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View Full Version : Talk to me about FAST



civgrunt05
01-25-11, 09:29 AM
Without alerting the op-sec police, here's some background on my situation:

I'm a reservist 0311 who is close to coming off obligated contract time. There was chatter shared with certain individuals, myself included, a couple drills ago about a possible activation coming down for us to the big show, but it we recently got word it won't be quite as glorious as we had all hoped. If we were getting to play in the big game, I was going to extend because I didn't want to feel like I was abandoning my guys in the face of a serious deployment / I really personally wanted to go but my boots in the dirt there.

It looks like the proposed construct resembles a FAST company set-up. The destination isn't quite as gay as GITMO or something of the sort, but still doesn't put us where we really want to be.

I'm trying to decide if this is worth me putting my career and family plans aside for a year or so to go. Right now, I see myself babysitting ships (and the junior Marines who by nature seem to get into trouble when left with nothing to do) and what not -- something that is similar to another deployment I had that was just plain gay at the zoo.

Are there any FAST Marines here? Did you ever actually do anything other than glorified firewatch? Any actual VBSS or embassy extraction?

Given the orientation of FAST's mission, I'm worried that if the opportunity for a combat engagement came up, some one higher up the chain would say "Not those guys, they're suppose to be DEFENSIVELY postured" and send some other unit to have all the fun.

Thoughts?

thewookie
01-25-11, 10:21 AM
FAST isn't a front line force, they get some security related missions, or at least they did in my day -- I'm not sure what they're getting now, but it's probably not that high up in the food chain. They work for Marine Security Force Battalion: Their overall training makes them more likely to help out at Embassies. We trained the guys from FAST that responded to the Embassy bombing in Kenya and Tanzania back in the late 90's. FAST also helped out around the same time period in Saudi when they bombed the Embassy there. I don't think they did any extractions in any of those incidents, they just provided security after the fact.

If you want action, don't go to FAST. They mostly respond, do security, and watch while the rest have the real fun.

Good luck.

PS -- Since opsec isn't an issue for you, how about a profile of some sorts? ;)