For many decades members of the special operations community awaited the periodic publication throughout the year of the Special Warfare magazine produced in print and online by the U.S. Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School (USAJKFSWCS). The finely produced publication provided excellent commentary on doctrine, SOF history, current events, and more for the special operations community.

Over the past few years the frequency of the publication has diminished and there was quite a break between the last issue and this August 2023 issue. The current issue is only 13 pages long. Past issues were anywhere from 44 pages to over 100 pages long. So I suppose we should manage our expections! Time will tell.

Topics in the August 2023 issue of Special Warfare.

• TRADOC’s Training Revolution: TRADOC 50th Anniversary
• ARSOF Heritage Week
• Distinguished & Honorary Members of the Regiments
• Vietnam-era Medal of Honor Recipient Receives Special Forces Honor
• JFK Special Warfare Museum
• ARSOF Lineage or Legacy: Which is the right word?

Let’s hope the Special Warfare magazine comes back frequently and as robust as past issues have been over the years. It provided a valuable service to ARSOF members in the past and hopefully the magazine will do the same in the future.

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Past issues of Special Warfare can be accessed online at the links below. You will find that neither link has all of the past issues – just some of them.
https://www.swcs.mil/Resources/Special-Warfare/
Special Warfare – DVIDS

Old time Special Forces Soldiers may be forgiven if they feel a little bit of history is slipping away. The John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Museum located on Ardennes Street on Fort Bragg, North Carolina is no more. It has been replaced by the Army Special Operations Forces Museum.

History of the “Old” Museum

The John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Museum was established in 1963. The museum was the brainchild of Major General William P. Yarborough in 1961 – the commanding general of the U.S. Army Special Warfare School. It was housed in the one-story Colonel Arthur D. “Bull” Simons Hall located next to the John F. Kennedy Plaza in building D-2502. The building was situated on the corner of Ardennes Street and Riley Road. It was easily recognizable due to the small howitzers and mortars on display outside the building. The museum had a small Gift Shop with the proceeds from sales going to support museum operations.

For years the JFK Special Warfare Museum provided a historical record of Army special warfare units throughout all of this nation’s conflicts. Most members of Special Forces referred to it as the Special Forces museum although from its inception it always included PSYOP and CA. Many SF Soldiers contributed artifacts and donated money for the museum. [1] Those that visited often strolled through the museum’s gift shop to pick up challenge coins, t-shirts, books, souvenirs, and other SF memorabilia. These items are still available through the museum association’s web store.

Exhibits of the John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Museum included displays from World War I, World War II, the Korean Conflict, and the Vietnam War. Historical units represented included the First Special Service Force, Office of Strategic Services (OSS), and Detachment 101. ‘Modern conflicts’ were represented as well to include Operations Desert Storm, Enduring Freedom, and Iraqi Freedom.

The old museum building (D-2502) had a small footprint – 1,800 square feet and could only house 20% of the artifacts. [2] The building has since been torn down to make way for the SWC campus. If you haven’t been to Ardennes Street for a few years you will not recognize it!

Currently the John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Museum is located at building D-2815 on the corner of Zabitosky and Ardennes – directly across from the JFK Chapel. [3] Some may recall the building as the old TMC.

No Longer About “SF”

The Green Berets of past eras certainly have some concerns. They fear the history of Special Forces will become diluted as the new ARSOF museum becomes more inclusive of other Army special operations units. There is the strong possibility that many items exhibited that are ‘SF’ centric will be put into storage to make room for historical items from the Ranger Regiment and Special Operations Aviation Regiment. A brief visit to selected social media sites will reveal the concern expressed by the older generation of Green Berets.

The Green Berets that served in the 1960s and 1970s lived in a different time when many of them thought that special warfare mean’t Special Forces with a little bit of Psychological Operations and Civil Affairs mixed in (apologies to the PSYOP and CA crowd).

However, we now live in a new era. In the past the term special operations – if used at all – referred to Soldiers serving in the U.S. Army Special Forces Groups. [4] Now it is an umbrella term to refer to SOF units across all four services. Currently, U.S. Army SOF refers to several units to include Special Forces, Ranger Regiment, Psychological Operations, Civil Affairs, and Army special operations aviation units. Collectively these Army SOF units are referred to as ARSOF.

The “New” Museum

The ‘new’ museum will be reorganized under the United States Army Special Operations Command (USASOC). While CA, PSYOP, and SF are trained at the USAJFKSWCS – Rangers and Army SOF aviators are trained elsewhere. Moving the ‘ownership’ of the museum from USAJFKSWCS to USASOC provides the ability to include the other two organizations. A recent press release by USASOC tells us that the new museum will “. . . fully represent all of USASOC’s equities.” [5]

The museum is one of 64 U.S. Army museums in the country and falls under the purview of the Center for Military History. According to an online post (accessed 25 Jan 2020) the museum had “. . . the mission to collect, preserve, exhibit and interpret significant historical property in support of the proponencies, training and educational mission of the U.S. Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School.” [6] This made it the regimental museum for the U.S. Army Special Forces, Civil Affairs, and Psychological Operations regiments – including predecessor organizations from the American colonial period to the present.

The new ARSOF Museum will open at the end of February 2020 once a complete historical inventory is conducted to identify and catalog items. In addition, there will be a reorganization and change of authority taking place. Until a permanent facility can be funded and built the new museum will likely occupy ‘several’ places on Fort Bragg. USAJFKSWCS issued a statement saying that the exhibits will be “. . . showcased throughout the command; however, instead of only having access to the history in one building, it will be available to our Soldiers, students, retirees and families throughout the command footprint.” Apparently, in the future, if you want to visit the museum you will have to drive to several sites on Fort Bragg. That does sound a bit problematic.

USASOC certainly has the organizational size to support the new ARSOF Museum. The museum will fall under the control of the USASOC Historians Office. If enough funding is available it will likely provide an improved experience to visitors in the future while equally representing the historical record of all five major components of ARSOF. Looks like another trip to Fort Bragg is on the calendar in a few years to see how this turns out!

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Footnotes:

[1] In the 70s the author donated $100 (big money back then) towards a Life Membership. With the passage of time I am sure my name has been lost on the roster; although there was a plaque at the front entrance years of the B-2502 building years ago with my name along with the many other Life Members. That is probably now stuffed in a cardboard box at this time. The museum was a special place for me starting with attendance at SFQC and later for the many return visits to FBNC.

[2] Letter from Major General Bennet Sacolic addressed to Museum Association Members, 2012.

[3] In researching this article it is not readily apparent where the ‘physical’ location of the museum will be. I suppose we will find out in the next few years. The museum has moved multiple times over the past several decades.

[4] The term ‘special operations’ was rarely used in early SF history. It may have seen its introduction in the early 80s when UW was deemphasized and SITCA (later SR) and DA became more prevalent in training exercises and doctrine. The term ‘special operator’ apparently was first used by SF in the 1950s. But then again, rarely used. See “The Special Forces Operator”, by Charles H. Brisco, PhD, Veritas, Vol. 1, No. 1, 2018.
https://www.soc.mil/ARSOF_History/articles/v14n1_creed_page_1.html

[5] “U.S. Army JFK Special Warfare Museum becomes Army Special Operations Forces Museum”, US Army, January 24, 2020.

[6] USASOC page on JFK Special Warfare Museum.

References:

John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Museum
https://www.soc.mil/SWCS/museum.html

US Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Museum Association
https://www.jfkwebstore.com/

JFK Special Warfare Museum Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Jfk-Special-Warfare-Museum-Ft-Bragg-Nc/212706605444953

Bruce, Robert, “Hidden Treasures of the JFK Special Warfare Museum”, Small Arms Review, July 2006.

U.S. Army Airborne and Special Operations Museum. This museum is located in downtown Fayetteville, North Carolina. It was privately funded and then donated to the U.S. Army.
https://www.asomf.org/

Editorial Notes:

The USASOC Historian’s Office has been contacted for further information; the article will updated once we hear from them. (Update: crickets).

Some minor edits were made to further refine this story based on comments from the reading audience and other sources.

It seems some readers do not recall the use of the term ‘special operations’ in the earlier SF days. Determining when and how ‘special operations’ was introduced into our vocabulary would make for an interesting research project. See more in footnote [4].

One reader wrote in that he recalls an ‘informal’ museum (he believes it to be the very first museum) that was housed in one of the old Orderly Room -type buildings along Gruber Road – adjacent to where 7th Group was located. SF Soldiers donated a bunch of stuff to the collection. (time frame 1965-1966).

Photo:

John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Museum, Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Photo credit to U.S. Army.

A new ARSOF video published by the U.S. Army depicts exciting scenes of Army special operations personnel training in their specialties. Special Forces, 160th SOAR, Rangers, Civil Affairs, and PYSOP are all depicted in this ARSOF video. (one minute long, published November 2017, posted on YouTube account of the U.S. Army).

www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-pIdRvXCa4

CWO Jacob Sims, of the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (SOAR) died on Friday, October 27th as a result of injuries sustained in a helicopter crash. The crash took place in Logar province, Afghanistan.

Chief Warrant Officer Jacob M. Sims, age 36, was assigned to the 4th Battalion, 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington. The 160th SOAR is also known as the ‘Nightstalkers’. He was deployed to Afghanistan in support of Operation Freedom’s Sentinel.

According to Resolute Support HQs in Kabul six other service members were injured in the crash and had or were receiving medical treatment. The RS HQs also noted that the aircraft was not downed by enemy fire. The Taliban issued a statement that it had downed the aircraft causing multiple fatalities; which RS HQs quickly denied.

Sims joined the Army in August of 1999. He was assigned to Fort Bragg, North Carolina as a combat engineer. After completing Warrant Officer Flight Training he was assigned to Fort Wainwright, Alaska to a UH-60 Black Hawk unit. He later (2014) volunteered for the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment and flew MH-47G Chinooks.

He had served on numerous deployments including Afghanistan, Kosovo, and Iraq. His military education includes the Basic Training Course, Advanced Individual Training Course, Basic Airborne Course, Basic Leader’s Course, Air Assault Course, Jump Master Course, Advanced Leader’s Course, Warrant Officer Flight Training, UH-60 Qualification Course, Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape (High Risk) Course, CH-47D Qualification Course, Officer Green Platoon, Combatives Level 1 Training Course, MH-47G Qualification Course, Aviation Safety Officer Course, and the Aviation Warrant Officer Advanced Course.

He received numerous awards and decorations to include the Air Medal (with Combat Device), Joint Service Commendation Medal, Army Commendation Medal (with 3 Oak Leaf Clusters), Army Achievement Medal (with 5 Oak Leaf Clusters), Joint Meritorious Unit Award (with 2 Oak Leaf Clusters), Meritorious Unit Citation (with 2 Oak Leaf Clusters), Army Good Conduct Medal (4th Award), National Defense Service Medal, Kosovo Campaign Medal, Afghanistan Campaign Medal (with 1 Bronze Campaign Star), Iraqi Campaign Medal (with 2 Bronze Campaign Stars), Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, Noncommissioned Officer Professional Development Ribbon (2nd Award), Army Service Ribbon, Overseas Service Ribbon, NATO Medal (3rd Award), Air Assault Badge, Senior Parachutist Badge, Sapper Tab, Basic Aviator Badge, and the Combat Action Badge.

Sims was born in Oklahoma on August 13, 1981.

News Articles about CWO Jacob Sims

DoD Identifies Army Casualty, DoD, October 29, 2017.

Soldier killed in crash identified, Army.mil, October 29, 2017

Pentagon identifies soldier killed in Afghanistan helicopter crash, Army Times, October 29, 2017