The United States Army Special Forces command teams are composed of a commissioned officer, a warrant officer and senior non-commissioned officer. A model has evolved over time and is tributed with being a key component to success on the battlefield of yesterday and today.

To break down just Army Special Forces balances strategy, experience and teamwork, Creator and Host Fran Racioppi sat down with Command Sergeant Major Dave Waldo and Command Chief Warrant Officer Felix Mosqueda; two of the three senior-most leaders of First Special Forces Command. 

From atop the Normandy Resistance Monument in Saint Marie Dumont, we broke down what it means to be a Green Beret and how the mission has evolved from the Jedburgh Teams of D-Day to today’s Operational Detachments. 

CSM Waldo and Chief Mosqueda shared their priorities and vision for Army Special Forces, how the regiment is adapting in the post Global War on Terror environment, the misconception of the Special Forces mission and how they are tackling the recruiting and manning challenges needed for the next battlefield; whether that be against a peer, near peer or terrorist adversary. 

Check out our conversation from the birthplace of modern Special Forces; then head over to our YouTube channel or your favorite podcast platform to catch all our coverage from the 80th Anniversary of D-Day. 

And don’t miss our first documentary, Unknown Heroes: Behind Enemy Lines at D-Day, the story of Operation Jedburgh available now only on YouTube.

Highlights

0:00 Introduction

3:18 Welcome to the Normandy Resistance Monument

7:19 Commissioned Officers, NCOs and Warrant Officers

11:23 Preparing the Regiment 

13:57 Solving the recruiting challenge

16:56 Are changes coming to the structure of Special Forces?

18:56 Lessons from GWOT

24:14 Defining the next fight

26:02 Current SF culture

30:23 Vision for the Regiment

34:29 The New Uniforms

35:32 Foundations to success

40:13 Football predictions

 Quotes

• “They knew they had no choice. There was no can. There was no try. Hope was not a course action. It was only must.” 
• If it’s important to my boss, it’s important to me. If it’s cool to my boss, it’s fascinating to me.” 
• “Make no mistake about it. And to our adversaries who are listening to this. We are absolutely the top of the mountain.”  
• “Are we meeting the numbers? No.” 
• “Always do more with less. We’re able to do that because of our training pipeline.” 
• “We have to focus on all the missions because every part of the world is set up differently.” 
• “First contact should not be human contact. It should be some sort of tech or robotic.” 
• “Our adversaries are brilliant. They’re also lethal. But do they love each other the way that our folks do?”
• “If you build good command teams it never gets lonely at the top.” 

The Jedburgh Podcast and the Jedburgh Media Channel are an official program of The Green Beret Foundation. Learn more on The Jedburgh Podcast Website. Subscribe to us and follow @jedburghpodcast on all social media. Watch the full video version on YouTube.