Meet SOCSOUTH’s New Commander

Marine Brigadier General Peter D. Huntley, Commander of Special Operations South (SOCSOUTH) sat down with the News Leader for a wide-ranging interview.

Huntley who took command on July 6, 2022 is the first Marine to command SOCSOUTH.

BG Huntley’s military career began when he enlisted in the US Army and was assigned to the 1st Ranger Battalion. After completing his 3-year enlistment he attended Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia. After graduation he was commissioned through the US Marine Corps Platoon Leader’s Course in December of 1991.

We asked the General what caused him to want to serve, first in the Army then in the Marine Corps. He said, “My family has a military history, all my brothers and my father have been in service at one time or another. My older brothers where in the Army and my father was a Marine. Under the influence of one of my older brothers I joined the Army and volunteered for the Ranger Regiment.”

He continued, “That was a great start to a military career. I enjoyed it. That’s where I decided I wanted to have a military career.”

BG Huntley then told us that the influence of his father and one of the Marine instructors in the Navy ROTC program plus living in the “Navy town” of Norfolk swayed him toward the Marine Corps.

BG Huntley has served in a number of challenging assignments during his years of service and has numerous combat deployments.

Early in his career he was sent on an exchange assignment with the British Royal Marines where he served for two years as the Operations Officer of 45 Commando, a special operations battalion.

When asked how this and other multi-service and multi-national jobs have prepared him for the challenge of working with the militaries of the diverse nations and territories throughout South and Central America and the Caribbean he responded, “Those types of experiences kind of builds your kitbag of knowledge but also of experience that you can tap into.”

SOCSOUTH is operationally assigned to Southern Command (SOUTHCOM), one of several regional commands responsible for military operations in designate areas of the world. SOCSOUTH with its approximately 400 military, civilians, and contractors, plans and oversees special operations activities for SOUTHCOM.

We asked Huntley how his command accomplishes its mission in a region that stretches from south of Mexico to the tip of South America and includes tropical islands, jungles, and fridged mountains. He said, “We are lucky enough to have excellent partners in the various SOF (Special Operations Forces) components. Whether it’s the Army SOF, Navy SOF, Air Force SOF or Marine SOF and we partner with all of them to get the mission accomplished. They provide forces to us and the majority of responsibility for preparing those forces falls on those units.”

He used the Army’s 7th Special Forces Group as an example saying, “They do a huge amount of the work in this theater and they do a great job at it. They have generational relationships (with partner militaries) that go back before many of their folks were in the SOF community.”

He continued, “One of the essences of SOF is that you can get a lot done with a small footprint… We get the resources that we need… We allow SOUTHCOM to punch above its weight.”

We concluded the interview by asking General Huntley how he feels about being stationed in South Florida and Homestead.

He said, “Believe it or not I had never been further south than Orlando before this tour. It’s great and awesome. South Florida particularly South Miami Dade has its own culture. It’s a great mix of different folk from throughout the region and the United States.

Probably the most impressive thing is, you know I’ve been around the military for 34 years, the Marine Corps for thirty something years and this is the best Military-Civilian interface that I’ve ever delt with. The relationship we have with the Military Affairs Council has been terrific. They support us in a variety of ways. Probably, most importantly, some of the events and activities we do with the younger service members and with the families. I have not seen that level of support and interface anywhere else in my career. It makes you kind of fall in love with the area.”