The United States Marine Corps and Special Operations: A Nineteen Year Convergence Toward a Marine Component Command

Abstract : Since its creation in 1987, the U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) and the U.S. Marine Corps (USMC) have maintained a professional, yet consciously separate, coexistence. Over the past nineteen years, amid much debate, the two cultures have worked their way toward each other. At times this evolutionary process was propelled forward by such world events as globalization, dissolution of the Soviet Union, Desert Storm, 9/11, Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom, and the Global War on Terrorism (GWOT). Likewise, the nation nation's security strategies continuously reset priorities, thereby fluctuating the Department of Defense's (DoD) emphasis on developing joint capabilities. In response to these influences, the USMC and USSOCOM embarked on a program to examine a number of joint initiatives to explore better operational and tactical integration. These initiatives included Flag Officer Boards, joint exercises, staff liaisons, billet exchanges, and ultimately the joint execution of missions. On 1 November 2005, the creation of the Marine Special Operations Command (MARSOC) finally ended the process. Would the Marine Corps and the Special Operations Command s previous tenuous relationship have endured indefinitely without the direct intervention of Secretary of Defense, Donald H. Rumsfeld?