Important: Be aware that cancellation requests for bullion shoulder straps must be made within 24 hours of placing an order because of the substantial time investment required for the custom hand embroidery process.
The highly unconventional tactics and strategies employed by violent extremists in the Global War on Terror has dramatically increased the need for Special Forces operations. Indeed, the scope of Special Forces operations seems to have grown at a pace that is hard for even the five Special Operations Groups operating under the 1st Special Forces Command (Airborne) to keep up with.
Prior to the terror attacks of September 11, 2001, U.S. Army Special Forces Command listed five doctrinal missions of Special Forces Soldiers: Combating Terrorism (CBT), Direct Action (DA), Foreign Internal Defense (FID), Special Reconnaissance (SR), and Unconventional Warfare (UW). These are found in a document marked 3500SF created in 1996, which goes on to state that an increasing emphasis was being placed on the need for FID operations—a prescient remark, given the amount of FID operations that Special Forces Soldiers would begin undertaking following the launches of Operations Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom.
At some point after the 9/11 attacks, however, Special Forces Command added to two more core missions for Special Forces units: Counter-proliferation of WMD and Information Operations. The latter were and still are carried out extensively in Afghanistan and Iraq in an effort to clear the public media space of noxious propaganda spewed first by Al-Qaeda and then by ISIS rebels, as well as make the public aware of how the U.S. can help them secure their nations against lawless and brutal insurgent movements. The list of seven doctrinal missions these additions created can still be found (as of May 2017) on the Web sites of the 3rd and 5th Special Forces Groups.
Today, the five active Special Forces Groups have been tasked with nine doctrinal missions; the two latest additions are Counter-Insurgency and Security Force Assistance.
Related Special Forces Items