ASSOCIATION OF THE UNITED STATES ARMY

Retired Gen. James Lindsay, the first commander of U.S. Special Operations Command who also led the XVIII Airborne Corps and the 82nd Airborne Division and was a life member of the Association of the U.S. Army, died Aug. 5. He was 90.

“Gen. Lindsay was truly the heart and soul of what we are all about. His leadership impacted the fabric of our nation, and our generation owes him tremendously for his presence and mentorship,” Lt. Gen. Christopher Donahue, commander of the XVIII Airborne Corps and Fort Liberty, North Carolina, said in a statement.

The Army’s special operations forces need a closer look at how to operate as they prepare for an increasingly complex world, the commander of Army Special Operations Command said.

“We must understand our critical vulnerabilities and challenge all assumptions, processes and everything that’s been developed for the counterterrorism fight,” Lt. Gen. Jonathan Braga said July 27.

A new Association of the U.S. Army event focused on the Army’s warfighters will feature presentations from the service’s top leaders and the new commanding general of Army Forces Command.

The inaugural AUSA Warfighter Summit and Exposition will take place July 27–28 at the Crown Complex near Fort Bragg, North Carolina. The two-day, in-person summit is focused on the warfighter, and its theme is “America’s Response Force: Ready Today, Ready Tomorrow.”

A sweeping review of special operations troops, ordered after a series of high-profile cases of misconduct, found the force does not have a “systemic ethics problem,” the commander of U.S. Special Operations Command said.

However, almost two decades of sustained combat and not enough emphasis on leader and professional development have “impacted our culture in some troublesome ways,” Army Gen. Richard Clarke wrote in a Jan. 28 letter to the force.

The U.S. is a partner of choice when it comes to training and advising allies and partners in the Indo-Pacific region, an Army special operations leader said.

“We’re the partner of choice because the U.S. has extensive combat experience,” said Col. Owen Ray, commander of the 1st Special Forces Group.

The 30-year-old U.S. Special Operations Command faces special problems dealing with unpredictable budgets, its commander told Congress.

Army Gen. Raymond A. Thomas III, the 11th commander of the command based at MacDill Air Force Base, Fla., said special operations forces “are more relevant than ever to the current and enduring threats facing our nation. We have been at the forefront of national security operations for the past three decades, to include continuous combat over the past 15½ years.”

The U.S. Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School would be good model to use in building a larger “intellectual hub” for spreading the word about special operations technology and tactics, a recent report says.