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. . ♦ ♦ ♦ Clarence Hatcherson is Vice-President of the Montford Point Marine Association L. A. Chapter
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