Warfare versus Rules of Engagement

Two Special Forces operators are facing charges of premeditated murder in Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Mr. Paul von Zielbauer, of the NY Times in the September 18th issue, has written a thorough piece detailing the predicament that these two men now face. The two men, CPT David Staffel and MSG Troy Anderson are members of the 3rd Special Forces Group (Airborne) and were on a mission in Afghanistan to support our nation's efforts in the Global War on Terror.

Special Forces is a unique military unit composed of extremely unique men. It is not simply a matter of being what some have called an elite fighting force. Special Forces missions are highly sensitive, low profile and often dangerous. We operate far from friendly forces with often very little external support available to us. All of the men must be highly independent by nature and capable of making quick decisions based on the rules of land warfare and the rules of engagement (ROE) for each specific mission. Our missions require that the ROE be extremely clear and not open to interpretation. Theater commanders have a special operations cell (SOC)within their staff structure. The SOC insures that the ROE allow mission success and protect the force. The SOC is normally commanded by a Brigadier General. BG Frank H. Kearny III was the SOCCENT at the time of this incident.

According to Mr. Wapel, the attorney for CPT Staffel, this mission was a classic high value target interdiction mission. The ROE were crystal clear and the two men confirmed their target's identification prior to engagement. These team members did not covertly break contact after completing the mission. As with most of our missions, this specific action was a subset of the overall mission for the detachment. In order to limit the negative effects this action may have had on the local populace, the two men, with their Afghan counterparts, explained to the local populace why this action was taken.

Their target, Mr. Nawab Buntangyar, was a known enemy combatant in the detachment's area of responsibility. He was on a high value target list. Special Forces Alpha detachments (SFODA) are normally controlled by a Forward Operating Base (FOB) Bravo detachment. FOBs can be controlled by a Special Forces Operating Base (SFOB) or by the SOC in theater. Either way, SFODAs do not come up with their own targeting list. They provide intelligence to the FOB and the FOB forwards this information to the SFOB or SOC. The SFOB or SOC develop the target list. SFODAs don't develop their own missions. They receive their mission, develop a course of action to complete the mission, back brief their intent to higher headquarters and, only execute their ground actions after receiving the approval of higher headquarters.

BG Kearney was the commander of the SOCCENT at the time of this incident. His assignment to this position is alarming. Special Forces missions are often opaque in nature. Within the US Army, all special operations forces fall under the control of the United States Army Special Operations Command (USASOC). All Special Forces and Ranger units fall under this command structure. In my experience, it is extremely unusual for the commander of a theater SOC to not be Special Forces qualified. I searched the Internet for LTG Kearney's biography. I found it at http://www.special-operations-technology.com/. The following is a chronological list of his assignments:

1. 4th Infantry Division
2. 2nd Battalion (Ranger), 75th ID
3. 3rd Battalion (Ranger), 75th ID
4. 1st Battalion, 501st INF
5. Commander, 3rd Battalion (Ranger), 75th ID
6. Various Joint Commands
7. SOCCENT (March 2005)
8. Deputy Commander USASOC

He does not list attendance to the Special Forces Qualification Course or any of our other Special Forces specific schools. He also is not wearing a Special Forces tab in his photograph. This is extremely bothersome. It is not a matter of a "turf war" between Green Berets and Rangers. Ranger missions, though exceedingly dangerous and difficult, are not of the same nature as Special Forces missions. I fear that LTG (Recently promoted to 3 Star General) Kearney's apparent inexperience with Special Forces missions may have influenced his decision making process to charge these two men with premeditated murder.

As a former Special Forces operator with 21 years of experience, I have serious reservations with this case. Why was an apparently non-SF qualified general officer in charge of the SOCCENT? Why did he override the findings of justifiable homicide in April of 2007 by the US Army Criminal Investigative Division (CID)? Why was a paralegal (SFC Scott R. Haarer) and not a high ranking officer, the individual who signed the forms charging these two men with premeditated murder? According to this paralegal's own notarized statement for the defense, he would not have signed these charge accusations if he had known that CID had already cleared CPT Staffel and MSG Anderson.

Special Forces is an extremely tight knit community. An individual never truly leaves the force. It is a part of who you are until the day you die. It is difficult to believe that our own community may be feeding on itself. I would lead the charge condemning these two men's actions if they had abrogated the rules of land warfare or the ROE. Given the information available to us, I do not believe that they are guilty of anything more than completing their mission successfully.

The men in Special Forces are all unique however, we do have some commonalities:

1. Duty, Honor and, Loyalty to Country
2. Duty, Honor and, Loyalty to the Force
3. Duty, Honor and, Loyalty to the Mission
4. Duty, Honor and, Loyalty to our Teammates

We are now involved in an extremely difficult form of warfare. There are many buzzwords and acronyms being used to describe the modern battlefield. One can call it asymmetrical or opaque, it doesn't much matter. Our Special Forces operators only need three things to successfully complete their assigned missions:

1. Clarity of Mission
2. Clarity of the Rules of Engagement
3. Commander's Intent Two Levels Higher

The American populace is relatively unaware of the plight these two men face. Hopefully, some of us will become aware of it and demand that LTG Kearny explain his actions. Force protection also includes force morale. In Special Forces, we do not have the latitude in time to wonder if our own command is going to go on a witch hunt for no apparent reason. My thoughts go out to these two men and their families.

De Oppresso Liber