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The Marine Corps is getting its own special operations command, and its headquarters and the bulk of the 2,600-strong force will be at Camp Lejeune, the Department of Defense announced Tuesday.

The command will include a special operations regiment, a unit that trains foreign troops and a support group. Part of the regiment will be stationed at Camp Pendleton, Calif.

Some of the command's Marines will come from a Corps expansion authorized in the current federal budget, while others will come from existing units, said Maj. Douglas Powell, a Marine spokesman at the Pentagon.

There's no firm start date, but the command's first leader, Brig. Gen. Dennis J. Hejlik, has already been chosen. Hejlik not only has combat experience, but has served as chief of staff at U.S. Special Operations Command, an umbrella command that oversees Army, Navy and Air Force units -- and which also will include the new Marines force.

The new force is a natural, said said Daniel Goure, a defense analyst with the Lexington Institute, a think tank in Arlington, Va. For years, the Marines have trained and used troops for some special operations missions.

"What you've got is units that are already there, or nearly already there," he said. "This is a clear recognition of existing skills."

Also, he said, by maintaining a tight relationship with the Corps, the Marine special operations unit would avoid problems that special operations units in the other services report, such as little control over their transportation, problems with communications systems and issues getting backup from conventional troops with assets such as armored vehicles.

For years the Corps has been inching toward a full role in the special operations community, which is best known for the Army's Green Berets -- whose headquarters is at Fort Bragg -- and the Navy's SEALs. The U.S. Special Operations Command and the Marines signed a memorandum of agreement in November 2001 to start working together more.

Since then, said Powell, Marines have worked with special ops troops from other services everywhere from the mountains of Afghanistan to the streets of Fallujah.

Since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the elite special operations units have been worked harder than at any point in history. While they've been getting increasingly more funding, Goure said, they've also been losing seasoned veterans to the Army's Delta Force and the Navy's SEAL Team 6. Those secretive anti-terrorist units, he said, are reportedly growing in size.

Also, many veteran special forces troops have been lured into the booming private security industry, where their skills can command salaries of more than $200,000 a year.

Meanwhile, the pool of Army, Navy and Air Force personnel who meet the rigorous requirements for recruits to special operations units has remained flat. So it makes sense, Goure said, to turn to the Marines, the one service that has an all-but untapped pool of troops who fit the requirements.

гы, jarheads отвоевали независимость от SOCOM'a как будто теперь USMC превратится в stand-alone unit...

The component will be commanded by Brig. Gen. Dennis Hejlik, currently the deputy commander of I Marine Expeditionary Force at Camp Pendleton, Calif.

“We’ve been working with SOCom … on coming up with ideas on how the Marine Corps could better support” the command, said Lt. Gen. Jan Huly, head of Plans, Policies and Operations at Marine headquarters, in a Nov. 1 interview.

“We finally came to the realization that unless we were a full partner in U.S. Special Operations Command we probably weren’t making maximum use of the Marine Corps’ capabilities.”

MarSOC will be made up of three main organizations: foreign military training units; a direct-action group dubbed Marine Special Operations Group, or MSOG; and an intelligence and support group.

The units are expected to begin integrating into SOCom within six months, possibly starting with the foreign military training units, Huly said.

The decision to create a MarSOC comes after several years of considerable effort on the part of SOCom, the Marine Corps and the Pentagon to build a Marine contribution to a community that has been heavily used since the war on terrorism began. The Marine Corps opted out of SOCom when the command was established in 1986, preferring to keep its small community of specialized units, such as Force Reconnaissance, for its own use.

But as the hunt for insurgents in Iraq and terrorists worldwide focuses 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.

а что такое jarhead?

Jarhead.

A pejorative term for a Marine. One account suggests that it refers to the Marine high and tight haircut which is cut almost to the skin at the ears with a bit more as it goes up the head giving the appearance of a jar. Another legend says that during World War II the Mason Jar Company stopped making jars and made the helmets for Marines.

http://4mermarine.com/USMC/dictionary.html

Это название подходит рекрутам, а не ребятам из MARSOC.

By Bradley Graham
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, November 2, 2005; A14

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld yesterday announced creation of a force of about 2,600 highly specialized Marines intended to address a shortage of elite troops available for counterterrorist operations and other missions requiring exceptional skills.

But in a marked departure for the fiercely self-reliant Corps, the new contingent will report not to the Marine leadership but to the multi-service command responsible for other Special Operations troops.

The move follows months of difficult negotiations between the Marines and Special Operations community. For years, the Marine Corps has resisted joining the Army, Navy and Air Force in ceding permanent control of a segment of its forces to Special Operations Command, known as Socom.

Rumsfeld has pushed the Marines to set aside their traditional sense of separateness and help Socom expand the number of troops under its direct management. After rejecting previous proposals that fell short of a full integration of the Marines into Socom, Rumsfeld approved the new structure at a meeting Friday that included Marine Corps Commandant Michael W. Hagee and Army Gen. Bryan D. Brown, the head of Socom.

A senior Marine officer, in an interview yesterday, attributed his service's change of mind to a recognition that the new arrangement could afford a larger role for Marines in U.S. counterterrorism efforts.

"We finally came to the realization that unless we were a full partner in U.S. Special Operations Command, we probably weren't making maximum use of the Marine Corps's capability," said Lt. Gen. Jan C. Huly, deputy Marine commandant for plans, policies and operations. He added that Rumsfeld's interest in the issue "has certainly brought us along."

Under the agreement, the new Marine component will consist of three elements.

The largest element, made up of two battalions and a regimental headquarters, will serve as the operational force. A second element of about 400 Marines will be responsible for support functions and will include intelligence analysts, logistics specialists, dog handlers, interrogators and interpreters. A third element, also about 400 strong, will provide small teams for training foreign militaries.

The bulk of the new force will be based at Camp Lejeune, N.C., and one battalion will be located at Camp Pendleton, Calif. The force will be led initially by Marine Brig. Gen. Dennis J. Hejlik.

Socom was established in 1986 to end the practice of creating and using Special Forces on an ad hoc basis. The command today oversees the organizing, training and equipping of such highly skilled troops as the Army Rangers and Green Berets, the Navy SEALs and the Air Force AC-130 gunship fleet.

By contrast, the Marines have tended to see themselves as a general-purpose force. But they have developed some capacity to conduct special operations, ranging from the emergency evacuation of noncombatants to the stealthy capture of enemy fighters. Teams with these capabilities have typically been included in the Marine Expeditionary Units, or MEUs, that regularly deploy around the world.

The new agreement calls for such teams to be provided in the future by Socom. The Marines will supply Socom with forces that are trained to "Marine standards," and Socom will provide additional training and equipment relevant to special operations.

After a MEU deployment ends, the Marine Special Operations teams will return to Socom, rather than dispersing across the rest of the Marine Corps, which has been the practice. That means many Marines assigned to the new teams will end up spending much of their military careers there.

"We're not going to put individuals into these units and then move them out quickly," Huly said. "We need to get a return on the investment that an individual is going to receive."

Yesterday's announcement represented the most significant breakthrough in a relationship between the Marines and Socom that began changing shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. In November 2001, the Corps agreed to boost liaison officers at Socom. A year later, the Marines lent Socom an 86-man unit known as Detachment 1 that deployed to Iraq in late 2003 and early 2004, working with other Special Operations forces.

Entering talks with Socom last fall about expanding such missions, the Corps had hoped not to give up permanent control of its specialized units and offered instead to continue lending them on an as-needed basis. But Socom pressed for direct management.

Even with the addition of the Marine contingent, Socom says more Special Operations forces will be needed. It received earlier authorization to increase its ranks another 2,300 troops over four years, to 52,000.

"These 2,600 Marines will not answer the total growth requirement of Special Operations Command over the next several years," said Vice Adm. Eric T. Olson, Socom's deputy commander. "But they're an immediate boost that will be employable in the near- and mid-term in important ways."

Rumsfeld has made no secret of his frustration at how long it has taken to negotiate the entry of the Marines into Socom. After a visit to Socom headquarters on Oct. 11, he said the talks had gone "painfully" slowly. "Forever, it's taken," he told troops at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa. "I will be 85 before it's finished, I'm afraid."

Скромные 5 копеек об этом
http://lenta.ru/articles/2005/11/03/specforces/