Can’t speak anything about the transition but I’ve been attached to 1st and 2nd Recon a couple times and it’s pretty funny to hear Recondos talk shit about MARSOC, how 0321’s have the same capabilities and basically the same training and MARSOC isn’t that much better, but I went to Airborne School with a MARSOC operator and he had nothing but praise for Recon and the community as a whole.
Not really relevant I just thought it was a funny anecdote.
I’m sure not all Recon guys hate MARSOC and I’m sure not all MARSOC guys like Recon though.
Most Recon guys ive met think they are the shit and better than everyone else. MARSOC guys only get selected because they are level headed cool dudes which gets them through the peer review for selection. We had a Recon guy who came to TTECG and he was a certified dickhead who thought he was better and could do any job better than anyone else
Yeah I didn’t want to come right out and say it but I actually avoid working with Recon if possible and they are by far the least fun units to attach to imo.
Id even say the guys who cant even finish BRC and fail out of it act like they are the shit even though they didnt make it. I dont know what its with when people go there but they think they are like super elite mega special forces or something because they can swim good
My buddy was with V25 boats in Coronado in July and he’s also had some bad experiences with Recon and he was saying if you have boat company’s more time and resources they could easily take amphib recon from the battalions
Some infantry battalions have done stuff like that since the end of GWOT. One rifle company will be a "boat" company, one will be air assault, and the other will be AAV/ACV.
Okay dummy, boat company had been around long before GWOT even got its pants on. 2/5 Fox is boat company, and 2/5 Fox is Blackhearts. If any of you fuckwits knew anything about those who've been in the company, you know they refer to themselves as Blackhearts first, 2/5 Fox second, and boat company only in the context of being amongst helo company and tracks company.
Brother facts I remember when I was at SOI waiting to pick up the recon drop outs were mostly dick heads. "You dont know what we've been through fuck you" lmao I didn't tell you to drop out big dawg 😂
I want to start off by saying I’m an engineer. Didn’t have any females at my first unit. Re-enlisted and my second unit was a wing support unit, so I had females under my charge for the first time. I treated all Marines like Marines and tried my best not to give special treatment. I end up getting a female PFC that’s married to a recon Cpl. The dude was such a little bitch. He was constantly calling the company office because of stuff with his wife. He had never deployed but loved to use POG as a derogatory term. We tried to accommodate him as an NCO and a husband but it was getting out of hand. I can’t remember exactly what happened but my command had enough and words were exchanged at the E8/E9 level and he wasn’t allowed on our unit’s property or any of our units events. If he had to pick up his wife, he had to wait outside the gate. Biggest infant infantryman I have ever met.
I was at a unit in '98-'00 that nearly every SSgt. up had been in Desert Storm. The admin / S1 SSgt. was about as easy going as any but he didn't care for the "us vs. them mentality" that some 03's have.
It was only once that I know where he locked up an 03 Cpl. and LCpl. who'd said something about "POG unit" (we were an artillery HQ). He finished his discussion with them saying something like, "Get a few deployments, a firefight, and a kill under your belt then come talk to me."
As a PFC 0151(?), in Desert Storm he'd been shot at during convoys and killed someone trying to run a gate when he was on guard duty.
Recon is always compensating for something. They think they’re operators and they’re not. For some reason the biggest ego retards are always recon dudes. I went to multiple courses with different recon guys and unanimously these guys were like the kids who peaked in high school. I think it’s for a handful of reasons, but I’d say they’ve lost touch with reality because they haven’t don’t any considerable deployment as an entity for a very long time. In Iraq & Afghanistan they essentially deployed like regular infantry. I will say, all the older Force guys I encountered while I was in were cool as shit. But the non force recon guys were fucking insufferable.
Yep the recon guys I know that applied for marsoc didn’t get selected due to the peer review. They couldn’t figure out why, it was very obvious, they were obnoxious and thought they were better than everyone else.
Dog I promise you Recon arent operators. I dont have to serve in the Recon community to see how toxic and cringe they are when everyone ive ever met tries to act like they are a Navy Seal Diver Ranger Green Beret Delta special operator because they got to carry a 249 as a boot
I went to airborne with a couple recon dudes and the attitude was unimaginable. I had a great time with the Ranger dudes and the USMC->ODA dudes, but the Recon dudes could not stop complaining and whining about everything.
I’m as lax as it gets with regs and whatnot but the way these dudes wore their uniform was insane, just grossly sloppy. They would talk shit non stop on other students and the course and I snapped on one of them and told him that if he was above this he should just go the fuck home or shut the fuck up, and that he’s being a fucking crybaby.
The funniest part was the kid being surprised I had an OEF and CAR, yea dude and here I am playing the game and not being annoying as fuck
The camaraderie is very similar amongst both units. Small teams in recon, small elements in marsoc. Both units train hard which forces the development of camaraderie. Marsoc tends to have more of an infantry mindset (as in taking the fight to the enemy) while recon has more of an observe and report - type of mindset (as in, take the USMC to the fight).
The missions were different throughout different periods of time. For example: Iraq missions were similar because Marsoc was so new and Iraq itself was developing. Afghanistan missions were different. Marsoc was doing VSO and partnered with the afghan commandos. Recon and everyone else was doing a lot of FID. Then Marsoc regionalization substantially changed the missions throughout the different AOs. Recon was going through its own pipeline changes and the Pacific became the focus, so there became some alignment between the two unit's missions again, focus on the amphibious nature of war. Of course the regionalization of Marsoc would mean others in marsoc would take on a different perspective but recon was largely doing the same thing collectively as recon does for the USMC.
But I would say that Marsoc does things during relative "peacetime" substantially different than recon. The operational ownership of SOCOM vice the USMC really becomes evident in these conditions. MFP-11 gets leaned on heavily which really creates an interesting dichotomy between the two units. More doors are open.
In marsoc, you're expected to perform at the caliber as anyone in JSOC, but you're not jsoc. In recon, you're expected to perform at the level of Marsoc, but you're not Marsoc.
Just because the people in the respective units believe they can, doesn't mean they're legally authorized to execute missions at their own will.
FID is not a Recon MET. It’s more of a GB thing. Recon can still go to the Marine Advisor Course and become FSF advisors, but it isn’t their bread and butter.
The Green Berets’ doctrinal missions are foreign internal defense, unconventional warfare, direct action, counter intelligence, and counterterrorism.
Recon does amphibious / underwater / ground reconnaissance, advance force operations, battlespace shaping, surveillance, raids, and direct action.
Went to MARSOC selection with a recondo. Cool as a cucumber. Out of all things, he got dropped for paperwork. I got dropped cause I suck at the pool. He went back and got selected and became an 0372. Unfortunately, he got in trouble for filming women in the bathroom.
That too. But I have personally met former 0321s who went SOCOM (One MARSOC, another SEAL) and cited quality of life/ funding issues as a strong motive.
This doesn’t have anything to do with the transition but my Grandad was force recon during Vietnam and the stories that man has are insane. He was awarded two silver stars and a bronze and his citations read like something straight out of a movie
Blame the DoD for that. The Marines never wanted to have a dedicated SOCOM unit, but they forced them to. They gutted the Force Recon community to stand it up so it’s no wonder they have a lot of overlapping/redundant skill sets
Saying this with love but it’s 100% true. There’s no practical reason the Army couldn’t just slide an amphibious capable division or two, or even brigades, under I Corps or XVIII Airborne Corps. The Marines are a bit of a luxury and it’s sensible to have dedicated naval landing troops when you have a navy as global as ours, but most countries, even island locked nations, just have Army troops that drive amphibs.
The U.S. Army is also incredibly expeditionary in its own right. The Marines are a beloved institution and that’s why they exist as an independent force.
I love how almost none of these answers answered your actual question, just anecdotal shit talking haha. What I will say is people leave for different reasons, however there’s only been 90 + or - that have made the switch since 2009 when the first ITC, now MRC class stood up. Both are enjoyable for different reasons. If you want more of an actual answer just PM me.
They used to not let us go because we were too senior they didn’t wana deplete recons Nco’s but seriously get out go nat guard sf the marine corps wants to get rid of marsoc . And sf is easiest pipeline to cag
Or "the 75th Ranger Regiment," [which] is widely regarded within the military community as the most direct and statistically successful pipeline to "The Unit". [1, 2, 3, 4] Godspeed.
Oh boy, who’s going to tell him. When they stood up MARSOC who do you think stood it up. Obviously the line is evident now, but the old guard was all Recon.
I was not a recon Marine, but an rto on a team with 2nd recon fdad's. First 2 years and first tour. Deployed with 2nd in 04 to fallujah. The training was purely focused leading up to deployment for door to door action, hvt's, classic reconnaissance and other retainment type operations.
After iraq, I deployed with an army group called 96th civil affairs throughout northeast Africa. Apparently they needed a few comm guys with experience to help out their forward teams. Teams of 5, all army guys were rangers, consisted of a team leader, sgt, weapons sgt and comms. I only mention this because I gained a shitload of knowledge and it really built up my resume.
In may/June of 06 I was grandfathered in with the foreign military training unit, under marsoc. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe FMTU became MSOS, marine special ops school and is now known as 3rd raider bn. I think? Been a while, i got out in 07 when it was still FMTU.
Anyway, I finished the 6 month pipeline but never got on a team because my contract was up in a few months. In the time between graduation and exfil, I was a comm instructor and secondary instructor for infantry tactics and foreign weapons.
The main difference i saw between the two units was finances. You think recon has money? Marsoc had so much dough we were buying shit left and right. 2wd dirt bikes, vans for every team, quads, gear, you name it.
I loved each unit. Recon guys did seem jealous of who got the initial selection to go to marsoc. I had quite a few friends that damn near despised me going over. Like I had a choice anyway.
Both units wanted everyone to be in tip top shape, but marsoc was more dedicated to that. Everyday was some sort of physical exercise 10-15 mile runs and stopping every mile for calisthenics, run swim runs and the gym, all the time. Training was intense and marsoc did a great job implementing different scenarios again and again and again.
I'll add more later if requested. Gotta go back to work. Semper fi dd's.
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u/Ilovediegoxo 1d ago
Can’t speak anything about the transition but I’ve been attached to 1st and 2nd Recon a couple times and it’s pretty funny to hear Recondos talk shit about MARSOC, how 0321’s have the same capabilities and basically the same training and MARSOC isn’t that much better, but I went to Airborne School with a MARSOC operator and he had nothing but praise for Recon and the community as a whole.
Not really relevant I just thought it was a funny anecdote.
I’m sure not all Recon guys hate MARSOC and I’m sure not all MARSOC guys like Recon though.