MARSOC remains a growing, changing force after 9 years: As MARSOC enters its tenth year, the command has many reasons to celebrate.
Activated Feb. 24, 2006, Marine Corps Forces Special Operations Command had modest origins, populated with two cannibalized Marine force reconnaissance companies and ambitions to grow to an end strength of 2,500, with 850 critical skills operators.
Today, the command stands at 2,742 strong, with a population of roughly 960 critical skills operators and special operations officers. It continued to grow as the larger Marine Corps shrank to meet post-war drawdown criteria and budget constraints.
And as the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq wound down, MARSOC found new mission sets that span the globe. With its three Marine special operations battalions aligned with key geographic combatant commands, MARSOC now has small teams scattered across the African continent training indigenous military forces, a permanent company-sized rotational presence in Guam, and a company that recently deployed to the Middle East for counterinsurgency training and other missions.
