\/a>, a Utah Army National Guard soldier, was killed by an insider attack on Nov. 3.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Metheny didn\u2019t say which insider attacks were attributed to the conspiracy theory that asserted the U.S. military, not the Taliban, really killed Raziq.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But once those conspiracies were identified, they were highlighted by U.S. forces to Afghan local officials who then came out against them and helped squash the narrative, according to Metheny.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The toll on U.S. special operators and their enablers is on a pace to be worse than last 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