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Seasoned Vet
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June 20, 2003
Corps takes step to joining SoCom
By Gidget Fuentes
Special to the Times
CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. – With a simple but historic ceremony June 20, the Marine Corps took one step closer to joining the elite commando world and ending nearly two decades of being a fringe player in U.S. military special operations.
A new 86-man unit, called the Marine Corps Special Operations Command Detachment, was officially recognized by top defense officials during the ceremony at the Del Mar Boat Basin at Camp Pendleton.
From a small set of buildings there, Lt. Col. Robert J. Coates, who has been selected for promotion to colonel, will oversee the 81 Marines and five Navy corpsmen. As envisioned, the unit will include four six-man teams of force reconnaissance men, each with a corpsman, along with special teams in radio reconnaissance, signals intelligence support and human intelligence exploitation and an intelligence “fusion” detachment. The unit also will have an intelligence platoon and a fire-support detachment.
In October, the detachment will begin training with Naval Special Warfare Squadron One in Coronado, Calif., and deploy overseas this spring, officials said. The squadron includes a SEAL team and special warfare combatant crews that operate the specialized boats used to get SEALs in and out of the fight.
The ceremony marks a critical step for deciding what the Marine Corps can contribute, if anything, to the U.S. Special Operations Command, a force of 47,000 that includes Army Special Forces, Navy SEALs and Air Force Special Operations units.
It was in the fall of 2001 when then-commandant Gen. James L. Jones spoke with Air Force Gen. Charles Holland, the SoCom commander, about the idea of including Marines somehow into SoCom.
That idea, born in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, eventually evolved last year into a “concept of operations” that would last about two years and pair the detachment of Marines with Naval Special Warfare Command.
Just what will emerge from the test phase —a “proof of concept” as officials call it — is anyone’s guess.
Trial run begins
The June 20 activation ceremony “is basically Day 1,” said Navy Lt. Cmdr. Joe Walker, a SoCom spokesman in Tampa, Fla.
After the joint Navy-Marine team trains for six months and deploys overseas, top officials will look at the experience and decide the next step, Walker said. “They may come back and say, we’re not compatible,” he said.
Many Marines, including retired reconnaissance veterans who have trained and operated with other commando forces, applaud the move and some privately said the service should have been part of the special operations command from the get-go.
When the U.S. Special Operations Command was formed at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa on April 16, 1987, the Marine Corps wasn’t included. Corps officials didn’t want to hand over Marines to the joint command.
Now, they’re getting in on the action at a time when special-ops forces are busier than ever before.
“It’s a good day for the Marine Corps,” one retired Marine officer said.
The retired officer said that by giving Corps-trained special operators the chance to work outside the typical Navy-led amphibious force, the Marine Corps moves closer to becoming a player in its own right in the spec-ops world. “Admirals are very reluctant to deploy ground troops, because there’s a level of complexity,” the retired officer said.
He and other supporters agree that the Marines will bring valuable intelligence, planning and communications skill to the mix with the SEALs, as well as their renowned discipline and solid marksmanship skills.
More funding
A permanent place at the commando table will also give Marines the benefit of access to a bigger pot of money.
Last year, the Marine Corps got $25 million for the detachment, which will receive new equipment. And that’s just the beginning.
“Everything is about budget nowadays, and U.S. SoCom is the only major command that draws its money from Congress,” noted Steve Greer, who spent 11 years in Army Special Forces and retired last year as the command sergeant major of the 10th Mountain Division.
The Marines’ entry into the SoCom circle is a way to get access to better training “and get the funding,” said Greer, who now teaches special-operations strategy and counter-insurgency at American Military University.
And the spec-ops command’s budget is expected to grow. The Bush administration wants to grow the commando force by another 2,563 people in fiscal 2004 and hike the SoCom budget to $4.5 billion, a 46 percent increase over the current budget, according to congressional testimony
------------------------------------------------------------ Out of every 100 men, ten shouldn't even be there, Eighty are just targets, Nine are the real fighters, and we are lucky to have them, for they make the battle. Ah, but the one, one is a warrior, and he will bring the others back." - Hericletus, circa 500 BC ----------------------------------------------------------- 
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Seasoned Vet
 
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looking forward to seeing where this goes
Go with God, but make Him walk the point.
If you load a mudfoot down with a lot of gadgets he has to watch somebody a lot more simply equipped - say with a stone axe - will sneak up and bash his head in while he is trying to read a Vernier. - Robert Heinlein
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Jarhead
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Last Login: 12/15/2007 1:24 PM
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I second that!
 "Your Marines having been under my command for nearly six months, I feel that I can give you a discriminating report as to their excellent standing with their brothers of the Army and their general good conduct."-General John J. Pershing, U.S. Army
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