A brief, recent history of MARSOC and Force Recon

by NEWSREP · March 29, 2017

There have been some questions lately as to what exactly the difference is between Force Recon and MARSOC. Aside from the fact that Special Operations Marines now have their own MOS, a lot of it comes down to recent history.

In 2003, MCSOCOM Detachment One was stood up, commanded by a former commanding officer of 1st Force Recon Company, Col Robert Coates. Detachment One was a pilot program to see if Marines could make a worthwhile contribution to USSOCOM. As part of the program, the 81 Marines and 5 Navy Corpsmen went through NSW certification, then deployed to Iraq in 2004 with NSW Squadron One. While there was some friction with the Navy side of the house, it was determined by JSOC that the Marines were quite capable of conducting Special Operations missions, specifically Direct Action and Special Reconnaissance.

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EternalChampion
Having served in both Battalion and Force Reconnaissance units, I can attest that there is no more well-rounded bad-ass that exists in any branch of SOF. Their reputation was built a long time ago and long before SOCOM money came their way. I can't begin to imagine what their capability is now with all the resources that they now have at their disposal.
John Stryker Meyer
Too little, too short. Thanks for the informative piece Pete. I had the privilege of watching the 1st Force Recon Marines operate under the command of Col Robert J. Coates and his savvy, get-the-mission-done XO then-Major Craig Kozeniesky. Those 1st Force Recon Marines out performed SF and other units at Ft. Polk. Many felt their operational skills exceeded those of another spec ops branch down the I-5. Many went to Iraq with Col. Coates where they achieved operational excellence and impressed spec ops troops who worked with them. That's a fascinating part of Marine Corps history, where often the 1st Force Recon men had to battle in-house attitudes while sharpening their operational skills. Thanks again Pete. Hopefully you'll follow up for the many new SOFREP readers who signed up recently. Salutes to Col. Coates, then-Maj. Kozeniesky and their talented, dedicated Marines. I hope today's Raiders and Force Recon Marines are able to obtain the outstanding level of excellence achieved by those Marines.
David M
Please forgive what must sound like a dumb question from an outsider. Given the Marine Corps' perennial shortages of funding and manpower, especially to staff both MARSOC and Force Recon, could not a workable solution be to combine both into one organization, then do a rotation system so that platoons spend some time working for SOCOM and some for the MEF? I always wondered why MARSOC did not require all its personnel to pass the BRC, Jump, freefall, and dive schools like Force does, given that most of the MARSOC operators seem to have originally been Force Recon guys and the total extra time to complete all those (seemingly useful) training courses seems reasonable. By my estimate, based on punlically available class durations, I'd estimate an extra what, 7 months of courses, and with that the operator is loosely analogous to a SEAL/Green Beret hybrid? A very broad skill set indeed. Again, outsider's perspective - please take it as offered humbly but with some genuine curiosity too. I was the Navy ROTC's Calculus/Physics tutor at the University of Texas when the War on Terror started and I knew a Recon guy (3rd batt) I liked and respected a lot. He tolerated my no-doubt annoying questions and we got along quite well. I've always had a soft spot for the recon community ever since.