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thedrifter
03-16-06, 07:06 AM
March 15, 2006

Two spec ops units certified for deployment, get missions for next year

By Christian Lowe
Times staff writer

Though still a fledgling force, the Marine Corps Special Operations Command has already certified at least two of its units for deployment and has been assigned missions by U.S. Special Operations Command through next year.

According to Brig. Gen. Dennis Hejlik, MarSOC commander, the Pentagon’s spec ops command tabbed the Corps’ foreign military training unit teams with six missions this year and has already assigned Marine teams to 22 more in 2007.

The teams are a key Corps contribution to the spec ops world, providing men and equipment to “foreign internal defense” missions, which military leaders and defense officials believe is an important step in defeating terrorist networks before they have a chance to grow. The 10 to 15-man FMTU teams help train and advise allied armies so they can defend against terrorist influence and insurgencies.

“The FMTUs are going to be very aggressive, very capable and that’s one of the things — [foreign internal defense] — that I know we can bring a lot to the battlefield and theater special operations command,” Hejlik said at the National Defense Industrial Association-sponsored Special Operations/Low Intensity Conflict symposium and exhibition in Crystal City, Va., March 14.

A MarSOC spokesman declined to elaborate on the specifics of the FMTU missions, including where the teams would deploy or when, due to security concerns. But Hejlik said two fully certified FMTU teams will deploy sometime this spring or early summer.

Hejlik said his first Marine special operations company — the force’s “door kicker” cadre — will be stood up by June and will deploy with the Camp Lejeune, N.C.-based 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit in December.

The entire MarSOC, both East and West coast units, will be fully manned and operational by 2008, he added.

The timeline is a “very, very ambitious schedule” considering the manpower challenges associated particularly with staffing the Marine Corps Special Operations Support Group, which will be filled with intelligence specialists, radio reconnaissance technicians and fire support experts — jobs that are already difficult to fill in the regular Marine Corps.

“That will be the hard part about MarSOC — to make sure that that we get the right men and women into the special operations support group so they are the combat multipliers,” Hejlik said.

MarSOC spokesman Maj. Cliff Gilmore said the command has yet to fill most of its 2,600 billets. The headquarters staff is mostly manned thanks to the dissolution of the 4th Marine Expeditionary Brigade (Anti-Terrorism) last month. At least 10 of the 24 FMTUs are manned, and officials are still working out the details of who will fill the MSOCs, though Gilmore said the first company would most likely be filled from the ranks of 2nd Force Reconnaissance Company.

Despite the uncertainty, commanders from each of the services’ spec ops warriors and key regional commando leaders all agreed that bringing the Marine Corps into the special operations world is a good thing.

“There’s a whole lot of work that needs to be done still across the board,” said Lt. Gen. Robert Wagner, commander of Army spec ops forces, at the March 14 conference. “We’re extremely fortunate to have the Marine Corps component now part of the command because of the additional capability and capacity.”

Ellie