Q&A: Colonel Rocky Farr
SOCOM Doc
Ensuring Medical Care to the SOF Standard
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Colonel Rocky Farr
Command Surgeon
U.S. Special Operations Command
Colonel “Rocky” Warner Dahlgren Farr enlisted in the airborne infantry in 1967. He was the distinguished honor graduate of his Special Forces 18D class. Assigned to the 7th SFG(A) at Fort Bragg, N.C., he served as an A-Team medic and volunteered for Vietnam. There he served as a recon team member with the 5th SFG(A) in SOG (Studies and Observations Group), a joint SF–CIA project. In 1971, he attended DLI (German) and joined Detachment A, Berlin Brigade. While in Europe he had exchange postings with the German Army Fernspähkompanie 100, the Belgian Army 1st Paracommandos and attended the Spanish Esqui y Combate en Nieve. He became the SF instructor at the ROTC Detachment, Northeast Louisiana University and completed his B.S.
As a SFC, he taught in the 18D course and was selected for master sergeant. Farr was accepted to the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences and commissioned a second lieutenant, MSC. While a medical student, he was the medical platoon leader for the 11th SFG(A). As a senior, he was the distinguished honor graduate of his Army flight surgeons course, becoming solo qualified in the TH-55 helicopter. He received his M.D. in 1983 and has completed residencies and board certifications in aerospace medicine and anatomic and clinical pathology.
Farr served as commander, Company F (ABN), 3rd BN, Academy BDE, Academy of Health Sciences; course director of the special operations medical sergeants course; and on the Infantry Team, Readiness Group Fort Sam Houston advising the 12th SFG(A). He completed his Master of Public Health degree at the University of Texas and was awarded the Jefferson Davis Medal for his medical history thesis and holds the Army SI 5X, Historian. He then served as chief, Army Aviator Evaluation at the USAF School of Aerospace Medicine, Brooks Air Force Base, Texas.
From 1993 to 1995 he was chief, Department of Pathology, Blanchfield Army Community Hospital, and flight surgeon, 50th Medical Company (Air Ambulance), 101st ABN Division (Air Assault) at Fort Campbell, Ky. Farr was the division surgeon of the 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry) at Fort Drum, N.Y., until becoming deputy commander of the U.S. Army Aeromedical Center, Fort Rucker, Ala., in July 1997. He attended the Air War College at Maxwell AFB, Ala., before becoming the deputy chief of staff, surgeon, U.S. Army Special Operations Command; command surgeon, U.S. Army Special Forces Command; and command surgeon, U.S. Army Civil Affairs and Psychological Operations Command. He became the command surgeon of the USSOCOM in Tampa, Fla., in summer 2006.
His awards and decorations include the Combat Medical Badge with star, Expert Infantryman Badge, Army Master Flight Surgeons Wings, Master Parachutist Badge, Pathfinder Badge, Scuba Badge, Special Forces Tab, Belgian Brevet “A” Militaire de Parachutiste, Deutsche Fallschirmjägerabzeigen, RVN Special Forces Parachute Wings, Cambodian Parachute Wings, Legion of Merit, Bronze Star with “V” device with one Oak Leaf Cluster, Defense Meritorious Service Medal, Army Meritorious Service Medal with five Oak Leaf Clusters, Air Medal with two device, Joint Services and Army Commendation Medals, Good Conduct Medal with clasp with four loops, Presidential, Valorous and Meritorious Unit Citations, Vietnam Cross of Gallantry with Palm, Vietnam Civic Action Medal, and the USAF Operational Excellence Unit Citation.
Interviewed by MMT Editor Jeff McKaughan
Q: Good afternoon, Colonel Farr. Could you give me a little background on the USSOCOM medical command?
A: Thanks for the opportunity to talk about special operations medicine. We do not actually have a USSOCOM Medical Command. Since medicine is not a core mission of ours, we do not have pure medical units or commands.
The USSOCOM command surgeon is responsible to the commander for issues that relate to the health and well-being of our 50,000 person force, management of SOF warriors wounded in combat, establishing standards for training of SOF medics, development of new SOF-peculiar medical technologies and the medical aspects of SOF mission planning.
From the activation of the USSOCOM in 1987, there have been medical special staff officers at this headquarters providing medical technical expertise to the commander. Although our mission has evolved over the years to meet the changing times, the basic tenets have remained the same. Our current mission is twofold. First, it is to plan and synchronize medical support for global operations against terrorist networks. I have medical planners and operators who work hand-in-hand with the Center for Special Operations, our operations and plans center. Second, it is to provide support to and oversight for the medical aspects of joint doctrine, organization, training and equipping of special operations medical and non-medical forces and assist in deploying healthy, combat-ready special operations forces to geographic combatant commanders.
We are structured with our mission in mind. We have a primary medical staff officer to work with each of the directorates [centers] at USSOCOM. In addition, we provide oversight and staff assistance to our five components, each of which has a command surgeon with a medical staff. We also provide staff assistance, as required, to the theater special operations commands as they do not have sufficient organic medical planning staff or in most cases, a command surgeon.
The component commands within USSOCOM have approximately 1,500 of the world’s finest combat medical personnel and the physicians, physician assistants, nurses, physical therapists, medical logisticians, veterinarians, environmental science officers, and medical planners who work with them. Although I do not command the five component surgeons, we all work together on service and component common issues of training, equipment, research and many others. One of the many intricacies of coordinating medicine with the SOF components, the services and U.S.P.H.S. surgeons general and their medical departments, the other combatant commands, both geographic and functional, and other government agencies, is that they most all outrank me!
Q: Are you structured and staffed to do the R&D, acquisition, monitoring of the medical industry and training the way you prefer?
A: Yes, I have qualified staff officers to both monitor emerging technology and coordinate the R&D, S&T [science and technology], and acquisition phases of our medical acquisition program, the tactical combat casualty care kits or TC3 for short, and future medical programs. I monitor medical training through the Command Medic Certification Program in my medical training office.
USSOCOM differs from any other COCOM as it has its own acquisition executive authorities and responsibilities as does each of the services. Therefore, the command is designed to execute the requirement identification, research and development, and acquisition/procurement functions under the Special Operations Acquisition and Logistics [SOAL] Center. Just recently, we have added to the command surgeon’s staff qualified personnel to coordinate and assist in the execution of medical acquisition efforts in support of SOF.
First under the medical R&D effort, I have Mr. Robert Clayton who assists the Biomedical Initiatives Steering Committee [BISC] with Mr. Dave Saren, Medical Technology Program Manager of the SOAL. It is composed of component surgeons, the dean of the Joint Special Operations Medical Training Center, and other key medical staff members, who define the medical capabilities requirements to our SOF community, and funds a limited, very SOF specific, research effort.
Some of the notable successes from BISC-funded research are the Cochran VVAL-18 dive computer, tactical combat casualty care equipment kit, SOF mission-related performance measures upgrade, SOF Committee on Tactical Combat Casualty Care, hemostatic dressings, LASIK in special operations BUD/S, the one-handed tourniquet, the SOF Medical Handbook, and PRK in special operations. Even though the BISC funds military and academic laboratories to perform research rather than do it ourselves in house, we monitor research regulations and public laws to ensure all the research we fund is done appropriately. In my office, both Mr. Clayton and Lieutenant Colonel Robert Vogelsang work those issues for me.
These requirements and new technologies are scrutinized in detail with service components, defense industry and academia. Once a new technology or capability is identified, we prepare an initial capabilities document [ICD], which is staffed thru several USSOCOM directorates such as SOAL and SORR [Force Structure, Requirements, Resources and Strategic Assessments Center] as well as with the joint medical community. Once this ICD is reviewed and approved by the commander USSOCOM, the requirement transitions into the SOAL acquisition executive for management by a program executive office.
To assist in the execution of this transition from BISC to acquisition program, the command surgeon’s office recently acquired an AMEDD acquisition officer, Lieutenant Colonel Jose Baez. He came to us from commanding a Defense Contracting Agency unit. He is not only a medical logistician but also a Level III contracting and systems acquisition officer. With the approved ICD, the acquisition executive assigns a program executive office to execute and manage the program. The surgeon’s office is in the initial stages of our first ever medical acquisition program. The TC3 program ICD has been approved under USSOCOM PEO SOF-Warrior. Currently Baez is engaged with the PEO-SW program manager and the U.S. Army MRMC in finalizing the concept development document and concept production document for this program. Clayton and Baez have taken us to where we are. This effort started under my predecessor, Captain Frank Butler, USN.
Q: What do you consider the biggest challenges facing SOF medicine in the near term?
A: Several! First, insuring we have the necessary, quality, medical personnel to fill our increasing force structure to continue to provide world-class combat trauma medicine and deployed health care to our forces. Since we subscribe to the SOF truths, we have to be very careful to not sacrifice any quality in training as we grow the numbers for several years. We have seen increased numbers produced from the U.S. Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School for some time. Major General Parker’s internal transformation and increased student production are great initiatives. They give us enough time to grow the force while meeting increased requirements and maintaining operational readiness. This current QDR growth is both essential and achievable.
One of the initiatives we are working is a possible increase in the number of medical elements in our components. QDR growth fill and retention are not just Army issues; they are issues throughout the command. Navy special operations also has highly trained and highly sought-after enlisted medical personnel such as SEAL, SWCC, force recon, and MARSOC Navy corpsmen.
A second area of concern is to appropriately transition from academia, industry and from the conventional military medical forces, the correct medical equipment, doctrine, tactics, techniques and procedures to keep us at the cutting edge of battlefield medicine while keeping it adapted to our operating environment of fast moving, small units, with intermittent or little resupply and limited support. We must always be anticipating the future medical battlefield environments. I need to always be looking at what we can do to better posture SOF soldiers and medics on tomorrow’s battlefields. We are actively involved in a combat service support war game this November on future conventional support force concepts, testing cutting-edge medical technologies, and developing solution sets to enhance our SOF medical capabilities.
Our mission set is so broad that we cannot abandon some of the old when we take in the new. We have unconventional/guerrilla warfare missions requiring tried-and-true old style, manual, third world techniques and equipment and at the same time 21st century direct action, Star Wars, missions—it can be hard to balance both missions with appropriate equipment sets and medical training priorities. We have to work in the first world and the developing world with our medicine. We have to adapt ourselves to local medical practices when we work with local forces while still keeping our cutting edge in the latest technology. This is a continuing challenge. A good example is that for some long-dwell missions we may not want the latest disposable, one-time-use medical equipment. Alternatively, I want to know how many times I can reuse your single-use item!
With the different wounding patterns we are seeing now with the use of body armor, the success of tourniquets, the effects of blast, new hemostatic bandages, and many other changes, what we need to do medically on the battlefield is changing. We are saving more lives on the battlefield with our technology and new training efforts. The killed-in-action rate, always before constant in each war, has dropped in this war. I think it is mainly a result of a combination of body armor, training non-medics as first responders, and tourniquets. We can always better integrate SOF threats and requirements into joint DoD futures programs and project upcoming resource requirements.
Q: How disparate is the medical training received down at the team level within the various USSOCOM components?
A: We had forward-thinking commanders in the late 1980s who demanded the tenet that SOF medics should be interchangeable from SOF component to component. This resulted in the Joint Special Operations Medical Training Center at Fort Bragg, which trains medics from all our components. Subsequently, the USSOCOM surgeon’s office was instrumental in establishing a set of SOF core interoperable standards and mandated a joint interoperable standard. This commonality of medical training then resulted in the Command Medic Certification Program where all our medics are certified by a common certification examination process and a common sustainment of skills program on a two-year cycle. There are currently only two training facilities [at Fort Bragg and Kirtland AFB] and every SOF combat medic returns every other year to one facility to refresh their medical skills and to learn new pieces of equipment or skills. All this ensured that the principles of practicing medicine were standard but the equipment and platforms that each trained with were slightly different.
In August 2003, the USSOCOM surgeon held an after-action review to identify any differences or needs concerning SOF medicine. What came from this study was that SOF medicine for the most part is SOF medicine, independent of SOF component. The principles of practicing emergency or trauma medicine are pretty much the same across the board. The disparity that was identified was in the knowledge of each of the other component’s level of medical training and equipping. Each component used their mission statement to identify and build their training requirements.
There will always be a disparity in some of the equipment and differing platforms a medic may operate from-boats, airplanes, ships, and helicopters. Whenever possible and feasible we will require the same pieces of equipage; however, packaging may vary to meet mission requirements. Now that we have a great standard in place and well-practiced for medics, we are now working the equipment standardization part with the USSOCOM PEO SOF Warrior and SOAL.
Q: Is there anything else you can add about the common medical training and support?
A: USSOCOM has created a SOF standard and certification process for standardizing and creating a core interoperable SOF medic. This is known as the Advanced Tactical Practitioner and our standardization is the Command Medic Certification Program [CMCP]. My chief of medical training, Captain Steve Briggs, runs the testing and certification and the recertification portions of the CMCP. This standard fulfills all SOF forces combat action mission profile in support of GWOT. From here, each service will add medical skill sets that will enable their medics to fulfill their unique mission requirements. This core piece is heavy in trauma medicine and skill sets that will enable the medic to keep their units in the immediate fight. Additional skill sets—for example, nursing, laboratory, surgery skills, and specialty evacuation techniques, public health, veterinary—are added to the Special Forces Medic [18D] and other independent duty medics and corpsmen for units with secondary mission profiles of unconventional warfare and foreign internal defense.
Overall, we have two distinct types of medics. The special operations combat medic [SOCM], which is geared toward direct action and trauma as its primary focus is our component common individual SOF operator medical training program. Medics with further skill sets as discussed above do the longer-dwell unconventional warfare missions. Both types of medics exist in our different components. Since Special Forces and the SEALs have the mission of unconventional warfare, they have most of the independent duty medics and corpsmen.
Q: Along that same line, what about the medical kits carried? Would there be advantages to having similar kits?
A: Absolutely, the intent of the TC3 acquisition program is to standardize the capability by designing and fielding kits based on TC3 principles. It is my intent and the intent of the SOAL to make available a SOF operator [non-medic] kit and a SOF medic kit common to all our USSOCOM components at the medic interoperable standard—SOCM—level.
On today’s battlefields, wounded are regularly being saved by non-medics. We are giving the non-medic significantly more kit and training today. Also, realize that in Special Forces, 20 percent of your enlisted forces are medical warriors [18Ds] so they are going to become casualties. Others need to be trained to treat them. The 75th Rangers have long trained up non-medics, Ranger infantry, in emergency medical techniques, and now we have spread it command- wide with the TC3 training program.
Furthermore, by leveraging the Army MRMC and the Medical Material Agency we want to ensure these kits are included into the mainstream tri-service medical supply system for its life-cycle management and sustainment. MRMC has been very supportive and we have also talked to the Air Force and Navy logistics elements collocated at MRMC. The subsequent portion of our SOF TC3 program will entail a medical officer kit and a CASEVAC kit as well as other specialized equipment. All these initiatives will follow the same acquisition life cycle support as with any other weapons system Acquisition program. I am particularly excited about the ability to leverage new equipment training as part of this acquisition process.
Q: Where is USSOCOM research on the control of sleep and soldier alertness through pharmaceuticals? What has your research shown as far as the limits on using stimulants for long periods of time while on operations?
A: The DoD has an emerging effort in this area currently. Several areas such as physical conditioning, nutrition and biomarking show great promise for SOF application, including the judicious use of supplements, nutraceuticals and pharmaceuticals to mitigate the deleterious effects of sustained efforts in a deployed environment. SOF personnel, including myself, are involved with these working groups in an advisory capacity. As the command surgeon I have a significant and vested interest for the total health posture of our SOF population as I follow the services as they support us with service specific policies.
Q: On another mission-related physiology subject, in the Iraq and Afghanistan region SOF find themselves operating from basically sea level to very high altitudes. What training, conditioning, equipment or pharmaceuticals can be harnessed to lessen the physical drain at these heights?
A: Conditioning, acclimation and education are probably the three most important factors relevant to minimize the physical drain of operating in very high altitudes. There is nothing that can really replace the physiological conditioning of a body to operate in high altitudes. Prior exposure and acclimation also allows individuals to learn their own limits and to experience the signs and symptoms associated with acute mountain sickness, high altitude pulmonary edema [HAPE] and high altitude cerebral edema [HACE]. Unfortunately, some individuals are at greater risk for suffering from exertion at altitudes.
As for treatment, again recognition of early signs and symptoms and removing the individual from further exposure to altitude is the primary goal. Dexamethasone and Acetazolamide are two of the main medication for prophylaxis. Both of those drugs hinder performance and do not replace acclimatization. Units will also sometimes deploy with portable recompression [hyperbaric] chambers and oxygen with rapid decent being the mainstay of treatment for HAPE/HACE in addition to Dexamethasone as an adjunct therapy to HACE.
We have been looking at various acclimatization methodologies such as artificial high altitude before deployment with various types of equipment and deployment regimes, which allow acclimatization attempts at home station or en route. The Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine provided us with an ascent profile that takes into account a stoppage period at 5,600 feet. This is the altitude of some American bases in Afghanistan. It turns out that for every day one spends at this altitude, he or she can then make a direct ascent of 1,000 feet with minimal risk of altitude sickness, up to a maximum of 14,000 feet. Therefore, if you keep a unit at a 5,600-foot base camp for five days, you can expect combat performance at 10,600 feet after five days.
Nothing can take the place of adequate acclimatization.
Q: The medical industry has always been innovative, but what do you need that hasn’t quite been perfected yet or that you would like to see more emphasis on that would improve the combat casualty care your people deliver?
A: Oxygen carrying solutions, what I usually refer to as artificial or fake blood, have been a long-term goal. We closely monitor all the possible solutions under development. I had my first conversation about this issue in 1979 when I was a second lieutenant. A senior medical colonel research scientist told me it was one year away. I am still waiting. It needs to come with operational temperature storage characteristics compatible with my rucksack on a hot or cold runway. An oxygen-carrying solution that has the same storage characteristic as blood is of no use to me—I will just keep carrying blood!
Time-of-wounding antibiotics, preferably oral and absorbed proximal to an abdominal wound that can be self-administered by combatants and do not go off the market regularly. Injectable hemostatic agents for internal bleeding, the intravascular plug, for non-compressible hemorrhage like activated factor VII but cheaper and more advanced.
I want everything lighter, more durable, to need less power from better, longer, lighter batteries. A shirtsleeve solution to NBC protection would be nice too. We constantly look for other promising technologies that might help first responders save lives on the battlefield-better prevention and treatment of hypothermia in casualties, better airway devices, and adding improved casualty evacuation equipment to the vehicles currently being used for combat operations. One of the principles we use in SOF is to try to not make a wounded warrior into a casualty every time. This means keeping him in the fight after wounding if possible.
Q: SOF perform foreign counterpart training in various countries around the world. What programs do you have in place to make sure that the individual operators are aware of diseases common in specific locations, and are you comfortable with your health-monitoring systems to see any common trends of infectious symptoms from soldiers that are deployed?
A: SOF utilizes a plethora of medical and other general intelligence resources that assist medical personnel in conducting health risk assessments. These information sources are used to identify the potential or actual health threats and risks. These health threats and risks are assessed with respect to their probability of occurring and their potential or known severity. Finally, medical personnel then make recommendations on decisions regarding methods to mitigate or eliminate the risks to their commander to enter into his mission analysis.
All of these health-risk assessment related items are condensed into their salient points and provided to the commander who evaluates all the information he is provided from other functional areas and develops/assesses his courses of action. These assessments are not a one-time snapshot, but are an ongoing process that covers all phases of any operation.
The advancements in microcomputer systems and information handling has been phenomenal and as we become adept at handling greater quantities of information and developing greater granularity on the subject areas; we are able to better prepare our SOF warriors to prosecute their mission.
The Department of Defense has recently rewritten Instruction 6490.03, Deployment Health, 11 August 2006. This instruction directs the services to develop ‘Systems of Record’ to ensure that there is comprehensive and near-real-time capture of patient encounters, environmental and occupational data; again throughout all phases of military operations. The services have three years to achieve these requirements and the results will be a highly granular view of the impacts of diseases, the environment and injuries; nearreal- time. As these systems mature, this information may become a tool for medical staff to make recommendations to commanders based upon actionable medical information.
I consider MC4 [Medical Communications for Combat Casualty Care] as the vital solution to the Services’ responsibility of surveillance of each service’s special operations forces. We have worked with the components to ensure all the services could provide us with a patient encounter module suitable for the SOF operating environment. We have put our SOF Medical Handbook on that platform also.
Additionally, USSOCOM is collaborating with CENTCOM on a deployable system of record, which is currently being employed, and the MC4 solution met that requirement. Furthermore, the MC4 system provides the service with life-cycle management and system support, which are extremely valuable to the end user. As this manportable, medical automation tool continues to develop, it will free the SOF medic of the need to do administrative tasks.
For example, as the medic documents the care he has provided and electronically forwards it to the central data repository, the MC4 version will have the ability to automatically—in the background— build a list of the items the medic expended for that procedure. As a result, logistical support personnel in the rear can see the level of medical stocks the medic has remaining and proactively resupply or push supplies to the medic without the medic necessarily having to request them. The secondary benefit will be an upstream ability for the medical logistics system to maintain adequate stocks, based upon consumption and be more responsive to downstream needs.
Finally, as this device evolves and the two-way communication abilities mature, the medic on the ground, as well as commanders, will have access to timely and more importantly, actionable medical information. The concept is simple; as SOF medics provide care, they will feed medical data directly to a central data repository. Multiple small teams arrayed throughout an area of operations, providing near instantaneous medical data feeds, increases the granularity of medical information within that AOR. At that central data repository, analysis of trends and identification of unusual occurrences which may impact the mission can be identified. The analyzed product can be sent back to the medic on the ground with recommendations on how to mitigate or eliminate the medical issue. For example, medical personnel will also be able to advise commanders of the medical impact of diseases and environment on the mission.
On the SOF Medical Handbook, the first one, with a red cover, was issued to me in 1969 when I was serving as an ODA medic in 7th SFG Airborne at Fort Bragg. The second one, green, was published in 1981 and the third, black, came out in 2001. I am determined to get the next edition into the hands of our medics within two years, both hard copy and electronic. It has been a great success. We are partnering with Major General Schoomaker [MRMC commander] and the TATRC Mobile Computing Group at MRMC to make the revision better and get it out sooner.
Q: How involved is your office on dealing with soldier health issues—both physical and mental—on rotation back to their home station?
A: Although this office pays particular attention to the reality of these issues and proactively monitors them for our commander, we work with/through the services that have the Title X authorities and funding to develop programs specific for their personnel. The services are aggressively working on these issues as OPTEMPO continues to be high.
Various studies show troops back from Iraq get help for stress. A study published in the March 1 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, shows that servicemembers returning from combat are receiving mental-health services early after their return, helping prevent development of serious conditions. It was performed by researchers at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research and the Army Medical Surveillance Activity, and said that a high percentage of returning troops are using mental health services. Some of these people receive diagnoses of mental health problems, but the majority does not. Researchers believe that a lot of care is related to screening, prevention, and milder conditions that may not require lengthy treatment. Most of the service members receive their mental-health care soon after returning, as the services recommend. We will continue to monitors the service programs that are in place to ensure SOF warriors receive the proper education, training and care (if necessary) to address deployment stress related issues. SOF soldiers, sailors, Marines, and airmen are stress-hardy but they have their limits also.
Mentioning the Marines, Marine special operations forces are a great addition to our community. They bring both more capacity and capability. As an Army historian, I realize the great special operations history of the U.S. Marine Corps. The 1940 Marine Corps Small Wars Manual should be read by all. Two of its great quotes, very applicable and still timely, on SOF medicine are: ‘In almost every small wars operation, the number of commissioned medical and dental officers and enlisted corpsmen will be considerably in excess of that required for a corresponding force in a major war.’ And ‘Special care should be taken in selecting the hospital corpsmen to accompany the force. In many cases, an enlisted corpsman will be required to make the diagnosis and administer the medication normally prescribed by a medical officer.’
I am a reader of both Sun Tzu and Mao Tse Tung—both authors were translated into English by a Marine general officer, Samuel B. Griffith II, a Navy Cross winner in World War II with the Marine Raiders. I am committed to be a strong partner with MARSOC with ongoing efforts with medical staff—their component surgeon is already on board—medical training for their assigned Navy medics at the JSOMTC, and medical technology—they have attended their first BISC meeting. We have added more professionals that are skilled to our team and they will contribute greatly to regional engagement and nation building.
Q: A recent Congressional Budget Office report on DoD recruitment and retention noted that the Special Forces Medical Sergeant 18D is one of eight positions that are in heavy competition with equivalent civilian jobs. The report seems to indicate that the problem is not necessarily with a huge outflow of people from that MOS—and the service—but rather just a shortage of people to fill the slots. In general what is your office doing to ensure that you have enough skilled and trained people?
A: Filling the 18D Special Forces Sergeant force structure is an Army SOF component issue, but, as a former 18D and former USASOC deputy chief of staff, surgeon, I have a personal opinion.
First, retention. The command is continuing the incentives that have kept experienced soldiers in the force. This has been a great success and is keeping experienced medical war fighters in the services. Second, training. I believe that USASOC will be at 100 percent strength in 18Ds by the end of this fiscal year.
However, continuing force structure growth in the out years will repeatedly reduce the fill percentage. The current production model will fill them up again by the end of each fiscal year and then they will drop back slightly as the force structure continues to increase. I do not expect them to be behind more than that. This ability to actually keep pace with 18Ds to fill the Special Forces force structure growth is a direct result of the sweeping transformation of the Special Forces Qualification Course expertly done by Major General Parker at USAJFKSWCS. The Dean of the Joint Special Operations Medical Training Center, who is also the commander, Special Warfare Medical Group (Airborne), Colonel Kevin Keenan has maximized throughput without any sacrifice in quality.
We now have an increase in student capacity with better business practices and rapid current operations lessons learned inclusion into the course. SWCS has done the same for the newly established civil affairs and psychological operations career fields also. Third, recruitment, which is another CG, USASOC and CG, SWCS initiative. The SOF Recruiting Battalion is another key factor in lowering attrition. All make up a historical change in the way we recruit, assess, train and sustain Special Forces soldiers.
Q: Is there anything else you would like to add?
A: I entered Special Forces in October of 1967. It is a rare honor and a distinct privilege to still be able to serve in special operations nearly forty years later. I have an excellent group of officers and NCOs who work for me in the command surgeon’s office, my XO in particular, Colonel Tracy Wyatt.
I am also able to build on the great efforts of my predecessors— Butler, Hammer, Yevich and Godfrey.
In my opinion, we have our most experienced, combat seasoned, force ever. We are meeting retention and recruiting goals with very highly qualified soldiers. We are fortunate that a large number of highly qualified soldiers wanted to join and the QDR growth will allow this. SOF has changed in my nearly 40 years, but what has not changed is the quality, the dedication, commitment and battlefield effectiveness of SOF soldiers. This is the critical time in our nation’s history and we are a command at war. ♦