Sunday, November 3, 2013

Divorce Update: As The Bureaucracy Turns


Greetings from Fort Meade where I have the pleasure of role playing the MISO/IO SME at an exercise for DINFOS. Consequently the weekly Blog post is a little late, coming to you on Sunday instead of during the week.

Some usually reliable sources have given me the latest update on the AC/RC MISO saga. It seems that the Army is OK with the move, however, the SOF Chain of Command is only in favor of returning RC MISO to the fold as long as ‘they’ are not called SOF.

Apparently the SOF Chain doesn’t want to ‘pollute’ the brand by having the RC within their community. This may due in part that there are different standards for the two components. The source went on to say that the action officer is now the G3 of the Army and the decision maker is the Secretary of the Army.

All of this going on while the parties are still wresting with the notion that SWC has to be the proponent for ALL components of the branch and that the “Big Army” has no real way of dealing with PSYOP/MISO specific equipment.

Common sense just seems to be out the window here.

First of all there should just be a single standard since MISO forces will more than likely be deployed ‘for the good of the service’ and that the “I’m special and you’re not” philosophy will fall apart under the strain of real world demands that are unforeseen today.

As an occasional contractor I’m learning the hard way that doctrines and acronyms seem to change color more than the leaves here in Maryland.

For my American colleagues, next Monday, 11 November is Veteran’s Day. You and our forebears have earned the recognition. For the history of Veteran’s Day, formerly known as Armistice Day check out: http://www.va.gov/opa/vetsday/vetdayhistory.asp

Photo Source: http://soapoperadigest.com/

2 comments:

Pat said...

You raise some important questions, Mr. Dietz - and there are some challenges ahead for decision makers.

In your opinion, could you define what classifies a unit as Special Operations Forces?

I look forward to your discussion.

Lawrence Dietz said...

@Pat. Special Forces are those individuals and units that have earned the title due to their completion of the appropriate course (e.g. Green Beret, SEALs) and earning the MOS. Special Operations Forces, on the other end are those forces that report to USSOCOM. Individuals serving in those units are not (but can be) Special Forces qualified.