Marines do it their own way

MSNBC ^ | 9/30/01 | Sue Lackey

[kattracks]

A different approach to special forces
A Marine awaits orders during urban war training exercises last week at Camp Pendleton, California.
By Sue Lackey MSNBC CONTRIBUTOR

Sept. 30 —  For the average Marine, it is both amusing and a bit galling to hear all the talk about “special forces” and their capabilities. For while the Army, Navy and Air Force have created Special Operations Commands with a unique structure, the Marine Corps has taken its basic forward deployed unit — the Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) — and trained every one in special operations tactics.

THE FAMED Delta Force is often celebrated as the nation’s most elite special operations team, but its position as a member of the the Army’s Joint Special Operations Command gives it a narrow focus restricted to counterterrorism and hostage rescue. In contrast, each MEU must be qualified in 18 separate mission areas, including counter terrorism. This broad focus in training and qualifications makes the Marine unit more versatile than any other service’s special operations forces.
       Gen. Alfred M. Gray, who served as Commandant of the Marine Corps in the early 1980s, helped create the Joint Special Operations Command. But while the command often requests Marines to flesh out its capability, the Corps is the only service which has refused to join the command at an organizational level. “It goes against the reason the Marine Corps was developed,” says a Marine officer who is a special operations specialist. “It would have forced the Corps to focus on one mission, when the nation needed an amphibious force for forcible entry, with much broader capabilities.”
       Under a recent reform of the system, traditional special operations forces forces are assigned to specific theater Commanders in Chief — for instance, the Commander in Chief, Europe or the Commander in Chief, Southern Command, which handles Latin America. East of these commands have units with specific specialties, and depend on that regional commander for support. MEU’s, however, an amphibious force that can be deployed at will to any theater. Their floating base of operations gives them the ability to sustain a mission longer than other special operations forces, which are traditionally used for short term insertions, or in the case of the Green Berets, specific insurgency training missions.
 

      The true strength of the MEUs lie in their ability to augment their forces with air and ground combat elements and combat service support. This means any given unit can call in tanks, amphibious assault vehicles, and fixed wing aircraft — all of which are part of standard MEU order of battle. Other special operations forces must rely on conventional service support when additional forces are needed.
       A perfect example of this versatility was in the 1983 Grenada invasion, where Army special forces were inserted to extract U.S. Embassy staff. The team was able to reach their target, but were then bottled up inside the embassy and unable to get out through enemy troops. The JSOC team then called for Marine support. An MEU which had been diverted to Grenada broke through with tanks and armored vehicles to extract their colleagues and the embassy personnel they had rescued.
       The way in which special operations training has been integrated into the basic structure of the Corps has changed the capabilities of the Corps as a whole. The other military services are large enough to allow their SF units to function in some degree of separation. Because the Marine Corps is so small in numbers, its SOC qualified personnel rotate on duty throughout the Corps, which has enhanced the overall quality of training and identification with special operations forces. Most of these men have now percolated to the top of the command structure. “It’s been in place so long now that a lot of the flag officers grew up with this-they’re Al Gray’s boys,” said one Marine special operations veteran. “That’s what you do not get in the other special forces, because they tend to stay in their own areas. When they do go into other units to further their careers, they have problems integrating within the conventional forces and its military bureaucracy. They don’t do well as staff officers; they want to go back to their unit.”
       That lack of experienced special forces officers at high levels to give special forces a voice allows other branches of the conventional forces to marginalize the effectiveness of special operations in budget battles and mission planning — a situation the Marine Corps has managed to avoid.

       

[81FO]

True, the Corps is a part of the Department of the Navy. We're the Men's Department.

[JoeSixPack1]

THIS is old-Corps :-)

[Slipjack]

FormerLurker - Thanks, again and to all of:

The Few, Brave and Proud Brother Marines as we all stand together through all the Gore that Hell has given us, since our beginning with our blood sweat and tears of our falling MARINES in serving that country that we are all so proud of and Saluting the Red, White & Blue Flag day in & day out that Fly’s so Freely over the Heads of our Fathers, Mothers, Brothers, Sisters, Sons, Daughters and Friends we Value so dear to our Heart and always looking forward in Kicking the Hell out of another that try’s as they may to take it away!!!

[81FO]

Someone said I was Old Corps because I joined in '56. One of my DI's was a buck sergeant with three hashmarks who made us pray for war so he could win the Congressional and get free beer at the slop chute. Two others were Korea vets. Those guys were Old Corps to me, along with my cousin, who was in the 6th Marines from Guadalcanal to Okinawa. Me, I'm still fit to fight if they'd let me.

[81FO]

Someone said I was Old Corps because I joined in '56. One of my DI's was a buck sergeant with three hashmarks who made us pray for war so he could win the Congressional and get free beer at the slop chute. Two others were Korea vets. Those guys were Old Corps to me, along with my cousin, who was in the 6th Marines from Guadalcanal to Okinawa. Me, I'm still fit to fight if they'd let me.

[81FO]

Air Commandos is an oxymoron.

[81FO]

Hey, Mac Illbay doesn't understand Marines. Only two groups do: Marines and the enemy, which learns the hard way.

[68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub]

SALUTE
and Welcome to Free Republic

[68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub]

"The main dish was usually SOS"

You can imagine what SOS looks like slopping around in the serving tray
while your ship is rolling and bobbing around in the ocean.
After about 1 week at sea we had powdered eggs and powdered milk.
Destroyers were never built for long term storage of fresh food.
My berthing quarters was the deck under the mess hall
(about the size of 2 average size living rooms.)

[JoeSixPack1]

Only two groups do: Marines and the enemy, which learns the hard way

Thanks. We've been trying to say that but with way too many words.
Harley-Davidson T-shirts say it like this:

IF I HAVE TO EXPLAIN, YOU WON'T UNDERSTAND

[ottersnot]

I thought (was told by a Desert Storm, Somalia Jarhead )
that the term Jarhead refers to how they remove the
"recruits" brain from his head and stick it in a jar.
not because he won't need it to think, but as he
must learn to follow orders.

Corrections please and thanks to all that serve, or have served this country!!!
specially the Devil Dog Jarheads.

[JoeSixPack1]

try posts #, 157, 159, 321, 325
That's it i gotta get off this page I'm now cataloging post references sheeeeeeesh

[sneakypete]

True, the Corps is a part of the Department of the Navy. We're the Men's Department.

LOL!

[sneakypete]

Air Commandos is an oxymoron.

Don't kid yourself. These are the guys who work as pararescue medics who go in with the Jolly Green Giants to rescue shotdown aircrew and pilots. The courage and disclipline it takes to do their jobs is comparable to that of any job done by any member of any other service,including Force Recon.

[COB1]

LOLOL!!!

[COB1]

Welcome aboard, 81FO.
You got your globe and anchor two years before I did.
That makes you "old corps" in my book.

[leadhead]

Marines do it their way

Excuse me, Marines do it EVERY way.

Semper Fi!

[COB1]

We had to go down to Coronado to practice some beach landings one time from off one of those cargo ships you swabs like to call personnel transports.
Y'all had these heads that brought water in one end, ran it down a trough and out the other end with everyone sitting on this trough to do their thing.
It was a lot of fun to catch one of the gyrenes who had just come on board and sat on the trough for the first time.
We'd get on the upstream side, light a big wad of toliet paper and float it past his butt.
The old expression, "You don't have a hair in your a**", was appropriate.

[JoeSixPack1]

Pardone'...

There is the Wrong way.
There is the Right way.

There is the Marine Corps way.

are you saying My Marine Corps didn't tell me there were other ways??

[leadhead]

are you saying My Marine Corps didn't tell me there were other ways??

Au Contraire!

The Corps Way is every way!

Like the Allah thing with the Moslems.