USMC and SOCOM

[Doc.]

I really dont think your losing such a force as maybe you think you are. Its always been known even the average marine has been above the cut. I mean what do all the people always say. "send in the marines!". Being the small force they've always been just tells you that all marines are special. Yet its the Recon Guy's. They get more training to do the more "hairy missions" Yet there still operating with ARmy SF. So why. Why all the back doors that are going on now. Just let recon go to where they should be. I think if the corps loses the community, the Marines will still have F.A.S.T., STA. and the regular grunt, whose still a badass to the enemy. All the Senior NCO's that you say your losing. The numbers aren't as high as everybody think they are. Its always been a marine tradition of putting the responsiblility down to the lowest rank. Im looking forward to working with the other branches learning from the army on how to do what there known for, I dont think your really losing all this, your gaining a lot more. The marines have been left out of the loop so long its about time there clue'd in on everything. The best way to finish and be successful in a job is to be working together giving one anothers best. Lets focus on fighting terroism and not worrying about who's going to adopt our "Uncle sams miss guided children"

[DDilegge]

SOF missions and what the Marine Corps' does as its core competency are two different worlds. There are much bigger issues here than "sexy" missions and years of specialized training. Again, the Corps is small and will still be called upon to perform its traditional missions and can ill afford to lose its best and brightest SNCO's and NCO's to full-time SOF.

Rather than making a significant percentage of our infantry forces full-SOF (that would be 2 1/2 battalions worth out of a force with a total of 24) we should give the training, manpower and other relevant resources to the Corps to assume SOF-like missions that do not require 35-year-old squad leaders. FID (training part) and CAP come to mind here. It can be done and it has been done by younger less SOF trained Marines.

I would agree with the Corps assuming the SOF mission if it could be guaranteed a corresponding quality increase in force structure. Note the word quality – being small the Corps has held fast with the every Marine a rifleman standard for quite some time.

Another guarantee I'd like is that the USMC will not lose any aviation assets in this grand experiment (possibly never to be seen again), and yet another guarantee that USMC SOF forces would be available to the Regional Combatant Commander and any MEU or other MAGTF under its command. Moreover, these SOF forces must be available for the training and evaluation that is part of the pre-deployment work-up.