The highest common accountable for U.S. particular operations forces vowed Tuesday to give attention to “eradicating” misconduct from his command.
At a Senate Armed Providers Committee listening to Tuesday, Sen. Ted Budd, R-N.C., requested Gen. Bryan Fenton, head of Particular Operations Command, to touch upon a “collection of regarding incidents” among the many particular operations group at Fort Bragg within the senator’s dwelling state, together with “suicides, murders, overdoses, drug trafficking.”
In response, Fenton stated that misconduct is “not conduct that’s welcome” in Particular Operations Command, or SOCOM.
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“One of these conduct, atypical to the 70,000-plus which are doing the correct factor each day — a majority are completely doing that — firstly disrespects that kind of labor that our SOCOM enterprise is thought for,” Fenton stated. “And the command sergeant main and I, initially, are very offended once we get experiences like that, and we’re intentionally, laser-like targeted on this. In actual fact, we speak about it as a corrosive. These are corrosives towards the belief and confidence that this committee, the secretary and positively the nation has in us. And we’re laser-focused on eradicating that from SOCOM enterprise.”
Fenton’s feedback come after U.S. Army Particular Operations Command revealed in January that no less than 13 troopers at Fort Bragg are below investigation for drug trafficking, although no arrests have been made.
Additionally in January, a pair of shootings, together with one which killed a soldier assigned to Fort Bragg, additionally rocked the particular operations group there.
In the meantime, statistics the Pentagon disclosed to Congress final month confirmed that 31 troopers on the base died of drug overdoses between 2017 and 2021, accounting for greater than 10% of the overall variety of overdose deaths reported by the navy.
An officer on the base additionally advised native media in 2021 that the set up had seen an “over 100% enhance” in drug-related crime over the course of that yr.
The current woes at Fort Bragg come after an inside evaluate carried out by SOCOM in 2019 discovered {that a} tradition of utmost give attention to mission accomplishment amongst particular operators usually allowed misconduct and unethical conduct to go unchecked.
At Tuesday’s listening to, Senate Armed Providers Committee Chairman Jack Reed, D-R.I., stated the current hassle makes “extra efforts to construct upon” the 2019 evaluate “appear vital.”
“A lot of high-profile misconduct instances have mirrored poorly on the particular operations group,” Reed stated in his opening assertion.
Responding to Budd later within the listening to, Fenton stated he is engaged on stamping out misconduct by emphasizing the necessity for management in stopping drug use and different “untoward, unlawful, not moral and never ethical conduct,” reinforcing present insurance policies and requirements towards such conduct, and holding individuals accountable for any wrongdoing.
Accountability “sends a really massive sign again to the enterprise about, this conduct is completely not welcome and never a part of the SOCOM enterprise,” he stated.
“You have received my dedication on this,” added Fenton, who beforehand led SOCOM’s Joint Particular Operations Command earlier than assuming his present function in August. “I have been in about six months. It has been a prime precedence due to what it doesn’t solely to the belief that this committee and others have within the SOCOM workforce, however to our total readiness.”
— Rebecca Kheel might be reached at rebecca.kheel@navy.com. Observe her on Twitter @reporterkheel.
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