WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
- Pete Hegseth renamed the Pentagon’s special operations civilian leadership office after the World War II era Office of Strategic Services.
- The proposal would add 75 civilians, 25 service members, and $45 million to strengthen special operations oversight and support.
- Hegseth can implement several changes, but permanently elevating and renaming the office requires congressional approval.
- The Government Accountability Office previously found that staffing shortages, inadequate resources, and bureaucratic confusion hindered SO/LIC’s oversight of SOCOM.
The Office of Strategic Services could live again, at least in name, through a major reorganization of the Pentagon’s civilian leadership for special operations. War Secretary Pete Hegseth outlined the proposed revival in a memo dated Nov. 2 and publicly released on Nov. 12.
Hegseth renamed the Assistant Secretary of War for Special Operations and Low-Intensity Conflict as the Assistant Secretary of War for the Office of Strategic Services. Making that change permanent would require congressional approval.
The plan would also move the assistant secretary higher in the leadership structure, continuing a decades long effort to place civilian oversight of special operations forces on equal footing with the secretaries of the Army, Navy, and Air Force.
Hegseth wants to add 75 civilians and 25 service members to the assistant secretary’s staff while increasing funding by $45 million. Commanders have said they are rejecting dozens of missions every month because their forces are stretched too thin.
“[R]esourcing for SOF remains behind current operational and force posture,” Hegseth wrote in the memo. “It is time for a bold, foundational change.”
During World War II, the OSS coordinated American intelligence work and special operations. Its personnel spied on Axis weapons programs, trained resistance groups fighting Nazi and Japanese troops, and scouted, sabotaged, or directly attacked enemy positions before conventional forces arrived.
The organization proved influential enough that the Central Intelligence Agency, Army Special Forces, better known as Green Berets, and Navy SEALs trace much of their inspiration and early membership to it. Bureaucratic conflict, primarily involving the Army and FBI, contributed to the OSS being disbanded in 1945.
The CIA was established in 1947, but special operations did not receive its own institutional home until 1987. That year, Congress created U.S. Special Operations Command and the office commonly known as SO/LIC.
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SOCOM, as a combatant command, handles real world operations. SO/LIC provides civilian oversight and serves as SOCOM’s advocate during strategic and budget deliberations.
The Government Accountability Office found that SO/LIC lacked enough staff and resources to provide adequate oversight. Layers of bureaucracy also separated the office from the Secretary of War, limiting its ability to advocate effectively.
Green Beret veterans Mark Mitchell and Doug Livermore addressed the problem in a 2020 essay for War on the Rocks. “At a time [after 9/11] when special operators were deployed around the world and bravely fighting the war on terror on multiple fronts, few Americans questioned the lack of effective civilian control and oversight,” they wrote.
“Since at least 2003, however, acquisition issues, proposed changes to headquarters structure, and poor communication with Congress have led to many questions about civilian oversight,” Mitchell and Livermore said.
In 2020, then Acting War Secretary Christopher Miller, himself a former Green Beret, announced that SO/LIC would report directly to him, as the service secretaries did. Miller said the change would “streamline information flow, enhance decision-making, and more adaptively and adeptly support” special operators.
Mitchell and Livermore praised that move, but it came shortly before a leadership change. Under President Joe Biden, then War Secretary Lloyd Austin preserved some of SO/LIC’s new authorities while reversing others.
By 2024, the Government Accountability Office reported broad confusion over SO/LIC’s authority. “The Secretariat has at times had limited input into how its hiring, office space, and IT needs are met because of confusion about [SO/LIC]’s administrative role, given [SO/LIC]s unique position within DoW,” GAO wrote.
Hegseth’s plan goes further than the changes pursued by Miller or Austin. He can transfer the 100 additional staff members and $45 million, treat the OSS chief on par with service secretaries, and direct the services to prioritize special operations support.
The most significant proposal still needs Congress. Hegseth wants to elevate the SO/LIC position from assistant secretary of war to under secretary of war, which would provide the office’s leader with greater authority and resources.
His memo called for legislative proposals that would present the idea to lawmakers. Until Congress acts, the Office of Strategic Services designation remains a secondary title for SO/LIC rather than a permanent change.
Congress has previously legislated stronger civilian oversight of SOCOM, and Miller’s 2020 move sought to fulfill a congressional requirement the Pentagon had delayed for years. Whether that support continues amid scrutiny of Hegseth and a Democratic controlled Congress in 2027 remains uncertain.
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