The Associated Press May 20, 2009
General: School will meet increased troop demand
By Kevin Maurer
FORT BRAGG, N.C. On the day Maj. Gen. Thomas R. Csrnko found out he was going to be a general in 2000, his commander asked him his goals. At the top of his list was to command the school that trains the Army's elite special operations soldiers.
Now, 11 months after taking over the John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School, his goal is to make sure the program produces enough of the highly-trained troops for service in wartime.
"You are joining a brotherhood where the likelihood of your survival will depend on those to your left and right," Csrnko said in an interview with The Associated Press, his first since taking over the school last year.
Special operations units are the preferred choice among policy makers because of their success in overthrowing the Taliban in Afghanistan after Sept. 11. Since 2003, more than 80 percent of overseas deployments by special operations forces have been to the Middle East. That is unlikely to change with the nomination of Gen. Stanley McCrystal, a special operations officer, as top general in Afghanistan, said Larry Korb, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, a think tank in Washington.
To compensate, Special Forces will go though its largest expansion in history. The 5th Special Forces Group added a fourth battalion in August, and the other four active duty groups will follow during the next four years to add more than 10,000 Special Forces soldiers to the Army's ranks.
It's up to Csrnko to provide the groups with well trained soldiers. He said the center, based at North Carolina's Fort Bragg, is more than able to accomplish that goal.
"Our production model still supports the growth and we will continue to do that," Csrnko said.
Korb, a former assistant defense secretary who oversaw manpower and logistics at the Pentagon from 1981 to 1985, said he hasn't seen a drop off in quality in special operations troops.
"If you can get 75 percent good troops than that is better than 100 percent of not enough troops," Korb said. "I haven't seen guys do anything dumb or cause problems. If you went below 50 percent good troops, I think you'd have a problem."
The Special Forces Qualifications course was overhauled by Maj. Gen. James W. Parker when he commanded the school from 2004 to 2008 to boost the number of soldiers it could train. Csrnko said he is continuing those efforts, but made some changes to training. He set up an instructor team, modeled after the units the students will join in the field. He also created a two week introduction course to help with culture shock that some soldiers will likely face after training.
"Who we are, what we do, why we do things the way we do. That first two-week period is very important to the student because they get to see it and understand it," he said.
Csrnko spent two years in command of the U.S. Army Special Forces Command at Fort Bragg. Special Forces soldiers, among other things, specialize in training foreign military and paramilitary forces. He said the Army must ensure that the training is relevant, difficult and trains troops for the rigors of unconventional warfare.
More than 3,500 try out, but only between 35 and 45 percent get selected.
And standards have gotten harder - especially on the physical fitness front, where students must now earn high physical fitness test scores and complete timed runs and rucksack marches to stay in the course.
"A continuing myth is that we are mass producing and the only way we are doing that is by lowering our standards. And that is absolutely false," Csrnko said.
John Pike of GlobalSecurity.org, a Washington, D.C. area think tank, said it is about motivating soldiers to join and stay in Special Forces.
"This will require fine tuning pay and promotions and awards and other variables. While these may not always be perfectly aligned, over time this should be doable," he said.
Csrnko joined the brotherhood in 1979. He served as a team leader, a company commander and a staff officer with the 5th Special Forces Group from 1979 to 1982, and later returned as a battalion commander from 1993 to 1995.
This is his third tour at the Special Warfare Center and School.
"This is a great job," he said. "I think it is an opportunity to be part of building our future."
© Copyright 2009, The Associated Press
