Military.com reports that the US Marines Special Operations Command has created a badge for their “Raiders”;
The insignia, the first Marine Corps-only uniform device to be authorized, features an eagle, wings outspread, clutching an upward-pointing stiletto dagger featuring the Southern Cross constellation that appears on other MARSOC and Raider insignia. Above the eagle’s head flies a banner carrying the MARSOC motto: “Spiritus Invictus,” or unconquerable spirit.
The insignia badge will be 2 inches by 2.75 inches and will be awarded to critical skills operators and special operations officers upon completion of MARSOC’s grueling nine-month individual training course. By the time MARSOC Raiders reach the end of ITC, they have completed at least 268 days of training, according to Marine Corps officials.
The announcement comes just a month after Maj. Gen. Carl E. Mundy III took command of MARSOC, succeeding previous commander Maj. Gen. Joseph Osterman. In a statement, Mundy said the creation of the badge granted Raiders a visual certification of the training they had completed for their role in MARSOC.
Thanks to Andy11M for the link.
Comments
86 responses to “MARSOC Insignia Announced”
Anyone want to start a betting pool on the over/under for first documented bogus sighting of one of these badges worn by a phony?
The tattoo shops are busy creating templates as we speak.
That’ll be on the leather vest of a phony Marine Force Recon/Sniper within the first 24 hours after they are first made available for sale in the Uniform Shop at the Marine Corps Exchange.
Count on it.
but will they still also claim to be a sniper?
There is no doubt about that.
Please see my post immediately above.
and Beirut
They will call it their secondary MOS.
🙂
Bet on me. I already have one on my vest and one for my hat.
AH-HA! But you don’t have one of the giant decals for the back window of you lifted pickup, do you?
Ooh Rah…good for them, they deserve the recognition……and no, I am not a Marine…but in the same family….NAVY! lol
Twenty bucks says one is spotted before New Years Eve.
Depends on if the newest Call Of Duty game includes them in the customization menu. Once in games, these nerds/wannabes will have that as standard addition to their sniper/recon legend.
I’m not taking that bet. That just sounds like a suckers bet.
Nice to see the Marines jumping on the badge bandwagon.
I’ll just leave this here . . . .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7txPU6efos
(smile)
That is one plug eagle representation of the eagle. Looks like he’s humping the knife.
“Looks like he’s humping the knife.”
That points to the design coming from an inter-Corps contest and the winner being a grunt.
plug ugly
Okay, I’m gonna steal that, put a spiral galaxy on the stiletto’s pommel, and a picture of Earth the Planet on the shield and make it the Space Marines, 350 years off in the future. I have a time machine, you know.
Good one.
Wait-does that mean that it was secretly you who traveled back in time and drained Bernath’s fuel tank? And also caused a mysterious rustling in his shrubbery? We want answers! We want the truth!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMzd40i8TfA
Not telling Who, but not me.
I noticed the capitalization-is it a (the) Doctor?
That would be explain the time machine.
And he does fight evil.
Ain’t sayin’!
I kinda respected the fact that the USMC held fast to not having community oriented badges. The only badges you wear on a USMC uniform (besides marksmanship)are skill identifiers and something that earns special pay.
I respected the move to the Combat Diver badge, because wearing a SCUBA badge implied. less skill than a Combat Diver possessed.
Don’t have a dog in that fight anymore, since retiring. I do think it’s not a very well designed badge, but its their prerogative to do so.
Was this a proposed MARSOC badge a year or two ago?
http://static1.squarespace.com/static/53016c21e4b0484cf754d052/t/536bc129e4b02a974e687cab/1399570729958/
If it was, wonder why they dropped the skull.
Not PC enough?
There’s still a bit of a stigma, thanks to the Nazis, about using skulls on military insignias in the US.
Like this?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hn1VxaMEjRU
Yes, a stigma that is sort of caused by historical ignorance.
Death’s Head/Skull in military symbolism in Europe dates back at least a couple centuries prior to nazi Germany.
Okay, then if it’s off Earth, the skull would be okay?
I gotta have something!!!
On you, it would be faptastic!
Not on me. On the Space Marines!
Death to the Snakes!
From the Halls of Montezuma to the Whirlpool Galaxy!
That sort of thing.
(OK, Snakes is a slur, but they sometimes eat their young, so….)
Works for me. Still wanna see it on you though.
fapfapfapfapfapfapfapfapfap
Keep it pointed downrange, dammit!
One more dress size to go. Where’s my laser tag gun?
Just don’t lose the donk, mens lubbs a donk.
LOL.
Remember Doc, take it easy on her. Not all really her fault, ‘she’s not bad she’s just drawn that way’.
there are a lot of bootleg badge designs out there for the community. The Brother Recon web site, for example, sells many types.
It does look official USMC. Who the fuck else would put an M1 Garand with a trashed butt stock in an emblem?
Guess what…
Our good buddy turdbath already photoshopped it into his phony CPO portrait ten minutes ago.
The rest of the DRC is busy making copies of the medal for 3-D printing…
Whatever the badge looks like , they damn sure earn it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6-nuuRhOz0
Nobody questions whether a Marine earns his reputation. The Marine Corps has in the past had a policy against any community having a specific insignia. This, if it comes to fruition, is a big policy change.
The Marines already have a few badges that only a small % get to wear. Distinguished shooters and arial Nav. The EOD community is pretty small as well.
I dont see this as making a Major Change.
IMO these badges shoulds be serialized and issued.
I’m just reiterating the reasons previous attempts at such a badge were shot down by HQMC…I was paraphrasing their verbiage.
Concur.
In my experience, there’s always been a very strong, unspoken resistance within the Marine Corps against any specific community becoming “too special”.
Back in the day when I was deploying, we were designated and deployed as Marine Amphibious Units (Special Operations Capable), and then later as Marine Expeditionary Units (Special Operations Capable), so I don’t have anything against the current MARSOC guys, but I am genuinely surprised that this specific insignia was approved for them.
yes, because unlike for example the Army, there are no accoutrements for Marines that would show they served in Infantry, Airwing, Airborne(other than the skill badge) etc. In that respect it is a departure.
In that it will only be worn by MARSOC personnel that actually gain the skills necessary and not just everyone that happens to be in the unit, I guess it is also fairly consistent as a skill identifier.
I haven’t looked to see all the schools necessary, i.e. are airborne and combatant diver prerequisite to earning the badge?
…but it was the same situation when HQMC said no-go and cited the reasons I was paraphrasing
and yes EOD is a small group…but USMC EOD doesn’t have a USMC specific insignia either.
heck…Navy EOD doesn’t have a Navy specific insignia and in addition to being EOD they are all parachutists and divers.
Jump out of airplanes and blow things up.
Yes!
I tend to see all such things as badges and bangles to come from one of two sources.
1. Gotta look pretty. Need that bling.
2. Gotta help the enemy keep track of who’s who and what they do during those ‘tween the wars times, so lets mark up our uniforms for them!
In my bad mood moments, I’d smile kindly if all possessors of both mindsets were dragged out in front of the formation and ritually stomped into muddy blood-puddles.
Indeed Grimmy.
“I’d like to have two armies: one for display with lovely guns, tanks, little soldiers, staffs, distinguished and doddering Generals, and dear little regimental officers who would be deeply concerned over their General’s bowel movements or their Colonel’s piles, an army that would be shown for a modest fee on every fairground in the country. The other would be the real one, composed entirely of young enthusiasts in camouflage uniforms, who would not be put on display, but from whom impossible efforts would be demanded and to whom all sorts of tricks would be taught. That’s the army in which I should like to fight.”
― Jean Lartéguy
Hell yes Brother. One of my favorite mil quotes of all time.
I always liked the Dual Cool. A little different, Marine Corps own way of designating.
Trust me when I saw that other branch SOF never understood the ‘big dumb’ Marine Corps hatred of their own SSD Killer Marines. I know Army SF was more than happy to pick them up whenever and however possible.
‘Ain’t no party like a 1st Bulk Fuel Party – PUMPIN’ GAS AND KICKIN’ ASS’. 😉
Uh, Grimmy, that should be ‘bloodied mud puddles’. It should hark back to the photographs from Civil War battlefields and WWI in Normandy.
Nope. Meant what I said.
It’d be a training event, and you know how it is. “If it ain’t raining, we ain’t training.” So the mud would already be there.
Now that looks like fun!
The Hombre in the video wearing the SOFlete shirt…. FTW!
First female to apply for MARSOC IDC in 3…2…1
She’s gonna have to be a baby MARSOC (SARC) first. The the long pipeline will eventually run her through the short course (SOCM) first. Then she’s gotta go back to MARSOC and operate, and when she’s at least E-5 with 2 years time in grade…it is then possible to attend the IDC course. It’s a long road.
There is already one in the enlisted pipeline.
How far into it? Navy or Marine? I’m not aware of a female in the SARC pipeline yet. Two females in the Alpha pipeline for Green Berets.
From the linked article:
“MARSOC officials said last week that two female enlisted Marines had entered assessment and selection in July. As of then, one of the Marines, a corporal, remained in the course.”
Ah, Thanks for the info.
…I’d hit it!
They have to be Navy to become SARCs, HQMC/BUMED doesn’t let Marines act in the capacity of a medic/corpsman. It’s a sustainment of the USMC/USN relationship since the beginning.
there were already two females in the pipline. One is gone the other is a Cpl. They mention it near the end of the article.
Two females entered MARSOC selection, and one of them has been dropped for failure to meet standards on ruck march.
https://www.marinecorpstimes.com/story/military/2016/08/16/one-two-female-marines-remains-marsoc-training/88774900/
MARSOC commander MajGen Carl E. Mundy III is the son of former CMC the late Gen Carl E. Mundy, Jr.
So much for OPSEC.
MARSOC is drinking that SOCOM koolaid.
The emblem should have just been a pile of skulls with bullet holes in them. Now that would be a badge.
Ter in die enim bona
The only motto anyone will ever need
This is something Big Marine Corps was afraid of for years – community-specific badges that erode at the “Marine is a Marine is a Marine” mentality. Hopefully the badge thing stays in SOCOM. Or else I picture EOD getting them…then recon…then CI/HUMINT…then SIGINT people…then infantry…then snipers…then admin…then ANGLICO…after all, why shouldn’t they? Because some of those communities boast training attrition rates from 50%-100%, so it’s tough too, right? Then before you know it everybody will be segregated into their own union shops where “we don’t do windows” ala Army 2.0.
The Marines is the only branch where every Marine, regardless of future MOS, goes through the same boot camp. Then everybody goes through follow-on infantry training after boot camp (SOI). And once they hit the unit, the only thing that really distinguishes them is their name tape and rank – maybe job, depending on what unit they’re in. This means that you can conceivably take, say, an artillery or supply unit and train/deploy them to do completely something outside of their individual jobs simply because they are Marines (quick reaction force, line company, support battalion, armored unit, etc). As the smallest branch it needs to maintain a high degree of esprit de corps. There needs to be a tendency for them to identify themselves as “Marines first, job second” to keep a tough and Spartan reputation.
The only thing infantry gets from the Corps is shit. I wouldn’t worry about them getting anything else.
Nah you are forgetting that large green thing in the corner. Always throbbing, always waiting.
Nice design…..but, what unique capability do they bring that wasn’t being done by one of the other services SOCOM units already?
They do it fukking right! lolz
Well, that decision is long past- MARSOC was slow in coming, but it has been here for a number of years and is here to stay.
There is already some redundancy in SOCOM- SF, SEALS, and Rangers all do Direct Action, but they all have their own unique capabilities and limitations that make their DA capability better suited for some missions and not so much for others.
There are 12 SOF missions or core activities (DA, Special Recon, Counter WMD, CT, UW, FID, SFA, Hostage rescue, COIN, HA, MISO (formerly psyops), and CA). All SOF has some sort of role in all of these missions. All SOF missions are inherently Joint and usually interagency- the SEAL team going after Bin Laden was on an Army aircraft, and their were very likely some USAF CCT/PJs around to get them out if things went poorly.
The ‘Special’ in Special Operations Forces doesn’t necessarily mean better, it means different. A Special Forces ODA or SEAL Platoon are highly trained and have some incredible capabilities, but they cannot (alone) replicate the firepower of an Infantry Company.
Infantry (armored/mech/airborne/any/all) = Giant MFing Viking Axe.
SOF = Stiletto.
I predict about 3 times the actual amount of insignia earned will be sold.
Well, there damn well better be one on the next paddle I get. lol
Surprised the USMC did this as they do not like a surplus of badges.
Here ya go SARC, ‘Memory Lane’. 😉
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMawm8W1ihI
Oh yeah work ’em around….really gets the blood and sweat flowing. The elbow action brought back memories too. At 4:48….that’s the money shot, slammin ’em home with yer helmet.
Fuck…the Marine liaison at Benning smashed my lead sleds into my chest right in front of the crowd without a second thought. Good times!
I could probably look this up but getting an answer here is far quicker and most likely will have more information.
Why a southern cross on the shield?
1MARDIV & Guadalcanal. ‘Remember who you are and where you came from’.
Yep. When the Corps is serious it harkens back to the pacific campaign of WW2, since that’s the last time the US fought a war with the intention of actually winning it.