A three-year experiment, widely touted as an absolute success story, ended on March 10, 2006 when Marine Corps Special Operations Command Detachment One was deactivated, and its members absorbed into MARSOC (Marine Corps Special Operations Command).
Nicknamed DET1, the 86-man "dream team" of Marine Force Reconnaissance troops, intelligence analysts, fire-support experts and corpsmen served as a test unit that would help SOCOM (U.S. Special Operations Command) officials determine if the Corps could plug into the commando world.
Built as a task-organized and integrated raid force, the prototype DET1 was capable of independently performing the full spectrum of battlefield functions such as command and control, intelligence and fire support, while also planning for and executing missions such as direct action, special reconnaissance and coalition support.
From March to September 2004, Detachment One conducted a successful and historically significant combat deployment to Iraq as an independent task unit under Naval Special Warfare Task Group Arabian Peninsula.
During these six months DET1, the first Marine Corps unit assigned to the U. S. Special Operations Command since SOCOM’s establishment in 1986, planned and executed more than 20 raids, netting numerous detainees and weapons caches, and killed or captured at least nine guerilla cell leaders.
A report written for SOCOM indicated "Repeated successful conduct (by the Marine Detachment) of urban direct action and special reconnaissance, both mounted and dismounted, is an indicator of high agility and tactical effectiveness in what is arguably one of the most challenging combat environments."
The decision to create MARSOC came after several years of effort on the part of SOCOM, the Marine Corps and the Pentagon to build a Marine contribution to a community that has been heavily tasked since the war on terrorism began.
The Marine Corps initially opted out of SOCOM when the command was established by Congress in 1986. At that time, all of the services were asked to subordinate their special operations forces to SOCOM.
SOCOM gained control over SEALs (including the super-secret Naval Special Warfare Development Group--formerly SEAL Team Six), all of the Army’s special-operations forces (from Rangers to Green Berets to Delta), and the Air Force special-tactics teams.
The Marines were the only ones to refuse, partly on the grounds that they believed all of their troops were elite, and partly because the only elite force (by Marine standards) they had was Force Recon.
The Marines could not give up Force Recon, as the Marines used the strategic recon teams for their own operations.
The Marine leadership also maintained that the Corps, because of its small size, could not afford to detach any troops to another outfit. The leadership further feared that prized Marine units such as Force Recon would be prime targets for cherry picking if SOCOM was licensed to do so.
For 20 years, a parade of commandants insisted that there was no need for such an affiliation, asserting that all Marines by definition were capable of special operations.
After Sept 11, 2001, and as the hunt for insurgents in Iraq and terrorists worldwide focused more on small, covert raids and foreign military assistance, the Corps realized it was time to put aside its initial reluctance and support SOCOM more directly.
After the very successful deployment of DET1 the Marine Corps, bowing to further pressure from the Department of Defense and SOCOM officials and analysts, agreed to turn over a force of 2,600 specially trained Marines to SOCOM, becoming the last of the services to make such a contribution. MARSOC’s creation was announced November 2005 by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
MARSOC’s core capabilities are special missions, including counterterrorism, hostage rescues, prisoner snatches, foreign military training, special reconnaissance, sabotage, direct action, and the targeting of enemy leaders, among other highly sensitive operations. The results of many operations have a tremendous strategic relevance but, because of their top-secret nature, remain concealed.
The combat core of MARSOC will eventually include nine, 97 to 118 man, Special Operations Companies, four on the east coast and five on the west coast.
There will be a 430-man Foreign Military Training Unit, which will include two dozen 12-man teams, very similar to Special Forces A-teams.
Rounding out MARSOC will be a Marine Special Operations Support Group, which will provide a range of specialized skills, from security and K-9 teams to communications, intelligence and logistics.
Under current plans, Special Operations Companies will train and deploy with MEU’s (Marine Expeditionary Units), air-ground task forces attached to a naval expeditionary strike group. Operational control of that MARSOC will be held by the theater special operations commander.
As for the future of Force Reconnaissance, the Marines' elite deep-penetration units and the Corps' answer to special ops in the past, MARSOC Commander Major General Dennis J. Hejlik assures that Force Recon "will be alive and well” and that Force Recon will retain all of its specialized skills, such as deep reconnaissance, advanced communications, precision shooting, and specialized insertion and extraction capabilities.
During the process of researching this figure I came across a lot of comments, mostly negative, in regards to the creation of MARSOC. Most of those seem to fall along the lines of how Force Recon is going to be affected, putting Marines under the control of non-Marines, and the institutional fear that once those Marines are under SOCOM’s control, the Corps would have a difficult if not impossible time getting them back.
Traditions die hard, and the Marine Corps has always prided itself in being a self-contained and independent expeditionary fighting force, able to be anywhere at a moments notice. There are many current and former Marines who just don’t see the need for the change.
On the plus side, MARSOC does put the Corps in line for a share of the larger pool of special operations funding and more sophisticated assets, and it involves the Corps more directly into the special operations type of missions being conducted worldwide these days.
Additionally, since a Special Operations Company is attached to a MEU, it provides a definite amphibious component to special operations, that wasn’t available previously, as well as possibly giving that SOC dedicated air assets.
Finally, the creation of MARSOC may actually help in the retention of Force Recon-type Marines. I don’t know how widespread the problem, but there are reports of Force Recon Marines leaving the Corps because they felt there were many more career opportunities as a Navy SEAL or in Army Special Forces.
But, true to another deeply held Marine Corps belief, when MARSOC’s commanding officer was asked if he had settled on a catchy nickname for his unit he said, “Yes…Marines”.
Would anyone expect him to say anything else?
…even though, despite any denials to the contrary, we all know that Force Recon, and now MARSOC, are definitely an elite unit within the Marine Corps.
My Captain Willie Schultz is the CH Exclusive Willi Gran Sasso Commando. The majority of his kit is from the Toy Soldier Desert CQB USMC Force Recon figure…except for his Leatherman and the GPS on his wrist.
Replacing his name tag was a pretty simple matter of using the first flight suit name badge site I found, entering the info I wanted, and resizing and printing his name badge to size.
He’s kitted out more for a green side (recon) operation than black side (direct action), both of which will be part of MARSOCs overall mission profile.
(Postscript: Surprisingly, while doing my search for information on DET1 and MARSOC, I came across mention of DunkleGelb’s MARSOC DET1 post here (a couple years ago?). I found DunkleGelb’s album but, despite a pretty thorough search, couldn’t find a post related to his DET1 Marine.)
The pics and poses are great too!!!
