Quote Originally Posted by Ken White View Post
"That much skill," perhaps. Adequate skill, OTOH, is very different thing.

This tendency to make war too complex unless one is especially trained as opposed to well trained is not wise.

There's a point where the situational and discrete location need for specific combat capability outstrips the ability of even the US to provide special purpose units or people in adequate quantities to fulfill the potential requirements.

Creating SMUs as a patch to cover poor individual and unit training is potentially dangerous.

Right I totally I agree, which is why the Corps never bought into so narrowly focused Units. I was acknowledging the Professionalism in how it was handled.

But, switching back, that is what made the Force Recon DAPs so effective. In taking the IHR Mission, they maintained the Shooting & Assault Techniques & Standards of the SMU's. But they did this w/out being so narrowly focused that they could not still support the mission of the MAGTF Cmdr, like a Dedicated HR Unit.

They took the necessary elements to remain Proficient in IHR and used those standards to elevate their other missions. This was something noted in the JSOU's report.

It noted that the Reconnaissance Element of the DET had a Direct Action & Reconnaissance capability on par with any Tier I SMU. But it could seemlessly blend w/any Conventional Unit that it supported.

Also K.I.M. you probably know this but others may not, they maintained these high standards while rotating most Marines in & out of Force Recon to the Recon & Infantry BNs every 4-5yrs.