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.

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I especially liked Goure's last comments about the Marines have and all but untapped pool of troops who fit the requirements!

This move, while popular with the Corps, isn't going to be too well received among the Special Forces, and Seals.

Why do you say its not going to be received well in those communities? I've worked with both communites and they damn sure respected me and what I brought to the table with the marines that were with me.

I served at SOCCENT and there was no problem there concerning Marines becoming part of their community.

Congrats to the Corps! They deserve a chance to have a SOCOM unit, rather than try to pass off Force Recon as a Spec Ops.

I heard GEN Pace speak about it in Boston for the Foreign Affairs Council. Neat stuff!

Goldenwings...just wait, you'll see what I mean.

Gunny--I have several years involved in serving with several of those units you refered to and there is no, and I mean no reason for me to believe those units will have any negative reation of the Corps bringing in another group of SpOps operators to assist in the growing job of SpOps.

Many of this unit are already serving side by side with the units you mentioned.

Actually, with many of the Marines I served with, this is not a very popular move. One of the things the Marines bring are intel weenies that can (and expect to) fight with these smaller teams and provide direct support, something some of the other services are just now coming along with. They see it as just more deploying time.

I have a friend with 2nd Force (just selected for Master Guns). He tells me that there are more volunteers than they can shake a stick at and that Force will soon not be the Force of Ole'. They are changing it to fit into the new SOC unit withteams to look like A-Teams and such.

He and I have both worked with SF, the SEALs, Ranger, etc and only found a very professional working realtionship and I do not see that changing.

Naw, GW, with me and my guys it was never a rivalry thing (I'm recently retired as well so use the past tense...). I worked with some SEALS and others, though never with the USA SF, and teamwork was never the issue. It's a manpower thing! Kept getting sucked up to do double duty with SpOps and then support our own grunts. We'd also run into the situation where we'd arrive in-country and be told that they don't want the GCE ashore just yet, but do want that intel det first. Then we'd do the double duty again when they did come ashore. We were averaging 250d p/yr deployment time BEFORE Iraq and AF. And yeah, I'd like some cheese with the whine...and I'll take the straw to suck it up. But, still....

The Strategy Page
Marines Cannibalize for SOCOM

May 22, 2006: The U.S. Marine Corps has had to disband one of its three
Force Recon companies in order to obtain sufficient trained manpower for its
new commando force.

The marines finally got around to working with SOCOM (Special Operations
Command) last Fall, when it was agreed that they would create a marine
special operations command. The Marine Corps had long resisted such a step,
largely because of its belief that marines are inherently superior warriors,
capable of highly specialized missions. This attitude began to change during
the fighting in Afghanistan, when marines were assigned to support SOCOM
troops there.

As a result of that experience, marines were attached to SOCOM for liaison
and observation purposes. In 2004, the marines organized a company sized
unit of commandos, "Detachment One", using volunteers from their Force Recon
troops, the closest thing the marines had to commandos. Detachment One was
sent to Iraq, where it's performance convinced SOCOM that marines could
operate at the SOCOM level.

As a result, Marine Special Operations Command (MARSOC) was organized. This
unit has some 2,600 marines, organized into a headquarters, a two battalion
"Special Operations Regiment", a "Foreign Military Training Unit", and a
"Marine Special Operations Support Group."

The only people the marines had who were trained to SOCOMs highest standards
were the troops in the four Force Recon companies (one of them a reserve
unit). So, naturally, the marines recruited heavily among Force Recon units
in order to build MARSOC. As a result, the 2nd Force Reconnaissance Company
was disbanded. In effect, an enhanced version of the 2nd Force Recon was
created with the formation of Fox company within the new MARSOC 2nd Marine
Special Operations Battalion. The two Special Operations Battalions provide
a combination of services roughly equal to what the U.S. Army Special Forces
and Rangers do. The marines feel that, for some missions, Fox Company
marines can perform jobs that SEALs do. The marines do not intend to just
provide some additional Special Forces and Ranger manpower, but people who
can do those jobs, but with the addition of amphibious capabilities.

every single marine out there is elite