ForceReconnaissance (FORECON) are one of the United States Marine Corps's special
operations capable forces (SOC) that provide essential elements of military
intelligence to the command element of the Marine Air-Ground Task Force
(MAGTF), by supporting their task force commanders, and their subordinate
operating units of the Fleet Marine Force (FMF).
Historically,
the Force Recon companies, detachments and platoons performed both deep
reconnaissance and direct action (DA) operations. Some missions are now shared
by the Marine Special Operations Teams (MSOT), due to the establishment of the
U.S. Marine Special Operations Command (MARSOC) in 2006. MARSOC was formed from
Force Recon's direct action platoons, and now are capable of performing many of
the same mission sets for USSOCOM. This dual existence now allows the FORECON
companies to focus on excelling in their primary intelligence-gathering
mission, as well as the Visit, Board, Search, and Seizure (VBSS) side of the
specialized raid mission.
FORECON
is responsible for operating independently behind enemy lines performing unconventional
special operations, in support of conventional warfare. The unit's various
methods of airborne, heliborne, submarine and waterborne insertions and
extractions are similar to those of the Navy SEALs, Army Special Forces, 75th
Ranger Regiment, or Air Force Combat Controllers, although Force Recon's
missions and tasks do differ slightly with a focus on primarily supporting
Marine expeditionary and amphibious operations.
As always, the above artworks are available via my 'USMC' galleries, part of the “Military Insignia & Heraldry” galleries from FineArt America. You can just follow the links in the article to get to the corresponding galleries.
To active duty or reserve military personnel, veterans and their family members: I grant an explicit permission to download the above images to be used for non-profit/non-commercial and charitable causes, benefiting troops and their families, as well as for non-commercial internal duty-specific purposes, such as unit website design, training materials and presentations.
The above information provided in part by Wikipedia, The Institute of Heraldry, Global Security, and the official websites of the corresponding units and formations.
