MARSOC Management
Written by SHARON L. PICKUP
A RECENT REPORT QUESTIONED THE PROGRESS MARINE CORPS SPECIAL OPERATIONS COMMAND HAS MADE IN A FINAL ORGANIZATIONAL, HUMAN RESOURCES AND TRAINING PROGRAM. A WORK IN PROGRESS, THE COMMAND IS WELL ON ITS WAY TO PUTTING THE PEGS IN PLACE.
In October 2005, the Secretary of Defense approved the establishment of a Marine Corps Special Operations Command as a service component to USSOCOM. The Marine Corps activated its special operations command in February 2006, and in August 2006 began deploying special operations forces units to conduct missions for the geographic combatant commanders. On the basis of initial department guidance, the Marine Corps special operations command would be comprised of approximately 2,600 Marines and Navy personnel to train foreign military forces and conduct other special operations missions.
According to current plans, the MARSOC will be fully operationally capable by the end of fiscal year 2008. At DoD’s request, Congress has provided the Marine Corps and USSOCOM with regular and supplemental appropriations in fiscal years 2006 and 2007 totaling $509.5 million (excluding military personnel costs) to establish the command. In addition, the Marine Corps and USSOCOM have projected funding needs for the command totaling $907.8 million for fiscal years 2008 through 2013.
While USSOCOM is responsible for monitoring the status of its personnel, it does not have authority over personnel management issues such as recruiting, retention, or the assignment of servicemembers in special operations forces units. Instead, personnel management is the responsibility of each military service, and each service handles those responsibilities differently. For example, the Marine Corps is assigning personnel to its special operations command from a variety of career fields, such as reconnaissance and intelligence, and plans to rotate these personnel between special operations forces units and conventional force units.
This policy is in contrast to the management of some special operations forces personnel in the other military services. The Army, for example, has established separate career fields for Special Forces and civil affairs soldiers and in fiscal year 2007, the Navy established a separate career field for SEALs. Once assigned to MARSOC, personnel will be provided with additional training for the skills that are required to perform special operations missions. In general, the Marine Corps will retain the responsibility for providing training for basic Marine Corps skills to personnel who are assigned to its special operations forces units. USSOCOM, through its Marine Corps service component command, is responsible for providing training for special operations-unique skills to Marine Corps personnel in these units.
The Government Accountability Office recently conducted a report looking at three specific areas and assessed to what extent (1) MARSOC has identified the force structure needed to perform its mission, (2) the Marine Corps has developed a strategic human capital approach to manage the critical skills and competencies required of personnel in its special operations command, and (3) USSOCOM has determined whether Marine Corps special operations forces training programs are preparing these forces for assigned missions.
Although the Marine Corps has made progress in establishing its special operations command, MARSOC has not yet fully identified the force structure needed to perform its assigned missions. The Marine Corps has taken several steps to establish its special operations command, such as activating the command’s headquarters, establishing Marine Corps special operations forces units, and deploying these units to conduct special operations missions. DoD developed initial force structure requirements for the command by basing the composition and number of special operations units on existing units within the Marine Corps that had performed similar missions in the past, but did not use critical practices of effective strategic planning when developing these requirements.
Although some preliminary steps have been taken, the Marine Corps has not developed a strategic human capital approach to manage personnel in its special operations command because the command has not yet conducted a comprehensive analysis to identify the critical skills and competencies required of personnel in its special operations forces units. Our prior work has shown that the analysis of critical skill and competency gaps between current and future work force needs is an important step in strategic human capital planning.
MARSOC has begun to identify some of the critical skills that are needed to perform special operations missions. For example, as part of the effort to identify these critical skills, it is developing a training course that will provide baseline training to newly assigned personnel to prepare them for positions in warfighter units. The command plans to provide these personnel with training on advanced survival skills and foreign languages.
However, the command has not conducted a comprehensive analysis to fully identify and document the advanced skills and additional training that are necessary to support its full range of assigned missions. Moreover, the command has not yet fully determined which positions should be filled by specially trained personnel who are strategically managed to meet the MARSOC’s missions. Such analyses are critical to the Marine Corps’ efforts to develop a strategic human capital approach for the management of personnel in its special operations forces units.
RECOMMENDATIONS
To facilitate the development of a strategic human capital approach for the management of personnel assigned to the Marine Corps special operations command and to validate that Marine Corps special operations forces are trained in a manner that is fully interoperable with DoD’s other special operations forces, the GAO made two recommendations.
The first recommendation was for the Secretary of Defense to direct the Commandant of the Marine Corps to conduct an analysis of the critical skills and competencies required of personnel in Marine Corps special operations forces units, establish milestones for conducting this analysis, and use the results of this analysis to develop a strategic human capital approach for the management of these personnel
In a written response the DoD partially concurred with the recommendation. In a written statement, the agency said, “MARSOC is currently conducting a detailed analysis of critical skills and competencies required to conduct their assigned missions. MARSOC will fully develop mission essential task lists, collective training standards and individual training standards in order to clearly state requirements for training and personnel. Headquarters USSOCOM, in an effort to facilitate this process, has placed a joint training system [JTS] specialist with USSOCOM’s evolution of the JTS, as mandated by Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Instruction [CJCSI] 3500.01D.”
The GAO’s second recommendation was for the SecDef to direct the USSOCOM commander to establish a framework for evaluating Marine Corps special operations forces training programs to ensure the programs are sufficient to prepare Marine Corps special operations forces to be fully interoperable with the department’s other special operations forces.
Again, in a written response, the DoD only partially concurred with the recommendation. “Headquarters, USSOCOM is currently implementing the CJCSI 3500.01D-mandated JTS. The JTS provides the framework for USSOCOM to evaluate component training programs and ensure special operations forces operational capabilities are achieved. Additionally, HQ USSOCOM established a training standards and requirements integrated process team in 2006—as referenced by the GAO—to complement the JTS. The IPT focuses on individual skills to standardize how skill sets are trained across the command ensuring increased efficiency and interoperability. HQ USSOCOM delegates many Title 10 authorities to component commanders, to include tasks of manning, organizing and training their service-provided forces. MARSOC has quickly established units and systems, to include the Marine Special Operations School [MSOS] to meet Title 10 functions. MSOS has been tasked with evaluating all unit training programs to assess their combat capability and SOF interoperability. MARSOC implemented a recruit, screen, assess and select process in May 2007 to screen prospective SOF operators for accession into MARSOC. Over the course of the next year, a refined initial pipeline will be adopted to give every Marine assigned to MARSOC the required SOF baseline skills.”
Sharon L. Pickup is the director, defense capabilities and management at the GAO. This is an edited version of the complete GAO report. If you would like a copy of the complete document, send an e-mail to SOTECH Editor Jeff McKaughan at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . ♦