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thedrifter
06-21-03, 08:44 AM
June 20, 2003

Ceremony to mark debut of Marine special operations unit

By Gidget Fuentes
Associated Press


CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. — The Navy has its SEALs; the Army has its Green Berets. Now, the Marine Corps will have its own special operations force under a new test program being launched at its West Coast training base.
A ceremony was planned Friday afternoon at Camp Pendleton for Pentagon officials to formally begin a yearlong test of an elite 86-man commando force that will train and operate with Navy SEALs. By next spring, the joint team will go overseas, likely for combat missions in the war on terror.

If it gets the blessing of the military’s top commando, Marines will rate a coveted place among the SEALs, Green Berets and Air Force Special Operations forces.

“It’s just going to be a (question) of ‘Can we successfully integrate a Marine detachment with a SEAL team?”’ said Navy Lt. Cmdr. Joe Walker, a U.S. Special Operations Command spokesman in Tampa, Fla. “That’s what we need to find out.”

When the military formed its U.S. Special Operations Command in 1987, the Marines weren’t at the table because top officers did not want to give up a group of Marines to its control.

But some officers still wanted the Corps to be a player, so they instead developed a training program for their amphibious units to become “special operations capable” expeditionary units. Over the years, a unit designated as “SOC” succeeded in showing it could quickly conduct any of two dozen specialized missions, which included embassy evacuations, airfield seizures and downed pilot rescues.

Although it had its share of criticism, the program created SOC-designated units that have done some very high-profiled missions, including the rescue of Air Force Capt. Scott O’Grady in Bosnia and humanitarian missions in war-torn regions.

Marine Lt. Col. Robert J. Coates, a seasoned and highly regarded reconnaissance officer, has been tapped to head the detachment. From a space age-styled building tucked in the military boat basin at Camp Pendleton, Coates will oversee 81 Marines and five Navy medical corpsmen, all high-ranking enlisted men and experienced officers. An influx of an initial $25 million already has bought them new combat equipment and weapons.

After training in small teams, the men will join a Navy SEAL team from Naval Special Warfare Squadron One in October for joint training. In April, they will deploy overseas as a full special operations team.

The trial run comes just as the Bush administration seeks to grow the 47,000-member U.S. Special Operations force by 2,563 and boost its budget by 46 percent. The joint command enjoys strong backing from Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

Initially, the Marines’ presence will be tiny compared to the 2,700 Navy SEALs and special boat crews, 26,000 Army Rangers and Green Berets and 10,000 Air Force special operations personnel.

Since late 2001, when then-Marine Corps Commandant Gen. James L. Jones broached the idea with Air Force Gen. Charles Holland, the idea for a Marine special operations force has sparked much discussion. But it wasn’t an entirely new concept.

In 1942, newly formed Marine Raiders landed in the South Pacific and seized key hills and beaches in guerrilla-style strikes against entrenched Japanese forces. They operated deep in enemy territory, collecting intelligence and surveilling beaches ahead of the larger ground forces.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt wanted to create a commando type of unit, said Jon T. Hoffman, a retired colonel and deputy director of the Marine Corps History and Museums Division in Washington.

“The Raiders were what we would classify today as a special operations type of outfit,” said Hoffman, who has authored two books on Marine Raiders. “They were specially selected. They had special training.”

Although disbanded two years later, Marine Raiders left a unique mark as the modern military’s first commando-style force. Historians say they laid the foundation for today’s reconnaissance forces.

Steve Greer, a retired Army Ranger and Special Forces sergeant major, said the move will allow the Marines to “get into the fold” of the U.S. Special Operations Command.

By tapping into the command’s budget, the Marines will get access to better training and advanced systems to communicate and gather intelligence, said Greer, who teaches commando strategy and counterinsurgency at American Military University in Charles Town, W.Va.

“They see it (as) here’s a way to get in better training for our Marines ... and it also gives them the funding,” Greer said. The SEALs-Marine linkage is a good start, he said, adding “it’s going to provide a nexus between what the SEALs do ... before they hit a target on land and what the Marines do.”






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Copyright 2003 The Associated Press.


Sempers,

Roger