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UNITED STATES MARINE CORPS
The Marine Corps is a separate service within the Department of the Navy. Its primary mission is to provide the unified combatant commanders and the Atlantic and Pacific Fleets with combat ready air-ground task forces to conduct amphibious operations.

The Marine Corps’ operating forces consist of:
1) Marine Corps Forces

2) Marine Corps Security Forces at naval installations in the United States and aboard

3) Security guard detachments at U.S. embassies and consulates

4) Counterterrorist forces

The commanders of Marine Corps Forces (MATFOR) Atlantic and Pacific serve as the Marine Corps component commanders to their respective combat commanders and also may serve as commanding generals of Fleet Marine Forces (FMF) Atlantic or Pacific.

As of June 2004, the Marine Corps strength stands at:
Officers/Enlisted/Total
Active Duty 19,050/157,150/172,200
Reserve Units 3,470/36,190/39,660
Individual Reserves 3,410/55,885/59,295

SECURITY AND COUNTERTERRORISM
The Marine Corps provides security force detachments at various ammunition storage sites, major bases in the United States and overseas, the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland and U.S. embassies and consulates abroad.
In 2001, the Marine Corps has been assigned increasing roles in security and counterterrorism operations. It has activated the 4th Marine Expeditionary Brigade (Anti-Terrorism)---designated 4th MAB(AT)---to coordinate its efforts to deter, detect, defend against and respond to acts of domestic and international terrorism. Beyond normal security and force protection, the brigade provides unified commands with specialized anti-terrorist forces, as appropriate.

Headquarters at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina , with almost 5,000 Marines and sailors assigned, the brigade’s components include:

Marine Corps Security Guard Battalion. Headquarters at Quantico, Virginia, provides security services at some 140 U.S. embassies, consulates and missions in more than 100 countries. The battalion is organized into a headquarters company, nine “line” companies and a security guard school. The line companies have regional responsibilities:

Company A, Headquarters: Frankfurt, Germany. Responsible for former Soviet bloc countries

Company B, Headquarters: Nicosia, Cyprus. Responsible for North Africa and the Middle East.

Company C, Headquarters: Bangkok, Thailand. Responsible for Far East, Asia, Australia.

Company D, Headquarters: Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. Responsible for South America.

Company E, Headquarters: Frankfurt Germany. Responsible for Western Europe.

Company F, Headquarters: Pretoria, South Africa. Responsible for Sub-Sahara Africa.

Company G, Headquarters: Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire. Responsible for Western Africa.

Company H, Headquarters: Frankfurt Germany. Responsible for Eastern Europe.

Company I, Headquarters: Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. Responsible for Central America, Caribbean, Canada.

More than 1,100 men and women are assigned to the battalion.

Marine Corps Security Force Battalion. Headquartered at Norfolk, Virginia, this unit provides security companies for U.S. naval facilities and supports two Fleet Anti-terrorism Security Team (FAST) companies. The latter units, established in 1987, provides specially trained security/anti-terrorism teams to forward areas or locations within the United States as directed by the Commander, Fleet Forces Command, and the Commandant of the Marine Corps.

The 1st FAST Company is based at Norfolk and the 2nd FAST Company is at nearby Yorktown, Virginia. (There have been references to a 3rd FAST Company, but no information on the unit is available publicly). Each company has a personnel strength of 321 organized into a headquarters, a weapons platoon and seven guard platoons.

The security companies are located at

Bangor, Washington

Guantanamo Bay, Cuba

Keflavik, Iceland

Kings Bay, Georgia

London, England

Manama, Bahrain

Naples, Italy

Patuxent River, Maryland

Rota, Spain

In addition, security detachments are located at a number of “barracks” in the United States and overseas. The Marine barracks in Washington also provides security and honor guards for the White House, provides parades and music for Washington area events, provides security for the nearby Washington Navy Yard, and supports the Marine Corps Schools at Quantico.

There is also a security force training company at Chesapeake, Virginia.

The battalion has more than 2,300 Marines and sailors assigned.

(A Pacific Security Force Battalion had been established with its headquarters at Mare Island, California. That unit has been disestablished, with the Atlantic battalion now having world-wide responsibilities).

Chemical, Biological Incident Response Force. Established in 1996, the personnel of this unit are specially trained to respond to terrorist use of chemical or biological weapons. The unit is the Department of Defense’s premier complete incident response force; it is capable fo providing agent detection and identification, casualty search and rescue, personnel decontamination, emergency medical care and stabilization of contaminated personnel.

Anti-Terrorism Battalion. This is the 3rd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, which has undergone specialized training , including urban conflict and enhanced marksmanship. The battalion, based at Camp Lejeune, has more than 700 Marine and sailors assigned.

One other specialized Marine organization warrants attention here: Marine Corps Detachment 1, which was established in 2003 as a “proof of concept” for Marine special operations forces. The detachment initially had 86 personnel assigned.

Previously, the Marine Corps has shunned the formation of a special operations component, believing that all Marine units were capable of such operations. Indeed, all deploying MEUs are Special Operations Capable (SOC), having undergone specialized security, hostage rescue, and anti-terrorism training prior to forward deployment.

Detachment 1 was stood up at Camp Pendleton, California and was transferred to the operational control of U.S. Special Operations Command in December, 2003.

The Marine Corps no longer provides Marine security detachments on board U.S. Navy ships. The last detachment sailed in the carrier George Washington in April 1998.