In the past few years as the United States has ramped up it battle against terrorists worldwide, the Special Operations community has grown and made changes to better prepare our Special Operators to do their mission.  The Marine Corps has also changed the way they do business on the Special Ops side of the house.  With the development of MARSOC – Marine Special Operations Command, the USMC has joined forces with US SOCOM – the joint Special Operations Command and perform a variety of special operations missions around the world to include foreign internal defense, unconventional warfare, special reconnaissance, direct action and other missions.

Here is the new breakdown to clear up any confusion with the changes in USMC RECON and the new structure of MARSOC.

RECON still exists!  They have simply rearranged the Force RECON teams into MARSOC and the Battalion RECON missions have been largely unchanged.  See the details at Camp Pendleton’s Basic RECON Course.  But in a nutshell, all future RECON students must attend BRC – BASIC RECON COURSE.  You can still do this as a new Marine but you must first qualify after Boot camp and School of Infantry (SOI).  The link above will describe the standards that a RECON applicant must adhere to before joining the Marine Occupational Specialty 0321 (RECON Marine).  RECON Battalions remained as part of the USMC Divisions and continue to perform missions for the deployed USMC commander.  BRC is open to Marines and Navy Hospital Corpsman.

MARSOC took both Force RECON Companies originally BUT they Force RECON Teams are now manning and operational.  MARSOC are divided into the MSOB (Marine Special Operations Battalions).   The West Coast MSOBs are located in Camp Pendleton, CA and the East Coast MSOB is in Camp Lejeune, NC. From the MARSOC Website, they state:

MSOB is organized, trained and equipped to deploy for worldwide missions as directed by MARSOC. It will consist of four Marine Special Operations Companies (MSOCs) and be task-organized with personnel uniquely skilled in special equipment support, intelligence and fire-support.

Each MSOC is commanded by a Marine Major and capable of deploying task-organized expeditionary Special Operations Forces to conduct special reconnaissance and direct action and missions in support of the geographic combatant commanders.

The selection process to become MARSOC has changed significantly compared to the replaced Force RECON training.  Before each FORCE RECON company did their own Indoctrination.  Now all O-4 and below positions at MARSOC units have to go through a 3-week central screening that is overseen by MSOS Marine Special Operations School.   It is pretty standard physical and tactical testing for Special Operations Community under USSOCOM operational control. 

Here is a quote from a Marine LT who is considering attending MARSOC in his future.  “MARSOC likes for you to be an NCO before you can tryout, which means that you have to do about 3 years or two deployments before you can tryout.  The tryout consists of a pool portion to see if you know what you are doing in the water.  Then you take a PFT and see between the two of those if you can go to the 3 week screener.  They give you a packing list and do not tell you much more than that, you just go and have fun for 3 weeks. Similar to the Army’s SFAS and BUD/S Indoc, which screens you prior to entering the MARSOC Training School is the goal of the screener.  I think that it is more intimidating than anything else, as I hear that it is physical but if you can run a 300 PFT you will do well physically, but you still need to be able to learn new operations and tactics.” 

MARSOC is quickly becoming more than FORCE RECON.  There is a MSOAG Marine Special Operations Advisory Group that is two battalions of advisor teams like the Army Special Forces ODAs (Operational Detachment Alpha).  Their main mission is FID and UW.   The MARSOC component staff has a broad range of officers with Recon or SOF experience. 

(from MARSOC Website) The Marine Special Operations Advisor Group provides tailored military combat-skills training and advisor support for identified foreign forces in order to enhance their tactical capabilities and to prepare the environment as directed by USSOCOM. Marines and Sailors of the MSOAG train, advise and assist friendly host-nation forces -- including naval and maritime military and paramilitary forces -- to enable them to support their governments’ internal security and stability, to counter subversion and to reduce the risk of violence from internal and external threats. MSOAG deployments are coordinated by MARSOC, through SOCOM, in accordance with engagement priorities within the Global War on Terrorism.

A forward deployed Marine Officer said it best when commenting about the MARSOC trained Marine, “The product going in is far more advanced.  It is still growing, but you cannot argue with results. They have done well while deployed to Africa doing FID, and equally well in Afghanistan doing DA/SR.” 

For more information see the USMC MARSOC and RECON Websites listed in this article. 

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