Marine Corps News Room

Camp Pendleton operators talk about what it takes to serve

Written by
Gretel C. Kovach
2:55 p.m., July 28, 2011

The Marines long resisted the idea of carving out an elite unit from their “first to fight” force, but they finally stood up a special operations command in 2006. In recent years, the leatherneck operators found their footing within the special operations community with “village stability operations” in Afghanistan. Now the commandant plans to expand the Corps’ special operations force by 1,000 to 1,300 people, adding at least a third to their current numbers.