”With the arrival of a new year, part of a new command vision will soon take place in the U.S. Army Special Operations Command (USASOC) footprint. The U.S. Army Special Operations Command initiated a plan to reinvigorate the U.S. Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Museum”

Whenever a command issues a statement like that, most experienced people cringe because they know what follows isn’t going to be good news. And it wasn’t. The U.S. Army Special Operations Command (USASOC) is closing the Special Warfare Museum located at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. This latest maneuver by USASOC has touched a nerve within the Special Forces community. Actually it has plain pissed them off — and with good reason. 

The Special Warfare Museum was treasured by the SF community because it was the only place that featured the history of the Special Forces groups, Civil Affairs, Psychological Operations, and above all the O.S.S. where the SF lineage originated from. The tiny but packed museum was located on Ardennes Street, on Fort Bragg, smack in the middle of the SF area, and adjacent to the Green Beret statue, Bronze Bruce. 

The reason for the closure has been hazy, to say the least. First USASOC said it was for inventory. However, nothing had been done with the Special Warfare Museum or gift shop with input from either the Museum Association or the Special Forces Association. But that shouldn’t be a surprise: several years ago, without a peep, USASOC moved the statue of Bronze Bruce in the middle of the night to where it now stands.