 Newsmaker
Profile: SOCJFCOM Commander Army Col. Wesley Rehorn
With
the intent to raise awareness of USJFCOM's continuing
transformation efforts, this is part of a series of profiles,
allowing command subject matter experts to highlight priorities,
challenges, and solution paths for the future in their field.
Army Col. Wesley Rehorn, commander of Special Operations
Command - Joint Forces recently discussed SOCJFCOM,
some of the current
projects his team is working on, and what lies ahead.
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By
Robert Pursell
USJFCOM Public Affairs
(SUFFOLK, Va. - Dec. 5, 2007) -- When Army Col. Wesley Rehorn
took over as the commander of Special
Operations Command - Joint Forces Command (SOCJFCOM) in July, he vowed that
he was
committed to the future of the command and its relevance
to the war on terrorism.
Since then, Rehorn has been quite
busy fulfilling that commitment.
SOCJFCOM serves as the
DoD's primary joint special operations forces (SOF) trainer
and integrator, supporting all geographic
combatant commands and joint task forces.
Rehorn is responsible
for the training of conventional and special operations
joint force commanders and their staffs
in the employment of SOF. This is all done while focusing
on full integration of SOF and conventional forces in planning
and execution to enhance warfighting readiness.
Because SOCJFCOM
is a subordinate command of USJFCOM, he also serves as the
senior SOF advisor to the commander, USJFCOM.
Rehorn recently
took the time to discuss his dual-hatted role, SOCJFCOM's
recent move to Suffolk, and other projects
his command
is working on to support the warfighter now and in the future.
Q:
What were your expectations and goals when you first took
command of SOCJFCOM and what's their status?
A: There were a couple of things that evolved around the
periphery of what we do. One is joint integration, working
with the J9
(Joint Concept Development
and Experimentation Directorate)
which we've always been tasked to do, but we never had the
manpower support. Now we have the manpower.
The
other one involved issues like coalition SOF…partnership
SOF or NATO SOF. We sort of stepped back and looked at what
we were tasked to do and by whom. Then we looked at what
we could do and there was a difference because we'd been
tasked
to do some things by both (USJFCOM and SOCOM) commands that
were never resourced.
So,
I went back to both commanders and said, "Look, here's
what we've been tasked to do, here's what we see. Which do
you want to support us for?" And we're in the process
of receiving some very clear mission guidance from both commanders.
Q: How can the recent SOCJFCOM move from Norfolk, Va.
to Suffolk, Va. help the command?
A: There are probably three things that are really tying
us into the community. One is that the move from Norfolk
Naval
Base to the JTEC (Joint Technology Exploration Center)
in Suffolk co-locates us not only with JWFC (Joint
Warfighting Center),
who is the primary unit that we support, but also with
the
J9, so it helps us with integration.
It
also helps us with our products because we're one of
the few units where we'll take our lessons learned and
publish them through handbooks on how to perform in your
individual positions, how to set up a JSOTF (Joint Special
Operation Task Force). We produce a separate book called "Insights" which
the units deploy with so having access to a better distribution
network within JWFC would be great.
It will also help our
community of interest. One of the things we'll do is
to capture all of the SOF subject matter
experts in USJFCOM into a collective body so that SOCOM
(Special Operations Command) or SOCJFCOM can have one
voice on SOF issues in USJFCOM. We're meeting about once
a month
with about 25 personnel, and that will allow us to have
a body of SOF expertise.
Q: SOCJFCOM has a unique situation
in that you directly support both the missions of Special
Operations Command
and USJFCOM as joint trainer. Can you talk about this
unique situation?
A: It's interesting because we're the only special
operations command that is dual-headed and works for
two different
four-star generals, but we have specific responsibilities
to USJFCOM.
Really, we have three jobs within USJFCOM.
One is SOF integration and performing conventional force
exercises,
which means
we support the Joint Warfighting Center, all of their
Unified Endeavor exercises and their MRXs [mission
rehearsal exercises].
We're also supposed to integrate SOF from within
USJFCOM itself, so I talk to the directorates for all of
their
SOF issues. The third thing we do within USJFCOM
is we're the SOF advisor to the USJFCOM commander.
Q: Can
you explain what SOCJFCOM does to prepare its forces?
A: I think one of the newest areas of the command
is that we've been tasked to provide joint special
operations
level
one education and joint special operations level
two education, which is a collective education
in a classroom
environment.
Level one is designed for people who
are assigned to a special operations command and have very
little
special
operations background. They could be special
operations themselves and just want to learn more about
the
other services or learn more about what joint
special operations
means because there are terminologies and definitions
that
don't transfer from the Army, the Navy or the
Air Force to joint. But primarily it's for people who
have no
SOF background going to the joint SOF assignment.
That's online through JKKDC (Joint
Knowledge Development and
Distribution
Capability).
Level two is a 30-40 man class and
that's primarily for people that are transferring into
a special
operations command and are going directly to
a theater operations
command assignment, so it's a little bit more
specific.
Level
three is unit training, which is where we train the JSOTFs
when we assist the theater
special
operations
command
in one of their exercises.
We've
always been very good at incorporating our lessons learned
back into our products
for our
next target
audience, but one of the things we haven't
been able to do is nest
level one and level two educations into
level three training. So if you look at those things
there
would be gaps in
some processes and overlaps.
Now that we have control over all three of those aspects
of education and training, they're all nested very well
and we think that the lessons learned that we get from
the operational units will be a lot better captured in
the education process.
Q: Special operations-capable forces
have been front and center during operations over the last
couple of years.
How does such an aggressive use of these forces help inform
your mission to prepare these troops?
A: 9-11 changed everything for us because as a command,
prior to that, we primarily looked at exercises, we looked
at quite a bit of SOF integration into conventional forces
to show, not only SOF personnel how to set up a headquarters…that
interface role with conventional forces, but also to help
give conventional forces an idea of what to expect from
SOF.
After 9-11, what happened was a virtual playing role
on behalf of the GCC (geographic combatant commander) learning
audience, the conventional training audience. Now, all
of the sudden, we're responsible for teaching the SOF personnel
how to be an actual JSOTF (joint special operations task
force) down range.
Many people don't know it, but this
command sent about 17 people to Task Force Dagger, which
was the first unit
deployed to Afghanistan, and they were all the primary
staff officers. Most of us were there for 90 days, where
we set up Task Force Dagger and ran it.
The interesting
thing about the command is that it's the only command that
provides joint SOF training and it's
one of the only commands that have the continuity to keep
training these things because all of your joint special
operations commands are primarily ad hoc and those people
transfer out of those organizations repetitively. The body
of knowledge here with the people I have is basically unparalleled.
Q: For a long time, special operations troops operated
in the shadows away from conventional troops. Now we see
a lot more of conventional and SOF troops working together.
What role does SOCJFCOM play in that integration?
A: One of the responsibilities of the command is
to show the conventional forces that there is a targeting
nomination
process, there's a delineation of areas of operations both
with special operations and conventional forces.
I've
heard many times that the special operations people are
operating on their own, and that's just not true. We
work with conventional force commanders in different
command and control relationships.
I think over the past five years
the conventional forces have understood that SOF forces
work for them, coordinate
with them both in the planning and execution of the missions.
Q:
Where do you see SOCJFCOM headed in the near future? Distant
future?
A: I think we have two emerging missions. One is
that we've never been involved in NATO - SOF training. I
think with
NATO taking on a larger role in Afghanistan, specifically,
that NATO- U.S. liaison personnel will ask us to help with
that training. That's a USJFCOM mission. In the past, we
haven't been asked to support that so that's going to require
some resources on our part.
I
think the other one is that SOCOM is looking at fighting
the
war more in a "by,
through and with" attitude,
which is one of the SOF tenents. I believe they're going
to be asking us to do a lot more coalitional partnership,
which is not NATO, but countries in Central and South America
and other countries in Africa to help either an individual
or unit level to train joint special operations command
and control.
Q: Can you describe, overall, what it has meant
for you to be in command of this team?
A: The first thing is the mission; it's a very good
mission. There are many people who don't know what we do
until they
need the help. Once they receive the help, they're won
over to how we can assist them. It's rare that somebody
shows up and says, "I'm here to help," and really
means it. This command does that. So it's a good mission
because it affects what the warfighter is doing.
The
second part is the people that I have. The years of experience
that are represented in this command is just
phenomenal. So if you listen well to the advice you're
given and you chose wisely, it's a great command to have.
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