With a mission to document, collect, and preserve Army Special Operations Forces (ARSOF) history, and to use it to inform and inspire a broad range of internal and external audiences, the USASOC Command History Office executes a historical program along five primary lines of effort (LOE):
USASOC Command Group support
Historical support to the ARSOF enterprise
Fulfillment of Army unit history requirements
Collection and preservation of ARSOF history
Historical outreach and publications.
What follows is an overview of significant activities and accomplishments from calendar year 2023, organized by LOE.
USASOC Command Group Support
Throughout 2023, the USASOC Command Group leveraged its Command History Office in support of numerous initiatives, from answering historical inquiries, to documenting ARSOF involvement in ongoing conflicts, to designing historically themed displays, to leveraging history for recruiting and strategic communications purposes. This section provides a brief overview of some of these efforts.
Originating from a late 2022 Command Group request, a significant project reached its first milestone in late January 2023 with the delivery of an eight-page classified report describing the run-up to current activities. As this report was being revised based on additional guidance, the office continued to collect information on post-incursion activities, in collaboration with the USASOC G-2 and G-3. Recognizing the ongoing nature of the conflict, office leadership began planning for a contracted historian to assist with this project.
In April, the History Office provided historical products in advance of the USASOC Capabilities Exercise (CAPEX) 2023 and then directly supported each day’s events with a Memorial Plaza tour. The following month, office personnel supported the USASOC Gold Star Ceremony by providing one-on-one tours of the Memorial Plaza and USASOC Headquarters for a total of 17 visiting Gold Star families. The office also provided copies of The Last Full Measure of Devotion, which includes profiles of the 377 ARSOF Fallen of the post-9/11 era, to USASOC Family Programs for distribution to Gold Star families. In collaboration with USASOC Family Programs, we collected three Gold Star stories for the “ARSOF Fallen Project.”
This statue honoring the late MG Eldon A. Bargewell is the centerpiece of a park dedicated in his honor in Hoquiam, Washington.
Also in May, the History Office’s Marketing Integration Manager supported the dedication of a park in Hoquiam, Washington, in honor of Major General (MG) Eldon A. Bargewell. A Silver Star recipient from Vietnam, Bargewell later received U.S. Special Operations Command’s highest honor, the Bull Simons Award. The office also supported the Command’s Black and Red Ball with the theme, “Past, Present, and Future,” and produced a video for the event.
In June, the Command Historian accompanied the USASOC Command Team on its visit to Normandy, France, for the 79th anniversary of the World War II D-Day landings. That same month, the Army officially rechristened Fort Bragg, North Carolina, as Fort Liberty. The Command Historian represented the command at the Army level during the protracted renaming process. Concurrent with the base renaming, numerous roads and streets on Fort Liberty were also renamed and the History Office ensured that ARSOF was well-represented during this process.
Staff Sergeant Robert J. Miller, a posthumous Medal of Honor recipient from 3rd Special Forces Group (Airborne), was one of several ARSOF heroes to have a street on Fort Liberty, NC, renamed in his honor in 2023.
At the request of the USASOC G-1, the History Office designed, produced, and installed a display honoring all 38 ARSOF Medal of Honor recipients on the first floor of the USASOC Headquarters. The complete list of these ARSOF heroes, along with citations and biographies, can be found at arsof-history.org/medal_of_honor.
The office also designed new display panels for the Heritage Auditorium interior highlighting a variety of ARSOF legacy units from the Colonial Period of American History through the Korean War. Each of these units influenced ARSOF in its own way, despite not being directly connected to any modern ARSOF unit’s official lineage.
As part of a recruiting initiative, the office placed stickers of historical ARSOF insignia, such as the one pictured here, on a backing that contained a QR code to the ARSOF History website.
Recognizing the popularity of existing History Office stickers of iconic ARSOF unit insignia (the First Special Service Force and World War II Ranger Battalions), the Command Group commissioned the History Office to produce more stickers that linked to landing pages on the ARSOF History website, with the intent of providing sticker recipients with historical context and links to information about joining ARSOF.
The History Office created information panels on ARSOF legacy units for display in the Heritage Auditorium, two of which are pictured below:
Historical Support to ARSOF Enterprise
In addition to supporting Headquarters, USASOC, the History Office also served the entire ARSOF enterprise, consisting of 85 subordinate units at the O-5/battalion level and above. This support took many forms in 2023, including answering requests for information (RFIs), providing unit-focused history talks, liaising with the Center of Military History and the U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) History and Research Office, coordinating delivery of historical products, and participating in unit-sponsored podcasts. Still, the demand for historical assistance inevitably exceeded the capacity of the History Office.
To help offset this shortfall, the History Office launched an enterprise-wide Unit Historical Officer (UHO) program in late 2022, initially enlisting 64 UHOs. This number grew to more than 80, representing 55 subordinate units, within the program’s first year. During 2023, we hosted one UHO research visit, answered dozens of UHO RFIs, and leveraged UHOs to get a variety of printed historical materials into the hands of ARSOF soldiers. The UHO Program Manager provided Annual Command History (ACH)-focused training to UHOs in February and orientation training for new UHOs in October.
Fulfillment of Army Historical Requirements
Like all U.S. Army Command History Offices, USASOC must balance command-directed historical projects like those listed above with the Army-mandated responsibilities listed in Army Regulation 870-5. Chief among these is the production of an ACH (also known as the Annual History Report), execution of an oral history program, and the establishment and maintenance of a command historical research collection.
The History Office got an early start on the Calendar Year (CY) 2022 ACH by initiating a tasker for ACH inputs in late January. This tasker directed all Headquarters, USASOC, staff directorates and all subordinate commands and units at the battalion level and above to provide the History Office with ACH submissions. By the late summer, the office had collected inputs from 26 of 31 staff directorates, all three general officer-level subordinate commands, and all but two O-6 headquarters. The office then edited and collated more than 1,400 pages of staff and unit input into a master USASOC ACH that included separate annexes for each major subordinate command. Critical to this effort were dozens of diligent UHOs across the enterprise.
Oral history, the second core requirement of a Command History Office, received some much-needed emphasis in 2023. Seeking to better codify oral history requirements with the USASOC enterprise, the History Office drafted and successfully staffed a command-wide policy letter and developed supporting interview templates. Office personnel also conducted, or supported, end-of-tour interviews with the outgoing commanders of the U.S. Army Special Operations Aviation Command and 4th Psychological Operations (PSYOP) Group (Airborne). Lastly, it conducted two rounds of after-action interviews with 6th PSYOP Battalion teams returning from deployments in the U.S. European Command (USEUCOM) area of operations.
Moving forward, the office plans to consolidate its three current policies (ACH, UHO, and Oral History) into one regulation that will provide guidance for implementing a historical program within USASOC. The intent is for this to be published during CY24.
Preservation of ARSOF History
The History Office treats the third core Army requirement of a Command History Office, the command historical research collection, as a distinct LOE, due to its scope and importance. The office employs two general schedule (GS) civilians for the express purpose of preservation. They currently are augmented by contracted digitization specialists and one field grade officer. The office’s three historians also contribute to the preservation LOE by actively seeking out and collecting materials with historical significance to ARSOF.
In 2023, the office continued to actively collect historical materials to add to the ARSOF historical research collection, including two week-long trips to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) facility in College Park, Maryland. There, office personnel evaluated a wide array of print and video recorded materials to determine which should be copied for inclusion in the ARSOF collection. Topics researched included Military Assistance Advisory Group (MAAG) Taiwan, the Special Action Force – Asia, World War II Rangers, Military Assistance Command, Vietnam – Studies and Observations Group (MACV-SOG), the Vietnam-era Arctic Ranger Company, 1st Special Operations Command, and the Office of Strategic Services (OSS). The office’s digitization personnel processed these files, along with more than 100 other collections, comprising over 60,000 individual assets, accessioning them into the collection.
In 2023, the History Office converted an unused workspace into a state-of-the-art video and photography studio that quickly became a valuable asset to both the office and to USASOC.
The office’s archival experts coordinated with the USASOC G-6 and the USASOC Force Modernization Center to ensure that digital holdings were backed up to an offsite location. By doing so, we safeguarded over 100 terabytes of irreplaceable data. Archival personnel continue to work with the G-6 in pursuit of a digital asset management system (DAMS).
To aid in the collection and preservation of oral history, the History Office repurposed an unused workspace as an audiovisual and photography studio. Work on the room began in February and was completed by April. Two months later, we debuted the new state-of-the-art facility to interview Mr. Charles Coaker, a Vietnam-era Ranger. Following additional renovations, our videographer filmed the first two-person interview in the facility on 12 September with Civil Affairs COL Kurt Sisk and LTC Jacob A. Allen.
Historical Outreach and Publications
Publications have long been a staple of the History Office’s outreach efforts. Since 2018, a steadily increasing percentage of its publications have been web-based, using both internal (NIPR/SIPR) and external platforms. Since launching in 2020, ARSOF-History.org, the office’s public-facing website, has become a prominent source of information for those interested in Army Special Operations History. Our online offerings expanded significantly in 2023, to include the addition of several archival videos and downloadable products. Though print remains a small part of the office’s overall output, we also published one noteworthy new print product in 2023: the U.S. Army Special Forces History Handbook.
The two information panels pictured above were part of the “ARSOF in 1943” display located outside the Heritage Auditorium in the USASOC Headquarters (Building E-2929).
Following a precent established in recent years, the History Office used its web-based publications to highlight key ARSOF anniversaries in 2023. This included seven articles published directly to ARSOF-History.org, five articles published to Army.mil, and nearly thirty social media posts disseminated via USASOC channels. One focus throughout the year was the 80th anniversary of several ARSOF lineage and legacy units during World War II. As seen on the right, we addressed these anniversaries in several web features and social media posts, and in a display outside the Heritage Auditorium in the USASOC Headquarters (see “Publication Highlights” feature for more detailed information).
Conclusion
In 2023, the USASOC History Office demonstrated its value and relevance to the Command, and to the ARSOF community, in innumerable ways. Our timely support to the Command Group and subordinate units promoted the utility of history. Our publications reached more people than ever before with the ARSOF story. Our UHO program encouraged units to take ownership of their own history, while providing them with the tools and training to do so. Lastly, our committed staff ensured that the ARSOF history was documented and preserved for the benefit of both current and future generations.
We’re looking forward to what 2024 has in store.
USASOC personnel pose for a photo at Omaha Beach in Normandy, France, prior to a staff ride detailing the valorous actions of Company C, 2nd Ranger Battalion on 6 June 1944. USASOC Commander, Lieutenant General Jonathan P. Braga, is flanked to his right by Command Sergeant Major JoAnn Naumann, and to his left by Command Chief Warrant Officer Robert A. Davis. The flowers LTG Braga is holding were laid in the surf that morning in memory of the Rangers who lost their lives there seventy-nine years earlier. Command Historian Troy J. Sacquety is pictured on the far left.
