John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School - Overview

Overview

The U.S. Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School (SWCS) at Fort Bragg, N.C. manages and resources training, education and growth for Soldiers in the Army’s special-operations branches.

Special operations forces (SOF) training is grounded in the SOF Truths:

• Humans are more important than hardware.
• Quality is better than quantity.
• Special-operations forces cannot be mass produced.
• Competent special-operations forces cannot be created after emergencies occur.
• Most special operations require non-SOF support

On any given day, approximately 3,100 students are enrolled in SWCS training programs. Courses range from entry-level training to advanced war fighting skills for seasoned officers and NCOs. Furthermore, SWCS leads efforts to professionalize the Army’s entire special-operations force through the Special Forces Warrant Officer Institute and the David K. Thuma Noncommissioned Officer Academy. While most courses are conducted at Fort Bragg, SWCS maintains facilities, and relationships with outside institutions, across the country.

In all, SWCS offers 41 unique courses, including assessment & selection and qualification courses for Civil Affairs, Military Information Support Operations, Special Forces and Cultural Support. Advanced skills courses include combat diver training in Key West, Florida, sniper training at Fort Bragg and military freefall training in Yuma, Arizona.

Regional studies and education constitutes Phase II of the three branches' qualification courses. This phase lasts 18 to 24 weeks depending on the language category (CAT) assigned them. Students who are assigned to CAT I or II languages such as Spanish, French and Indonesian spend 18 weeks of study with the end goal being to achieve a score of 2 on the Interagency Language Roundtable Scale (ILR). Students spend 24 weeks studying CAT III or IV languages such as Arabic, Chinese Mandarin, Tagalog, Persian Farsi, Korean, Thai, Pashto and Urdu with the end goal being to achieve an ILR score of III or IV. Students of all languages must pass an Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI) before moving to the next phase of their qualification course. SWCS offers intermediate and advanced language classes where students are expected to develop advanced skills in the language such as reading and listening. To achieve that, they take intensive courses sometimes administered by language detachments from the Defense Language Institute (DLI) with the goal of achieving a score of 2 to 3 in the Defense Language Proficiency Test (DLPT).

As the gateway to the special-operations community, SWCS selects only the top candidates to even attempt its training. The Army’s special-operations unit commanders rely on the SWCS directorates to select the strongest candidates and give them the tools to succeed on the battlefield. Using lessons learned from these battlefields, curriculum and doctrine can be amended in a matter of weeks when gaps in training are identified. Together, these directorates oversee administration and policy throughout the community, serving the operational units while allowing them to focus on their missions.