All You Need To Know About Marine Security Guards (MSG)

Marine Security Guards, also referred to as MSG’s for short, or Marine Embassy Guards, are Marines who provide security at American embassies, American consulates, and other official United States Government offices. Their MOS is 8156, but it’s a secondary MOS. We’ll get more into that later in the blog post.

If you want to learn more about Marine Security Guards, their missions, training, and how to become one, keep reading, and we’re going to answer all of those questions for you and much more.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

MARINE SECURITY GUARDS (MSG): MISSION

MARINE SECURITY GUARDS (MSG): ORGANIZATION

MARINE SECURITY GUARDS (MSG): HOW TO BECOME AN MSG

MARINE SECURITY GUARDS (MSG): TRAINING AND REQUIREMENTS

MARINE SECURITY GUARDS (MSG): CONCLUSION

MARINE SECURITY GUARDS (MSG): MISSION

Marine Security Guards are primarily responsible for protecting mission personnel and preventing the compromise of national security information and equipment at designated diplomatic and consular facilities. 

Security Guards protect mission personnel and classified information through security inspections and access control while using advanced security equipment. But most importantly, they are trained to respond to situations like intrusions, bomb threats, demonstrations/riots, fires, or natural disasters at Embassies or consulates.

Their secondary mission is to provide protection for U.S. citizens and U.S. Government property located within designated U.S. Diplomatic and Consular premises during demanding circumstances that require immediate aid or action. In addition, they provide security for visiting American dignitaries and frequently assist in supervising host countries or locally employed security forces that provide additional security for the exterior of embassies. They carry a certain level of diplomatic immunity in the performance of their official duties.

MARINE SECURITY GUARDS (MSG): ORGANIZATION

Marine Security Guards are operationally controlled by a member of the Diplomatic Security Services known as an RSO, which stands for Regional Security Officer. RSO’s are the senior U.S. law enforcement representative and security attaché at U.S. diplomatic posts around the world. The RSO plays a paramount, integral role in encouraging, supporting, and participating in Marine Security Guards’ continuous in-service training. Administratively, MSG’s are controlled by the Marine Embassy Security Group. 

As a Marine Security Guard, not only will you have the pleasure of serving in a unique capacity in the Marine Corps, you will also open up the doors to do some cool stuff within the community. You can join MSAU, which stands for Marine Security Guard Augmentation Unit. The primary mission of MSAU is to provide random and periodic augmentation to Marine Security Guard Detachments during pre-crises and during increased threat situations. Secondly, they provide security for classified materials during VIP visits overseas. MSAU is stationed in Quantico, and comprises 122 Marines, organized in nine, 13-man squads, plus a command element of five Marines. If MSAU Marine Security Guards pass indoctrination, they can serve with MSAU as one of their three post assignments. Marines may serve in a number of countries during their 12-month tour with MSAU, meaning you may get to travel even more than the typical MSG Marine. 

MARINE SECURITY GUARDS (MSG): HOW TO BECOME AN MSG

The indoc to get into MSAU occurs five times a year, and during the indoc, Marines learn the MSAU mission, security assessments, physical security techniques and equipment, lethal and nonlethal weapons, communications, advanced room entry tactics, compound movement techniques, and advanced collapsed structure training. 

So, this is an MOS, but is it something you can join to do right off the bat? Unfortunately, it is not. While MSG is open to any MOS, and we’ll get to the specific requirements later, it is a secondary MOS, meaning it’s not a permanent position. To put it simply, Marines have primary MOS’s, which is their main job, and then they have secondary MOS’s, which is something they do temporarily. So if you’re a Marine cook who is doing MSG duty, your primary MOS would be 3381, but your secondary MOS would be 8156. We hope that clears that up for you.

For MSG, Marines E-5 and below serve in three different detachments for 12 months each, and those E-6 and above serve in two detachments for 18 months each. What’s cool about this opportunity, though, is that you can serve in 3 of 181 locations in over 150 countries around the world. If you want to do MSG, you have a great chance of landing somewhere pretty cool. You better like traveling! Also, over 50 of the locations are eligible for Hazardous Duty, Imminent Danger, and Combat Tax Exclusion pay, so your wallet may like you more too!

MARINE SECURITY GUARDS (MSG): TRAINING AND REQUIREMENTS

So, what is the training a Marine has to go through to join MSG? And what are the requirements?

More than 450 MSGs annually are trained for embassy and consulate duty at the two month Marine Security Guard School in Quantico, Virginia. The school is a joint Marine Corps and State Department training facility. The Department of State, or DS for short, provides instructors on security topics, the function of diplomatic missions, DS worldwide security programs, and the security environment of nations within which MSGs will be serving.

All MSGs receive response training, which includes tactics, techniques, and procedures required to prepare for and respond to man-made and natural disasters. MSGs also complete DS specialized training in the use of firearms, defensive tactics, technical and physical security equipment, emergency first aid, fire response, improvised explosive detection, and destruction of controlled material.

All the technical security equipment utilized by the MSG students is provided by DS and is identical to the security systems that the MSGs will operate at U.S. embassies or consulates abroad. This equipment includes cutting-edge technologies used to detect and stop unauthorized entries.

Now that you know what training MSG Marines go through, let’s go over the requirements.

The prerequisites to becoming an MSG Marine are these:

• Must be a U.S. citizen; No felony convictions within 1 year of applying; and no more than 1 NJP
• Be financially stable 
• Be within height and weight standards, and score at least a 2nd class PFT
• Not registered for stress/anger management or undergoing marriage counseling/divorce
• No dental fixtures visible while smiling or speaking, tattoos that fit the MSG screening team’s standards 
• Secret clearance
• 38 months obligated service reporting to MSG school
• No pending warrant officer or commissioning programs, E-5 and below
• No dependents

MARINE SECURITY GUARDS (MSG): CONCLUSION

And there you go. Being a Marine Security Guard is a great opportunity for any Marine who wants to do something different with his or her service, while also getting to travel the world. 

We mentioned the Diplomatic Security Service, which we’ve covered in a blog post. Another great opportunity for Marines are the FAST companies, which also train with the MSG Marines. Go check out that blog post too!

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