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General: MarSOC acceptance achieved

CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. — After more than two years of quiet successes and some loud growing pains, the Corps’ spec ops force has gained acceptance among Marines and other special operations forces, its former commander said.

There’s been a cultural shift since Marine Corps Forces Special Operations Command’s February 2006 inception, Lt. Gen. Dennis Hejlik said in an interview shortly after relinquishing command Thursday to Maj. Gen. Mastin Robeson in a ceremony.

“I don’t hear that anymore. You know, ‘Why is there a MarSOC? Why are there Marines in special operations because all Marines are special?’ And that’s true. But this is a unique bunch. They train to that SOF standard and deploy throughout the world, then we bring them back home,” he said.

Hejlik, who was pinned with a third star in a private ceremony Friday before taking the helm at II Marine Expeditionary Force, said he constantly receives e-mails from SOF operators, specifically Green Berets and Navy SEALs, complimenting MarSOC Marines and sailors.

“They’ll send me an e-mail and say, ‘Hey, general, your Marines and sailors are good to go. We’ll fight alongside them or we’ll do foreign internal defense with them anytime, anywhere,’” he said. “To me, that is a total success story, because of the acceptance on the battlefield.”

And, he said, that acceptance has reached across the Corps and Special Operations Command.

“There is a perception out there, and I want to be very clear about this, that there is still friction between MarSOC, the Marine Corps, SOCom and the component,” Hejlik said. “There just is not. Cooperation and coordination between the Marine Corps and SOCom and MarSOC and the component has never been better, and I can only just see it getting better and better as we go through this.”

When problems worsened

Tensions between Marine, MarSOC and SOCom leaders grew last year after the Army general who headed U.S. Special Operations Command-Central Command kicked an entire Marine special operations company out of Afghanistan and later told reporters that a preliminary investigation indicated the Marines killed or wounded more than 40 Afghan civilians.

News of a suicide car bomb attack on a Fox Company platoon in Nangarhar province March 4, 2007, spread quickly, along with the allegations that the Marines indiscriminately fired on civilians.

Following a nearly monthlong hearing into the actions of the company’s commander and the platoon commander in January, Lt. Gen. Samuel Helland, head of Marine Corps Forces Central Command, determined the Marines acted appropriately.

MSOCs continue to operate in Afghanistan, one of 16 countries to which MarSOC Marines have deployed in 29 months. To date, MSOCs and special operations advisory groups have embarked on 51 operational deployments.

Recruiting for MarSOC

More than 1,800 Marines and sailors are in MarSOC. That’s about 80 percent of the total force of 2,500. The force has its own recruiting team, comprised of an officer, four staff noncommissioned officers and one NCO.

The recruiting team travels across the country, briefing units about MarSOC. Hejlik said recruiting is going so well that, for the first time, MarSOC will hold back-to-back assessment and selection classes this fall.

“And [recruiting] was a very tough process, frankly, when we first started,” he said.

Marines and sailors who get through the assessment and selection process endure a rigorous training pipeline. Marine Special Operations Advisor Groups have six months to become subject-matter experts in small-unit tactics, fires control, indirect fires, lifesaving skills and language skills.

MSOC Marines train about 18 months, including six with Marine expeditionary units. The training starts with individual skills, such as basic reconnaissance, jump school and dive school, then on to unit training, such as close-quarters combat and dynamic entry.

Hejlik maintains that, once a Marine or sailor’s MarSOC tour is up, they’ll be sent back to the general population.

“We’ve had some Marines already return to Mother Marine Corps, as we like to refer to it,” he said.

“The plan, the memorandum of agreement with Headquarters Marine Corps, is that we will keep the majority of operators for five years — that’s about 1,256 Marines. The rest of the Marines who are our support and maintenance, they will spend a normal three-year tour in MarSOC and then return to the Marine Corps. After a tour back in the Marine Corps, they’re going to come back into MarSOC.”