The United States Marine Corps is tasked by Department of Defense directive to "conduct complex expeditionary operations in the urban littorals and other challenging environments" and "conduct amphibious operations, including engagement, crisis response, and power projection operations to assure access." Before 2006 (i.e., the formation of the Marine Corps Special Operations Command (MARSOC)), the Marine Corps was the only branch of the Armed Forces that did not have any of its special warfare elements participating in the United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM), due to confining its special operations capabilities only for the purpose to the Fleet Marine Force.[1]
President Ronald Reagan approved the establishment of USSOCOM in April 1987; a month later the other military branches reassigned their own respective special operations forces (SOF) units to the USSOCOM Headquarters in Tampa, Florida at MacDill Air Force Base. However, as the Marine Corps was reluctant to release control of Marine units, its specialized assets assigned to the FMF's Marine Air-Ground Task Forces remained separate and have evolved to fulfill a separate niche of tasks, specific and limited in scope, in direct support of a Marine Expeditionary Unit's commander.
This evolution occurred due to the direction of Commandant of the Marine Corps General Alfred M. Gray, who announced on 5 February 1988, that in response to the current and projected realities of the world, they were changing the designations of the Marine Air-Ground Task Forces that constitute its fighting formations. The word "amphibious" was replaced by "expeditionary". The new term signified that the Marine Corps would not be limited to amphibious operations but rather would be capable of a wide spectrum of operations in littoral areas around the world, in conventional and unconventional warfare.[2] Since then, the Marine Corps transitioned has back to amphibious operations.
The Chemical Biological Incident Response Force is a rapid response force that is capable of being deployed to a combatant commander or United States Department of State legations and installations, and, when directed by the National Command Authority, anywhere in the world that is affected by chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, or high-yield explosive (CBRNE) incidents. The force is completely self-contained and self-sufficient, and may also provide coordinating initial relief efforts, security, detection, identification, expert medical advice, and limited decontamination of personnel and equipment.
This response force will respond to CBRNE incidents affecting to assist local civilian and military agencies in order to assist the on-scene commander in providing initial post incident consequence management. CBIRF consists of specially trained personnel and specialized equipment suited for operations in a wide range of contingencies. Through search and extraction, decontamination, and medical stabilization, CBIRF capabilities are intended to minimize the effects of a CBRNE incident.
The United States Marine Corps' Maritime Special Purpose Force (MSPF), are specialized sub-units of the Marine Expeditionary Units. They are deployed to give commanders low profile, two-platoon surgical emplacement in accessible littoral regions. The MSPF provides the MEU with rapid direct action capabilities, augmenting or replacing the unavailable Fleet Marine Force's recon platoons. It enables the Marine Corps's only deep recon unit, Force Recon, to continue providing FMF-level intelligence without delay. However, MSPFs can not operate independently of their parent MEU: they rely solely on the MEU for logistics, intelligence, communications, transportation, and fire support.
Special Reaction Teams
The Provost Marshal's Special Reaction Teams (SRT) are specialized military policemen that are trained in all aspects of special weapons and tactics. They have the ability to handle special threat situations surpassing normal law enforcement capabilities, such as: isolating a crisis scene, providing proficient marksmanship support, tactically responding from an assembly area to the scene, effecting an entry, and employing clearing techniques.
Fleet Anti-terrorism Security Teams (FAST) are independent, worldwide deployable platoons of specially trained Marines that are prepared to defend against terrorist threats to American interests on extremely short notice. Providing limited duration expeditionary site security to vital national assets, these platoons work directly for the Fleet Admiral of 5th, 6th, and 7th Fleets, and receive tasking via the Department of State or the military Geographic Combatant Commander of the respective region. These platoons are manned by selected infantrymen, commanded by a Captain, and in addition to standard USMC infantry tasks, they are proficient in: precision weapons employment, convoy security, embarked and airfield security, low profile operations, population control measures and riot disbursal, CBRN defense, non-lethal weapons employment, embarkation and self-supporting logistics, fast roping, small arms marksmanship, machine guns and machine gun gunnery, COC operations, satellite communications, and inter-operability with host nation forces, local guard forces, joint, interagency, and allied partners. Their motto is "Deter, Detect, Defend" and they are nicknamed "Gunslingers". They are employed frequently in military operations other than war (MOOTW).
Recapture Tactics Teams
The Recapture Tactics Team or RTT specializes In-Extremis Hostage Rescue (IEHR) and Nuclear Counter-Proliferation (NCP). RTT units are attached to Nuclear Weapon Stations aboard US naval installations and do not deploy. Where as FAST Platoons deploy to areas in need of naval security operations, RTT has no need to deploy because they are already positioned in the appropriate strategic locations where they are most needed.
The Marine Corps Security Forces Regiment's Close Quarters Battle Teams also go to various installations as Mobile Training Teams to teach CQB course to units such as but are not limited to: military police special reaction teams, other military branches (both American and allied), and law enforcement organizations (federal, state, county, local and international/foreign).
Later, they were subsequently renamed the "Civil Action Platoons". The foreign relations between the two allied forces confided the villagers of in-sourcing information. It became one of the major sources of reliable intelligence from allies throughout the war.
The MCSOCOM Detachment One (MarDet 1) was a pilot program to assess the value of Marine special operations forces permanently detached to the United States Special Operations Command. It was commanded by Col. Robert J. Coates, former commanding officer of 1st Force Reconnaissance Company along with Team leader Lt. Lawrence R. Gentile 1st Forecon Jump Master. Det 1 was activated on 19 June 2003 and had its headquarters at Camp Del Mar Boat Basin. It was disbanded in 2006 and succeeded by the permanent Marine Forces Special Operations Command, which is to be a 2700-person command.
The Marine Corps Test Unit (MCTU #1) was a battalion-sized unit that was designed to be outside the political and command boundaries of the Fleet Marine Force to test and evaluate innovative methods in maneuvering ground forces that were prone to operating in areas subject to nuclear attacks. They initially developed the techniques for the heliborne assaults that are used in the Army and Navy today.
The Test Unit's infantry battalion participated in Desert Rock IV during shot 'Bee'. The reconnaissance platoon in MCTU #1 revolutionized the modern methods of parachute insertions and extractions. The Recon Platoon subsequently became the beginning of Force Reconnaissance.
The Paramarines (also known as Marine paratroopers) were specialized units that were trained to parachute into combat. The first Paramarines were trained in October 1940. The Parachute battalions have jumped into hostile territory. They lacked heavy mortar and machine gun support due to the amount of equipment they were able to carry into combat in addition to having limited manpower. They were lightly equipped for many of the missions in the Pacific campaigns during World War II.
By 1944, the Parachute Battalions was disbanded, becoming another special operations unit deactivated under the Fleet Marine Force just like the Marine Raiders.
Raider battalions
Insignia of Edson's Raiders, the 1st Raider Battalion, 1942–1944
The Marine Raiders were elite units established in 1942 by the Marine Corps during World War II to conduct amphibious, light-infantry raiding missions, particularly in landing in rubber boats and operating behind the lines. "Edson's Raiders of 1st Marine Raiders Battalion and "Carlson's" Raiders of 2nd Marine Raiders Battalion are said to be the first United States Special Operations Forces to form and see combat.[4]
Many modern raiding methods in the Marine Corps were derived and adopted by both Carlson's and Edson's Raiders, which subsequently the division-level recon scouts continued its long use after they were disbanded in 1944. It became known as direct action (DA) mission of today. Most of the experienced Raiders, along with the Paramarines, soon filled the ranks of division recon companies.
The Anti-Terrorism Battalion was a specialized anti-terrorist task unit that possessed organic and supplemental capabilities in military intelligence and counter-intelligence, combat engineers, nuclear, biological and chemical (NBC) teams, and advanced riflemen. On short notice, they would have deployed in response to crises during terrorist attacks. They would have also supplemented other NBC agencies as human intelligence exploitation teams (HET).
Related Research Articles
A Marine expeditionary unit is the smallest air-ground task force (MAGTF) in the United States Fleet Marine Force. Each MEU is an expeditionary rapid reaction force ready to any crisis, whether it be disaster aid or a combat mission. Marine amphibious unit (MAU) was the name used until the late 1980s.
Force Reconnaissance (FORECON) is a United States Marine Corps special operations forces which supplies military intelligence to the command element of the Marine Air-Ground Task Force (MAGTF). Force Reconnaissance companies unlike USMC division reconnaissance report to the Marine expeditionary force (MEF) and provide direct action and deep reconnaissance during large-scale operations.
The United States Marine Corps Reconnaissance Battalions are the special operations reconnaissance assets of Marine Air-Ground Task Force that provide division-level ground and amphibious reconnaissance to the Ground Combat Element within the United States Marine Corps. Division reconnaissance teams are employed to observe and report on enemy activity and other information of military significance in close operations. The Military Occupational Specialty code for Reconnaissance Marine is 0321.
The Radio Reconnaissance Platoon is a specially trained Marine Corps Intelligence element of a United States Marine Corps Radio Battalion. A Radio Reconnaissance Team (RRT) was assigned as the tactical signals intelligence collection element for the Marine Corps Special Operations Command, Detachment One. Regular RRTs also participate in SOC operations during Marine Expeditionary Unit, or MEU(SOC), deployments.
In the United States Marine Corps, a Marine air–ground task force is the principal organization for all missions across the range of military operations. MAGTFs are a balanced air–ground, combined arms task organization of Marine Corps forces under a single commander that is structured to accomplish a specific mission. The MAGTF was formalized by the publishing of Marine Corps Order 3120.3 in December 1963 "The Marine Corps in the National Defense, MCDP 1-0". It stated:
1st Reconnaissance Battalion is a reconnaissance battalion in the United States Marine Corps. It is a stand-alone battalion with no parent regiment. Instead, it falls directly under the command of the 1st Marine Division. 1st Recon Bn is located at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton in San Diego, California.
The United States Marine Corps is organized within the Department of the Navy, which is led by the Secretary of the Navy (SECNAV). The most senior Marine commissioned officer is the Commandant of the Marine Corps, responsible for organizing, recruiting, training, and equipping the Marine Corps so that it is ready for operation under the command of the unified combatant commanders. The Marine Corps is organized into four principal subdivisions: Headquarters Marine Corps, the Operating Forces, the Supporting Establishment, and the Marine Forces Reserve.
The Observer Group was a joint-United States Army/Marine Corps unit that was the first in the United States and Fleet Marine Force to be organized and trained specifically for amphibious reconnaissance. The Observer Group experimented in the methodology and equipment for projecting reconnaissance from the sea before the establishment of the OSS Maritime Unit, the Underwater Demolition Teams, and before the Army Special Forces and Air Commandos. It was also the birth of naval amphibious intelligence.
A Special Amphibious Reconnaissance Corpsman (SARC) is a United States Navy hospital corpsman who provides MARSOC and other USSOCOM units advanced trauma management associated with combatant diving and parachute entry. Traditionally, they are attached to the Marine Corps Force Reconnaissance companies to help support the Command Element of the Marine Air-Ground Task Force in special reconnaissance missions.
A Maritime Special Purpose Force (MSPF) is a United States Marine Corps specialized sub-unit of a Marine expeditionary unit. A MSPF is deployed to give the commanders low profile, two-platoon surgical emplacement in the accessible littoral regions. The MSPF provides the enhanced operational capability and precision skills to complement, enable, and execute selected conventional, maritime special operations. They can also perform operations not resident in traditional amphibious raid companies.
The reconnaissance mission within the United States Marine Corps is divided into two distinct but complementary aspects; Marine Division Recon and Force Reconnaissance.
The United States Marine Corps Scout and Sniper companies and the Scouts (Tank) companies of the tank battalions were the first among the division's reconnaissance assets. They existed around the same exact moment when 1st and 2nd Marine Division were created. In 1941, each regiment had a scout and sniper platoon. They were assigned to the regimental Headquarters and Service Company. These companies were used in variety of tasks and, on occasion in severe combat, were used as "spare" rifle companies. When 6th Marine Division deactivated after the end of World War II, its recon assets also deactivated. Only the current Marine Division Recon Battalions that exist today hold history reference to the Scout and Sniper Companies.
1st Force Reconnaissance Company conducts deep reconnaissance and direct action raids in support of I Marine Expeditionary Force requirements across the range of military operations to include crisis response, expeditionary operations and major combat operations. 1st Force Recon Company was deactivated 26 October 2006 and the majority of the personnel were used to create 1st Marine Special Operations Battalion.
The Second Force Reconnaissance Company was the deep reconnaissance/direct action that was assigned to the Fleet Marine Force, Atlantic and its subordinate elements of the Marine Air-Ground Task Force.
The Reconnaissance Battalion or RECON is an elite reconnaissance battalion in the Royal Thai Marine Corps, falling under the Royal Thai Marine Division. A special forces unit, it is capable of conducting land, maritime, and air operations.
References
↑ Lieutenant Colonel Giles Kyser, USMC, History as to Why The Marine Corps Did Not Participate in the Standup of SOCOM; Information Paper, (Arlington: HQMC [Code POE-30]): Rev. 5 March 2003), 2.
↑ United States Marine Corps and Special Operations: A Nineteen Year Convergence Toward a Marine Component
↑ Ray W. Stubbe, AARUGHA!: History of Specialized and Force-level Reconnaissance Activities and Units of the United States Marine Corps, 1900–1974; Fleet Marine Reference Publication 12–21 (MCB Quantico, HQMC: Historical Division, 1981)
1 2 Bruce F. Meyers, Swift, Silent, and Deadly: Marine Amphibious Reconnaissance in the Pacific, 1942–1945, (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2004).
↑ Shinn, lstLt Leo B. (April 1945). "Amphibious Reconnaissance". Marine Corps Gazette. 29 (4).
↑ Rottman, Gordon; Michael Chappell (1998). U.S. Marine Corps 1941–45. Military Book Club edition. London: Osprey. ISBN1855324970. OCLC32925885.
↑ Gordon Rottman, Amphibious Operation's Intelligence, (Quantico, VA: 1948)
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