Message From the Veep
Very Special Marine Units
By Clarence M. Hatcherson
United States Marines are noted
for, adept in and skilled at fighting as a
heavy force on land, in the air and from the
sea as amphibious landing forces. U.S.
Marines train to be able to load themselves
and their equipment quickly onto Navy ships
and military aircraft. Once loaded, they can
go ashore quickly, and then make a forced
entry into enemy-held territory.
Within the structure of the U.S. Marine
Corps there are special operation units. The
Force Reconnaissance companies
(FORECON), also known as Force Recon,
(0358) are one of the U.S. Marine Corps'
special operations capable forces (SOC) that
provide essential elements of military
intelligence to the command element of the
Marine Air-Ground Task Force; supporting
their task force commanders, and their
subordinate operating units of the Fleet
Marine Force (FMF).
October 2014
Embassy Duty
There are other Marine Corps units that are
not typically (keeping in mind that every
Marines’ primary MOS is 0311) combat
units. The Marine Corps Embassy
Security Group is a battalion-sized
organization of U.S. Marines whose
detachments provide security at American
embassies, American consulates and other
official United States Government offices.
The formal and permanent use of Marines as
security guards began with the Foreign
Service Act of 1946, which authorized the
Secretary of Navy to, upon the request of the
Secretary of State, assign Marines to serve
as custodians under the supervision of the
senior diplomatic officer at a diplomatic
post.
The first joint Memorandum of Agreement
was signed on 15 December 1948 regarding
the provisions of assigning Marines
overseas. Trained at the Foreign Service
Institute, the first Marines arrived at
Tangier and Bangkok in early 1949. The
Marine Corps assumed the primary training
responsibility in November 1954.
The PresidenT’s Own
FORECON is responsible for operating
independently behind enemy lines
performing unconventional special
operations, in support of conventional
warfare. The unit's various methods of
airborne, heliborne, submarine and
waterborne insertions and extractions focus
on primarily supporting Marine
expeditionary and amphibious operations.
The United States Marine Band is the
premier band of the United States Marine
Corps. Established by act of Congress on
July 11, 1798, it is the oldest of the United
States military bands and the oldest
professional musical organization in the
United States. The Marine Band is entirely
separate from its sister military band, The
United States Marine Drum and Bugle
Corps ("The Commandant's Own") and
the 10 active duty Marine Corps field bands.
The Marine Band is uniquely known as
"The President's Own" because of its
historic connection to the President of the
United States. The relationship between the
Marine Band and the White House began on
New Year's Day 1801, when President
John Adams invited the band to perform at
the Executive Mansion.
Later that year, Thomas Jefferson initiated
the tradition of Marine Band performances
by requesting that it perform at his
inauguration. The Marine Band has played
at every United States presidential
inauguration since.
Marine One
staff to look into alternative modes of
transportation and a Sikorsky UH-34
Seahorse helicopter was commissioned.
Not long after the mode of presidential
transport was introduced, presidential aides
asked the Marine Corps to look into the
White House South Lawn as a helicopter
landing zone. Ample room was present, and
the protocol was established.
By 2009, there were 11 VH-3Ds and eight
VH-60Ns in service as Presidential/VIP
helicopters. On 16 July 2009, Marine One
flew with an all-female crew for the first
time. This was also the final flight of Major
Jennifer Grieves, who was the first woman
pilot to fly the President.
More than 800 Marines supervise the
operation of the Marine One fleet, which is
based in MCAF Quantico, Virginia, with
an additional operating location at Naval
Support Facility Anacostia in the District
of Columbia. Marine One is met on the
ground by at least one Marine in full dress
uniform (most often two with one acting as
an armed guard).
Marine One is the call sign of any United
States Marine Corps aircraft carrying the
President of the United States. It usually
denotes a helicopter operated by Marine
Helicopter Squadron One. A Marine Corps
aircraft carrying the Vice President has the
call sign Marine Two.
As a security measure, Marine One always
flies in a group with identical helicopters,
sometimes as many as five. One helicopter
carries the President, while the others serve
as decoys. Upon take-off these helicopters
begin to shift in formation to obscure the
location of the President. Marine One is also
equipped with standard military anti-missile
countermeasures such as flares to counter
heat-seeking missiles and chaff to counter
radar-guided missiles.
The first use of helicopters for presidential
transport was in 1957, when President
Dwight D. Eisenhower traveled on a Bell
UH-13J Sioux. The President needed a
quick way to reach his summer home in
Pennsylvania, as Air Force One could not
land at either the White House or the
summer home. Eisenhower instructed his
Marine One is transported (as is the
president's limousine) wherever the
President travels, within the U.S. as well as
overseas. At a presidential inauguration, the
Marines offer the outgoing President a final
flight from the Capitol to Joint Base
Andrews Naval Air Facility.
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Clarence Hatcherson is Vice-President of the
Montford Point Marine Association L. A. Chapter