The military’s secretive elite forces have a new leader in
the Pacific. On Thursday Navy Rear Adm. Jeromy Williams of U.S. Special Operations Command Pacific, also known as SOCPAC, passed the baton to Army Maj. Gen. Jeffrey
VanAntwerp.
“Under the capable hands and proven leadership of Maj. Gen. Jeff
VanAntwerp and Master Chief Joaquin Martinez, Special Operation Command-Pacific will continue to provide (Indo-Pacific Command) and the nation effective options to keep the peace and ensure a free and open Indo-Pacific,” Williams said in a media release.
VanAntwerp is a 1998 West Point graduate who served in the 25th Infantry Division in Iraq, leading soldiers during the Battle of Mosul. After serving his time as a company commander he returned to West Point and attended grad school at Columbia University.
In 2008 he moved into the world of elite special operations forces — or SOF as they are known to those in the military — deploying numerous times in support of counter-terrorism operations in various units.
Those deployments notably included a stint leading elite troops
operating in Northeast Syria as they worked with the Syrian Democratic Forces, a Kurdish-led but multiethnic collection of rebel groups and militias that banded together to fight ISIS militants. American forces supported the SDF as they pushed ISIS out of major population centers they controlled.
During that time American troops took fire from a group of fighters loyal to the government of Syrian dictator Bashar Al Assad that also had Russian Wagner Group mercenaries fighting with them.
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The group was ultimately annihilated when American forces called in air strikes after calling Russian commanders who insisted there weren’t any Russian forces in the area. By some estimates as many as 100 Russian fighters may have been killed in the battle. It was in some ways an omen of the increasingly complicated — and volatile — geopolitical environment American troops increasing see themselves operating in.
Since 2020, VanAntwerp — an avid surfer who looks the part — has been stationed in Hawaii. He returned to the 25th Infantry Division, where he served
as the unit’s deputy commander for operations at Schofield Barracks, and most recently was the operations officer for U.S. Army Pacific at Fort Shafter.
Now as he goes back to the SOF community VanAntwerp will be at Camp Smith, where he will oversee the work of elite troops in an area of operations that includes 51% of the globe and 60% of the world’s population. Troops operating under him will include elite Army Green Berets and Rangers, Navy SEALS, Marine Raiders and other units whose operations are often shrouded in secrecy.
His troops are responsible for sensitive missions, including assisting in evacuations of American citizens during times of crisis abroad, hostage rescue, counterterrorism and — perhaps most significantly — training for “irregular warfare” operations to disrupt enemy forces. SOF troops also have occasionally come out of the shadows to assist in search and rescue and disaster relief
operations when their skills are deemed useful.
Williams, the outgoing commander, is a seasoned Navy SEAL veteran who led SOCPAC as the Pentagon made moves to shift attention and resources to the
Pacific amid tensions with China. Special Operations Forces have been deployed continuously since the 9/11 terrorist attacks with counterterrorism operations in the Middle East and Africa still ongoing.
Even as leaders in Washington touted scaled-back troop deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan and insisted U.S. forces had shifted to supporting local forces to do the fighting, SOF troops were still in the field taking and returning fire. As recently as August, seven American troops were injured in Iraq during a raid in which they and Iraqi forces killed 15 members of the Islamic State militant group.
But in the Pacific, their main focus isn’t on the sorts of terrorist and militia groups they’ve spent the past 25 years fighting. Now they’re seriously preparing for the potential of facing down major military powers like China, Russia and North Korea. It would be their job to make their way behind the lines, disrupting enemy forces through covert operations and working closely with intelligence agencies and allied forces.
In August the Indo-Pacific Irregular Warfare Symposium, organized by the Global SOF Foundation, brought participants from 26 countries to Hilton Hawaiian Village’s Tapa Tower. The Global SOF Foundation has for the past decade held conferences around the globe, but this was its first focused on the Pacific.
During the conference, Williams stressed to the audience that as he saw it, his troops have been “working tirelessly every day in order to prevent conflict in the region, not provoke it” and that “war is not inevitable.” He warned that a major conflict in the Pacific would be catastrophic.
“The dangers of a conflict with China could see a crash of their GDP by up to 25%, while U.S. GDP could fall 10% — that could lead to a massive economic global crisis,” said Williams. “We’ve got nearly 200,000 American citizens between China and Taiwan, and hundreds of thousands of other partners and allies whose citizens are also there. So a noncombatant evacuation in the area would be cataclysmically more challenging and difficult than Afghanistan, Ukraine, Sudan all combined.”
As Williams left his post Thursday, he said that “SOCPAC has significantly increased special operations posture to build capacity with partners and increase readiness for crisis and conflict. The team has responded to tragedy and partners-in-need with speed, compassion, and excellence in execution. We are grateful for the joint, interagency and international teamwork over the past three years.”
