HQ$History - United States Special Operations Command
HQ$History - United States Special Operations Command
HQ$History - United States Special Operations Command
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greatly improved the command’s ability to fund,<br />
train, equip, and organize these forces.<br />
Created by the Navy on 16 April 1987, the<br />
NAVSPECWARCOM only had the Naval<br />
<strong>Special</strong> Warfare (NSW) Center (the training<br />
command) assigned to it. NSW Groups I and II<br />
(and their SEALs (sea, air, land) and <strong>Special</strong><br />
Boat Units) were not assigned because the Navy<br />
argued that these organizations and their forces<br />
belonged to the Pacific and Atlantic fleets,<br />
respectively, and therefore not available for<br />
assignment to USSOCOM. Secretary of the<br />
Navy James Webb and Navy leadership felt the<br />
assignment of the special warfare assets to<br />
USSOCOM would detract from their close relationship<br />
with the fleets.<br />
General Lindsay maintained that the special<br />
warfare forces rightfully belonged to USSOCOM<br />
since they were based in the <strong>United</strong> <strong>States</strong>. He<br />
reasoned that the groups’ relationships to the<br />
fleets were no different than a SFG’s assignment<br />
to a particular theater, and he wanted to integrate<br />
NSW units with other SOF. On 23<br />
October 1987, Secretary Weinberger ruled in<br />
favor of USSOCOM. Accordingly, OPCON of the<br />
SEALs, <strong>Special</strong> Boat Units, and NSW groups<br />
passed to NAVSPECWARCOM on 1 March<br />
1988, and that command assumed administrative<br />
control for these units on 1 October 1988.<br />
The 23rd Air Force was a unique organization<br />
with two separate but interrelated missions:<br />
it was both a numbered air force assigned<br />
to the Military Airlift <strong>Command</strong> (MAC), and as<br />
USSOCOM’s Air Force component, it supported<br />
SOF from all the services. Secretary Weinberger<br />
assigned only the 23rd’s special operations functions<br />
and units to USSOCOM, including its<br />
Reserve and National Guard units and the Air<br />
Force <strong>Special</strong> <strong>Operations</strong> School. MAC retained<br />
oversight responsibility for the 23rd’s other mission<br />
areas (such as aeromedical airlift, rescue<br />
and weather reconnaissance, and operational<br />
support airlift missions). Since General Lindsay<br />
expected all components to be major command<br />
equivalents, this arrangement created problems.<br />
From the outset, USSOCOM had wanted the<br />
23rd “purified” of its non-SOF elements. MAC<br />
went along with this request. General Lindsay’s<br />
paramount concern remained—he still had to<br />
coordinate with MAC to effect changes at the<br />
23rd. The current organizational arrangement<br />
20<br />
thwarted his efforts to build the command that<br />
Congress had mandated. The solution, he decided,<br />
was to elevate the 23rd to a major air command.<br />
General Larry Welsh, the Air Force Chief<br />
of Staff, agreed and, on 22 May 1990, redesignated<br />
the 23rd AF as AFSOC.<br />
Tasked by the<br />
2004 Defense<br />
P l a n n i n g<br />
Guidance to create<br />
a strategic PSYOP<br />
force. General<br />
Brown directed<br />
that the unit<br />
would be created<br />
as a joint organization<br />
at MacDill AFB and be named the “Joint<br />
PSYOP Support Element”(JPSE). Its principal<br />
mission would focus on the War on Terror<br />
(WOT); however, it would provide strategic<br />
PSYOP support to the OSD, Joint Staff, and<br />
combatant commanders as well.<br />
On 1 September 2003, JPSE was activated<br />
as a unit under USSOCOM and was placed<br />
under operational control first under Campaign<br />
Support Group, then under CSO. For the next<br />
year, JPSE performed budget development and<br />
execution, authored the manning document,<br />
secured initial personnel, and began policy<br />
development, infrastructure planning and mission<br />
integration into USSOCOM. On 15 October<br />
2004, it became fully operational. In May 2006,<br />
the JPSE conducted its first change of command<br />
and uncased the unit colors.<br />
During 2007, JPSE identified a need to<br />
counter terrorist networks’ propaganda, and<br />
accordingly, on 24 September 2007, JPSE’s<br />
Research and Analysis Division established a<br />
Counter Propaganda Section consisting of both<br />
PSYOP and intelligence personnel.<br />
On 21 November 2007, JPSE was renamed<br />
the Joint Military Information Support<br />
<strong>Command</strong> (JMISC) to better characterize its<br />
mission to support the interagency, OSD, and<br />
GCCs. The JMISC’s mission remained the same<br />
to plan, coordinate, integrate, and, on order, execute<br />
strategic and trans-regional PSYOP to promote<br />
U.S. counterterrorism goals and objectives.<br />
In effect, JMISC spearheaded USSOCOM’s<br />
information campaign by developing programs<br />
and products to influence approved foreign audi-