USMC and SOCOM

[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.