Just 18 months ago, In June of 2017, Army Green Beret Staff Sergeant Logan Melgar was killed while deployed in Mali. Two SOF operators from the Navy’s SEAL Team 6 and two members of the U.S. Marines Special Operations Forces (MARSOC) are facing felony murder charges in Melgar’s death.
U.S. Special Operations forces have been the vanguard of U.S. Military overseas operations since 9-11, with some units maintaining a continuous presence overseas, and many individual SOF members racking up dozens of deployments. And news of planned military drawdowns in Syria and Afghanistan leave questions as to how SOF forces might be impacted, given that follow on missions and working with host nation forces will likely still fall to SOF. The Cipher Brief’s new Friday column, Cipher Select, will explore these issues and more in 2019.
We recently spoke with Retired SOF Colonel David Maxwell to get his sense of how changes at the Pentagon might affect SOF, as well as what leadership needs to do to stop the trend of “felony fratricides”, as they’re being referred to within the community. We also wanted to know if he thinks that the U.S. has overextended and tried to grow SOF forces too quickly. But we began with the broader impact of General James Mattis’ recent departure.
Maxwell: I’ll start by saying the sign of a good leader is how well the organization functions when that leader is not there. And I think that most of us agree that Secretary Mattis is one of the most outstanding military leaders, and now civilian leaders, that our country has had. He brought in a strong leadership team. I think the Pentagon is going to continue to march forward. I don't know that much about the Acting Secretary of Defense, other than what is publicly discussed with his career at Boeing and the like, but hopefully he will continue to press forward.
Two things do partially concern me though. I think we've had probably one of the best National Defense Strategies written. I think it is really a key document for the way forward and I hope that strategy continues to be implemented. The second thing is that many of the political appointees brought to the Pentagon are there because Secretary Mattis brought them there. I’m concerned that we're going to see some attrition of key personnel, who are very talented. Given the slow pace of making appointments and getting confirmation, I think that could have some adverse effects on operations in the Pentagon.
The Cipher Brief: Are there particular aspects of the National Defense Strategy that you feel may be at risk?
Maxwell: First and foremost, is working with partners, which I think is really a key element. Of course, Secretary Mattis's resignation letter really indicated the different world views between President Trump and Secretary Mattis. But the National Defense Strategy focuses on a number of things. One of those is building a more lethal force. Clearly, that affects special operations, and especially the lethal task force that was created by Major General Robert Scales to improve the lethality of the infantry and special operations, and to strengthen alliances and attract new partners.
Then of course, there are the institutional aspects of the strategy, like reforming the Department of Defense for greater performance. I think that’s really what the Acting Secretary of Defense has been focused on.
David Maxwell, Retired U.S. Army Special Forces Colonel
"As we talk about the big four; Russia, China, Iran and North Korea, the two revisionist powers, the two rogue regimes, clearly SOF has a big role in dealing in that gray zone area. So, depending on what happens with the National Defense Strategy, and if there are radical changes made to it, that will affect, obviously, the entire military, but SOF as well. I want to see the National Defense Strategy to continue forward and not be radically changed."
The Cipher Brief: I want to turn to the recent tragedies involving the deaths of current and former SOF members, allegedly by other SOF members that have occurred overseas. We now have multiple members of Marine Special Operations Forces, in particular, facing felony murder charges. The phrase “felony fratricide” has been used to describe these incidents. SOCOM and the military writ large, typically does an effective job of keeping incidents under control and applying the UCMJ and other corrective measures when and where they’re needed. But these recent incidents seem to be a new kind of problem, and perhaps it’s a product of the post global war on terrorism environment. How should we be thinking about these recent events? And most importantly what needs to be done to make sure this doesn’t become a continuing trend?
Maxwell: These incidents are, tragic, there's really no other way to describe them. The first thing I would say is that I'm reminded of Lieutenant General Sam Wilson, who's now passed away, but remains an icon in the special operations community. Many years ago, he coined the characteristics and principals of special operations. The 20th characteristic of SOF, that he articulates as three things; integrity, honesty and loyalty. He says that SOF needs to take a moral bath, and that because special operations are very decentralized in execution, they are conducive to improprieties. He said that improprieties, because of the political sensitivity of the special operations mission, can cause long-term mistrust within the command structure that takes hard work and many years to overcome. I think those are prophetic words. He wrote those words decades ago, in the 1980's.
David Maxwell, Retired U.S. Army Special Forces Colonel
"I think all special operations forces have to think deeply about this. The vast majority of special operations forces are the best we have. They are some of the greatest soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines, doing tremendous work for our country. All those men and women should not be lumped into the same category as these people who have conducted these murders."
But because a small handful do things like this, it taints the entire community. And it will take the entire community to overcome the mistrust that is developed because of these incidents. It's going to take deep reflection and leadership, but leadership at all levels.
One common trait of special operations, regardless of your rank, is that you are a leader. Every member of the special operations community has to be able to lead. Therefore, every member has the responsibility to exercise leadership to prevent these incidents from happening.
That said, as good as our assessment and selection programs are for all four of the services, they're not perfect. People with integrity problems, with psychological problems, with character defects do slip through, although they're a small number. And again because of that, that small number that does slip through causes damage to the rest of the community. I can't emphasize enough how tragic this is. How damaging it is to the force, yet we must as a nation, keep in mind, that this is not representative of the entire special operations community.
It's going to be up to SOCOM and all the components to deal with this and of course Congress has directed a report that's due March 1st on the professionalism and ethics of special operations. I am sure that the command is hard at work to examine these issues and the extent of the problems, which probably stem from, as General Wilson said, decentralized execution that is conducive to improprieties. That seems to be what happened in Staff Sergeant Melgar’s tragic death and may end up being what happened in Iraq as well. The op tempo, the continuous deployments, certainly take a toll and the stress can magnify those with character defects which can then potentially lead to the types of conduct and illegal and heinous crimes that we’ve recently seen. But these cases are a small number and it should not reflect upon or be representative of the entire special operations community.
The Cipher Brief: There is a core SOF truth that says special operations forces cannot be mass produced. Back when Donald Rumsfeld was Secretary of Defense, the military really started trying to significantly increase the number of special operations forces. Do you think that has anything to do with some of the issues we're seeing today? Or has SOCOM managed that growth effectively despite the criticisms of some in the community that they were trying to grow SOF forces too quickly?
Maxwell: That's a great question. Of course, the 2006 Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) directed tremendous growth. We were able to grow the Rangers, the psychological operation forces, the aviation forces, both the Special Operations Aviation Regiment in the Army and the Air Force Special Operations Command. And of course, we grew MARSOC. The one force that we failed to grow to meet the QDR requirement was special forces. We were supposed to grow from an authorized 270 A-teams to 360, including an additional 4th battalion in each of the five active duty groups. We could not grow the force to meet those requirements. We tried and had planned to do that from 2006 to 2013, but we couldn't, and of course, that resulted in the Army Special Operations Command revising its force structure. And the 4th battalions shifted to another special operations focused mission. That really proves the SOF truths, specifically that the special operation forces can't be mass produced. Nor can they be created after the crisis occurs.
MARSOC has also been growing and going through its own growing pains. From about 2006 to the present, they've experienced many of the challenges that special forces had experienced from 1952 until the Goldwater Nichols Act of 1987, when special forces was authorized as a separate branch. So MARSOC has experienced a lot of things in a few short years, that special forces experienced over decades and the growing pains have been extensive. MARSOC, as I understand it, has a great assessment and selection program and a great qualification program. It's a small force, still developing, but I would not attribute the growth of MARSOC to the entire special operations community growing too fast. MARSOC provides a capability that adds to and is complementary to US SOCOM and our SOF capabilities. I can’t make a judgement to say that the growth of MARSOC has contributed to these incidents except that someone could make a case that more overall numbers mean that it's possible that more people with character flaws slip through the cracks.
That's something the leaders of all the components are going to have to take a hard look at. Do we want fill numbers to man the force, or do we want to make sure we have the right forces, the right soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines?
David Maxwell, Retired U.S. Army Special Forces Colonel
"This is a challenge for all the services in the assessment and selection programs. Is the pressure on the cadre to produce numbers? Or is the pressure on the cadre to select, assess and train those people who have the attitude and the desire to be special operators? That's really the key, fundamental question that, if I were a leader in special operations community today, I would be focused on. Is it numbers or is it quality?"
I'm confident that all of our leaders want to focus on quality not quantity. However, all special operations components answer to the services, who answer to the Congress and everybody is numbers focused. Mathematically, the more people you put through selection or are selected, the greater the possibility that you're going have somebody with a character defect that's going to cause problems down range. I think that's really a mathematical function.
David Maxwell, Retired U.S. Army Special Forces Colonel
"My admonition is let’s focus on quality and if we don't make the numbers, so be it. We have to have the right soldiers, sailor, airman and marines in the social operations community."
Last May, The Cipher Brief spoke with Dr. Michael Vickers, the former Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence, about the challenges the community was facing back then. Read it here...
Check in with The Cipher Brief every Friday for more on the challenges and opportunities facing special operations, from Cipher Select Senior Editor Brad Christian.
