1 - The Black Vault

PRAETORIAN STARSHIP
1986: The Goldwater–Nichols
Defense Reorganization Act
Representative Daniel’s article had accomplished
its primary goal—it created dialogue
within Congress and the Department of Defense
on ways to improve special operations. In January
1986 Sen. William Cohen, in an article published
in Armed Forces Journal International, “A Defense
Special Operations Agency: Fix for a SOF
Capability That Is Most Assuredly Broken,”
called for a national special operations agency. He
outlined an organization that he named the Defense
Special Operations Agency (DSOA), which
would be made up of two major components—an
agency staff and a subordinate joint command.
The DSOA mission would be to prepare and conduct
joint special operations. He envisioned the
DSOA reporting directly to the secretary of defense.
Command and control would be exercised
through the subordinate joint command. 42
Under Cohen’s vision, all Army, Navy, and Air
Force SOF assets would be assigned to the new
joint command, which would maintain liaison
elements within each of the unified commands.
During periods of conflict the joint command
would forward deploy to the wartime theater and
serve as that CINC’s special operations command.
On the civilian side an assistant secretary
of defense for special operations would provide
the civilian control necessary to conduct politically
sensitive special operations. 43 As Senator
Cohen and Representative Daniel developed
their proposals during the first half of 1986, Patterson’s
Forward Look proposal had worked its
way through the Air Staff.
Gen Duane H. Cassidy, CINCMAC, approved
most of Patterson’s Forward Look concept on 30
December 1985. Planning had proceeded at MAC
headquarters during early 1986 on the reorganization
of the Twenty-Third AF, and on 13 March
General Cassidy wrote to the Air Force vice chief
of staff providing details of Forward Look. In his
executive summary, CINCMAC reviewed the organizational
history of the Twenty-Third AF. He
noted that when the new numbered air force was
activated, the ARRS was assigned to it to oversee
all rescue assets, and 2d AD was established as a
parallel umbrella organization over Air Force special
operations forces. On 1 October 1983, how -
ever, ARRS flying squadrons began reporting directly
to the Twenty-Third AF, thus leaving only
the Air Force Rescue Coordination Center reporting
to ARRS. This change eliminated the need, in
the opinion of MAC and the Twenty-Third AF, for
an intermediate level of command between SOF
and the Twenty-Third AF. General Cassidy concluded
that the time had come to deactivate 2d
AD and merge the capabilities of both combat rescue
and SOF into one cohesive command. 44
In an attachment to CINCMAC’s letter, a proposal
was made to integrate special operations
and combat rescue forces to provide a force multiplier
and an organizational structure for SOF
paralleling that of the CINCs they supported.
Four CINCs had formed special operations subunified
commands—Special Operations Commands
Europe, Pacific, Central, and Atlantic (SOCEUR,
SOCPAC, SOCCENT, and SOCLANT)—while
Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) had established
a Joint Special Operations Task Force
(JSOTF) until it could establish a subunified
command. General Cassidy supported having the
1st SOW tasked against SOCCENT, SOCLANT,
SOUTHCOM’s JSOTF, and the commander,
JSOC requirements. The overseas wings would
support SOCPAC and SOCEUR. In his letter
General Cassidy also deleted the SAW designation
for the four-wing Forward Look plan, preferring
to retain the traditional SOW designation. 45
Although the details of Forward Look were becoming
known in the SOF community, the official
position taken by MAC was to keep the plan
closemouthed and to brief only selected commanders
and their staffs. On 17 June 1986 the Twenty-
Third AF advised 2d AD, the 1st SOW, and the
39th Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Wing (the
European-designated SOF wing) that Headquarters
MAC had agreed to allow the Twenty-Third AF to
brief selected personnel in their commands on
Forward Look. Only senior 2d AD personnel and
wing staff officers, along with squadron commanders
and their operations officers, would be
briefed. The briefing was given to Hurlburt Field
units on 19 June and to the 39th ARRW the next
day. The Forward Look briefing went into considerable
detail on the reorganization, its goals, aircraft
reassignments, and organizational changes.
It emphasized combat capability based on integrated
missions by multimission aircraft, responsive
theater structures, organization that could
accommodate future growth, and the Twenty-
Third AF mission. By the fourth quarter of 1988,
the Twenty-Third AF hoped to have the new organization
up and operating. 46
Concurrent with the 39th ARRW briefing at
Eglin AFB on 20 June, Headquarters MAC advised
the Twenty-Third AF that the Air Force
Council had concurred with the reorganization
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