Military & Defense
Pentagon revives the WWII name “Office of Strategic Services” for the civilian leadership of US special operations
A November 2 memo from Secretary of War Pete Hegseth gives the civilian head of special operations the second title “Assistant Secretary of War for the Office of Strategic Services” and raises the post to the rank of service secretaries. Making it permanent needs Congress.
The Pentagon is reviving the name of the World War II Office of Strategic Services (OSS), giving it to the civilian leadership of US special operations. In a memorandum dated November 2, which the US Department of War made public on Thursday, November 12, Pete Hegseth gives the Assistant Secretary for Special Operations and Low-Intensity Conflict (ASW(SO/LIC)) the second title “Assistant Secretary of War for the Office of Strategic Services” (ASW(OSS)). The office that supports the post, the Special Operations Secretariat, will carry the name Office of Strategic Services as a second title. The change concerns the civilian office that oversees US Special Operations Command (USSOCOM).
“Special operations forces funding lags behind their current operational requirements and force posture,” Hegseth writes. “It is time for a bold, fundamental change.” The memo places the post on the same tier of the Order of Precedence (“Code 2”) as the Secretaries of the Army, Navy and Air Force and gives it a seat in all the top forums in which they take part, such as the Joint Requirements Oversight Council (JROC) and the Program Budget Review. Pentagon offices will need the office’s concurrence for budget actions that concern special forces.
Within 60 days the office gains 75 civilian positions, at least five of them senior, and 25 military billets from the Joint Staff. The Pentagon comptroller must secure at least $45 million a year from operations and maintenance funds for its operation. The memo also calls for increased investment in special forces modernisation, priority from the services for their needs and treatment of USSOCOM requests as “highest priority” in the 2028-2032 budget. USSOCOM commander Admiral Mitch Bradley told Congress in March that within a year the command had been unable to fulfil about 70 requests.
A law is needed
The full upgrade requires legislation. Hegseth ordered legislative proposals to be drafted so that the post becomes an Under Secretary and the OSS name is codified, just as the department asks Congress to legally enshrine the name “Department of War.” Until then, the legal name of the office remains the Special Operations Secretariat, as set by Title 10 of the US Code. The post is held by Derrick Anderson, a former Green Beret, confirmed by the Senate in December 2025.
The original OSS was founded by President Franklin Roosevelt in June 1942 under William Donovan and ran spy networks, organised sabotage and supported resistance movements in Europe, North Africa and East Asia. Harry Truman disbanded it on October 1, 1945. The CIA, the Green Berets and the Navy SEALs regard the OSS as their ancestor.
The move has critics. “Secretary Hegseth does not have the authority to make this change or to allocate this money. Congress should approve the change and appropriate the funds,” Cori Schake of the American Enterprise Institute told Breaking Defense, adding: “We are over-investing in special forces.” The legislative change will be decided in a Congress that Democrats will control from January, where Adam Smith has already promised intensive scrutiny of the Pentagon.
