Honoring The 53,000 Soldiers Sailors, Airmen, Marines, And Civilians That Comprise THe Nation's Special Operations Forces Community

Floor Speech

HONORING THE 53,000 SOLDIERS, SAILORS, AIRMEN, MARINES, AND CIVILIANS THAT COMPRISE THE NATION'S SPECIAL OPERATIONS FORCES COMMUNITY -- (House of Representatives - April 18, 2007)

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Mr. SMITH of Washington. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

As Mrs. Drake pointed out, we are honoring the 20th anniversary of the forming of the command on special forces, and I think it is important to remember why Special Operations Command was set up. It was in reaction to the failure of the Desert One rescue attempt of the Iranian hostages, and there were a lot of lessons learned from that and a lot of studies that went into it.

Two of the biggest ones were, one, we needed a better joint structure. The military was too divided in its various service components, and they did not work together. We had large numbers of assets that could function a lot better if they could be brought together in a coordinated fashion, and this is something that was embodied in the Goldwater-Nichols changes throughout the services and especially on the Special Ops Command to try to bring those forces together.

Secondly, we didn't really have groups that were trained for that type of mission, for the ability to go in and rescue hostages, to do the direct action missions that required very specialized training. So the command was formed to help address those two issues and has been a fabulous success.

As Mrs. Drake pointed out, we now have over 53,000 people who are part of Special Operations Command performing some of the most important tasks in our military and performing them very, very well. Our capabilities have been enormously enhanced because of the Special Operations Command. There are many of them stationed throughout the U.S. and throughout the world. I am very proud at Fort Lewis and in McCord to have the first special forces group at Fort Lewis and the 22nd Special Tactics Aviation Command at McCord. And I have also had the opportunity to visit many of these units in various places throughout the country and throughout the world, and they are serving us very, very well.

As we move forward, I think the important thing we are trying to develop on the Terrorism Subcommittee on Armed Services is to bring into play another important piece of what the special operations forces do. There is a tendency to think of them as the direct action guys. They find bad guys and take them out. If we have hostages that need to be rescued, they go get them. But there is another very important task that they perform, and this is in the unconventional warfare, indirect action piece.

We are now active in well over a dozen countries throughout the world where our special forces folks go into the community, work very closely with local communities to help stop insurgencies before they take root. We are doing this in the Philippines, and we are doing this in Central Africa. And it is having enormous benefits.

It is far, far better to get in early, help train the locals in terms of how to protect themselves and then to help them with their local population on the issues that are most important.

We had testimony yesterday from a former special operations person who said when they first went into Northern Africa, the best thing they did was they brought a dentist with them. The locals so desperately needed that help; when we gave it to them, they then helped us deal with the insurgency problem.

Whether it is bad schools or bad water supply, our special forces people are getting engaged with the local community, understanding the culture and learning the language and becoming helpful. That, I believe, is the future of our battle against al Qaeda and many, many other insurgent movements, is to get the population on our side, hearts and minds before we have to engage in the type of military action that is by definition messy and not always as focused as we would like it to be. Let's get the insurgency stopped before it starts, and that is what our special forces can do and are very well trained to do.

To move forward with this, to continue moving forward on the mission, I think we need to do two things: One, we need to grow the force, never sacrificing quality for the sake of quantity, but to grow the force and to set up the training system necessary and the recruitment system necessary. We are going to need more special operations forces in the wars we are now fighting.

The second thing is to get that emphasis on indirect action. We will, I believe, need to make some restructuring within the Special Operations Command to get that emphasis on indirect action because for so long the emphasis has primarily been on direct action.

So those are issues that we want to work on. I am very pleased to join with Congresswoman Drake in honoring our Special Operations Command on the 20th anniversary of their existence.

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Mr. SMITH of Washington. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume just to say one quick thing.

The bipartisan agreement on our support for the Special Operations Command and the support for the mission I think is something that would surprise a great many people and something we need to focus on.

And I want to thank Mr. Thornberry, Mr. Saxton, Mrs. Drake, Mr. Kline, the subcommittee that is focused on this issue. We are very much in the same place on what we need to do to be ready to combat the threat we face from al Qaeda and other insurgent groups, and I think it speaks very well of the committee, both the subcommittee and the broader committee, that there is such bipartisan agreement on how to approach this fight. I think a lot of times the national focus is on where we disagree as parties when, in fact, there is an enormous amount of agreement on critical pieces of how we need to proceed with this. So I appreciate Mrs. Drake's bringing this resolution to the floor so we can talk about that, and I look forward to working with her and all the members of the committee in a bipartisan fashion to move forward on these issues.

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Mr. SMITH of Washington. Mr. Speaker, I'm proud to work with Representative Drake to mark the 20th anniversary of founding of the Special Operations Command.

Congress established SOCOM on April 16, 1987 in response to the failure of the Desert One mission to rescue American hostages in Iran. We learned two main lessons from Desert One. First, we needed a better joint command structure; our military was too divided and did not work well together, due to a lack of interoperable equipment and a lack of familiarity and joint training among the various branches. Second, we lacked forces trained for these kinds of missions. The establishment of SOCOM was meant to address these shortcomings.

SOCOM has been a fabulous success. We have roughly 53,000 special operations personnel operating in more than 50 countries around the world, taking direct action to counter terrorists and working with local populations to prevent terrorists from taking root.

I am especially proud of the three special operations force components housed in the 9th District of Washington: the Army 1st Special Forces Group (Airborne) and the Army 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (SOAR)--4th Batallion at Fort Lewis and the Air Force 22nd Special Tactics Squadron at McChord Air Force Base. I've also been able to visit several other components of our special operations forces across the country and around the world, and they are doing a fantastic job.

Going forward, we need more special operations forces to fight the spread of the totalitarian ideology pushed by al-Qaeda and related groups. Consistent with the 2006 Quadrennial Defense Review, we will seek to grow SOCOM forces by 15 percent. We will not sacrifice quality for quantity, but we must have the capability to train more special operations forces to face complex national security challenges.

And, we must ensure proper emphasis on indirect action. Often when people think of special operations, they think of direct action against terrorists. But much of SOCOM's mission involves less dramatic but essential work. Special operations forces are currently working in well over a dozen countries to prevent al-Qaeda and other organizations from taking root. They train locals to defend themselves and help local populations improve their living situations so that they are less susceptible to terrorist recruitment.

Getting to know local populations, learning the languages, becoming helpful to them--these steps are vital to preventing insurgencies and terrorist groups from taking hold. We recently heard from a special operations veteran who told us that the most helpful counter-terrorism tool his force brought with them in North Africa was a dentist. The population needed this service so badly that our providing it led to them working with us to root out terrorists in the area. This kind of work to win the hearts ana minds of local populations is essential if we are to defeat the spread of al-Qaeda's message across the globe. That's why we in Congress must ensure that SOCOM is resourced and structured properly to sufficiently emphasize and effectively carry out this critical indirect work.

I want to thank the members from both parties on the terrorism subcommittee of the House Armed Services Committee for their work to make sure our special operations forces have the tools they need to protect our country. I want to especially thank Ranking Member Mac Thornberry and Representative Thelma Drake for their hard work on this important resolution.

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