Thousands of elite U.S. troops operate around in the world and largely in secret. To help manage these soldiers and their missions, the Pentagon has established a network of small command posts around the world.

But despite the existence of these units being public knowledge?—?which reveal in part how America fights wars in the 21st century?—?the U.S. military's top commando headquarters would prefer not to talk about them.

In September 2014, War Is Boring submitted a Freedom of Information Act request for any orders related to so-called "Special Operations Command (Forward)" entities. In February, we finally received an answer.

"It has been determined that the fact of the existence or non-existence of records concerning the matters relating to those set forth in your request is classified," James Boisselle, the Deputy Chief of Staff for U.S. Special Operations Command, wrote back.