Unconventional Warfare (UW) is a concept that puzzles a lot of people. Due to its large and complex mechanism, UW is not an easy task to define or understand. To comprehend UW principles can take a form of formal and informal education. Lack of knowledge makes people uncomfortable, especially if they supposed to be a subject matter experts on this particular topic. Special Forces Qualification Course (SFQC) exposed me to UW during Robin Sage training. UW concept and some of its activities were new to me. Seven years later when someone mentions UW, I remember my Robins Sage training. In my experience, Foreign Internal Defense (FID) is the majority of training I conducted. I heard how SF prides itself in UW, but the focus was on conducting foreign
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Political and military leaders are not comfortable with UW operations because UW is not a definitive process. Certain phases of UW might overlap based operational variables (PMESII-PT). UW is not a clear cut mission which requires an extended period in JIIM environment. In seven phases of UW, there’s a lot of introduced ambiguity with appearing limited operational controls (Command & Control). Political leaders might feel uncomfortable as if they don’t have a clear command and control of the entire process. In their thinking, loss of control equates to operational mishaps and leaders are afraid of operational blowback if something goes wrong. Superiors need to recognize that special warfare constantly changes and partisan type warfare, will dominate the 21st …show more content…
Devris, your essay regarding the lack of understanding of Unconventional Warfare (UW) hit the point. Special Forces are in high demand, and there’s an expectation from higher leadership to turn us into universal soldiers. We live in a complex world which requires specialty training to meet mission demand. Green Berets known as “a jack of all trades but masters of none.”
Our OPTEMPO has been very intense, 1:1 mission to dwell time. Last several years I deployed six months out of the year. While CONUS, additional training was conducted outside of my home state. Two-thirds of the time I spent training and deploying. Foreign Internal Defense (FID) and Train & Equip (T&E) was the mission focus. Special Forces required in meeting a lot of deadlines and Army requirements as you mentioned earlier in your paper. It is a constant challenge to allocate quality time for personal and professional development. UW is another core task that we attempt to tackle. It is safe to assume that Robin Sage was the first training event for most of us. I can speak from my experience. When in Group, ODA, company and the battalion conducted limited UW education or training. Certain teams attempted to focus on UW, but it was a limited training within time constrain. As always, focus was on
Political and military leaders are not comfortable with UW operations because UW is not a definitive process. Certain phases of UW might overlap based operational variables (PMESII-PT). UW is not a clear cut mission which requires an extended period in JIIM environment. In seven phases of UW, there’s a lot of introduced ambiguity with appearing limited operational controls (Command & Control). Political leaders might feel uncomfortable as if they don’t have a clear command and control of the entire process. In their thinking, loss of control equates to operational mishaps and leaders are afraid of operational blowback if something goes wrong. Superiors need to recognize that special warfare constantly changes and partisan type warfare, will dominate the 21st …show more content…
Devris, your essay regarding the lack of understanding of Unconventional Warfare (UW) hit the point. Special Forces are in high demand, and there’s an expectation from higher leadership to turn us into universal soldiers. We live in a complex world which requires specialty training to meet mission demand. Green Berets known as “a jack of all trades but masters of none.”
Our OPTEMPO has been very intense, 1:1 mission to dwell time. Last several years I deployed six months out of the year. While CONUS, additional training was conducted outside of my home state. Two-thirds of the time I spent training and deploying. Foreign Internal Defense (FID) and Train & Equip (T&E) was the mission focus. Special Forces required in meeting a lot of deadlines and Army requirements as you mentioned earlier in your paper. It is a constant challenge to allocate quality time for personal and professional development. UW is another core task that we attempt to tackle. It is safe to assume that Robin Sage was the first training event for most of us. I can speak from my experience. When in Group, ODA, company and the battalion conducted limited UW education or training. Certain teams attempted to focus on UW, but it was a limited training within time constrain. As always, focus was on