Unit Profile
Marine Corps Detachment One, United States Special Operations Command, or MCSOCOM Detachment One (DET1), is Special Forces unit of the US Marine Corps. The unit was stablished as a two-year experiment and the Marine Corps' first force contribution to U.S. Special Operations Command.
It was an eighty-six man unit, 81 Marines and 5 Navy corpsmen. The first commander of the unit was Colonel Robert J. Coates, former commanding officer of 1st Force Reconnaissance Company. DET1 was activated on June 20th, 2003 and has its headquarters at Camp Del Mar Boat Basin. The unit is organised underneath Naval Special Warfare Squadron One.
Although Detachment One is a relatively new unit its heritage can be traced back to the World War II Marine Raiders. In WWII the Marine Raiders were formed to seize key beaches and hills and also conduct guerilla-style strikes against Imperial Japanese Forces. After two years the Raiders were disbanded but they set the stage for other raider-style units like Detachment 1.
In 1986, when the Department of Defense established the new joint Special Operations Command, the Marine Corps opted not to participate. This was due to a desire to retain the Corps' Force Reconnaissance units within the MAGTF command structure and out of a desire to prevent the development of an "elite" within the Marine Corps that Marine Corps leadership believed would be at the expense of the effectiveness of the Corps as a whole. Following the September 11th attacks and the current global war on terror, and following the desires of Defense Secretary Rumsfeld, this policy was rethought and DET1 became the pilot project for Marine Corps participation in SOCOM.
From March to September 2004, Detachment One conducted a successful and historically significant combat deployment to Iraq as an independent task unit under Naval Special Warfare Task Group Arabian Peninsula. During these six months, the detachment executed a full range of special operations missions, exploiting numerous insurgent and terrorist networks and facilitating the transfer of authority to the Iraqi Interim Government.
Approximately one year after the detachment's homecoming, Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld approved a joint recommendation by U.S. Special Operations Command and the Marine Corps to formally establish a Marine special operations component to USSOCOM; a testament to the detachment's accomplishments and hard work.
In February 2006, MARSOC was officially activated during a ceremony aboard Camp Lejeune. The new unit, commanded by Brigade General Dennis J. Hejlik, will be comprised of approximately 2,600 Marines and will fall under operational control of USSOCOM, headquartered in Tampa, Florida.
Detachment One was disbanded on March 10th, 2006.
Mission
- Direct action;
- Strategic reconnaissance;
- Foreign internal defence;
- Counterterrorism;
- Theatre search and rescue;
- Activities specified by Government.
Raised and Disbanded
- Raised: June 20th, 2003
- Deactivated: March 10th, 2006
Units
- Headquarters;
- Assault element;
- Reconnaissance element;
- Intelligence element;
- Fire-support element.
Headquarters
- Camp Pendleton, CA, USA