A Trail of Broken Promises and The 7th Special Forces Group

Not long after the last draftees were discharged in 1975, the US Army began to realize stabilizing family life situations was going to be a necessity to reduce costs and increase the reenlistment rate. The Army recognized this would be essential to maintaining a professional army. Thus began the home base program. It was to serve many purposes including: career opportunities for spouses, school stability for dependent children, a long-term neighborhood experience, member and spouse advanced learning opportunities, reduce the Army’s moving costs, increase enlistments of son’s in their dad’s old unit, etc.

With the sole exception of the 7th Special Forces Group, the program was discussed and promised, but in practice never applied to our Green Berets. Let’s take a look at the trail of broken promises.

The original 77th SFG was formed at Ft Bragg in 1952. It was divided into the 10th and 7th SFGs. The 10th moved to Bad Toelz, Germany, and the 7th remained at Ft Bragg.

The 10th SFG was moved to Ft Devens leaving one Battalion in Bad Toelz. The 10th moved again, this time to Ft Carson, meanwhile the forward Battalion moved to Stuttgart.

The 1st SFG was activated on Okinawa, was deactivated for 10 years and later reactivated and moved to Ft Lewis.

The 5th SFG was formed at Ft Bragg, moved to Vietnam, moved back to Ft Bragg for six years and then moved to Ft Campbell.

The 3rd SFG was activated at FT Bragg, was deactivated for 18 years, and then reactivated at Ft Bragg.

The 8th SFG was activated in Panama and deactivated.

The 6th SFG was activated at Ft Bragg and deactivated.

Detachment “A” was activated in Berlin and deactivated

46th SF Company was activated in Thailand and later deactivated.

The 11th and 12th Reserve SFGs were activated and deactivated. Their personnel were offered slots in the 19th and 20th National Guard SFGs that were located in different states. Moves made for those assignments were self-paid.

On paper this looks like one crazy and hectic schedule and it was/is. It certainly makes the point that SF Soldiers and their families have been uprooted and moved relentlessly since 1952. I should point out that Special Forces moves were scheduled much more often than depicted above. Deactivations and reactivations required moving entire Special Forces groups of families. Most Special Forces soldiers serve in several different Groups. None of these moves relate to their near continuous deployments to overseas locations for duty.

In short, the only SFG with family stability has been the 7th and it shows. The 7th is a classic success story of the home- basing concept. Spouses have successful careers. We now have sons and grandsons of SF Veterans serving in the 7th SFG today. Hundreds of 7th SFG families own homes in and around Ft Bragg. Many 7th SFG families have started and operate small businesses that provide services to military personnel stationed at Ft Bragg. What could BRAC and the Army possibly gain from throwing all this away?

Today, we have Special Forces soldiers on active duty with over six years in combat. Some have over 12 overseas deployments in combat zones and high-risk areas. Meanwhile, the 7th SFG sets such a high standard for family stability. One would expect the Army to give serious consideration to establishing and committing to a similar home base program for the other groups. One might even expect the Army to regret not having done so for Special Forces in the past. Alas, such is not the case. In fact, the Army now has plans to relocate the 7th SFG to Florida. This move will disrupt 1,570 Green Berets and three generations of Special Forces families. And that at a time when the Army wishes to increase Special Forces strength by 35%.

Other unintended consequences of this move will include a reduction in available personnel to the JFK Special Warfare Center and School. Those will likely increase requirements placed on the 3rd SFG. More important, the move will increase the already extreme OPTEMPO for all our other Special Forces personnel, as the 7th SFG will not be available for deployment for a significant period of time while this move is accomplished.

Special Forces families deserve equal treatment. Veterans of Special Forces call on the Commanding General of US Army Special Operations Command to both support canceling the move of the 7th SFG and to call for a firm commitment to the home base model for the other Special Forces Groups.

Mike Linnane and Bob Charest