F r i d a y , A u g u s t 2 4 , 2 0 1 2 T H E R E D 7 . n E T

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Green Beret visits students at

Baker School

INSIDe

Briefs ...............8

Philpott ...........6

Reeder takes command of Special

Warfare Center and School

Page 5

Haas takes commandPAGE 3

Page 2 | THE RED 7 | Friday, August 24, 2012

Year No. 2 edition No. 35

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Friday, August 24, 2012 | THE RED 7 | Page 3

By Staff Sergeant ramon m. marrero

7th Special Forces Group (Airborne)

fort Bragg, n.C. – Soldiers, family and friends gathered together to bid fare-well to the U.S. Army Special Forces Com-mand (Airborne) (USASFC(A)) Com-manding General.

The ceremony was held on Aug. 15, on Meadows Field on Fort Bragg, N.C., where Maj. Gen. Ed-ward M. Reeder Jr. relinquished com-mand of the USAS-FC (A) to Brig. Gen. Christopher K. Haas.

The USASFC (A) is home based at Fort Bragg, N.C.

“I can’t begin to tell you how much of an honor it was to command and serve this great regiment,” said Reeder during his speech. “It was an honor to command the world’s premier unconventional warfare fighting force that prides themselves on their abilities to fight and win in the most complex and demanding environments.”

Attending the ceremony were Honorable Qayum Karzai, Senator Ehsan Bayat and Amin Ramin as official representatives to the Government of the Islamic Republic of

Afghanistan. “Gentleman, you honor us with your pres-

ence,” said Lt. Gen. Charles T. Cleveland, commander of the U.S Army Special Op-erations Command (Airborne), who officiated the ceremony. “In fact it punctuates the real contributions of the formations represented

here today as no else in the Department of Defense has the mission specifically to work with military units and groups of like minded, freedom loving peoples of the world,”

“It is the men of the Green Beret, U.S. Army Special Forces who from the begin-ning stood and fought shoulder to shoul-der with our Afghan brothers to rid Af-ghanistan of the Tal-iban and Al Qaida,” said Cleveland.

Haas commanded the Combined Forces Special Operations Component Com-mand – Afghanistan for a year and a for-

mer commander of the 3rd Special Forces Group (Airborne) at Fort Bragg, N.C.

“I have watched the Regiment with enor-mous pride over the past 25 months, force multiplying American power across the globe, in nations that need our assistance,”

Haas takes command

Staff Sgt. ramon m marrero | U.S. Army

The 82nd Airborne Division Band (from left), members of the 1st Special Forces Group (Airborne), 3rd Special Forces Group (Airborne), 5th Special Forces Group (Airborne), 7th Special Forces Group (Airborne) , 10th Special Forces Group (Airborne), 19th Special Forces Group (Airborne) and 20th Special Forces Group (Airborne) stand in formation dur-ing the United States Army Special Forces Command Change of Command on Aug. 15 on Meadows Field, Fort Bragg, N.C.

above, members of the 7th Special Forces Group (Airborne) led by Col. Miguel D. Howe, the group’s deputy commander; and members of the 10th Special Forces Group (Airborne) led by Col. Edwin J. Deedrick, the group’s commander, stand at atten-tion in formation. at left, Maj. Gen. Edward M. Reeder sa-lutes the United States Army Special Forces Command. at far left, Members of the USASFC (A) participate as part of the Color Guard dur-ing the Change of Command ceremony.

Staff Sgt. ramon m marrero | U.S. ArmySee haaS Page 5

SpC. Steven Young | U.S. Army

Sgt. Maj. Randall Surles a member of the 7th Special Forces Group (Airborne) (7th SFG (A) ) shows equipment to students of Baker High School in Baker, Aug. 16. Surles visited the high school and showed the students tools and equipment that are used by members of 7th SFG (A).

SpC. Steven Young | U.S. Army

Sgt. Maj. Randall Surles a member of the 7th SFG (A) shows equipment to students of Baker High School in Baker, Aug. 16.

SpC. Steven Young | U.S. Army

Sgt. Maj. Randall Surles a member of the 7th SFG (A) shows equipment to students of Baker High School in Baker, Aug. 16.

Green Beret visits Baker school

Reeder assumes com-mand of Special Warfare Center and School

FORT BRAGG, N.C. (USASOC News Service) - One day after relinquishing command of the U.S. Army Special Forces Command (Airborne), Maj. Gen. Ed-ward M. Reeder, Jr. assumed command of the U.S. Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School in an outdoor ceremony Aug. 16 on Fort Bragg, N.C.

Reeder has led U.S. Army special-operations Soldiers as commander of USASFC(A) at Fort Bragg and the Combined Forces Special Operations Com-mand in Afghanistan. In those assignments, he said he couldn’t have been more satisfied with the quality of the Soldiers selected, trained and educated by SWCS for his operational units.

With SWCS now under his leadership, that qual-ity will not be compromised, Reeder pledged to the Spe-

cial Forces, Civil Affairs and Military Information Support Operations commanders at-tending the ceremony.

“Army special-operations forces are asked to work deep in enemy territories, in small numbers, without overwhelming firepower, under the most difficult of conditions,” Reeder said. “The weapons they use are their imaginations, guts and

extensive experience.”“That education starts

right here at the U.S. Army Special Operations Center of Excellence,” Reeder said, referencing a recent desig-nation granted to SWCS by the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command.

SWCS, the arm of the U.S. Army Special Operations Command responsible for qualification, language and advanced training courses as well as special-operations doctrine and management, maintains its headquar-ters and many classroom courses at Fort Bragg, with field training units at Camp Mackall in Hoffman, N.C. and various advanced-skill courses across the country, such as combat diver train-ing in Key West. and military free fall training in Yuma, Ariz.

The command’s outgo-ing leader, Maj. Gen. Ben-net S. Sacolick, introduced Reeder as a brother, a men-tor and the finest officer he’d

ever known. Sacolick, who spent two years command-ing SWCS and served as its deputy commanding gen-eral before that, will report to the U.S. Special Opera-tions Command in Tampa, Fla. to serve as its director of force management and development.

“We’re a great country because we’re a smart coun-try,” Sacolick said during the ceremony. “We have, indis-putably, the finest universi-ties on our planet, because our country places great value in our collective intel-lects. Why should our mili-tary be any different?”

“For our force to succeed, we must produce special operators who are highly trained in warrior skills, but more importantly properly educated,” Sacolick said. Under his command, SWCS officially established the Special Warfare Education Group (Airborne) to empha-

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Reeder assumes command of Special Warfare Center and School

u.S. armY

Maj. Gen. Edward M. Reeder, Jr. accepts the U.S. Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School colors from Lt. Gen. Charles T. Cleveland.

haaS FroM Page 3said Reeder. “No one does what you do, no one can do what you do, and no one rep-licates your understanding of the application of Special Warfare better than the men who stand in the ranks of this magnificent formation.”

“No officer is better pre-pared to take the reins from Ed than Chris,” said Cleve-land. “He is a warrior, leader, and man of courage and conviction.”

“Lt. Gen. Cleveland it is a privilege to serve under your command,” said Haas. “And to know that this regiment

has a prominent role in your vision for the future of an Ar-my Special Operations.”

Reeder will be taking command of the United States Army John F. Ken-nedy Special Warfare Center and School.

“Ed will take about 23 hours to rest up before he takes the colors of the U.S. Army JFK Special Warfare Center and School,” said Cleveland. “I am very glad that Ed is staying on the Team.”

“We face an uncertain fu-ture in Afghanistan, uncertain

requirements in the remain-der of the world, and uncer-tain circumstances in which we will fight the threats to our nations,” said Cleveland. “And that’s just the way we like it – this force was built to wade in to uncertainty. What we can be certain of is, that these men will not fail.”

“Thank you all again for coming out and sharing this celebration with us today,” said Reeder. ”God bless each and every one of you, God bless this Regiment we serve and God bless this wonderful nation.”

size education as a founda-tion to special-operations Soldiers’ career-long devel-opment. The group’s many programs include an asso-ciate’s degree program for special-operations qualifica-tion course students and a master’s degree partnership with the National Defense

University for special-opera-tions officers and NCOs.

“We educate our special operators to work with indig-enous people in a culturally attuned manner that allows us to bridge language barri-ers, open lines of communi-cation and connect with key political and military leaders

in a way that is both imme-diate and lasting,” Sacolick said. “When we invest in the minds of our Soldiers, we’re rewarded with an ever-in-creasing return. Our mis-sion at [SWCS] is to build a well-educated, character-based special operator.”

Lt. Gen. Charles T. Cleve-

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Page 6 | THE RED 7 | Friday, August 24, 2012 Friday, August 24, 2012 | THE RED 7 | Page 7

Members of Congress are more interested in win-ning re-election in Novem-ber than in removing before then the budget “sequestra-tion” knife that threatens to lop 10 percent off 2,500 defense programs.

That was the signal lawmakers sent at a House Armed Services Committee hearing this month in which the White House budget director and the deputy defense secretary explained how sequestration would shred defense budgets and degrade force readiness if Congress fails to block the process by negotiating a $1.2 trillion debt-reduction deal.

But the higher priority for committee members, suggested its chairman, is staying in office. That helped to explain the disdain for bipartisanship shown at the hearing, ostensibly called to gather facts on the ap-proaching crisis.

The most telling moment came after Rep. Robert An-drews, D-N.J., listed some of the tough budget cuts he

would sup-port to stop sequestra-tion, includ-ing delaying eligibility for Medicare and Social Securi-ty for young-er workers, and paring

federal funds for beach ero-sion, if colleagues agreed to cut their favored programs for their states.

Rep. Howard “Buck” McKeon, R-Calif., the committee chairman, told Andrews he applauded his willingness to float such con-troversial ideas.

“However, many (col-leagues) who are facing elec-tion in November, who are in tighter races, are not go-ing to step up and do that,” McKeon said.

“If the chairman would yield,” interrupted Andrews for some dry wit. “My race may have just gotten a lot tighter.”

As the laughter died away, Andrews added with

seriousness: “We have been pushing things out to the future around here for about 40 years. We keep having commissions and delays, and that’s what’s got us into this problem. I think the time is (here) for us to make some decisions.”

McKeon agreed. But Republican colleagues had another priority — pinning blame for sequestration on President Obama because he signed the Budget Con-trol Act.

Jeffrey Zients, acting director of the Office of Man-agement and Budget, reject-ed all such charges, telling House Republicans they cre-ated the debt ceiling crisis, voted with Democrats to ac-cept sequestration as an en-forcing mechanism to get a “balanced” budget deal, and now refuse the “balance” by opposing tax increases of any kind, including on the richest Americans.

“There are five months remaining for Congress to act,” Zients told Rep. J. Ran-dy Forbes, R-Va., during in a long and heated exchange. “What is holding us up right now is the Republican refus-al to have the top 2 percent pay their fair share.”

The Budget Control Act directed a trillion-dollar cut in federal spending over 10 years, including $487 billion from defense. It also estab-lished a “super committee” of Senate and House mem-bers with power to design and push to enactment another $1.5 trillion in deficit reduction initiatives.

The law also directed that, if no deal came from the super committee by last Christmas (and none did) then an automatic across-the-board cut, called se-questration, would fall on all “non-exempt” federal pro-grams, starting Jan. 2, 2013. The Defense Department’s

Election-year politics

Tom Philpott

share would another $500 billion, or $55 billion a year through year 2021.

Congress can still reach a deal and stop sequestra-tion. If it doesn’t, Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter warned it will intro-duce “senseless chaos into the management of every single one of more than 2,500 defense investment pro-grams.” Billions of taxpayer dollars will be wasted and thousands of defense indus-try jobs lost, he said.

A day before the Aug. 1 hearing, Obama announced that he would exercise his prerogative under the bud-get law to exempt military personnel accounts from sequestration for at least next year. He did so to signal support for troops, Carter said, but also because a sudden 10-percent cut in military personnel accounts would be impractical to implement quickly, given that military members can’t be furloughed like civilian employees.

Such a large swift cut would force very dramatic actions. For example, the services would have to stop all recruiting or stop all per-manent change-of-station orders, thus freezing the force in place.

The easier course was to exempt military per-sonnel accounts for now, Carter said. That means all other areas of defense spending would take budget hits larger than 10 percent if Congress fails to stop sequestration.

Some military benefits and services still would be impacted, Carter said. Wartime operating budgets would be protected but at the cost of taking deeper cuts than 10 percent to base operations and maintenance accounts, which would affect training, readiness and base support services.

Funds for civilian em-ployees would be cut, forcing release of temporary em-ployees and at least a partial hiring freeze.

“We might also have to impose unpaid furloughs on our civilian personnel,” Carter said. “You can imag-ine the effect on the output, not to mention the morale of these defense employees.”

Military families and re-tirees would feel the cuts to base support services, facil-ity repairs and maintenance of family housing.

“Commissary hours might have to be reduced. Funds for the defense health program, which provides health care for retirees and military dependents, would be sequestered, resulting in delays of payments to service providers and poten-tially some denial of medical services,” he said.

Committee members heard the details and all a-greed sequestration must be avoided. Congress is now in recess until mid-September.

“We have a responsibil-ity to fix this,” McKeon said. “I’m just not very optimistic at how we’re going to go about that.”

PolITIcS FroM Page 6

See PolITIcS Page 7

land, commanding general of the U.S. Army Special Opera-tions Command, handed the SWCS colors from Sacolick to Reeder during the cere-mony. In his official remarks, Cleveland said Reeder and his wife, Adrian, were the perfect command team to pick up at SWCS where the Sacolicks left off.

“[Reeder’s] currency in combat as well as his expe-rience in special warfare campaigning, the blending of [military information sup-port operations] and civil affairs capabilities, building surrogate operations, intel-ligence activities, will be es-pecially helpful in his work to create the special war-fare operator of tomorrow,” Cleveland said. “This unique and vital institution holds the three keys to our future suc-cess: assign the right person into our regiments, rigorous training of those selected, and the proper education of our leaders so that they

may excel in the complex and uncertain battlefields of the future.”

Cleveland also noted that he, Reeder and Sacol-ick shared a common background.

“I know of no other SW-CS or USASFC(A) change

of command where all three officers served together as captains in the same battal-ion at the same time,” Cleve-land said. “Third Battalion, 7th Special Forces Group (Airborne) in the mid-1980s appears to have been a good place to grow up.”

reeDer FroM Page 5

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Page 8 | THE RED 7 | Friday, August 24, 2012

from staff reports

Freedom run set for Sept. 9

Heritage Cycle and Em-erald Coast Harley Owners Group Chapter #0672 are sponsoring the 11th An-nual Freedom Poker Run Sept. 9. Supporting sponsor is Resort Quest. The event begins and ends at Heri-tage Cycle’s in Fort Walton Beach. Registration starts at 8:30 a.m. with departure at 9:30 a.m. The last bike in no later than 2:30 p.m. Door prizes, music, food, 50/50 drawing and award for the largest participat-ing club. Mid point of run will be at the Pensacola Vietnam Veterans Wall for a remembrance prayer at 11:30. Entry is $10 per rider/ passenger. All proceeds will be donated to The Special Operations Warrior Foun-dation to benefit education of the children of our fallen military heroes. For infor-mation, call Bill Branch at 850-598-0511 or Heritage Cycles at 850-862-4706.

Fisher house golf Tournament, gala

Each year Fisher House of the Emerald Coast serves nearly 400 guests. The mission of the Fisher House is to provide a safe, comfortable lodging facility for families in need. Join L-3 Crestview Aerospace in sponsorship of the upcom-ing Fairways for the Fisher House Golf Tournament and Gala. Sponsorships are still available, ranging from $50 to $15,000. Any donation amount is welcome.

The golf tournament will take place Sept. 13, 1:30 p.m., shotgun start at Kelly Plan-tation. The gala event will take place Sept. 14, 6 p.m.-9 p.m. at Eglin AFB Bay View Club with dinner, entertain-ment, and silent auction.

Several sponsorship levels are available. Gala tickets may be purchased in ad-vance for $50. Proceeds from the event will benefit the Fisher House of the Emerald Coast. For more information, visit www.fish-erhouseemeraldcoast.org or call (850) 259-4956.

hops for the houseJoin Carrabba’s Italian

Grill in Sandestin as they support the Fisher House of the Emerald Coast. A limited number of tickets are available for ‘Hops for the House’, a beer tasting and dinner at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 4. Tickets are a $45 donation and in-clude beer tasting, appe-tizer and dinner, consisting of entrée, side and salad. All proceeds benefit local military families and stay in the local community.

The Fisher House of the Emerald Coast provides a home for military families when a member of their family is undergoing medi-cal treatment at a local facil-ity. This service is provided

free of charge to families. For information on the Fish-er House, including how you can support these families, contact Kim Henderson at 259-4956 or Kim@Fisher-HouseEmeraldCoast.org.

Boating Safety class

U.S. Coast Guard Auxil-iary Boating Safety Class is Aug. 25 at the Coast Guard Station Destin, 2000 Miracle Strip Pkwy, Destin Florida 32541. Registration begins at 8:15 a.m. Class runs 8:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. Pre-regis-tration is required by Aug. 22. The cost is $35 which includes the course, book, exam, FWC Safe Boating ID Card, lunch, line handling & knots demo, tour of the sta-tion and safety whistle. To register, contact John Ryan, Public Education Officer, at 623-980-8782 or ryanjohnj@hotmail.com.

This course also satis-fies requirements to rent boats from local marinas and military base outdoor recreation centers.

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