Wraith601

Rangers are basically the finest light infantry in US mlitary and among the finest in the world. Whereas Commandos are more aphibou oriented as I understand it, Rangers are airborne/air assault shock troopers.

Delta Force is an extremely elite, top secret counter terorist unit.

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"We always have been, we are, and I hope that we always shall be, detested in France."
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-{SpoonmaN}-

Our Commandos are also parachute trained, since we're converting the only Para Bn. we have left into a mech infantry unit we're stuck with them for both Air and Seaborne operations, I guess it's a good thing we have another Battalion of them in Reserve. Right now I believe their main deployment is in providing heavy-weight support to the SAS in Afghanistan. We also draw our 'auxiliary' CT unit called TAG-East from them.
Right so for the SOCOM the contributions are:
US Army - Green Berets and Deltas
US Navy - SEALs
US Marines - Force Recon
US Air Force - AF Commando units
Is this correct?

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"I have this to say to the people of Australia: Kick me, I'm different."

-{SpoonmaN}-

Oh and out of curiosity how come the US Marine Raiders got disbanded? I thought they had an excellent record during WWII, or was it more that their role was obsolete?

Wraith601

I'm no Marine expert, but from what I know the MEU(SOC)-Marine Expeditionary Unit (Special Operations Capable), is capable of both raiding and more "conventional" mission.

-{SpoonmaN}-

Rightio. I've seen a poster called 'Semper Fie' on the forum so they'll probably know the specs unless they're a troll, but I guess MEUs as raiders makes sense, they have the integral air support and firepower to do a lot of damage before they pull out.

troung

So they wouldn't threaten funding post war...

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To sit down with these men and deal with them as the representatives of an enlightened and civilized people is to deride ones own dignity and to invite the disaster of their treachery - General Matthew Ridgway

Gun Grape

You need to look at their mission and history. They only conducted one raid,Makin, and it wasn't very sucessful. The rest of their short lifespan they acted as a regular infantry unit. So they were a "special" unit that was taking people away from the regular Inf Regts but were being employed like those infantry units. Only with less firepower.

By 1943, the Corps had expanded as much as they were going to and capped at 500 thousand. The only way to flesh out the needed units was to disband some of the special units formed in the early part of the war. So the Raider, Parachute, Defence and baloon units(and others) were disbanded and those Marines used for the Regiments.

A decent online book from Col Jon T Hoffman of the MC history and Museum Sect at HQMC, can be found here:

http://www.nps.gov/wapa/indepth/extC...30-00/sec1.htm

ArmchairGeneral

Mostly. Delta Force isn't strictly US Army, although it may fall under their command. Air Force has the Special Operations Air Regiment or Squadron or something, can't remember the official designation. Your Commandos are pretty much the equivalent of our Rangers, I believe. Parachute and amphib capable elite light infantry for high value targets. I wasn't aware that Marine Force Recon was part of SOCOM, could be, but I thought they were a little different in mission from other spec ops forces. Less strategic, kind of. But I really don't know.

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-{SpoonmaN}-

Hmm I guess I just assumed because I heard they had a CT role nowadays. I remember last year news was floating around that Marine Recon teams were getting around in coastal areas of Somalia looking for some Al-Qaeda suspects.

Wraith601

Force Recon isn't under SOCOM if I recall correctly. The Marines are standing up a SOCOM unit though. I'm not as well versed on them as I used to be since I decided to join the Army rather than the Marines.

-{SpoonmaN}-

Out of curiosity what was the basis of your choice if you don't mind saying. Here of course it's a rather simple choice since the ADF only offers one real choice for ground combat unless you want to be RAAF Ground Defence, which would be rather boring I'm sure.

Wraith601

1. Airborne School, the Marines only train small recon forces in airborne ops while the Army has 6 full airborne brigades
2. The Army has a program to pay off my student loans, the Marines don't.

Gun Grape

Why would anyone want to jump out of a perfectly good airplane?

After the ID 10 Tangos jump they land at airports.

Wraith601

As far as I'm concerned there's no such thing as a perfectly good airplane.

Rifleman

I made 43 static line jumps from 1984-1988, not nearly as many as some here but probably a few more than others, and if I'm certain of anything it's that not one of those airplanes was perfectly good!

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