I had no idea that in reporting to US Central Command I would end up with its special operations component. I did know that I was reporting in to the base some months early and that they would find a job for me in the interim, but there I was sitting across the desk from Colonel Larry Duggan, the SOCCENT Commander. He explained to me that he had a very small peacetime headquarters of about 29 people, but that he was also an operational headquarters in that SOCCENT conducted exercises in part the CENTCOM AOR.

As I sat across the desk from Larry we made some introductory small talk, and, as part of that, he asked me something like, "Are you on jump status?" Evidently almost everyone - especially Army folks and Navy SEALs - in SOCCENT was paratrooper qualified and received "jump pay" so long as they made a jump every three months. He was about to retain this incentive pay or get back on it. Nice. Only I had to reply that my only special qualification was in earning the Air Assault Badge (and there is no incentive pay for this qualification). Thus I would be the only "Leg" on his organization. Suffice it to say that Larry moved on to another topic about as quickly as possible, though I was pretty sure that I could read his mind, and it was probably something like, "What have I got myself into?"

Larry soon said he was hard-pressed to do the day-to-day staff work as a major subordinate command of CENTCOM and still run these exercises. He needed someone to help him, and he thought I could be of help by putting together the next exercise, that just happened to be the largest peacetime exercise ever conducted by the command. So there I sat, a conventional engineer officer with no special operations experience, being asked to prepare and execute the largest SOCCENT exercise ever. I looked at Larry. Larry looked at me. I said, "Are you sure you want to do this?' He replied, "Yes, you have the credentials." (Much later he admitted that, at the time, he wasn't sure at all.)

Having received my guidance from the commander, my next visit was to the J-3, Vern Leyde. Planning and conducting exercises were his responsibility and I would be operating on his turf. If this plan wasn't agreeable to the J-3 then it was dead to begin with. Vern said he as fine with the concept, and I believe he was. In turn, I assured him that everything I did would be coordinated first through him and that my task was to make his exercise the best ever. {Vern Leyde was a superb individual. he knew his special ops "stuff" and was very respected by his people and all others who knew him. And throughout my time with SOCCENT he was very supportive of me.)

So there I was, among Army Green Berets and Rangers, Navy Seals, and Air Force Air Commandos trying to remember just what made up an A-Team, and preparing for an exercise an ocean away. Larry assigned me an Army Green Beret major from his J-3 section as my assistant. Many times during the next few months Tony would say to me, "Colonel, are you sure you want to do that?" [Translation: Hey mister engineer with no special operations background I think you are about to do something stupid.] Often I would ask Tony a similar question. [Translation: Hey snake eater who has landed on his head one too many times, are you sure you want to do that?] In case you haven't figured it out by now, Tony and I got along great, and during the next months I grew tremendously impressed with Larry Duggan and the people at SOCCENT, and with special operation capabilities in general.

And let's just say that I was pretty much welcomed into the SOCCENT Headquarters, and that those who wondered what a leg engineer was doing there did a pretty good job of keeping their feelings to themselves. There was just one incident that I recall, and I want to be sure that any readers of this page understand that this was very, very minor, and I only add it because it was somewhat humorous. The timing had to be around two months into the assignment, maybe a bit more. As I recall, we were having a staff meeting to pull together all the little details necessary to make such a large exercise successful. There were about six people in attendance. It was my meeting; Larry was not present. At any rate, there was a lieutenant colonel there – his branch of service is not relevant - and he must made a type of remark that was either a bit disparaging or perhaps a bit disrespectful. At any rate, looking back, I'm pretty sure (1) I was not overly sensitive and that (2) this man had crossed the line. So let's say that his words and or demeanor brought out COLONEL BRADEN, and over a period of something like two minutes this officer got the full brunt of my unhappiness over his words and actions to include clear directions about how he would talk to me. About a day or so later I saw Larry and he said something like, "I hear you kind of ripped up one of my officers." I replied simply that, yes, we had a discussion. I need to also add that in my time with SOCCENT I gained the highest admiration and respect for Special Operations personnel, and this incident was a complete opposite of my many, many encounters and interactions with SOF servicemen.

While I was learning about special operations, the Braden family was trying to get located in Tampa. We had arrived in November, not a great time for house-hunting. We stayed at the Guest Quarters at MacDill Air Force Base while looking for a home in the Brandon-Valrico area east of the base. This would ultimately make for a long drive in, but we were told that many people stationed at MacDill lived in the area because the schools were better. Some days Bonnie would make three trips out and back to Brandon, one to get Sandra in school, one for house-hunting, and one to pick Sandra up after soccer practice. Exhausting. We found a home on the Buckhorn golf course that was mostly done, but the buyer had been disqualified or otherwise backed out. The advantage was that it was early enough in the construction to get a few modifications made at a reasonable rate, but we were still in Guest Quarters until early January. The home was on the 15th hole of the course, and the view across the back fairways was excellent. We bought the home without a pool, and were left to find a pool company to add one. Swimming pools are a story in themselves, but we ended up with a nice one. The story of how we ended up with this home and some pictures of it are here. Robert and Anne went to Buckhorn Elementary School where Bonnie volunteered almost daily; Sandra attended Bloomingdale High School.

Back to the exercise: Let's just say that it off superbly, with many compliments all around, and I got to see some places in the world that I never dreamed visiting. And I have a very warm spot in my heart for all special operations people.

Outside the exercise - its planning and execution - one nice thing that I recall was Larry bringing me in on some of the staff actions that SOCCENT was working in responding to CENTCOM. The thing I brought to the table was my conventional background, and since the staff actions were all going back to "conventional" officers at CENTCOM, it didn't hurt to get my perspective on things before they went forward.