What is MARSOC? The Beginner's Guide to Marine Raiders
The United States Marine Corps is known for setting itself apart from the rest of the U.S. Military. They have the longest boot camp, the toughest physical training test, and some of the best “esprit de corps” you could ask for. But when it comes to special operations, things get even more interesting. The Marine Corps only has one, that’s right, ONE special operations unit and it hardly needs an introduction: the United States Marine Raiders, also known as MARSOC.
MARSOC stands for Marine Forces Special Operations Command - it’s a good thing they dropped the F in the acronym, otherwise, they would be known as “MARFSOC”. And quite frankly this doesn’t have the same ring to it!
MARSOC Marines aren’t your average Marines. They’ve done their time in the fleet, gone through intense selection processes, and received rigorous training to become who they are.
So, what kind of missions does MARSOC specialize in? How capable are they? And what does one have to go through to become a MARSOC Raider?
We’re here to answer all of those questions for you and much more.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
MARINE RAIDERS: MARINE CORPS’ ONE AND ONLY
MARINE RAIDERS: WHAT DO THEY DO
MARINE RAIDERS: ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE
MARINE RAIDERS: THE FOUR FIELDS OF SPECIALIZATION AND STRUCTURE
MARINE RAIDERS: THE SUPPORT PERSONNEL
MARINE RAIDERS: HOW DO YOU BECOME ONE?
MARINE RAIDERS: THE ORIGINS
The modern Marine Raiders are inspired by the original Marine Raiders from World War II, who were special missions forces that engaged in amphibious light infantry warfare. Disbanded only two years after its inception, their legacy was revived in 2005 when the Marine Corps decided to take a seat at the SOCOM table and establish MARSOC. The Corps pulled Recon Marines from some of the Recon Battalions and stood up what was known as Marine Special Operations Battalions at the time, and the rest is history. Today, MARSOC is celebrated as one of the most capable and effective special operations forces the U.S. military has to offer.
MARINE RAIDERS: MARINE CORPS’ ONE AND ONLY
As we mentioned in our introduction MARSOC is the Marine Corps’ only special operations unit. This is very unique for a military branch because every other branch has multiple special operations units, besides the Space Force, which has none… yet. The Marine Corps' special operations capable units, such as Marine Recon, are not subject to SOCOM's jurisdiction in the same way that a bona fide spec ops unit is.
Semantics aside, Marine Raiders are officially known as Critical Skills Operators(CSO) and Special Operations Officers(SOO). The main difference is that CSOs are enlisted, and SOOs are commissioned officers. They can be distinguished from other Marines by the USMC Raider "Dagger" they wear on their uniforms, which is also jokingly called the Stripper Chicken by some.
MARINE RAIDERS: WHAT DO THEY DO?
Even though Marine Raiders are trained to perform a wide variety of special operations, their primary missions are divided into eight categories. Direct Action, which consists of conducting short strikes and small-scale offensive actions to seize, destroy, capture, recover, or inflict damage in hostile or denied areas, Special Reconnaissance, which is acquiring information about the capabilities, intentions, and activities of an enemy by means that the conventional forces can’t utilize, Counterterrorism, which is exactly what the name implies: to prevent, deter, and respond to terrorism, Foreign Internal Defense, which is providing training and other assistance to foreign governments and their militaries to enable them to provide for their own national security, Security Force Assistance, which is supporting the security forces of allied foreign governments to achieve operational objectives the U.S. shares, Counterinsurgency, which is conducting military, paramilitary, political, economic, psychological, and civic action operations to defeat insurgent strongholds, Support to Combating Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD), where they provide expertise, materiel, and teams to support combatant commanders locating, tagging, and tracking WMD’s, and Unconventional Warfare, which is supporting a resistance movement or an insurgency that may in return become useful for conventional military operations.
But out of those eight, generally speaking, MARSOC’s bread and butter is mainly Direct Action and Foreign Internal Defense. To the special operations aficionado, this sounds very similar to the U.S. Army Green Berets’ mission, and it is correct.
In fact, the operating elements of MARSOC are modeled after the Special Forces Operational Detachment Alpha (ODA), also known as an SFOD-A or an 'A-Team', which are the 12-man operating elements of the Green Berets.
MARINE RAIDERS: ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE
Starting from the top down, the Marine Raider Regiment is made up of a Headquarters Company and three Marine Raider Battalions. Each Marine Raider Battalion consists of four Marine Special Operations Companies, and each company consists of four fourteen-man Marine Special Operations Teams (MSOT). MSOTs are the operating elements that we mentioned above.
MARINE RAIDERS: THE FOUR FIELDS OF MSOT SPECIALIZATION AND STRUCTURE
An MSOT can specialize in one of the four following fields: Mountain Teams, Dive Teams, Jump Teams, and Mobility Teams. Mountain teams know how to dominate mountainous terrain - from survival to infiltration, they can do cliff assaults, rock climbing, and can operate vehicles in that environment - pretty much anything to facilitate mission success. If the goal is to get there by water, that’s what the dive team specializes in. Dive Teams are all-around amphibious teams. Not only do they receive combat diving training, but they also can operate various small boats. The Jump teams are utilized when airborne deployment is the best or only way to get to the mission area. And lastly, the mobility teams specialize in utilizing vehicles over a variety of different terrains.
Each MSOT is organized into 3 elements, a headquarters and two identical tactical squads. The HQ element consists of a Special Operations Officer Team Leader (SOO/Captain O-3), a Team Chief (Master Sergeant CSO E-8), an Operations SNCO (Gunnery Sergeant CSO E-7), and a Communication SNCO (Marine E-7). Each Tactical Element consists of an Element Leader (Staff Sergeant CSO E-6), three Critical Skills Operators (E-5 Sergeant/Corporal E-4 CSOs), and a Navy Special Amphibious Reconnaissance Corpsman (Navy E-6).
Yes, you’ve read correctly. There are members of the Navy who operate with the Marine Raiders. Since the Marine Corps does not have any organic medical personnel, they pull Navy corpsmen wherever they go. Although not a Raider, Navy SARCs are special operations independent duty corpsmen who received the requisite training to operate alongside the Raiders.
But there’s more to MARSOC than its operators. In fact, they have built an entire support infrastructure around the MSOTs that provides them a better shot at mission success.
MARINE RAIDERS. THE SUPPORT PERSONNEL
The two overarching bodies of support personnel that make MARSOC as good as it is are Special Operations Capabilities Specialists ( SOCS) and Combat Service Support Marines (CSS). SOCS and CSS personnel typically do a 3-5-year tour at MARSOC and then return to a conventional Marine Corps unit. In a nutshell, SOCS are enablers that receive in-depth training in their specialized field, such as signals intelligence, communications, or explosive ordnance disposal, and are further dialed in to operate alongside an MSOT. They go through their selection process to make sure that the Raiders are getting top-notch support personnel to aid them in their missions. Combat Service Support Marines are directly assigned to support billets at the company and battalion levels and are usually admin personnel; however, they may also receive an appropriate level of SOF-related training as required to support their assigned operations.
MARINE RAIDERS: HOW DO YOU BECOME ONE?
And speaking of training, what does one have to go through to become a Marine Raider? For starters, people can’t just up and join the Marines and try out for selection. In fact, there’s no guarantee for anyone who joins the Marine Corps to become a Raider. MARSOC is very unique in the special operations world in that they only let active duty Marines who’ve put in their time in the fleet apply for selection. So in a way, you can say that part of the Marine Raider pipeline is serving as a conventional Marine for a time. This is a different approach to recruitment than the other special operations communities that offer contracts to recruits, so they’re guaranteed a shot at selection.
Getting into the thick of things, there are two main training courses a Marine must go through to become a Critical Skills Operator.
The first obstacle they must overcome is Assessment and Selection, or A&S.
A&S is a two-phase course designed to screen physical ability, confidence, situational awareness, and acclimatization. The first phase of A&S requires marines to pass a series of physical fitness tests, conduct fitness-oriented events, and gain exposure to the units that comprise MARSOC while receiving daily mentorship from instructors who are active duty CSOs. If allowed to continue, the candidate will move on to A&S phase 2 that is held three times a year at an undisclosed location. All in all, A&S is the true filter of whether MARSOC believes a Marine has what it takes to be trained up as a Marine Raider. The completion of A&S is by no means a guarantee of moving on to the next phase - they use a holistic approach and determine if each individual will be a good fit for the community.
After A&S comes the physically and mentally challenging 9-month course known as the Individual Training Course, or ITC for short. ITC is where Marines learn the foundation of what it is to be a Critical Skills Operator. ITC is split into four training blocks: Basic Skills, Small Unit Tactics, Close Quarters Battle, and Irregular Warfare.
The Basic Skills phase trains and evaluates students in the basic skill sets required of all special operators, such as navigation, patrolling, Survival- Evasion- Resistance and Escape (SERE), Tactical Combat Casualty Care (TCCC), mission planning, fire support training, and communications.
The Small Unit Tactics phase builds upon the foundation of the first phase, training in small boat and scout swimmer operations, crew-served weapons, demolitions, photography, and information collection and reporting.
The Close Quarters Battle phase trains in rifle and pistol combat marksmanship, and then Marines will move on to learn the tactics, techniques, and procedures needed to serve as members of an MSOT during assault operations.
And finally, during the Irregular Warfare phase, Marines receive instructions on ...Irregular Warfare operations. Who would’ve guessed?!
ITC culminates in Operation Derna Bridge. Marines will use all of the skills they have learned throughout the course to train, advise, and operate with a partner nation or irregular force.
Upon successful completion of ITC, a newly minted Critical Skills Operator will join a Marine Raider Battalion and integrate into an MSOT.
Marine Raiders go through a lot to get where they’re at. And even when they’re done with their initial pipeline, they are always training and refining their skills so they can be the best operators possible. They can choose from a variety of training courses, including SERE, combatant dive school, free fall, sniper school, language training, breacher course, and multi-domain reconnaissance and surveillance. Raiders can even attend some of the same specialty schools that their SOCS counterparts go to, creating a redundancy in the MSOT.
CONCLUSION
Marine Raiders are cool, but do you know how they compare against Reconnaissance Marines? Many people don’t really know the difference between Recon vs. MARSOC.
Lucky for you, we have another blog post that lays out what separates these two elite communities in the Marine Corps. Click here to take you to it.
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