Q&A: Lieutenant General Robert W. Wagner

SOF Specialist
Delivering SOF Confidence Through Trust, Leadership and Experience



Lieutenant General Robert W. Wagner
Commanding General
U.S. Army Special Operations
Command

Lieutenant General Robert W. Wagner assumed command of the U.S. Army Special Operations Command December 6, 2005. Prior to commanding USASOC, Wagner served as the deputy commander, then acting commander, of the U.S. Joint Forces Command.

Wagner graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 1970. He holds a master’s degree in industrial relations from Purdue University. He attended the U.S. Marine Corps Amphibious Warfare School, the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College and the National War College.

Throughout his career, Wagner has served in airborne infantry, Ranger, special operations and joint assignments including 10 years of overseas duty. His joint tours include two assignments on the Joint Staff in Washington, D.C., two joint special operations tours and USJFCOM. He served as the commanding general, U.S. Army Southern European Task Force (Airborne), Vicenza, Italy, and as the commanding general of Special Operations Command South in Panama. He has had six special operations assignments including the 1st and 2nd Ranger Battalions, the 75th Ranger Regiment’s S3, USSOCOM current operations offices and executive officer to commander USSOCOM, and commander SOCSOUTH. He commanded the 2nd Battalion, 187th Infantry (Airborne) in Panama; the 1st Battalion (Ranger), 75th Infantry; and the 193rd Infantry Brigade in Panama, SOCSOUTH in Panama and SETAF in Italy. He also served in the 1st Infantry Division, 1st Cavalry Division, as an aide at Fort Leavenworth, and as a tactical officer at West Point.

Wagner is a veteran of combat operations in Vietnam with the 101st and MACV, and in Panama with 1st Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment.

His military decorations include the Defense Distinguished Service Medal with oak leaf cluster, the Distinguished Service Medal, the Defense Superior Service Medal with oak leaf cluster, the Legion of Merit with oak leaf cluster, the Bronze Star with two oak leaf clusters, the Meritorious Service Medal with three oak leaf clusters, the Air Medal, Vietnam service medals, and the Army Commendation Medal. His military awards include the Combat Infantryman Badge, Master Parachutist Badge with combat star, and the Army Ranger Tab.

Interviewed by SOTECH Editor Jeff McKaughan

Q: Good morning General Wagner. In general, special operations forces received authorization to increase the physical number of bodies in their commands. Has USASOC seen any tangible results from this yet? Have any of those increases made it through the pipelines to the operational forces?

A: Yes, we are seeing tangible results with far more to come. Fortunately, both modularity and growth are helping the command. From reorganized logistics across the command, to initial stages of forming a new civil affairs brigade and our first new civil affairs battalion, and a new special operations aviation battalion at Fort Lewis, to significantly increased Special Forces throughput at our Special Warfare Center and School, the force has seen increased numbers produced from SWCS for quite some time now. SWCS’ internal transformation and student production are extraordinarily impressive—skillfully blending relevant skills, and interagency, culture, language and intelligence training while transforming training. QDR-directed growth gave us ample time to grow the force and we are well-postured to meet increased requirements and maintain the operational readiness of the force.

Quite simply, transformation of the SF pipeline involves the most sweeping changes in our history of how we recruit, assess, train and sustain Special Forces soldiers. The foundation of our plan is a phased increase in student capacity employing better business practices and rapid inclusion of lessons learned during current operations. The establishment of civil affairs and psychological operations as career fields is also extremely important for the command and for the field.

Q: Following on to that, is there such a thing as too big for special operations forces? Can you outgrow the ability to keep the specialized skills sharp within larger organizational frameworks?

A: Perhaps at some point that could become a concern but it certainly is not a concern now. The QDR growth is absolutely essential and achievable. We have our most experienced force ever with all retention and recruiting goals being met with highly qualified soldiers. Fortunately, we have a large number of highly qualified soldiers who wanted to join Special Forces and the QDR growth will allow us to increase the number of qualified candidates we can assess.

Major General Jim Parker and the NCOs and officers at the U.S. Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School have brilliantly transformed the SF pipeline involving the most sweeping changes in our history in how we recruit, assess, train and sustain Special Forces soldiers. The foundation of the plan is a phased increase in student capacity employing many better business practices. We are updating our training methodology to a more modular approach and leveraging technology to improve the quality of instruction and more efficiently use time and resources.

Starting with our June 2006 class we have increased the number of SF Qualification Courses [SFQC] conducted each year from four to eight. This change in training methodology continues to guarantee us that the SFQC remains relevant to today’s operational environment, focused on enhancing core unconventional warfare skills; linking the program of instruction to the battlefield, and placing greater emphasis on foreign-language and cultural training. The result of this transformation is the ability to train more soldiers in less time while maintaining high standards, and in some cases, raising them.

Recruiting is the cornerstone of our program so we provisionally activated a Special Operations Recruiting Battalion [SORB] from a formerly company-size unit. SORB’s success is allowing us to field candidates for SF Assessment and Selection [SFAS] who are the best qualified of those who volunteer. Our SFAS program is very effective at looking at the whole man and identifying soldiers with the attributes to move on to SF training. The SORB and SFAS are key factors in the lower attrition rates in SFQC. Finally, USAJFKSWCS is actively managing the health of the SF Regiment through effective career programs and policies.

Before the growth for SF was announced, we were already on a path to increasing our production of SF soldiers to meet current authorizations and fill/reactivate a sixth operational detachment alpha [team] in each SF company. Our projections show that if we can maintain this momentum and resource this requirement for the long term, we can in fact achieve the growth defined in the PDM without a significant increase in the training base that was not already planned.

The bottom line is we are adhering to our SOF truths while achieving unprecedented graduation success rates, increasing the quality of training—and doing it all in less time. We are managing the health of the force and producing SF soldiers better prepared than ever to face the challenges of today’s battlefields and tomorrow’s battles.

Q: At a conference earlier this year, General Brown [USSOCOM commander] remarked that helicopter technology really hasn’t advanced much since the Viet Nam era. That being said, how involved is your staff and the leadership of the 160th in looking at technologies that give you the advantages of a rotary wing platform—vertical lift—and the speed and range of a fixed-wing aircraft?

A: General Brown’s statement is indeed true—there hasn’t been any revolutionary change in helicopter technology since the Vietnam era—however, the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment [Airborne] is continually incorporating evolutionary changes in technology to make our helicopters more efficient, capable, and sustainable.

For example, the MH-60M will be fielded with new, widechord rotor blades that we expect will deliver more power and speed. Additionally, the MH-60M will be the only aircraft in the H-60M family to be fielded with an engine which will give the 160th more power at high altitudes and hot weather environments. The MH-47G helicopter is an incredible helicopter with advanced avionics, navigation and advanced aircraft survivability equipment that would be the envy of any early generation helicopter pilot.

The Regiment’s Systems Integration and Maintenance Office [SIMO] constantly looks over-the-horizon, searching and evaluating revolutionary, leap-ahead technologies to give the 160th an edge on the battlefield. Presently, SIMO is following developments in compound helicopter technology that would boost airspeed to 195 knots in cruise and as much as 220 knots in a dash. Additionally, SIMO developmental test pilots conduct on-site visits with aircraft manufacturers around the country to examine promising aircraft and technologies. The 160th has often advanced cuttingedge systems to the regular Army and DoD, and we do not expect that paradigm to change.

Q: How would you characterize the transformation progress going on within the 160th SOAR?

A: As you are probably aware, the 160th is in the middle of the largest materiel transformation in its 25-year history. The goals of the transformation are bold: reduce a fleet of 10 aircraft down to three. These three modern aircraft, the MH-6M, MH-60M, and MH-47G will bring the benefits of improved aircraft performance, improved commonality, streamlined training and support costs, and elimination of obsolete components.

Besides major improvements in the airframes themselves, the Night Stalkers will increase situational awareness and reduce cockpit workload through their new integrated avionics suite in the MH-60 and MH-47 fleets—the Common Avionics Architecture System. Additionally, the regiment continues to transform aircraft survivability equipment, particularly radar and infrared countermeasures and ballistic protection of aircraft, crew and customers. The regiment’s materiel transformation is proceeding at a strong pace and we have received the necessary funding in the POM out-years to ensure the transformation programs that have been started will be completed.

Q: When looking for a few individuals among many individuals it takes more than comparing them to a crumpled up wanted poster. How important are biometrics to your forces and are the technologies advancing to keep pace with demand?

A: As we continue to prosecute the war on terrorism, biometrics are becoming more and more important to special operations forces, the services, and our interagency and multi-national partners in sorting friend from foe on today’s asymmetric battlefield. The technologies are advancing every day and Army special operations forces are full partners in that advance. The biometric tools our operators carry to the fight allow us to apply our limited resources at the right time and the right place. This is a good example of the need for networked capabilities providing shared, real-time situational awareness in the joint, interagency and multi-national force.

Working with USSOCOM as the lead, our Futures Center works to meld a variety of emergent technologies with the future needs of the force. USSOCOM is interested in not only biometrics but an entire spectrum of tools that enable the SOF soldier to be proactive and succeed in unconventional warfare.

The mission of our Futures Center is to anticipate the future battlefield environment—its threats and requirements for SOF— and to begin looking at what we can do today to better posture our soldiers for tomorrow’s challenges. By wargaming future force concepts, testing cutting-edge technologies and developing solution sets that enhance capabilities, we can better integrate Army SOF into joint DoD futures programs and project upcoming resource requirements.

Q: What were the costs and benefits of the realignment of PSYOPS and civil affairs?

A: Perhaps most important is the broad realization of the critical importance of civil affairs and psychological operations to the total force. While these special disciplines paid critical dividends in Haiti, Kosovo, Bosnia, the Philippines and globally in other nation-building programs, operations in Afghanistan and Iraq brought them to the forefront. As the Army transformed, the need for sustained modular civil affairs and psychological operations support for both Army and special operations forces was apparent. Our existing active and reserve component civil affairs and psychological operations forces are exceptional, but we needed more forces and we needed to redesign the command structure.

While the forces existed in USASOC, the overwhelming majority of deployed civil affairs and psychological operations forces are Army Reserve soldiers in support of Army forces and joint operations. As a result, it makes perfect sense to grow the strength of both the active and Reserve component CA and PSYOP forces and transfer responsibility of the Army Reserve soldiers to the conventional Army.
 
This transfer of responsibility aligns U.S. Army Reserves psychological operations and civil affairs forces with Brigade Combat Teams and the Army Force Generation model. As difficult as it is to lose the well-established partnership of these selfless and extremely dedicated warriors, this transition will greatly improve conventional force integration of CA and PSYOP forces leveraging a greater training, readiness, organizational and mobilization capability in U.S. Forces Command; and, ultimately, significantly enhance the regular Army’s warfighting capabilities. Concurrently, growth of the active CA and PSYOP force will meet SOF’s requirements.

Q: MARSOC is expected to assume much of the foreign training missions that the Army has been doing for years. Is this a loss of foreign interaction that you feel you need to make up for with other partner exercises and training missions? How did your forces benefit from those training/instructional missions in the past?

A: The Marine special operations forces are a welcome addition to the special operations community bringing both additional capacity and added capability, both of which are needed. We are strong partners with the Marines of MARSOC with ongoing staff, training, technology and operational exchanges. Current demand for special operations forces stresses a sustainable tempo. USSOCOM would like to meet all theater requests for forces. Additionally, we would like to sustain engagement programs in priority countries. MARSOC gives USSOCOM additional capability—the opportunity for increased SOF presence, and additional specialized skills, increasing the overall SOF team effort, capability, and presence. Army special operations forces will continue their regional focus and participation in theater security cooperation events with our regional partners across the globe and to the limit of our capacity, which, as previously discussed, is also growing. Think about this as adding more skilled professionals to the team—adding capacity and capability, to better contribute to regional engagement and nation building.

Q: What is the status of the Iraqi special forces units that you have been working with. Are there similar efforts ongoing in Afghanistan? Do they have the equipment they need?

A: Thanks for that question. All too often, media focus is placed on SOF operations in direct action kinetic mission areas which are easier to see and to report on in a quick news report.

Unfortunately, such focus misses the absolutely critical importance of the indirect approach, of foreign internal defense, and of nation and capacity building, which are special operations forces mission areas that complement conventional operations—both of which are necessary. Working by, through and with local leaders, and emerging Iraqi and Afghan units, special operations forces have contributed to security for free elections, bringing credibility to local leaders and government programs, established schools, jobs, agricultural and health programs—all examples of nationbuilding where we leverage the language trained, culturally sensitive, regionally aligned Army special operations forces. Our Special Forces teams have organized and trained Iraqi units that have been extremely successful in conducting combined and unilateral operations throughout the country. The Afghanistan Commando Course initiative was designed to provide the Afghan Army with a similar proven capability, much like Iraqi SOF.

The units we work with have been given the fundamental tools they need to plan, conduct, and accomplish their missions. They are very professional, loyal and impressively capable as they serve their nations. We continue to train some Afghan and Iraqi units in logistical and support functions and that too is proceeding very well.

Q: Is there anything else you would like to add?

A: This is a critical time in our nation’s history and the men and women of USSOCOM—AFSOC, WARCOM, MARSOC and U.S. Army Special Operations Command are proud of their contributions in the global war on terrorism.

USASOC will continue to adapt to successfully conduct worldwide special operations in support of the geographic combatant commanders, American ambassadors, other agencies and our international partners. We will continue to be a critical national asset today and in the future. From kinetic to non-kinetic, direct action to unconventional warfare and irregular warfare, worldwide demand continues to increase for USASOC’s most precious asset: our selfless, dedicated soldiers.

On any given day, there are 6,200 members of Army special operations forces deployed worldwide, on more than 115 missions, in over 65 different countries supporting global operations. We continue to be a command at war. Our soldiers are the true heroes: selfless professionals who serve our nation. ♦

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