United States Special Operations Command Central
Encyclopedia
Unified command
Unified command may refer to:* Unified Combatant Command, military* Unified Command , incident command system* Unified Command , command system in the Deepwater Horizon oil spill...
of joint forces
United States Joint Forces Command
United States Joint Forces Command was a former Unified Combatant Command of the United States Armed Forces. USJFCOM was a functional command that provided specific services to the military. The last commander was Army Gen. Raymond T. Odierno...
for the U.S. Central Command (USCENTCOM). It is responsible for planning special operations
Special operations
Special operations are military operations that are considered "special" .Special operations are typically performed independently or in conjunction with conventional military operations. The primary goal is to achieve a political or military objective where a conventional force requirement does...
throughout the USCENTCOM area of responsibility
Area of responsibility
Area Of Responsibility is a pre-defined geographic region assigned to a Combatant commanders of the Unified Command Plan , that are used to define an area with specific geographic boundaries where they have the authority to plan and conduct operations; for which a force, or component commander...
(AOR), planning and conducting peacetime joint/combined special operations training exercises, and orchestrating command and control
Command and Control (military)
Command and control, or C2, in a military organization can be defined as the exercise of authority and direction by a properly designated commanding officer over assigned and attached forces in the accomplishment of the mission...
of peacetime and wartime special operations as directed.
The command is headquartered at MacDill Air Force Base
MacDill Air Force Base
MacDill Air Force Base is an active United States Air Force base located approximately south-southwest of downtown Tampa, Florida...
in Tampa
Tampa, Florida
Tampa is a city in the U.S. state of Florida. It serves as the county seat for Hillsborough County. Tampa is located on the west coast of Florida. The population of Tampa in 2010 was 335,709....
, Florida. SOCCENT FWD, Combined Forces Special Operations Component Command (CFSOCC; pronounced SIFF-sock), is located at Al Udeid in Qatar
Qatar
Qatar , also known as the State of Qatar or locally Dawlat Qaṭar, is a sovereign Arab state, located in the Middle East, occupying the small Qatar Peninsula on the northeasterly coast of the much larger Arabian Peninsula. Its sole land border is with Saudi Arabia to the south, with the rest of its...
. The Command's motto is Molon labe
Molon labe
The Ancient Greek phrase ' means "Come and take them". It is a classical expression of defiance reportedly spoken by King Leonidas I in response to the Persian army's demand that the Spartans surrender their weapons at the Battle of Thermopylae...
(Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
for "Come and take them", reportedly said by King Leonidas I
Leonidas I
Leonidas I was a hero-king of Sparta, the 17th of the Agiad line, one of the sons of King Anaxandridas II of Sparta, who was believed in mythology to be a descendant of Heracles, possessing much of the latter's strength and bravery...
of Sparta
Sparta
Sparta or Lacedaemon, was a prominent city-state in ancient Greece, situated on the banks of the River Eurotas in Laconia, in south-eastern Peloponnese. It emerged as a political entity around the 10th century BC, when the invading Dorians subjugated the local, non-Dorian population. From c...
before the Battle of Thermopylae
Battle of Thermopylae
The Battle of Thermopylae was fought between an alliance of Greek city-states, led by King Leonidas of Sparta, and the Persian Empire of Xerxes I over the course of three days, during the second Persian invasion of Greece. It took place simultaneously with the naval battle at Artemisium, in August...
in response to the Persian demand to surrender their weapons.)
In the initial stages of Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan, the formation's commander was Rear Admiral Albert Calland
Albert Calland
Vice Admiral Albert M. Calland, III , United States Navy was the Deputy Director for Strategic Operational Planning at the National Counterterrorism Center. He also previously served as Deputy Director of the Central Intelligence Agency from July 2005 to July 2006...
. Under his overall direction, Task Force K-Bar
Task Force K-Bar
Composed of the Special Forces from eight nations, Task Force K-Bar represented one of the first ground assault teams in the US-led invasion of Afghanistan from October 2001 until April 2002....
deployed to southern Afghanistan and a comparable task force operated in the north of the country.
According to a 2006 online edition of Special Operations Technology magazine, SOCCENT, operating with coalition partners as the CFSOCC, consists of two combined joint special operations task forces [CJSOTFs], one Combined Joint Special Operations Aviation Command (also referred to as 'Component'), which seems to be at Balad Air Base, one joint psychological operations task force, one Naval Special Warfare Unit and three Special Operations command and control elements [SOCCEs]. The two CJSOTFs are CJSOTF-Arabian Peninsula, whose headquarters directs United States Army Special Forces
United States Army Special Forces
The United States Army Special Forces, also known as the Green Berets because of their distinctive service headgear, are a special operations force tasked with six primary missions: unconventional warfare, foreign internal defense, special reconnaissance, direct action, hostage rescue, and...
, and CJSOTF Afghanistan, whose headquarters has been provided in rotation by a number of Army Special Forces Groups, including the 3rd and the 19th. CJSOTF Afghanistan has included elements of the 7th Special Forces Group operating in southern provinces, including Kandahar
Kandahar
Kandahar is the second largest city in Afghanistan, with a population of about 512,200 as of 2011. It is the capital of Kandahar Province, located in the south of the country at about 1,005 m above sea level...
, as Task Force 71.
External links
- Global Defence Review, A bid for freedom – description of SOCCENT's activities during 2003 Iraq war
- http://fas.org/irp/agency/dod/socom/sof-ref-2-1/SOFREF_Ch2.htm – FAS site