Leadership & Special Operations

I’ve wanted to talk about SOF and leadership for a long time, but as I’ve transitioned from the military into civilian professional life, I’m consistently reminded that I need to write something.

I’ll start by stating my bias up front. I spent almost the entirety of the first part of my Army career in special operations. Before there was a Special Operations command, I was a US Army Pathfinder in a unit called Charlie Company, 509th Parachute Infantry Regiment (C/509th PIR). And of course, the unit considered itself a ‘special operations’ organization given the unique nature of its mission (air traffic control for Army Air Mobility missions).

Most of the officers and NCOs had served in special operations units in either one of the two Ranger Battalions, and/or served on a Special Forces Operational Detachment (as a weapons sergeant, Executive Officer, or Team leader). The C/509th Parachute Infantry Regiment was all Infantry military occupational specialties, so infantry officers and NCOs would only serve in those positions that were ‘designated’ infantry.

At that time there was no Train, Maintain, and Equip authority for special operations. For officers and NCOs who chose to serve in those types of units meant that they were risking their professional careers in the eyes of their basic branches (infantry, armor, field artillery, etc.). Of course, all of that changed when USSOCOM was formed and the Army, Air Force, and Navy formed their respective special operations administrative headquarters.

After a little more than a year there I transferred into 1-75th Ranger Battalion, and it became 1/75 Ranger shortly afterward when USSOCOM was formed, and a 3rd Ranger battalion was brought online. While serving in the Rangers I moved from Machine Gunner to Rifle Team and Rifle Squad, leader. From there I assessed into Special Forces as an Engineer and Communications Sargeant in the hopes I would see action in either South or Central America (I didn’t, I was assigned to the Group responsible for Eastern Europe and N. Africa).

At the onset of Desert Storm, a provisional unit was formed and our team was sent to S. Turkey and N. Iraq for Desert Storm and Provide Comfort. Upon my return from there, I attended Officer Candidate School as a Sargeant First Class graduating just 3 months shy of the 10-year cutoff for enlisted soldiers seeking commissions.

Upon commissioning I was selected to interview and go back to a Ranger Battalion (now part of the 75th Ranger Regiment) as a 2nd LT. A rare opportunity open to only those who had either served as an NCO in the Rangers, or another specialized unit in the Army.

I turned down offers to return to the Regiment in the 2nd and 3rd Battalions. I wanted to go home to Savannah, Georgia where I thought the pinnacle of what being a Ranger meant. Of course, times and perspective changes, and all three battalions are equally amazing, but I digress.

I was assigned to Ft Stewart, GA so that I could receive orders for assignment to Hunter Army Airfield following Ranger orientation. I received a call early in the morning while still at Fort Benning (now Fort Moore) from the officers responsible for assessing and selecting junior grade officers into the battalion. The call was short and in essence went like this: “Dave, we really like your background and are excited to bring you to 1st Batt, but we think its best if you went to Fort Stewart and served as a Rifle Platoon leader there first so that you can appreciate what you’ll have here. With you at Fort Stewart it will be easy for us to grab you when you and we are ready”.

I couldn’t believe it! Almost 10 years leading soldiers in peacetime and war, a senior NCO who led patrols in N. Iraq, had multiple commendations, advanced skill identifiers, and glowing evaluations and I wasn’t ‘ready’?!? F&%$ these guys, I’ll just assess into one of the other units I declined, or one of the other Ranger Battalions who clearly thought I was ready!

But…I was already enroute to Fort Stewart, and I had been so sure that my assignment back into 1/75th was a fait accompli that I really had no other options. I was a 2nd LT… I actually called one of the units that I had already been invited to assess into and while kind about it, told me in no uncertain terms did they accept 2nd Lieutenants. So, there I was at Fort Stewart about to assume leadership of a Mechanized Rifle Platoon. I was not happy about it, but what I had learned at Officer Candidate School was that it didn’t matter if you had a mess kit repair battalion, or a security squad, you made it the best in the Army regardless of your mission. So, I set about to do that.

What followed was almost 3 more decades of learning about leadership and learning how to separate leadership in special operations from leadership everywhere else. I’ll write more about this in the coming weeks, but its why my favorite (and admittedly well worn) phrase that "leadership is easy when everything is going right", emerges time and again.

In Special Operations, even on the most challenging mission, or extraordinary circumstance leadership is easy; it’s easy because all the ingredients are already present. All are unified into a singular focus and trained exceptionally well on their respective tasks. You have triple and quadruple volunteers that have been assessed and selected numerous times.

They are under contract and have assimilated into the same institution and have been indoctrinated with the same values. As soldiers and NCOs, they are the best at their chosen professions. For them mediocrity is not in their vocabulary. They do not accept second place in any endeavor and strive to continuously master the basics. And NCOs are not just the backbone of Special Operations, they are the heart, the blood, the lungs, the legs, arms, and the brains.

So, commissioned officers are stewards and standards bearers to fiercely protect, support and lead amazing people. We get out of their way and ensure they have the tools, time, and authority to do what we've asked them to do. The only thing you manage in Special Operations is time, and resource. People are at the center of everything Special Operations strives to do, and the first SOF truth.

The next time someone lauds their extraordinary leadership skills because they served in special operations, remind them they had it easy. It's probably why I’m somewhat silent on the subject. I know the truth, and the truth is that it IS easy...or at least was...

To the officers who said I wasn’t ready as a 2nd Lieutenant to lead Rangers, thank you. 18 months later, the same officers took me for a beer and reinforced what they had said earlier, but the part that I didn't want to hear; it was so I would appreciate what I would be gifted. Leading a Ranger unit wasn’t hard, it was how I handled myself that I needed to master. “Leadership is easy when everything is going right, and things will almost always go right for you Dave because you will be surrounded by Rangers and if you learn to listen, you will be alright". The singular experience shaped how I would approach everything from that point forward. First to master myself, and then to seek to understand others. You do that by observing, listening, and collaborating...not by directing.

Leadership outside of the military is vastly different. Sure, some of the things we learned are conveyed as stupid simple, but they seem genius when spoken by the uninitiated. “Leaders eat last”, “praise in public, council in private”, “you’re always on parade”, “15 minutes early is on time, on time is late”, “if it's worth doing, it's worth doing right the first time”, "you can delegate authority, but you can't delegate responsibility", and a hundred others.

Always remember though that leadership is a verb. My inspiration for even joining the military was my grandfather, a WWII veteran who had been captured by the Germans in the Ardennes in December when fighting on ‘the winter line’. When I had expressed joining the military and trying to decide on just enlisting or doing it as a commissioned officer, he looked me in the eye and said, “first know what it’s like to be led before you attempt to lead others. And that’s what I did. Interestingly if you use Admiral (R) McCraven's theory of Special Operations, my grandfather was captured while attempting a Special Operation to breakthrough German lines. Also, for another day though.

I couldn’t be more thankful for those people who put me on ‘my right track’, and I guess it’s why I relish those experiences where leadership wasn’t easy, and when I learned the most about it. The maxim holds in leadership as it does in all things. If its easy you aren't learning, and you aren't growing.

So, here is to those of you who are leading and learning. Keep at it! The world needs you.