MARSOC

Tattoos and Terminal Lance: the 5 most surprising things we learned from the commandant’s live Q&A

By Hope Hodge Seck on March 17, 2014 Commandant, Pop culture, Rumors, Special operations, The blogosphere, The CMC

The commandant and sergeant major of the Marine Corps took to Facebook last Friday afternoon, answering nearly 30 candid questions from the Marine Corps community in the space of an hour as part of his ongoing “Reawakening” effort to engage directly with enlisted Marines. According to site administrators on the official Marines Facebook page, some 900 questions and comments rolled in during the hour Gen. Jim Amos and Sgt. Maj. Mike Barrett were online. While Amos addressed a number of popular themes, such as women in combat arms roles, recruiting, and sexual assault prevention, he also revealed some surprising facts…

MLK-weekend Twitter post by Marine Corps Special Operations Command sparks online backlash

By James Sanborn on January 17, 2014 Battle Rattle, MARSOC

A recent Twitter and Facebook post to official Marine Corps Special Operations Command social media accounts has sparked online backlash. “Don’t be lone shooter #MLK weekend! make sure you’ve got security- stay safe!” the post read. The post was made at 10:52 a.m. leading into the long three-day weekend, but removed about thirty minutes later after social media users questioned the posts wording and intended meaning. Some were bothered that it appears to reference the 1968 assassination of civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. who was killed by a lone shooter. MARSOC could not be reached for comment, but…

Researchers awarded contract to develop injury prevention program for MARSOC operators

By Gina Harkins on December 10, 2013 Battle Rattle

Experts from the University of Pittsburgh will soon head to North Carolina to help develop ways for Marine special operators to better prevent job-related injuries. The university recently announced that its Neuromuscular Research Laboratory/Warrior Human Performance Research Center was awarded funding to conduct research with the Marine Corps Forces Special Operations Command. The project will be built around injury prevention and performance optimization for the MARSOC operator. The researchers will seek to design a program that is “culturally-specific and dynamically responsive to the unique tactical demands” of MARSOC operators, the release states. They’ll conduct the research aboard Camp Lejeune, N.C.,…

Motorcycle-borne MARSOC Marines prey on Taliban

By James Sanborn on July 18, 2012 Afghanistan, Gear, MARSOC, Vehicles

This photo makes the Hell’s Angels look about as threatening as a litter of kittens. Those are Marine special operators in Afghanistan, looking like something akin to a well-organized motorcycle gang. The photo is courtesy of former Staff Sgt. Michael Golembesky, who spent two years with Marine Corps Forces Special Operations Command, serving as a joint terminal attack controller. As Marine Corps Times first reported back in March, MARSOC teams use these small-engine bikes to get around in the Afghan mountains. Before some units deploy, the command sends them through a super-sensitive training program that provides five days of schooling…

Behind the cover: Cutting 20,000 Marines

By Andrew deGrandpre on February 7, 2012 Behind the Cover, budget, Force Structure Review, Manpower

Throughout the Corps, anxiety is high as Marines and their families wait to learn how the commandant intends to execute massive force cuts ordered in January by Defense Secretary Leon Panetta. And their uneasiness certainly is justified. The reality is that over the next five years, the service will purge some 20,000 from the active-duty force — about as many as it added during the latter part of the last decade to sustain operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. This week’s cover story, which was co-reported by Marines Corps Times’ senior staff writers Gina Cavallaro and Dan Lamothe, examines how the…

MARSOC role in Afghanistan comes into focus

By Dan Lamothe on December 1, 2011 Afghanistan, Kajaki, MARSOC, The CMC

Commandant Gen. Jim Amos’ trip to Afghanistan through the Thanksgiving holiday has brought a little reported Marine Corps mission to the forefront: village stability operations. Associated Press reporter Bob Burns was along for the trip, and outlined in some detail what operators with Marine Corps Forces Special Operations Command are doing in Puzeh, a dusty village in Helmand province about 10 miles south of the Kajaki Dam. In September, I discussed the MARSOC village stability operations mission with Maj. Gen. John Toolan, the top U.S. commander in southwestern Afghanistan. Instead of being involved in raids or other high-profile spec-ops missions,…

Behind the Cover: MARSOC's new sales pitch

By Andrew deGrandpre on October 12, 2010 Behind the Cover, Camp Lejeune, Fitness, MARSOC, Recruiting, Training

In this week’s print edition, on newsstands now, staff writer Gina Cavallaro takes readers inside the Corps’ new special operations warm-up course at Camp Lejeune, N.C. Called the Assessment and Selection Preparation and Orientation Course, or ASPOC for short, it represents Marine Corps Forces Special Operations Command’s latest effort to curtail a 46 percent attrition rate among Marines looking to become elite critical skills operators. The commandant has challenged MARSOC leadership to cut that rate to 20 percent — a tall order indeed, and one the command is taking very seriously. This three-week course, conducted at Lejeune’s Stone Bay training…

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