United States Special Operations Command Central

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The USSOCCENT emblem.^[1]

The United States Special Operations Command Central^[2] (USSOCCENT or SOCCENT) is a subordinate unified command of joint forces for the U.S. Central Command (USCENTCOM). It is responsible for planning special operations throughout the USCENTCOM area of responsibility (AOR), planning and conducting peacetime joint/combined special operations training exercises, and orchestrating command and control of peacetime and wartime special operations as directed.

The command is headquartered at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida. SOCCENT FWD, Combined Forces Special Operations Component Command (CFSOCC; pronounced SIFF-sock), is located at Camp As-Sayliyah in Qatar. The Command's motto is Molon labe^[3] (Greek for "Come and take them", supposedly said by King Leonidas I of Sparta before the Battle of Thermopylae).

According to the online edition of Special Operations Technology magazine,^[4] SOCCENT, operating with coalition partners as the CFSOCC, consists of two combined joint special operations task forces [CJSOTFs], one Combined Joint Special Operations Aviation Command (also referred to as 'Component'), which seems to be at Balad Air Base,^[5] one joint psychological operations task force, one Naval Special Warfare Unit and three Special Operations command and control elements [SOCCEs]. The two CJSOTFs are CJSOTF-Arabian Peninsula, which, among other activities, seems to oversee Task Force 77, and CJSOTF Afghanistan, whose headquarters has been provided in rotation by a number of Army Special Forces Groups, including the 3rd and the 19th.

[edit] Popular Culture

SOCCENT FWD base in Qatar was depicted in the July 2007 live-action movie "Transformers"; however, the actual filming was done at Holloman Air Force Base in Alamogordo, New Mexico. In the film, the base is attacked and obliterated by Decepticon Blackout who takes the guise of an MH-53M Pave Low IV in order to sneak in and steal information from the US Defense Network. Very few survivors escape, who are hunted by Blackout's partner, Scorponok.