“Of course this is a dream job – to lead our Army’s Special Forces. Every day, thousands of our soldiers are deployed around the globe in support of our nation’s ambassadors and combatant commands. I couldn’t be more proud of their accomplishments or more honored to be their commander.”

 

75th Ranger Regiment

Col. Christopher Vanek, USA, has been a member of the 75th Ranger Regiment throughout his career and across a number of assignments. In 2013, Vanek took command of the 75th. He emphasized what has endured within the regiment, but also what has changed.

“While the scope of the regiment’s participation in Operation Enduring Freedom has fluctuated from a Ranger rifle company to the majority of the regiment at times, we were there when the war began and expect to remain in Afghanistan until directed to withdraw.”

“The 75th Ranger Regiment represents the best in our nation,” he said. “It is composed of five-time volunteers of the highest caliber and degree of selfless service. The regiment continues to be the standard bearer for our nation’s Army and is held to the highest standards of performance and discipline. The regiment has participated in combat operations in both Iraq and Afghanistan continuously for more than 12 years, executing the most complex and dangerous operations in support of our national objectives and interests. It has not come without a significant cost. To date, 64 Rangers have made the ultimate sacrifice and the regiment has sustained 672 wounded in action personnel since 2001. But we are also a force in transition. As the conflict in Afghanistan draws to a close, the regiment remains at the highest state of readiness, prepared to answer our nation’s call.”

Vanek confirmed that the 75th has been in continuous action in Afghanistan since the beginning of Operation Enduring Freedom, and he expects that it will remain a presence there until the United States pulls out of the country.

“The 75th Ranger Regiment has been operating in Afghanistan since our forcible entry on Objective Rhino on Oct. 19, 2001. That airfield seizure started more than 12 years of continuous combat in that country in support of the Global War on Terror. While the scope of the regiment’s participation in Operation Enduring Freedom has fluctuated from a Ranger rifle company to the majority of the regiment at times, we were there when the war began and expect to remain in Afghanistan until directed to withdraw.”

Vanek also pointed out that the 12 years in Afghanistan have certainly changed the perception of the regiment as well as affecting the way it has traditionally operated in the past.

“Before 9/11,” he said, “the Ranger Regiment was known for quick strikes into hostile territory to accomplish a specific mission and then redeploying when the mission was completed. You could say the regiment was expeditionary-like. Missions like Operation Urgent Fury in Grenada and Operation Just Cause in Panama are examples of the types of missions the modern Rangers were known for. Afghanistan and Iraq changed all of that. Now we are known as a special operations force that can operate in sustained combat indefinitely for years. I firmly believe that the regiment’s participation in continuous combat operations in Iraq from 2003-2010 turned the tide against the insurgency, as the terrorist networks simply could not sustain themselves under the continuous pressure applied by U.S. SOF and a counterinsurgency campaign. Maybe more important, we’ve developed our methods of operation to support conventional forces on the battlefield within their battlespace, so we are truly an enabling mechanism to allow them to execute their lines of operation.”

 

Army Special Operations Aviation Command
(ARSOAC)

Since its creation in 2011, ARSOAC has been a highly dynamic organization. ARSOAC’s first commanding officer, Lt. Gen. Kevin Mangum, USA, has just been appointed to lead the U.S. Army Aviation Command at Fort Rucker, Ala. We had a chance to talk to his relief, Brig. Gen. Clayton M. Hutmacher, USA, and learned quite a bit about what the command has been up to this year. While Hutmacher discusses in detail ARSOF 2022’s effect on the command as well as training, selection, and planned recapitalization of the ARSOAC aircraft fleets elsewhere on this site, there was insufficient space to cover the major organizational change in the command, in which contracting, support, and training for Army SOF aviation were split off from the 160th SOAR to allow the regiment to concentrate on operational matters.

“You know, as a previous 160th SOAR commander I can tell you that I personally spent somewhere between 70 percent and 80 percent of my time on resourcing issues that this headquarters [ARSOAC] now takes care of,” Hutmacher said. “I was what I would call, ‘a mile-wide and an inch deep.’ … Here’s a good way to look at the span of control issue the 160th had: When I was the 160th SOAR commander, I had a battalion in Fort Lewis, Wash., and another at Hunter Army Airfield in Savannah, Ga. I also had my headquarters, two additional operational battalions, a training battalion and my Research and Development [R&D] Directorate at Fort Campbell, Ky. And I had deployed forces in Afghanistan and Iraq, and I had forces periodically in the other geographical combatant command [GCC] AORs [areas of responsibility]. And finally, I had a higher headquarters [USASOC] at Fort Bragg, and I commanded a regiment that had 183 aircraft and 2,993 personnel. I spent an incredible amount of time on the road, and I really think the only reason we were successful at the 160th SOAR is because of the focus that we put on leader development. We didn’t have a significant leader failure while I was in command, and we certainly were not perfect. You know, we’re as fallible as any other humans. But we put a lot of stock in our people and they rose to the occasion.